Second Port: Cozumel

Our second of two ports was Cozumel, Mexico. Last cruise, we sailed Eastern Caribbean so I was pretty excited about the Western Caribbean itinerary. We were lucky that no hurricanes bothered us. The seas were pretty smooth the whole trip. We had the pleasure of docking next to Oasis of the Seas here. MASSIVE! The biggest ship of any cruise line currently in service. We think our next cruise will be on her. We felt like little peons with the Oasis passengers staring down from their 17 decks to our measly 11 decks. We docked facing them and man, are there a lot of cabins on that ship. It carries something like 6,000 passengers so I guess they have to sleep somewhere. I liked that the Oasis balconies are all glass. Ours were steel and just had an opening on the top half. We’ll get a balcony when we sail on her or her sister Allure, I’m sure of it.

Taken from our balcony in port. Look at all those rooms on the Oasis!

Anyway, I had booked the Segway and Snorkel Adventure excursion through Royal Caribbean in this port. We were supposed to meet an excursion representative on the dock to take the tour. This took us a long time. Well, it felt like a really long time. Dude wasn’t holding up his sign. We were early but we started to worry that we’d missed them. Finally we found someone but still had about 25 minutes to kill. It was a blazing hot Mexico kind of day. We wandered around the duty free and drug stores for a bit. Their drug stores are crazy down there! Any drug that you would certainly need a prescription for in the States, is just readily available over the counter down there. Nuts! Don’t worry. We didn’t buy any drugs, prescription or otherwise. Actually, we didn’t buy any souvenirs here either. Unheard of!

Just in case you need a sandwich with your estrogens

Finally, we met our guy, Felix. He looked like a drug lord. No joke. He had a scary beard and sunglasses. He ended up being really nice though, drugs or not….I didn’t get to ask. The tour only had 6 people on it including us, which was great! First, we took an open air bus to a stark building with a TV and DVD player where we watched a frightening safety film about how to use a Segway. People on segways make it look super easy. The truth is after 5-10 minutes or so, it IS easy. This video leads you to believe otherwise. The cartoon guy in the video was constantly falling off his Segway and hitting his head. This went on for a good 15 minutes. He needed Felix to give him lessons like we got. Felix was a good teacher.

We donned our sweet helmets (I didn’t get to take any pictures.) and mounted up. There was a small paved track behind the building for us to practice on. Once we all had the hang of it, we set off. First riding down a sidewalk and then on a secondary road for probably 20 minutes or so to a nearby resort, Fiesta Americana. I think it’s all inclusive but I’m not sure. Anyway, here Felix took us snorkeling. The currents were crazy strong and while we did see fish, coral and even a stingray, it was also pretty strenuous swimming for a long time. When we were finished and I asked how long we’d been in the water, he said 40 minutes. Damn! This was the only physical activity I subjected myself to all week but boy was it ever tough! I earned my pina coladas that day.

After snorkeling, we were able to use the resort’s facilities for about 45 minutes. John and I split a delicious hot dog and margarita. Tequila and I don’t really get along but when in Mexico, get a margarita! It was fine. I only had one because we still had to Segway back to the building. No tipsy Segwaying allowed, says Felix. The resort had a massage tent but we didn’t have time for that. DRAT! Next Cruise FOR SURE. They did have these big beach beds though that were super comfortable. I could have laid there all day. After we declined to buy the 8x10 photos of us on the Segway and the one of us snorkeling where John looks terrified for some reason, we rolled on back to the building. We were all much more confident Segwayers by this point and were moving pretty quickly. Felix said this tour sometimes has up to 30 people on it. I couldn’t even imagine! We were riding in a line. I was behind him in the front but he had to keep checking back to make sure the 6 of us were still there. Thirty people must be a nightmare. He said we made his job very easy that day. You’re welcome, Felix! Back on the open air bus and to the dock after that. John and I enjoyed a couple Dos Equis at the port and headed back to the ship. Probably for more pool time and lunch (we’d only split a hot dog and done all that swimming, remember?)

That night we went to the Crown & Anchor party for returning cruisers, also recommended by our friends. The drinks were flowing here too! And they had really good appetizers as well. We went to dinner and somewhere in there we saw a comedian who was pretty funny. Oh and there was the Royal Caribbean Quest game show but I forget if that was this night or the night before. I told you, it’s tough to keep track. I think it had been the previous night. We were bummed that our buddy Jon Li had the night off from tickling the ivories. Oh and one of these nights there was a midnight buffet. We weren’t hungry but we ate a little anyway. When on a cruise ship, it’s difficult to say no to delicious Mexican buffets. It’s difficult to say no to delicious Mexican buffets on land too.

Oh yeah! Remember the jewelry I made earlier in the week? Well, the instructor had said there would be a necklace workshop too for a matching set. Wheee! Unfortunately, it was at the same time as our Segway tour. Poor planning.

Here are the Oasis and the baby Grandeur docked together

Next Up: Last day at sea and getting sadder by the minute that the trip is coming to an end.