I’m honestly not sure what time my alarm went off this morning, because we were playing a game of time change, with a phone in airplane mode, so the phone didn’t adjust to the time change. But…it was fairly early, and plenty early enough for the day.
I started getting ready, and of course watched the bridge report channel and our surroundings.
Nick woke up and started getting ready too, and then it was off to Cabanas for breakfast. They opened nice and early this morning (like 6:45), because there were a lot of excursions with early meeting times.
After breakfast, it was back to the room for sunscreen, which was a process. I’d bought new to us reef safe sunscreen, knowing that’s a thing in Mexico, and also, I’m trying to be a bit more intentional about the products I’m using. As someone who struggles with products and my skin, I’d trialed this specific type of sunscreen at my in-laws and it didn’t cause a reaction. Bonus points, the brand (Badger) is made in NH. So, I’d gotten a tube of it. Well, this stuff worked really well, and, by mineral sunscreen standards, rubbed in fairly well. But it was a process to get it out of the tube. But…we were eventually successful, got the sunscreen applied, and I watched as we got closer and closer to Cozumel.
About 8:15, we headed down to the Walt Disney Theater, where we were quickly checked in and handed gray Pocahontas stickers for our excursion. We found seats in the last row of the lower section of the theater right next to the paddle and waited about 20 minutes or so before we were ushered back out of the theater. Disney had piles of towels available as we exited, so we grabbed towels and continued down to deck 1 where we scanned off the ship and were lined up on the pier. It was a beautiful and windy day.
Head counts were done a couple of times and then we were led, as a line, to the boat, which was tied up only partway down the pier. It was really windy, so the water was choppy, so getting onto the boat was an experience, as was navigating the stairs down to the covered seating, but we made it and we grabbed seats along the edge so that I could have a view.
The boat ride over to Isla Pasion was about 50 minutes, across the most stunning water I’ve ever seen. During the ride, our tour guides talked about what our day would look like (tacos and margaritas and swimming!), music played, I picked out the non New Englanders by who didn’t know where the “buh buh buhs” went in Sweet Caroline, I saw flying fish!, and I had some great views of our ship. The water was choppy the whole way there, so we periodically got splashed, but it really was an enjoyable ride over. And it wasn’t so choppy that Nick couldn’t sleep. And bonus points…as far as I know, no one got sick.
We docked, were reminded of meeting times and location, and then eventually worked our way off the boat. We were led as a group through two photo ops, and then led to the main area. Nick and I found a table that was under some palm trees, got some margaritas from the free bar, and connected to the wifi for a bit. Then we went in the ocean. It was so nice and warm! And so salty! After we’d had our fill of salt water, we went back to our table. Another round of beverages, and then we headed for lunch. Chicken and fish tacos and rice for both of us. The chicken was good but boring. The fish was actually absolutely delicious. I did some picture taking, we had some more (weak) beverages, Nick got a supposedly cigar to “enjoy” because he can’t get those at home, we enjoyed the sunshine and warm air, and then right before meet up, we did a free tequila tasting. All of this while our tour guides were running around, organizing games with the kids (musical chairs, races, etc), bussing tables, connecting folks to wifi, etc. We aren’t much for water sports, but we could have helped ourselves to a plethora of non-motorized water things, and there was an inflatable jumping thing in the water too. Over the course of our time there it looked like at least 3 other excursions arrived, but the beach never felt crowded. Everything was clean, lunch and the weak beverages were included. There were several other extra pay activities available, but we never really felt pressured to partake. Oh and the pictures they took when we arrived? Surprisingly reasonable. We both really enjoyed this excursion, and while Nick was disappointed to not get to drive a Razr, we both felt like this was more than a suitable substitute for an excursion. We would do it again, and we would recommend it to others.
We were towards the end of the line returning to the boat, so while we were able to get seats on the lower level for shade for Nick, they were in the middle of the boat, so no real fun view for me. But it was an uneventful ride back to the port. Nick fell asleep again, because we were on a moving vessel.
Once back at the pier, we headed into the shopping area. I was on a mission to find a Cozumel ornament and a postcard for our intensive needs program that is collecting postcards. I found an ornament and we got a bottle of vanilla. I never did find a postcard. Eventually we decided we were done with the stores here and made our way back to the ship, taking some pictures along the way. It was a beautiful day!
Back on the ship, after showering off the sand and putting on real clothes, we headed up to the pool deck to get second lunch. We both decided on the Cantina, and we both got bowls. I got chicken for my bowl. Nick got steak and chicken in his. We found seats and dug in. Nick’s immediate response after his first bite was “about damn time Disney”. Needless to say we both enjoyed this food. The meats were cooked appropriately and there was a nice variety of toppings, even if we are both boring. Very happy with this addition to the newer ships and the Dream.
After eating it was time for some character pictures. We were able to be among the first in line for the first meet we did, and we were still in port so lines for characters were finally shorter, so we actually were able to rotate through 3 character meets, plus do pictures with the life ring. It was productive!
Pictures taken, I think Nick went back to the room for a bit. Tonight’s “show” was a showing of the new live action Snow White, which neither of us are interested in seeing, so I headed out on deck 4 to watch for any late pier runners. I was a bit disappointed to see that even though it was a few minutes before final all aboard time, that they had already rolled up the gangways and were casting off the lines. I guess the passengers on this ship are punctual! I listened to the horns and watched us sail away from a very good day at Cozumel.
Then I headed back to the room where I watched the bridge report and the water for a bit, before I dragged Nick down to the atrium to listen to some music. Tonight’s music was the Disney Victrophonics, which appeared to be all of the musicians on the ship getting together in old timey clothes to perform some Disney music. It was fantastic. Based on the end of cruise survey, I think this is not an all the time thing, so if you ever get the chance to experience it…catch them. It was really enjoyable.
Around 8 we joined the masses headed towards Animator’s Palate, where we were directed to the side door by the elevator. This was definitely a more direct route to our table, and we found Kim and John already there. Dinner was great tonight. We swapped excursion stories (they had done ruins, chocolate and beach break I think), chatted with the neighboring tables, joked with our servers, and enjoyed the food and the “show”. I probably had the potato soup, definitely had the pork chop (which was massive, but surprisingly good tonight…and I really love that tomato risotto!), the pasta appetizer, and a sundae. The sundae is definitely the best of the Animator’s Palate desserts. I had the Great Reef to drink and this was really light and refreshing. Animator’s is usually my least favorite meal in terms of food, but tonight it was really good!
After dinner, I think we did a lap around deck 4 to let dinner settle a bit and then we headed back to our room where our stateroom hostess ninja Vickie had left us a bed runner seal. I believe we both crashed quickly this evening. It had been a good day!
No comments:
Post a Comment