Cozumel

Tuesday – Cozumel

 This port was one factor that helped sway my decision to book the Victory over the Conquest as we had originally planned. Both ships stop in Cozumel, but the Victory is there from 7 a.m. till midnight…the Conquest leaves much earlier…around 6 p.m. I think. (Also the fact that the Victory alternates sea and port days where the Conquest has all three ports back to back made this itinerary better in my opinion.)

The original plan was for Bob and oldest son to scuba dive and I had booked the Cozumel Beach Break with Island Marketing for the rest of our group. The Beach Break excursion was to be a day at Nachi Cocom Beach with an open bar and Mexican buffet for $32/person. It also included the use of any water “toys” for one hour. From the pictures it looked like a wonderful place…the beach seemed nice AND there was a Jacuzzi and fresh water pool with a swim up bar. I had contacted Chellie at Eagle Ray (whom the guys were going to dive with) and we had it arranged so that they would be dropped off at Nachi Cocom once they had completed their dives where they could join the rest of us at the beach. Ah….a perfect day in Cozumel…at least until Hurricane Emily paid the island a visit in mid July. The restaurant at Nachi Cocom sustained structural damage and the beach was shut down (re-opening date is set for September 22.) Island Marketing was very good about keeping us informed of what was going on and when we ultimately decided to not book any other excursion they were prompt in refunding our deposit. We had booked two tours through this company on our cruise last summer and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again in the future. They have a “live chat” feature on their website so it is easy to contact them and get questions answered when booking one of their tours. Plan A didn’t work so the week before the cruise I scrambled and came up with Plan B…..

There was an hour time difference between ship time and Cozumel time and the kids decided we had time to get up and have breakfast in the dining room together. The new arrangement had two sets of plans for the family in Cozumel…Bob and our oldest son were to scuba dive with EagleRay Divers and the rest of us had some beach time planned. The breakfast in the dining room was nice…we had already docked and our window table overlooked the port of Cozumel. However it turns out the divers were a little rushed for time…especially when son remembered he still needed to shave his beard so his scuba mask wouldn’t leak! Several of us ordered the eggs benedict (which isn’t available at the buffet on the Lido deck) but it was a disappointment…the English muffin was so hard that you couldn’t even cut through it with a knife! Still it was nice being waited on and not dealing with the lines in the Mediterranean Restaurant.

Bob and oldest son took a cab to La Caleta Marina and made it on time for their scuba diving with Eagle Ray. The guys ended up with Arturo as their dive master. Bob and I had dove with Eagle Ray back in 2002 and also had Arturo with us at that time. Arturo has his master’s degree in marine biology and has done research work with whales along the Pacific coast…a very knowledgeable and fun guy to be with. The guys were the only two on the boat…talk about personal service! This was son’s first real dive since getting certified and he loved it…he got to see a nurse shark and sea turtle among many other aquatic creatures. The idea of the two guys meeting up with the rest of us at a beach was scrapped since we weren’t sure just where we would be.

The rest of our crew (five of us) got off the ship and headed towards the taxi stand. My sister has some problems walking so she grabbed one of the “bike taxis” waiting by the ship and was pedaled down the long dock, through the stores and out to the waiting cabs. The guy said “no charge…just tips”…I think she said she gave him $5.

I had done some research on cab prices and figured with 5 people that we would need a van cab (cars will take up to 4 people for one price.) From what I had read, a van usually charges double the price of a car plus $2. There is a sign with prices to many destinations and our destination of Dzul Ha was listed as $7. I assumed that meant that we would pay around $16 so was pleasantly surprised when I asked the cost and the man arranging the cabs said $12. As we were getting into the van I asked the driver how much and he said $10!

I was trying to decide whether to go to what is called the Dzul Ha “beach club” or go across the street to Palmar Beach Club. In reading reports, Palmar Beach Club had been described as a “mansion with a pool” across the street from Dzul Ha. When we arrived, I was somewhat surprised to see just how “run down” this area really was. No one was around at Palmar Beach Club and it really didn’t look that great so we found a table overlooking the water at the Dzul Ha Beach Club. I use the term “beach club” quite loosely here…there was a large palapa roof over a deck with a bunch of plastic chairs and tables. Part of the roof was gone…I assume damage from Hurricane Emily that had struck the island just a few weeks earlier.

Only one other couple was at Dzul Ha and when I tried to start a conversation I found out they were from Italy and spoke very little English! Our main goal of going to Dzul Ha was for the great snorkeling that I had read about. We had our own equipment, but I think you could rent equipment there if needed. Before getting into the water I started to smear middle son with sun block. An employee of the beach club came running over and said that no sun block was allowed. (There was a sign but I hadn’t seen it.) He insisted that son go wash it all off at an outdoor shower down the beach a ways. I am very fair skinned so cut my time in the water short for fear of coming out toasted.

The snorkeling in front of the beach club was OK, but two sons snorkeled down the beach for a long ways and said there was more to see where they went. 

Most of the morning we had the beach to ourselves…later on more people showed up including a jeep tour group with an obnoxious leader barking out orders on what to do. They were only going to be there for about an hour and he collected $2/person from each one of them for the “marine park fee”. No one mentioned anything to us about paying anything for snorkeling there. We did all buy some drinks…Pepsi…but it tasted different than what we get in the states.

  

Our next stop was to be Palm Beach. As I was walking up to the little food service stand to inquire about getting a cab, one was just coming by. I flagged him down and he was willing to take us (and luckily it was a van)…I think we paid $15. The drive to Palm Beach was a little further than what I had imagined, but it gave us a chance to see more of the island (and some more of the hurricane damage.) Just as we were getting to Palm Beach, the driver told us that he thought we would enjoy Paradise Beach more…the two beaches are right next to each other. I had considered Paradise Beach, but was afraid it would be too crowded. We took his advice and went to Paradise Beach first and weren’t disappointed…the beach was much larger than Palm Beach and was beautiful.

The kids decided that we should go way down to the far end of the beach where there were several chairs with umbrellas available together. We plopped down in the chairs and as I was messing around trying to get settled I hear my middle son (age 21) say…look!…”coconuts”. I assumed he was talking about vegetation growing on the trees but quickly realized he was referring to the topless young lady coming out of the water!! Both sons decided that switching to this beach was a good decision! Unfortunately (for them) we didn’t stick around long to enjoy the “sights”. A dark cloud had come over the beach and it was starting to sprinkle so we gathered up our stuff and headed under the protective roof of the outdoor restaurant.

The five of us got several orders of nachos and an order of guacamole and also some drinks. The storm amounted to just a few sprinkles so after filling our stomachs it was back to the beach. Sister decided she wanted to get her hair braided so we stayed on the end of the beach by the hair braiding and massage tents (no coconuts there!) Youngest son also decided maybe it would be cool to get a few braids in his fairly long hair. (Sister’s braids stayed in for a couple of weeks…son’s fell out the next day!)

I saw Paradise Beach Tom making the rounds on the beach and spoke to him by name when he came up to our chairs. He sat down and visited for some time. The kids were impressed to think I personally knew the manager of these fabulous beach…I didn’t tell them that he is just that nice to all Cruise Critic people!

Middle son and daughter-in-law took their snorkel gear and went out by the pier. Some little kids were screaming in Spanish and they realized that there were stingrays under the dock! Daughter-in-law is majoring in Spanish so she had fun talking to the family. They taught her the Spanish word for “shark”…she was a little nervous about being in the ocean and wanted to be prepared to yell just in case! 

I think we all could have stayed at Paradise Beach much longer, but around 3:30 I decided we should be getting back to the ship…I knew the guys would probably be getting back soon too. There were several cabs waiting, but no van…one driver insisted he could take all five of us in his car so we crammed in with daughter-in-law sitting on middle son’s lap…cost back to the ship was $15.

Bob and oldest son had made it back to the ship just before us. They had showered and were filling out their dive log books when we returned. Bob had rinsed all of his scuba gear and had it drying on the balcony…another plus for a balcony cabin! Dinner was open seating that night and again we had a single lady placed with our family of seven. She was a bit strange and after sending back one meal hardly touched a bite of the second one she was served.

  

After dinner we headed back to the area around the pier for some shopping. The kids went off on their own direction and sister, Bob and I just wandered through the shops. Sister found a couple of t-shirts for gifts but other than that we didn’t buy anything and decided we would rather just go back to the ship. To get back to the ship, you must walk through a long building containing various duty-free shops. On previous visits there was more of a variety of merchandise, but since the new shopping area has been constructed it is now mostly liquor. I did buy a liter bottle of vanilla for $12. It was pouring rain when we reached the end of the shops so we waited a bit for it to let up.

Back on the ship I checked out some of the family photos that we had taken on formal night and bought one that I think is actually quite good! Since coming home I called Carnival and asked if they would send me a copyright release so that I won’t have trouble getting copies made. The guy I talked to said “no problem…I’ll send it today”…that was three weeks ago and it still isn’t here.

There are nice padded lounge chairs on the outer deck just off the lobby on deck 3 so Bob, sister and I sat out there enjoying the evening. I was also wanting to watch to see that the kids made it back on board… they knew that the ship sailed at midnight but I was worried that they didn’t know they needed to be onboard by 11:30. You could hear the loud partying going on at Fat Tuesday’s bar on shore and we were entertained by the line of drunks trying to walk down the dock. Around 11 p.m. I still hadn’t seen the kids and was starting to get pretty worried (that’s my job as a mother.) I called both of their rooms but got no answers so left “urgent” messages on their voice mail. By 11:15 I was mentally trying to figure out what we should do in the event that the ship did sail without them. For some reason I ran back to our room to get something and just happened to notice the message light was lit on our phone. It was oldest son saying…”Mom…we got back on the ship around 10:30 and are going to play shuffleboard…just didn’t want you to worry!”

Full of relief I decided we should all celebrate by going to the midnight Mexican buffet. Right away we spotted the kids who had the same idea! Turns out after we had left them to return to the ship, they took a cab into town to see the “real” Cozumel. They were laughing about all of the shop owners who had tried to get them into their stores to buy something. Daughter-in-law had found a bottle of vanilla for a few dollars cheaper than what I paid, but that was about it.

Bob and sister went on to bed, but I went with oldest son to his cabin so he could download the pictures from my digital camera onto his laptop. Altogether we had 3 different digital cameras in the family and every couple of days son would dump all the memory cards onto the computer. By the end of the week we had hundreds of wonderful photos.