Cruise Day 3 Cozumel - The ABCs

On the third day, we arrived in Cozumel.

 And had another time change.   An hour change going forward, back and forward again occurred almost every day on the cruise. 

We disembarked in Cozumel and walked down the pier.

 We had some extra time before the excursion began so we checked out some shops around the port.

The farmacia was doing some brisk business and had some pretty decent prices inside.

 Then we met up with the excursion and boarded a comfy tour bus.

We were headed for a tour of the ABCs - on this case Alcohol (Tequila), Bees and Chocolate.

Our first stop:

 

The Mayan Bee sanctuary, home of the Melipona Bee.  The melipona are small, native to South America, don't sting, shy, and produce less honey than your typical honeybee.

They live in hives inside tree trunks.  

We got to sample the honey and compare it to the standard honeybee honey.  Allegedly in addition to being delicious, Melipona honey has therapeutic effects including bee-ing good for wounds and being applied to your eyes.

That was a neat stop.

Then we stopped for lunch. 

Had some great fish tacos on the beach along with a margarita.

 Absolutely delicious.

We then headed onward to discover Mexican chocolate.

 We saw a presentation on the history of chocolate and got to try some that was made in the traditional manner, with the beans grinded on a stone platter. 

Different from the chocloate you have today for sure, not sweet but very good. We then got to sample and buy some premium chocolates made in the modern and very tasty fashion.

Then on to the A in the ABCs of the day.

Tequila.  As it turns out ,Tequila can only legally come from the Blue Agave plant. If its not the blue agave its not tequila.  If its made with less than 51% agave, it also can't be called Tequlia.  Most types of Jose Cuervo is often referred to in Mexico as 51/49 or mixto as it just makes the cut. Mescal also comes from agave but not blue agave. The more you know I guess.

We got to sample some nice tequilas including 100% agave ones, as well as some flavored liqueurs made from tequila.

 The caramel one was rather exceptional.

 

 

That was the end of the excursion, and we headed back to the ship and soon were underway heading to our next stop.

After dinner, we went to the dueling piano bar.

 Helluva good time. All three of the singers were personable, funny, and really talented. All three could play piano, drums, guitar and sing which is pretty damn impressive. They could work a crowd and everyone was singing along to the many rocking tunes they played.

That was a great day and a great night.

Vacation 2013 - Disney Cruise Day Five - Cozumel And The Dolphin Encounter

Day 5 saw us pulling into port on the Mexican island of Cozumel at 8:00 am.

Renowned for its beautiful reefs for scuba diving, I wasn't going to be partaking of its beautiful reefs as it was a family outing day. Some other time.

Some Mexican Navy patrol boats were tied up at the pier across from the cruise ships.

Instead of me taking off and going scuba diving, we had something special planned for the kids.

Yep, we had booked them a dolphin encounter.

Leah was too little to do the swim with the dolphin activity so we did just the encounter - so the kids, along with Tash to supervise got to stand on a submerged platform and interact with some dolphins.

I was stuck far away on the observation deck taking pictures.

The dolphins are quite well trained. Eaxch one has their own individual trainer, and they know 250 separate commands based on hand and body language.

Like this hand signal:

The dolphins each eat about 40 pounds of fish per day, much of it hand fed by the adoring kids during the encounter. Every kid fed them at least two fish each, plus the trainer was pretty generous as well:

They demonstrated how they could leap out of the water and the whole encounter ended with a spalsh.

The Dolphins then waved goodbye to end the show.

After the Dolphin encounter we did some shopping as we had plenty of time before the ship left port. Of course I had to scientifically sample the various types of tequila at the tequilleria (it got smother the more samples you had -- funny that). We bought a gift-box sampler as a gift for my dad and a bottle of Licor Limon (Lime flavored Tequila) for Tash as she liked the sample of it quite a lot -- it's practically a Margarita all on its own.

Just before sunset the ship left port, guided out to see by a pilot boat.

After arriving back on the ship it was time for a quick rest and then to participate in pirate games and prepare for the pirate deck party. Argh!

Disney made sure that awaiting in our cabin were the required "Pirates In The Caribbean" bandanas.

Even Stitch dressed up as a pirate and posed with the kids for pictures.

The deck party was a lot of fun with a fun show put on by Mickey and the gang.

In the midst of the party Captain Hook boarded and tried to take over the ship, but Mickey and the crew prevailed, with the helkp of the kids all answering the pirate quiz correctly.

At dinner, the waitstaff were also dressed in their swashbuckling best.

After that, the kids were beat and that was the end of Day 5.

Cruise Report - Day 4 - Cozumel

As I mentioned, on the night of Day 3, the weather started getting rough, the big ship was getting tossed, but thanks to a very competent crew, we certainly weren't lost.

But many a passenger lost their lunch among other things. This made craps especially challenging as not only did you have the randomness of the dice, you also had the randomness of the swaying of the ship and table to contend with.

So in the morning we arrived at Cozumel.


We had all planned to go snorkeling together, but it was not to be. The sea was much to choppy and all offshore excursions were canceled. So instead we out into motion the girl's Plan B - Shopping.

Lots of Shopping.

Cozumel is a bargain hunters dream and full of stores selling silver goods, high end and low end souveniers, T-Shirts buyt the million and Tequila.

Especially Tequila.

Did I mention the free Tequila samples in about every store?

Did you realize that there are not only white and yellow tequilas but also blue, red and brown, and that the different flavors of tequila must all be sampled to ensure a complete and thorough study of Mexico's national beverage?

This was a plot to have the men comfortably tequil-lized while their lady-folk shopped and it worked. We let them shop, they let us drink, everyone was happy. Jerry and I each bought a bottle of the white tequila that we liked the best - 100 Anos - a very smooth Tequila, much nicer than the Tequilas I've tried at home.

We took a break for lunch at a nice Mexican restaurant and I had s Fish Taco - much better than it sounds along with half of a combination plate with Tash. Meanwhile Tash and Cary needed refreshment after all that shopping and each had a huge Margarita.

We ate our fill and then headed to Mr. Sanchez's Beach -a very nice free beach. Unfortunately for the girls sense of survival our taxi driver thought he was the second coming of Speedy Gonzales. he hit 140 km/h on a road rated for 60 with signs saying - This Road not for high speed in Spanish. After that thrilling experience, complete with body sway and the feeling that the taxi would fall apart at any moment, we made it to the breach. On the upside he got us there very fast.

The beach was very pretty and we had a nice dip in the ocean from the shell lined beach.



We then got in another taxi, with a driver who only drove 90 km/h on the same road and headed back to the port and boarded the ship.

After dinner we saw another show and a very funny comedian and then to bed.

It was a great day.