Hi, I’m Julie McCoy, Your TR Director Review of the CB

[jenseib]

After the movie was over we headed out to the Piazza to see what was going on. The champagne ring toss was going on so we decided to watch.

I swear this looked next to impossible to do.

Slowly a few people ringed one and their prize was the bottle.

It seemed to go on for quite some time.

We decided to head down and take a seat and watch. We critiqued the skills or lack of skills people had. After a while of making fun of people, Mom said I should try…..I guess she wanted to make fun of me too. So I got in line and waited for my turn. I got to talking to the ladies in line with me and we were all newbies at throwing but like me they all decided to give it a shot. Wouldn’t you know that as we got up close to being our turns the last bottle was won. Oh well it was good conversation while standing in line.

I think Mom may have hit the casino next. I probably did for a little bit too, but I am not a big gambler so I don’t stay in there too long.

My next set of photos are of me checking out the Crown Grill so I guess I went for a walk.

[jenseib]

That’s a very poor shot of the menu.

If you haven’t noticed, I had my point and shoot with me at the time which means the pictures are kind of blurry.

I got another delicious milkshake.

I sat out on deck for quite some time and chit chatted with some people. I had seen a lady with her husband and 2 older ladies (Husbands Mom and Aunt) and we got to talking and she was just super nice and I really enjoyed talking with her. I believe it was her first cruise and she had recently had weight loss surgery. She looked great and she was doing an amazing job of not over indulging. I don’t know if I could’ve been as good as her.

They had done the ruins tour and they made it sound pretty interesting as well. I think if I ever make it back to Costa Maya that will be the thing I do.

[jenseib]

It was getting time to head back to the room and get ready for dinner.

I showered and primped and decided to put on the new earings that Mom had bought me.

We then headed down to the dining room. I think we were in the Coral tonight…..but I could be totally wrong on that.

They had mints for you when you left and we always grabbed a couple…I even brought some home for Claire.

I ordered the shrimp cocktail for an appetizer.

And a caeser salad. I used to not like Caeser salads but lately I was really getting a taste for them and this one was really good.

[jenseib]

I went with the fish for the main course. I don’t remember what kind it was but it was really tasty and I was glad I ventured out of my comfort zone and gave it a try.

I don’t remember what Mom got…looks like maybe chicken?

Dessert was delicious!!!!!!

We rolled out once again. We didn’t seem to have any issues with cleaning our plates or restraining ourselves from eating.

[jenseib]

I guess we went wandering again.

I have absolutely no clue why I came through here but I guess I thought something good was on the screen….and my picture is lousy….so we’ll never know.

It was a Non-smoking night in the casino tonight so we headed in there and played the slots for a bit before heading off to the show.

The show was at 8:30 and we headed there a little early and sat in the same area we had the night before. It was the Comedian Miguel Washington again tonight and he was pretty good once again.

[Homosassa]

That "disgusting" pink thing was a Pavlova, a little bit of heaven for many of us. As you may have noticed, many of the desserts are made with less sugar than is standard for the overly sweet American taste.

[jenseib]

That "disgusting" pink thing was a Pavlova, a little bit of heaven for many of us. As you may have noticed, many of the desserts are made with less sugar than is standard for the overly sweet American taste.

 

I actually thought it was very sugary and hard as a rock. I thought that maybe it was past its prime. I had assumed the middle would be smooth and creamy and it wasn't.

[jenseib]

After the show we headed out to the Piazza and Duo Push was performing again. I just loved them before and had to watch again. I took a bit of video tonight as well.

And this was the act the 2 of them did each time they performed.

These guys are just amazing. Please watch the videos…or at least the last one if you get a chance.

[jenseib]

I think after they were done Mom decided to call it a night.

Somewhere along the lines I must’ve went back to the room to change clothes as I have this picture.

There was a dance party going on up on deck tonight. I met the DJ at one point in the elevator and chatted with him a bit. He was a super nice guy.

The DJ played part of the party and then he went to Skywalkers to play and the band took over after.

It was pretty sparse. They don’t do deck parties like Disney does….but the music was good and I enjoyed people watching.

Remember our room location? Its right under that dance party deck. This was the only night that there was an issue with noise. It was thumping to the beat in our room but I think the party only went to 11.

After watching for a bit I moved on.

[jenseib]

I found an open door and when something is open you MUST take a peek and a picture if possible too.

I went back up top after my exploring and watched the dance party some more.

This little guy was so cute…he would dance hard then stop and take a break.

[jenseib]

I walked around a bit and then I think I headed back to the room and went online for a short bit to check emails and such and then turned that off and got ready for bed.

We had another fun day ahead of us.

[jenseib]

Oct. 2, Thursday, Day 6

Rise and shine! I got up early again today and got some comfy clothes on and headed up to the top to see if we were pulling into port yet. Cozumel here we come!

Yes we were!

I sat around and chatted with some people and would take pictures every so often. It looked like it would be another beautiful day.

I believe the pier we were docking at is the one I docked at many many years ago on a NCL cruise. But that actual dock was destroyed in a hurricane and this was the new one built in it’s place.

I also was in Cozumel in 2012 but with Disney we docked much further down in a different location.

I think this is such a pretty shot.

Edited January 10, 2015 by jenseib

[jenseib]

Little did I know…but I would be boarding that boat later this morning.

I have no clue when I took this next picture. It’s one of my cell phone pictures and it is before I got off the ship, so I must’ve just took it looking out on the other side of the ship??? Who knows. LOL.

Mom and I got dressed then. We were going to X-Caret today. This was on the mainland and we would boat over there. It is a sort of ecopark with different activities such as swimming through caves, animals, snorkeling, a beach and some ruins too. The description given by Princess really wasn’t good but I have a friend who has gone here and she really enjoyed it with her family.

We put our swimsuits on and cover ups and headed off the ship to our meeting area.

It was going to be another very hot day.

Hi there!

[jenseib]

This girl didn’t look all that excited.

These guys seemed in better spirits.

[jenseib]

Most of the shops were still closed or just starting to open. We found a guy who told us to go to the blue boat I had seen earlier. He said we would just board and not have to wait around. We still had plenty of time and I was able to pick up wifi so we took our time in the area while I checked some emails on my phone.

I believe this Fat Tuesday was basically kind of a shack at the end of the pier when I came here many years ago.

[jody]

As a fan of both Princess (Platinum) and DCL, I am enjoying your review and your thoughts on what you did and didn't like. Nice photos!

jody

[jenseib]

As a fan of both Princess (Platinum) and DCL, I am enjoying your review and your thoughts on what you did and didn't like. Nice photos!

jody

 

 

Thanks!

[jenseib]

As we hung around the port area we stopped for some fun pictures.

I checked some more emails and then we headed to our transportation to the mainland.

As we walked up to the boat, several couples were walking back and told us not to bother as they weren’t letting people board. We said we had been told to go ahead and board and they said they had been too, but were denied when they got there. We decided to still give it a try anyways.

[jenseib]

We got the ship and they were telling the people in front of us they had the wrong boat and theirs would be arriving soon. The people argued with them a bit. One of the people there saw our tickets and let us right on and of course that made the other family mad. I guess what it came down to was there was supposed to be more than one boat there to take people on excursions but they weren’t there yet, but the people on the land side of things was telling everyone to go board the boat.

We found a seat and just relaxed.

They had a bar and were already offering people snacks and drinks…at a cost of course. Sorry…MUCH too early for me to drink. LOL.

A look through the window at our ship.

It took a while to get us all boarded and ready to go but finally we did set sail. I think the ride was about 30 minutes to the mainland. They played a video that showed things about all the “X” properties in the area. Many many years ago I went to one call Xpu-ha and it was such a neat place. It was fairly new when I went there and now when I search it I don’t find much info. It seems to be connected to a Palace resort…which at the time I went wasn’t even built yet, though construction had started. That place was not shown on the video but 3 or 4 others were. It was impossible to hear the video and they did have words across the screen…in Spanish. LOL. But then it replayed and it was all in English.

We just chilled and enjoyed the ride over.

[jenseib]

As we got closer to the shore, people started lining up for the bathroom. I guess one was out of commission so the 2 that were open were busy. I was surprised how many people had to go within the first 10 minutes, but the line never went down and Mom ended up getting in it too.

I of course had to now go as we approached land but figured I would go once we got off the boat.

We docked and everyone got off the boat and found the tours we were to go on.

As we gathered I took a few pictures.

Someone asked if we could use the restrooms…Yes…..Nope. We had to wait and were promised it wouldn’t be long. Ugh. You know when you have to go and they tell you no you suddenly have to go twice as bad! LOL!!!

I had to take a picture of this drug store sign.

[jenseib]

I always crack up that they have vi ag ra signs all over the place in Cozumel. I had told Skip if my Mom hadn’t been with me I would’ve bought him a bottle. LOL…. His comeback was if I wasn’t with my Mom she would’ve bought one for my dad…..ewwwww!

We then walked over to the bus we would be taking.

I thought the buses there all looked like bugs.

Edited January 14, 2015 by jenseib

[jenseib]

We all got seated on the bus and our guide told us what we would be doing today. I believe his name was Miguel and I think his assistant was Julio…I could have them mixed up but I am going with that!

Now I had thought that we were basically getting dropped off there and had the day to ourselves and would meet up at a certain time to go back. I was wrong. We were going to be led on a tour around some of the areas and then we would do the cave swim and then after that we had time to eat lunch on our own and explore a bit and then we could meet up at a designated place to tour some more, or we could continue on our own and meet at the front at another designated time to board the bus.

We were told once we arrived that we were to change into our swimsuits if we didn’t have them on already.

It was kind of funny as they asked if everyone spoke English and the majority said yes, but there was a family with 2 boys that did not acknowledge him. So Julio starts asking if they spoke Spanish and again they have blank faces. They tried to convey to them they needed to know what language they spoke so they were sure they understood everything….Where are you from? New Zealand……so you speak English….oh yes we do. UGH! We were to find out later that this family pretty much were in their own little world.

Miguel told us that the place was big….he called it a Disney World of Mexico…..but I beg to differ on that point….but there was just no way to do it all in one day.

Soon we were pulling into X-Caret.

We were shown where the bathrooms were …YAY!!!...and we all got changed or did whatever needed to be done and met back up.

And it started raining. Luckily the rain was like Florida rain where it rained for a few minutes and then it was done.

[jenseib]

Time to head inside.

Once we entered, Miguel showed us a map and where we would be going and the meet up locations. Then we moved on. We toured some ruins…..though he said some were recreations.

This guy was sunbathing.

This is an arena where competitions were held. He explained the game a bit and said the winner was then sacrificed to the Gods. Not sure I would be trying my best to win. Though with dumb luck this would be the competition I would win.

[jenseib]

And then we moved on. We kept moving pretty fast the whole time so I did try to snap pictures here and there but many are not great.

[jenseib]

We stopped here for a bit of an explanation….and I honestly don’t remember what it was anymore.