Cozumel

March 2^nd – Cozumel

Our sixth visit to Cozumel…and the fourth time going to the Dzul Ha…or as it is known now…the Money Bar. Maybe we should try someplace new, but this place has all of the ingredients for an easy, fun day.

It is interesting to see how the location has evolved in the ten years since our first visit in 2005. Here is what it looked like then. Although already showing some hurricane damage in this photo, the whole structure was wiped away a month later when Hurricane Wilma hit Cozumel.

Our next visit was in 2009 after the Money Bar had been built. Our ship, the Carnival Freedom, was the first cruise ship docking in Cozumel after the swine flu scare kept ships away for an extended time period. We pretty much had the place to ourselves that day.

The third visit was in 2010. Still not busy and we saw the high rise condos being built across the street.

Word has gotten out about the Money Bar. With multiple ships in port, the place was hopping. The few shaded lounge chairs under the trees were already claimed by the time we got there this time.

Being one of the closer beaches to Puerta Maya (Carnival’s dock), the cab ride was short and only cost $9 for all four of us. Once settled into our spots for the day, we carefully maneuvered our way through the rocky coastline and into the water to snorkel. With the wind and choppy water, I was glad I had my noodle!

The snorkeling isn't necessarily the best at the Money Bar, but it is convenient and cheap...meaning FREE. I had done a lot of underwater photography on past visits, so this time I just enjoyed. I was a bit sorry I didn't have my camera when I spotted a starfish! Just for those of you who are curious...here are a couple of photos from our last visit.

All four of us took advantage of one of the day packages offered by the Money Bar…a 30 minute massage, regular beverage, cocktail and lunch for $45 each. The perfect way to begin a vacation!

The burrito I ordered for lunch was massive! (Bob ordered tacos.) And I highly recommend the slushy, mint lemonade as well.

On the way back to the ship, the only stops we made as we walked through the shopping area around the pier were to take some silly photos. The heavy bags of snorkel gear made us anxious to get back onboard quickly.

Our next door neighbor for the day was the Carnival Magic...bigger and newer than the Glory.

Just as Dzul Ha has changed since our first visit, so has the pier. When Hurricane Wilma hit in 2005, the dock was TOTALLY destroyed...along with the shops. Now the shops have been rebuilt and the dock is being extended into a "Y" shape to make room for more ships.

Back on the Glory, our dining problems seemed to be resolved, but a new issue popped up…the cards we were using to open the cabin safe quit working. It happened twice and both times it required calling maintenance to come to our cabin to open the safe. Bob finally figured out the issue…the purse I was using had a magnetic clasp and it was “demagnetizing” the strip on the card. Now that we have that figured out we decided to just hide the card in the cabin instead of putting it in my purse (which sort of defeats the purpose of having a safe). Princess has a better system…number pads on their safes.

The only entertainment scheduled in the theater was the Hasbro game show so instead we roamed around the ship enjoying the full moon. A deck party was scheduled, but our old, tired bodies opted for bed instead.

Having a cabin at the back of the ship often required a REALLY long walk.

First Sea Day...and Formal Night!

Sunday, March 1

Bob's morning started at the gym in the front of the ship, mine started at the adult only pool at the back of the ship. While he was working out, I grabbed some fruit and a muffin and enjoyed my breakfast poolside. When I got too warm, I would jump in the water for a bit to cool off. Sun…water…repeat. This is what vacation was meant to be! Bob eventually joined me and we stayed until around 11 a.m.

J & K showed up at about that time and since all of the loungers were occupied, we turned over our chairs to them. When we got back to the cabin, I was excited to see a little “gift” from the cruise director. I had sent a note on Facebook to John Heald, Carnival’s brand ambassador, and he must have relayed the message to the ship.

Bob and I took showers and put on real clothes so we could go to the cooking demonstration at the steakhouse at noon. J & K didn’t spend long at the pool and met us for the demonstration as well. Several different dishes from the steak house were prepared and then samples were handed out for everyone to try. It was really just a glorified advertisement to get folks to make a dinner booking…but it was delicious so I didn’t care! Here is a photo of the tiramisu they made.

  

We sampled the stuff they cooked and then went directly to lunch at the fish & chips restaurant. :-) Ceviche, fish, fried oysters...and then back to the cabin for a nap!

Once nap time was over, Bob and I went to the spa and sat in the huge indoor hot tub. Most people didn’t know it was there so while all of the Jacuzzis out on deck were packed, the one inside was usually empty…and much hotter. (Getting to the hot tub required going through the bathrooms in the spa so it wasn’t apparent how to enter.)

Our dining assignment mess took an unexpected turn again. After thinking everything was straightened out, J & K got a card in their cabin saying they had been reassigned to a table in the OTHER dining room…but not us. We were still supposed to stay at the table we had the night before…but just the two of us?? After standing in lines AGAIN we seemed to have it straightened out. Our waiters, I Wayan and I Komang seemed just as confused as we were.

That evening was the first of two formal nights for the week…and that meant LOBSTER! Here is a the menu...

A first for us…a magician stopped by our table and did some tricks that were totally unexplainable. We watched every move and still couldn’t catch how he pulled them off!

After dinner we went to one of the “family friendly” comedy shows in the Ebony Lounge. The comedian was Kelly Terranova…not the greatest in our opinion. I know the later “adult” shows were very popular (based on the lines to get in), but I just do not like to sit through a barrage of 4-letter words.

The early show was Motor City which we had seen the night before so instead we spent some time in the lobby listening to the music duo, Bilateral. They used “looping” to record snippets of music and then kept replaying and layering the music until it sounded much like a full band. J & K took advantage of the opportunity to do a little dancing as well!

After not sailing on Carnival for three years, we definitely noticed a cut in the evening entertainment. The musical productions no longer featured a live band or sets, but instead used taped music and a video background. (The shows were part of Carnival's switch to "Playlist" productions.) Out of the four shows, Epic Rock was the only one we could really say we enjoyed. Also, some evenings the entertainment consisted of game shows or karaoke. In the past those evenings would have featured a magician, juggler, singer, hypnotist, etc. 

Here is a rundown of the evening entertainment options for the first week. Note: this schedule shows we are in Costa Maya on Thursday...WRONG. It should be Grand Cayman. I was hoping the schedule had changed since we have never been to Costa Maya, but no such luck. 

Each evening before going to bed, I would do a re-cap of the day’s activities and post it on the “FUNville” forum on the Carnival website. Getting access to the site did not require purchasing any internet minutes and our kids at home could check in and see what we were up to. Likewise, they could also post so that I knew all was well at home.

Our daughter-in-law is a junior high geography teacher so she gave us a mission…keep track of the nationalities of the crew members that we meet. This actually created some of the best memories of the trip as we went out of our way to meet the staff and learn about their countries of origin. In each evening's post, I would include a list of the nationalities of crew that we had met that day and then she would have her students locate the countries on a world map at school. She said they were very surprised to see how many countries were represented on the staff! (For the record...there were staff from 52 countries onboard the Glory that week.)

In one of her reply posts, our daughter in law said she had asked our nearly three year old granddaughter what she thought we had packed in our luggage. Her reply? Snacks, clothes, socks, a cucumber and a picture! Ha! Funny how little minds work!

Bon Voyage...Embarkation Day on the Glory!

Saturday, February 28

To get to the Port of Miami, I had scheduled a shuttle pick-up for 9:30 at our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. That gave us plenty of time to eat breakfast and reorganize our luggage. Shortly before 9:30, the rains started.

  

The water in the hotel pool was overflowing!

Rain was coming down in buckets…BIG buckets…when the shuttle picked us up at the hotel. Many of the streets were flooded in Ft. Lauderdale. On some the water was up as high as the headlights on the cars! (We heard on the news later that Ft. Lauderdale had gotten 8 inches of rain!!)

By the time we stopped at three other hotels to pick up people and drove the 20 miles or so to Miami, the sun had come out. This was a blessing when we were unloading luggage and trying to get into the terminal.

The check-in process went fairly quickly, but then we had to wait about an hour to board. It was hard not to get impatient when the ship was just right outside those windows!! At some point while we were waiting, the rain that we had left in Ft. Lauderdale caught up with us in Miami.

Once onboard our first stop was Guy's Burgers on the Lido Deck.

As we were eating, the water started pouring in through a door near where we were sitting and running across the carpet like a river…enough that we finally had to get up and move. 

Our reservations should have been linked with J & K’s, but when we checked, we had been assigned to different tables in the dining room. After a visit with the maître d, we thought the problem was solved. We would be sharing a table for four on the upper floor of the Platinum Dining room.

To get the great rate on our cruise, we were required to book a “guarantee” cabin…in other words we let Carnival pick the cabin for us. I knew from looking at deck plans, our room, #7412, was a bit of an oddball…it was turned sideways, perpendicular to all of the regular cabins.

I was pleasantly surprised when we saw our “home” for the next two weeks. The unique layout of the cabin made it feel a bit more spacious than all of the other inside cabins on the ship and we loved the location...right by the stairs and elevators and only two decks up to the buffet and pool. 

While I unpacked, Bob checked out the daily Fun Times to see what activities were planned for the rest of the day.

The next photos were taken later in the week…pardon the mess!

The un-packing was pretty much complete when we heard the signal for the muster drill around 3:30. We managed to land in the front row as everyone was lining up…much nicer than being squished up against the wall in the back.

The ship was scheduled to sail around 4:00 pm and by then the rain was down to an occasional sprinkle. The four of us went to the “secret deck” at the front of the ship to wait for sail away. Ominous dark clouds hung over the skyline of Miami.

There were quite a few other ships also docked in Miami, and it seemed as if they were all running late…most likely due to the foul weather.

One by one the ships set sail…but the Glory was one of the last. It gave us a chance to see the other ships up close as they sailed by. (I think the ropes course and water slides on top of the Carnival Breeze look fun!)

At first we couldn't figure out why a large flock of seagulls kept flying around our ship, but then we realized people were throwing food to them from the balcony!

By the time the ropes were untied and the Glory was ready to sail, it was time for us to go to our assigned dining time of 6 p.m. Unfortunately this meant that we missed watching as the ship sailed past the mansions and high rise condos out into open waters.

I thought it would be fun to keep track of what we ordered for dinner each night. I faithfully wrote down everything we ate...for ONE night. After that I gave up! But...just for the record, here is what I ordered on the first night:

Flatbread with pear & blue cheese

Sweet & sour shrimp with rice

Creamed spinach

Fig & date pudding 

(also shared a Nutella tiramisu with K)

The evening entertainment was the Welcome Aboard Show with the cruise director, Everson Bevelle…or Rev. Dr. E as he was called (funny, funny guy with a GREAT singing voice as well!) Following the show was the first performance of the musical production, “Motor City”. It was also scheduled for the following night so we planned to wait until then to watch, BUT…it started so fast after the Welcome Show that we didn’t have time to get out of the theater! Oh well...we just stayed put and watched the show!