Addendum
to Monday
Note – did anyone notice today is MONDAY???? Well, the FUNTIMES newspaper was wrong – of course
all that a big screen can be tuned to on Monday is “ football “ ! So,
no Lincoln tonight… ok – calling it a night.
Tuesday
– Day Four (5) December 2, Cozumel
Let me just get this out of my system now, and then
I will share details – I – Love- Cozumel! Oh my goodness, from the moment we
pulled into port this morning at 10:45 a.m. and I looked out from my balcony,
it was the most amazing blue water I have ever seen, yes, even Hawaii. Hawaii is a very close second, maybe in some
spots I’ll give it an even tie, but Cozumel, you have a new fan!!
I got up early and finished my teaching assignments
online, and we went to the dining room for breakfast. The buffet is quicker,
but we are not in a big hurry today and it the food is definitely better there.
Dennis had eggs, toast and bacon, and I had French Toast and Pineapple
Juice. After breakfast we came back to
the room to get ready for departure at 11:00.
Walking to Deck Zero, we disembarked about 11:05. I had a short shopping
list, a few things I was looking for in the way of souvenirs and Christmas
presents for my best friend and my family.
I wish I had checked the conversion rate before leaving home, because everything
was in Peso’s, even though they took American dollars and credit cards. Soon I
began noticing the conversion rate beside cash registers, so I’m good. Onto shopping.
After walking through several shops, we walked to
the El Cin Hotel and found restrooms in a cute little Adobe type courtyard. It
reminded me a lot of one of my favorite little vacation spots, “Old Town
Albuquerque”. Back up to the front
entrance of the El Cin, this is where we are meeting Frank, at 11:30 local time
(Central time) from Shore Excursions. Com.
I have a picture of him that the company emailed to me (nice touch) and
he was easy to recognize when he arrived. We were going a Private Jeep Tour of
the Island with lunch included. Dennis
drove the jeep with me in the passenger seat and a cooler of ice and water and
Frank in the back seat. Here we go! We
drove out of the port area and headed south on the one road around the island,
to the “Wild Side” where there is no
electricity. About five minutes outside of the port, I am in awe of the beauty
surrounding me. The ocean is electrifyingly blue with waves crashing against
black coral rock formations against gorgeous white beaches. We made several
stops, one to climb onto some gentle rock cliffs that jutted out into the ocean
and took pictures.
We stopped at a Mayan Fertility Ruin and I
had my picture taken with the last Mayan stripper (not really, but that’s what
Frank called him, because he wore paint on the upper part of his body instead
of clothes). Thank goodness I am old
enough to be safe from the fertility ruin J lol.
Beside it stood the oldest church on
Cozumel. I did a little Christmas
Shopping in this village and got what I think is a good deal.
Next, we drove along the coast, and stopped at a
beach restaurant where we ate upstairs looking out across the ocean. Homemade
tortilla shells and chicken quesedeas with all the trimmings. YUM!
We walked
across the street and I walked on the beach and out into the shallow,
absolutely crystal clear, water. The sand was soft but easy to walk on. Then we visited a Mayan village and watched a
pure Mayan woman make chocolate from cocoa beans from a cocoa tree. We tasted the
pure chocolate, softened into a paste by a few drops of honey – mmm, very good
and pure tasting. Then, we tasted a soft
corn tortilla shell with some type of bird seed, again, pretty good. Last we
had some type of mia pollo on a chip, mmmm – very good. It was very interesting to listen to Frank
work with an interpreter to translate Mayan to Spanish to English for us. Frank
doesn’t speak Mayan either, but the translator could get it from Mayan to
Spanish for him.
We put Myan Ruins on our itinerary in honor of Uncle Si (Duck Dynasty - for those of you who watch Duck Dynasty, Uncle Si kept talking about the Myan Ruins while the family vacationed in Hawaii last year) - notice our t-shirts :) haha.
Back through downtown and our four and a half hours
was up too soon and we were back at port. A little more shopping and then we
headed back to the ship. Whew, I am tired, and it is almost dinner time.
I will miss you Cozumel and as far as I am
concerned, I will be back – soon. Maybe
on the Oasis with some of my family J
Dinner tonight, back with all our new travel agent
friends was good. I had Penne Pasta and my favorite Carnival dessert, Warm
Chocolate Melting Cake with Ice Cream (note, I need to go to the gym tomorrowJ
). Dennis had Broiled Shrimp. Not much going on in the way of shows tonight, so
we watched the live game shows on board, and the Newly-Oldy wed game – that one
never disappoints, although after the game we watched on the Fascination in
September, this one was tame.
Wednesday – Day 5 - Day at Sea
Beautiful sunrise this morning as we round Cuba and
head slowly back to Ft Lauderdale. Time to go find breakfast. Finished the book I had checked out in the
ship’s library earlier in the week, as I
sat out on the balcony (autobiography of Melissa Gilbert – Laura Ingalls from Little
House on the Prairie Series) and the sun was bright and HOT. About 9:00 a.m. we headed to breakfast and as
I came back into the room, and then into the hallway toward the elevator, I
realized everything I was seeing was blurry.
Reading in the bright sun-light for over an hour had done something
strange to my eyes. It was like not having my glasses on a at all. Everyone and everything was blurry. Slowly over the next hour and after breakfast
they began to clear up – but it was a little scary. We sat by the pools for a while, just
relaxed, lunch in the dining room, and then back to the buffet for a “Chocolate
Extravaganza” - not too much for me,
but it was yummy! Name that Disney movie
one, from the theme songs they played from movies. Out of 20, I got 15. I should have gotten at least 19 (yes I am a Disney
addict and have four granddaughters that have all loved Disney over the
years). Oh well, I’ll blame it on cruise
brain for the week.
Later, we packed and went to meet up with Terry and
Gail Elsner for a while and caught up on family, jobs, and general life since
we last saw one another about ten years ago.
Dinner that night was good and we said our goodbyes
to our new travel agent friends we had made during the week. The waiters hopped on the side tables and
danced to Gangnam Style with special coats on; cute. After dinner, we went out
to the Dive –In movie on the Lido deck, to watch Lincoln, but it never grabbed
my attention. Maybe we were too tired, because we both kept falling asleep, and
decided to give up and call it a night after about an hour.
We signed up for Luggage Express where our bags went
straight from the ship to Delta to Atlanta where we would collect them Thursday
evening. Love this service – so nice to not have to search through the mountain
of suitcases in the terminal, get them over to transportation, and then
re-check them with the airline. We simply exited the ship, got in line for
immigration, hailed a cab, and a few minutes later we were at the Delta
Terminal. This is a great service by Carnival, first time we have used it, and
won’t be the last!
We ate lunch at Chili’s at the Ft Lauderdale Airport
(crazy layout and had to walk over to a different terminal). Bad service and food not that great, but it
was a lunch, so I won’t complain (much – lol).
Easy flight home and Kristi picked us up (with all the kids except
Kayna) at the airport, in the Atlanta rain. We are home J
Some final thoughts:
Favorites:
- Love the layout of the Carnival Freedom – lots of pools, plenty of room, gorgeous atrium
- Love, love, love Cozumel – forget I left my heart in San Francisco, mine is in Cozumel on the “Wild Side” of the island (no electricity).
- Love the “Luggage Express” and “ Faster to the Fun” programs
- SO thankful to Carnival and their sincere appreciation of Travel Agents. Thank you for covering our gratuities this week too! Super Special
- Frank from “Shore Excursions.Com” in Cozumel is one of the best tour guides we have had. This company is a class act, and responsible. The Jeep Tour was spectacular.
Dislikes:
- The overall service on this ship was lacking; but in all fairness, the room stewards and dining waiters were over worked and did not have the usual back up help they have in the past. Clearly they still needed it, especially in the dining room. Our head waiter never seemed to help at all (we saw some across the room that were actively helping).
- The Rocky edge of the ocean in Grand Cayman
My
Big moment of DUH!
When we walked off of the ship in the port of
Cozumel, the normal ship photographers swarm you with signs and island greeters
to have your obligatory photo made at the Port of call. So we were swept quickly to one side through
a crowd of people, had a couple of photo’s snapped and then quickly walked
forward to get out of the crowd, and toward the hotel to meet “Frank”. I looked up at Dennis as we were walking away
from the ship and said, “ Are we the
only ship in port today ? “ He stopped
abruptly, and said “ Penni!! Really? “ to which I innocently asked “what” ? Dennis pointed back toward the port and our
ship, “ You didn’t see that large white ship right beside us”? I looked back, and couldn’t believe it – The
Carnival Conquest ship was right next to ours.
“Duh”! How in the world did I
miss that? And then a few feet across
the bay, there were two other Carnival
ships, the Legend and the Elation. Ok –
So, sometimes, when I’m on a mission – and doing my Willie Robertson thing with
itinerary in hand, I’m oblivious - might
as well laugh about it. So, for the
record, yes, there were 4 ships in port that day – all Carnival. Frank later
told us there are up to 13 ships in port at one time during high season.
Other Pictures throughout the week
I have always wanted to see the Mayan Indian Ruins. Glad you are home safe.
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