Magic happens in Galveston! 10/11/15 Western Caribbbean on the Carnival Magic

[WISH84]

I am enjoying your review! I have sailed the Magic 3 times and have always had a good time.

 

Nobody cares how many times you've sailed the Magic! :cool:

 

Hi Kathleen... great to see you around!! LOL :p

[Beachiekeen]

Following! My first cruise was in March in the Magic and I am doing the same ports in February on RCI so can't wait to read!

Edited October 27, 2015 by Beachiekeen

[2Ccruisers]

Thanks for the review so far, loving the pictures! Looking forward to sailing on her in January.

[pspercy]

 

Dinner. A nice sandwich and fries. Had some nice gumbo too. Very reasonable and good.

 

 

Inside of the restaurant. Nice atmosphere.

 

 

The pool area. Too cold to go in for a dip but nice to sit outside and hang out for a while before bed. Nice hotel for sure.

 

 

Nice room, nice hotel and good staff. Would recommend for a pre-cruise stay.

Soooooo, which hotel was it?!

[watermelonqueen99]

Cool. Did you arrive back in Galveston late or is it just usual to see people still leaving the port at noon after debarkation? I surely noticed and I guess that is why they are trying the staggered check-in at that port. The seas were a little rocky on our way back to Galveston but I have experienced much, much worse and considering all the rain we had, the gulf and the Caribbean were really quiet. We did have Eversen as our CD and he definitely has a different style than a lot of other CDs. I will get into that more later as I get deeper into the review. Anyway, thanks for following along and hope you continue to enjoy reading about my adventures.

 

We had FTTF and we were off the ship by 7:45. When we cruised on the Magic last April, our shuttle driver told us that debarkation was delayed that morning due to the fact that the ship had gone to Belize. We had gone to Belize on this cruise, so maybe that has something to do with it?

Edited October 29, 2015 by watermelonqueen99

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Enjoying your review so far! We're doing the same itinerary on the Magic next March, so looking forward to reading the rest!:)

 

Thanks! Glad you are liking it. I am finally going to get to the next part, our first sea day, later tonight. I do hate to leave people hanging, it has been a busy week though. Have fun when you sail out of Port Canaveral, a few others here have said that they are planning on sailing the Magic when it makes its move. It is a nice ship with generally a pretty good crew.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I worked for a major printing company for many years before I recently retired, and we used military time too. It takes getting use to, but, like you said you won't mix up the am & pm.

Loving your review!

 

Military time just makes more sense and since I have been using it every day for the last decade or more, it is almost second nature to me now. Once you get used to using it, it really is second nature. Using the AM/PM clock does get confusing but just like with Celsius/Farenheit and the metric system, knots/mph, etc, it is part of the culture for most people and would be very hard to change, at least in the short term. Anyway, thanks for following along and I should finally be able to get on with the review later this evening.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I had to laugh as well when I read this. You may have seen from some of my posts that I'm a South Jerseyan by birth. Grew up in Burlington County, went to college in Philly, and law school in Camden. I was always used to traffic. When I was in law school, my daily commute was 13 miles and took 35 minutes. Then I moved to upstate NY. My daily commute is 25 miles and takes me 35 minutes, even with construction.:p I have people constantly ask me, "How in the world do you do such a LONG commute?" Honestly, I don't know what they're talking about. But I do know I don't miss Route 130 at all.;)

 

I'm enjoying your review - we did a cruise out of Galveston on Conquest in 2010 and had a great time. Thanks for sharing your review and photos.

 

I think I do remember seeing that in past reviews that you have commented in that you are from SNJ. Yeah, traffic in Camden can get bad at certain times of the day and trying to cross the bridge or drive on any expressways in the city or on 295/42 at rush hour is an exercise in futility. But you just learn to deal with it and plan your life around it whenever possible. A half hour or so is pretty much a good commute time if you are going over to Philly from NJ, at off peak times. And yes, there is always construction. Always, somewhere, sometime. I remember spending a bit of time out of this area years ago and while traffic could be nasty at peak times, outside of rush hour it was a breeze. They say the traffic on 95 is bad when I head down on the shuttle vans from FLL to cruise out of MIA, but honestly, it is nothing compared to the expressways around here LOL. Actually 130 isn't as bad as it was before as they overhauled some bottleneck areas but it still does get backed up sometimes. It should be interesting to see how the 295/42 project helps things when it is finally done in another 5 years, haha.

 

But back on topic, the Magic is a nice ship and although this was my first time on it, I would probably cruise it again. And I wouldn't be against sailing from Galveston again either. It was definitely a different experience. Thanks for reading and I am about to get to the third day of the adventure, our first sea day.

Edited October 30, 2015 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I am enjoying your review! I have sailed the Magic 3 times and have always had a good time.

 

Glad you like it so far. I try not to sail the same ship more than once although I have been on a few Fantasy class ships multiple times, but sometime in the future I might find myself on the Magic once again. But like they say, it is hard to have a bad time on a cruise.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Following! My first cruise was in March in the Magic and I am doing the same ports in February on RCI so can't wait to read!

 

Nothing quite like that first time on a cruise. I guess you liked it because you have another one booked, :D. I have only been on Royal once and wasn't particularly impressed (but I did like Cococay) but it surely should be neat to be able to the same ports on two different lines and then be able to compare the two afterwards. Thanks for reading along and part 3 is coming right up!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thanks for the review so far, loving the pictures! Looking forward to sailing on her in January.

 

Got many more pictures yet to come as we get further along and get to explore the ship and see some ports. Thanks for checking it out. Enjoy your cruise in January, it will be here in no time.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Soooooo, which hotel was it?!

 

Doubletree HOU Hobby Airport. It is the one just north of the terminal and across the street from the airport boundary. It averages a little over a hundred a night I think but I didn't pay quite that much. I also forgot to mention earlier that there is wifi and it is free as long as you get the code from the front desk and there is a nice internet lounge with computers in the lobby that you can print cruise documents and bag tags from if you so choose to.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

We had FTTF and we were off the ship by 7:45. When we cruised on the Magic last April, our shuttle driver told us that debarkation was delayed that morning due to the fact that the ship had gone to Belize. We had gone to Belize on this cruise, so maybe that has something to do with it?

 

We got back into port very early, but they didn't begin releasing pax to debark until close to 0900. Even the paperwork the day before said that self assist wouldn't be able to debark until close to 0900 and the lowest decks would be able to debark first, with the highest decks last. Kinda weird way of doing it and it ruined our perk of getting off first as Zone 1, considering we did put our bags outside the cabin on the last night. It just made me wonder as we ended up getting off the ship around 1000 and not out of the terminal until about 1100. But I will get into that later in the review more. I was more curious than anything, figured that backup is why Carnival is trying out the assigned checkin times, to ease some of the congestion. I know a few Carnival staff told us about the Belize issues when we asked them after debarkation, but since we didn't go to Belize, I wonder what the delay was. I am usually off most ships by 0830 and on my way back to the airport by 0900, so this was most definitely different.

[dawnb72413]

Thanks! Glad you are liking it. I am finally going to get to the next part, our first sea day, later tonight. I do hate to leave people hanging, it has been a busy week though. Have fun when you sail out of Port Canaveral, a few others here have said that they are planning on sailing the Magic when it makes its move. It is a nice ship with generally a pretty good crew.

 

We're actually sailing out of Galveston. I don't think the Magic moves to Port Canaveral until April.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Good evening, I have returned with the next part of my Carnival Magic cruise adventure. Thank you all for your comments and for taking the time to follow along. I am glad you are enjoying. It has been a busy week and I hate to leave readers hanging, so here goes. This was Monday, and was our first sea day. That is where we will pick up.

DAY 3: SEA DAY

Well, today was a nice, relaxing day at sea. After the craziness of embarkation day, having a day to get familiar with the ship and to just relax and do whatever is usually a good thing. Being a night owl and needing my beauty sleep (LOL) I slept in a little today. I finally got myself out of bed around 1000 and went out to the balcony to see how the morning was going. I have to mention that the bed was comfortable enough and the temperature in the room was pretty good. Not too hot, not too cold. I sat outside on the balcony and took a pic of the calm, open seas as I figured out what I was going to do for the day. Today was the overall nicest day we would have until we were on our way back to Galveston, if you were wondering. Light winds, mostly sunny, 80s and dry. Will discuss the impact the weather had on this cruise later on.

A few notes I forgot to mention about the first day also before I go further. The lights only turn on if you have a card in the slot near the door. Just put any card in there and leave it throughout the cruise so you don't have to worry about it later on and the lights will operate normally. If you don't have anything in there, the lights won't go on. Also, there are a few power ports on the main desk in the cabin, easy to charge a phone or laptop or camera there. On with the review we go...

My mother likes to attend the seaday brunch, and although it isn’t my favorite thing to do, I like to go at least once on a cruise as well and so we both went up to the Southern Lights dining room around noon to be seated. It is located all the way aft of the ship. It is odd seeing the curtains open in the MDR and the bright light from outside coming in, and seeing the MDR ¾ empty as well. Perhaps it is more crowded in the morning but I have never been to a seaday brunch where the place was really crowded, outside of the time that the gold and platinum pax showed up to cash in their free drink coupons. And now with Carnival cutting back on who gets those coupons, attendance at the events should drop more.

I believe they serve until 1300, and the menu generally has things such as steak and eggs, spicy lemon pepper chicken, and of course you can mix and match and get side dishes if you like. Same sitdown service as at dinner and better food than the lido buffet I guess. I got a steak and fried eggs overeasy with hash brown potatoes along with some nice fluffy bread rolls and a Coke and it was OK as usual. They give you a small toasted roll but you can request toast as well if you would like. After brunch, we went out to the midship promenade area, where lots of activity takes place on seadays.

My mom headed off to sightsee on her own and I headed out to the lanai deck to get some of the seaday pit barbecue that they have on the Magic. The line was not long and I picked up some barbecued yard bird (lol) er, chicken, some pulled pork, some cornbread and some kielbasa and hot Italian sausage and took it back inside where it was air conditioned and found a table. It was all pretty good and the bbq sauce they have is very spicy, prepare for that. You can also get a beer or a drink from the portable bar setup they have at the end of the bbq line. How convenient. Make sure you get there early though as it is only open for like 2 hours and only on sea days. It was too hot this afternoon to go into one of the lanai hot tubs, which are unfortunately only open until 2100 every day. I will get into one of those hot tubs one of these days though if I ever get on another ship that has them.

All the bbq stuff was pretty good and I made sure I saved room for it after seaday brunch. And about that cornbread, this one is for Gapearl. I have seen her talk about Carnival corn bread in her reviews before, and she always says how bad it is. Well, it was better here. Edible at least. Is it Cracker Barrel good? Absolutely not but not as bad as it has been in the past. Hope she sees this and gets a kick out of that shout out and tidbits about the cornbread.

I sat down in the ocean plaza area and watched the midday activity that was planned for this afternoon. Sometime around 1400, entertainment staff member, Brick, came into the area and announced that there would be a paper airplane contest. It consisted of people signing up, making and naming their paper airplanes, then testing their engineering marvels in front of the crowd. A few people came up with interesting names for their planes, such as “Magic,” and “Brick,” along with more conventional names, and each person had a chance to fly their planes. The “runway” consisted of the corridor between the Taste Bar and the seating area where they do trivia contests and watch the house cover band play at night. I did not play, I was not confident that I would be able to make a great flying machine out of piece of paper as I had not made a paper airplane since I was in grade school. Much more fun to watch others compete. I was thinking of doing air traffic control commentary but decided it would make me look like too much of a nerd so I stayed quiet. Each contestant had to keep their plane on the “runway” or their attempts would be disqualified, regardless of distance flown. One guy almost took out a bartender at a nearby bar after his plane veered off course a little, LOL. When all was said and done, a teenage kid won with a throw of about 40 feet, and won a ship on a stick. One of these days I will get a ship on a stick. Gotta play to win though I guess. Anyway, that was good fun. I think they did a music trivia contest in the same lounge afterward but I didn’t stay for that.

Other activities on lido that I did not attend today included the infamous hairy chest contest and various contests, including trivia and bean bag toss. Just too much stuff going on at any one time to check everything out. Do what you like, you will find something to do that will interest you.

I went back to the cabin around 1500 to wait for maintenance to come to the cabin as my mom saw the steward earlier in the day and told him about the inoperative safe. He said the battery was dead and mx would be out to fix it somewhere in the afternoon. I just sat around and watched tv in the cabin, and she went out to afternoon tea but unfortunately nobody came to fix the safe during the day. Maintenance cannot come into your cabin to fix anything unless you are in there and I think this is a good idea to protect both pax and Carnival from liability.

However, while I was waiting, room service came by and delivered our chocolate covered strawberries and truffles dishes to the room. They were pretty good. Still no free seaday drink coupon though. Be sure to eat these strawberries quickly though as unless you have a fridge in the cabin, remember strawberries are still fruit and will go bad. I kind of found this out the hard way, as the last one I was saving for a pre-dinner treat a few days later was rotten and I had to throw it out. Bummer.

Anyway, I will get into the safe repair saga more as the review goes on. It did take a while for someone to finally come out and fix it eventually. It turned out to be just a dead battery on the pinpad locking system also, a quick fix. Oh well. I took a nap around 1700 as I got tired of waiting for maintenance to come to the room, and got up again around 1900 to hit the hot tub pre-dinner. I usually go to the aft hot tubs because there is also a pool there and I like to go back and forth between the two. Also, some really good sunsets can be seen from the very back of the ship. No hot tubs in the lido pool area on this ship. I hung out in the not-so-hot hot tub and talked a little bit with some folks from Texas before we all split and went our own ways around 2000.

Tonight was lobster night, aka formal night, aka Cruise Elegant Night and although I didn’t bring a suit, I still got myself looking presentable (shave and put on a nice shirt and dress pants haha) for dinner. Elegant nights are the only times Carnival uses tablecloths in the MDR for American Feast and of course lobster is on the menu, along with prime rib. The prime rib is only OK on Carnival, but the lobster is pretty good. I got two, which are served with jumbo tiger shrimp and orzo. Really good. Also got wcmc and a nice fruit plate for dessert. Fruit plate has artfully arranged slices of pineapple, watermelon, strawberries, kiwis and grapes. Was thinking about getting wine but decided against it. $9 for a glass of only average wine? Nah. Of course they want to take your picture everywhere on the ship but our entire table politely declined this night and every other night. If you politely tell them you don’t want pictures done they usually leave you alone. The waiters danced tonight as usual, and as usual some of them have more fun doing it than others. Some diners also got up and danced along with them. Only 2 other dinner mates showed up tonight, surprising as it is lobster night. Maybe they had other plans or just didn’t want to get dressed up. Oh well.

We left the mdr around 2200 and went to see the stage theater show, some 70s music themed thing called Grooveline or similar. It was OK, fast paced, typical Carnival stage show. Not all that crowded in the theater believe it or not. One of the entertainment staff managers was in the theater beforehand greeting everyone and setting the mood for the show, and she did some other contests and presentations throughout the ship later on. She was very cute too. I don’t remember what her name was now though, sadly. Maybe someone else who has cruised the Magic lately knows. The show lasted less than an hour and after it was over, we headed back to the Punchliner lounge to see the 2330 comedy show of Jeff Jena. He was funny in this 18-and-over comedy setting. Both he and Russ Nagel performed in family-friendly shows earlier and I did not attend them. Maybe someone else reading did and can say if they were as funny then or not.

Anyway, the show was over around 0000 and of course I am never not hungry enough to make a late night pizza run. I talked with a Steelers fan while in line for pizza and told him that Ben Roethlisberger had better make a quick return from his injury as Michael Vick is horrible. LOL. He agreed and it was a fun natured conversation. Someone who lives in Eagles country would know about how horrible Vick is.

Anyway, we headed back to the cabin around 0030 and on the bed was a nice towel animal and the next day’s funtimes. That looks much better when you come in for the evening than a bed with no towel animal and just a funtimes. We also received nice new platinum gifts, VIFP Carnival-logo journals complete with a nice pen for people to write down and remember their cruise highlights. Nice gift, as it was completely different from the usual hat, beach bag, tumbler, etc. I did use my journal to write down some notes about what I did on the vacation as well.

Now, not to say I got to bed early as I did not, but I didn’t stay up all night either as the next day featured a visit to Cozumel, Mexico and we had a very early excursion booked. So, I got to bed around 0100 or so, and tried to get a decent night’s rest before we would be arriving early the next morning in our first port of call.

Also, I have to give cruise critic member Wrigley80 a mention here. I

recently saw her post that her father, who from what I saw in her excellent reviews was really her best friend and cruising buddy, passed away. Wrigley, my thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family during this time and I am sorry for your loss. This goes to show us that we should always cherish the time we have with loved ones and enjoy the traveling we get to do together, as life is painfully short for all of us and you never know what will happen in the future. I cruise quite often with my mother, who shares the love of cruising that I have (I think she gave me the cruising bug years ago) and I made sure to appreciate the time we got to spend together and have been able to spend together over the years.

So, that wraps up Day 3 of this cruise, and some pictures to come. I hope you enjoyed my recap of this day and are enjoying this review in general. Thanks for reading, and hopefully I can get to Cozumel day in the next day or so. I am sure having fun doing this review. Happy cruising!

　

　

　

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

View from my balcony right after I woke up on the first seaday. Nice day, calm seas, nicest day we had until the very last day. Gotta love waking up to that, huh?

 

 

 

View from the Southern Lights dining room for seaday brunch. Got decent steak and eggs, headed to pit bbq after this.

 

 

Stopped by lido, saw them getting ready for hairy chest contest and mixology contest sign-up. Nice afternoon music by the DJ all day also. Busy on lido, people enjoying the sun.

 

 

Seaside BBQ I think it was called. You can get salad, meat, cornbread, etc. Not bad. Only open until 1400 though on sea days, closed on port days. Located on lanai deck 5, right outside ocean plaza aft of the casino.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

 

Paper airplane contest. It was fun to watch. Winner had a 40 foot throw. Many contestants' planes barely went 5 feet, some only 10. All in good fun.

 

 

Platinum chocolate covered strawberries and truffles. Tasty treat. Just don't let them sit on the countertop for 2 days, lol. I actually have semi-successfully been able to make my own chocolate covered strawberries at home in between cruises in recent months. They are fun to make and funner to eat.

 

 

 

American Table tabletop and menu. Decorations on the table could go but otherwise nice. Neat little cranberry bread and rolls with sunflower seeds stuck to the outside a nice pre-entree touch. Better soup selection with American Table also, along with usual staples like shrimp cocktail, spring rolls, etc. Prime rib and baked potato along with lobsters, tiger shrimp and orzo. Nice dinner. I don't usually eat lobster for dinner when I am at home, lol.

 

 

Dancing waiters and fellow diners. Always a good time in the MDR.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

The world famous WCMC and the aforementioned fruit plate. Good, a little too pudding-y tonight but still good. Also forgot to mention that I got Italian Wedding soup. I actually like the stuff you get in the can at the grocery store more but this was decent, and is a new addition with the American Table menu I believe.

 

 

Just chilling before the Jeff Jena comedy show, in the Punchliner lounge. No photography during the show however, this was taken before he took the stage obviously. The pre-recorded George Lopez disclaimer announcements are pretty funny though. And so was Mark Miller, the manager as I mentioned before. He had some good jokes and made the comedy club a fun experience.

 

 

Leftover late-night pizza and grill food. Pizza is plain, white, prosciutto, pepperoni and I cannot remember if they have any other kind. I usually get plain or pepperoni as that seems to be the most popular and sometimes you are not in the mood to wait for them to cook a fresh plain pie and there is a pepperoni pie right there for the taking. Got some fruit to take back to the room as I could eat that first thing in the morning before getting off the ship for our Cozumel excursion. Easier than running down to lido to get something quick before we got off or ordering room service. Smart move if you ask me. Just don't take anything off the ship with you in Cozumel as they are serious about that and enforce the rules with working dogs.

 

 

Next day's funtimes, our neat platinum gifts and a towel animal. How turndown service should look. Goodnight and as the late great Gene Hart would say, Good Hockey!

[Beachiekeen]

Well I meant I'm doing the same ports you were on so I'm looking forward to reading about them. :)

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Well I meant I'm doing the same ports you were on so I'm looking forward to reading about them. :)

 

I am getting there, slowly but surely, I promise. I have part 4, our visit to Cozumel written up and ready to post, hope you enjoy it and the day's pictures.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

So, we left off with me going to sleep in anticipation of an early day in Cozumel. I do like my sleep and I am sure to get my rest while on vacation because I surely don’t get enough of it when I am back on land. Lol. Anyway, I have finally gotten down to business and have decided it is time to continue with the review. The following takes place between 0700 and 0200 on Tuesday, and today’s port was Cozumel. Enjoy.

DAY 4: COZUMEL

As previously mentioned, today would feature a visit to the resort island of Cozumel, Mexico. Having been here and having done pretty much everything there is to do here in my many previous visits, it was hard to find something that I was interested in doing this time around. We extensively researched the excursions offered by both Carnival and private companies in the weeks before sailing and we finally settled on something. I will get into what we actually ended up doing and how we came about choosing it shortly. By the way, past visits have featured excursions such as glass bottom boat sailing in the coral reef area, a hired cab ride around the entire island, and just walking around and seeing the port area without doing much of anything else. Cozumel is a neat little place.

So, I got up around 0730 and I believe we had just docked or were close to docking at Puerta Maya (I recently found out by reading another CC review that Puerta Maya means a window to Mexico and not a port in Mexico. Port would be Puerto and window is Puerta or so I understand it to be). I am often awakened by the thrusters powering up and down to get us right on the mark at the pier, and this is especially true being in an exterior cabin. You do feel the vibrations from the engine, even being on such a high deck as 11. And, by the way, I also read on another review that if you are in a spa balcony, you automatically get access to the Cloud 9 spa facilities. I understood it that you get discounts on spa services but unless you actually purchase the pass or whatever, you do not get full access. Anybody know? I did not go to the cloud 9 spa at all even though we were in a spa balcony.

So, I finally rolled out of bed and went out to the balcony to see what was up and take a few pics at around 0800. It was a nice, albeit very warm and extremely humid morning in Mexico today, so I elected to not even get a shower as I had gotten one the night before and I would just be sweating like crazy 2 minutes after exiting the ship if I had anyway. My mom used the old style paper room service ordering form to get some breakfast for herself and I ate the fruit I got the night before at the burger place. You can still order room service by filling that form out and hanging it outside the night before I think or you can order online through your room TV. Man, you can do pretty much everything through that TV huh? I think our excursion met right in front of the Ron Jon surf shop just beyond the end of the pier in Puerta Maya at 0900 so we leisurely made our way off the ship around 0830 and walked towards town.

They have guys who ride bikes and will carry you in cabs connected to the back of the bikes for a fee if you don’t want to walk the somewhat long but scenic distance to town. My mom went with this option and I walked. Before we got off the ship, I noticed the RCCL ship that had been following us for the last two days docked up about a half mile from the Carnival-owned port that we were at, at the downtown pier sometime before 0900. Just as we were getting off our ship, the Carnival Triumph (yes, that ship) docked on the other side of our pier. They would be there for a good part of the day, but they still did leave before we did later in the afternoon.

You have to go through a large duty-free shop before exiting the dock and an ID check from local security as well. After doing this, we signed in at the excursions meeting area (Carnival-purchased excursions always have somebody holding up a sign in the port area to show you where to meet) and gave the organizers our tickets and we just waited. Today’s tour was the Jose Cuervo Discover Mexico Experience. It was a seminar on the proper way to drink tequila and a little history of tequila and how it is made, followed by a tasting session, followed by a guided tour of a Mayan history museum, a demonstration of some Mayan rituals and a nice lunch. I will talk all about the tour and post some good pics from it in a minute. We booked this tour through Carnival for something like $60 or $70 a person, based on online reviews and recommendations. Buying the tour through another party would have actually been more. And since there wasn’t much on there that we were interested in that we could both do or haven’t already done, we settled on this. I would surely say we got our money’s worth here also.

At 0900, we met our tour guide and tequila instructor, Ruy, and rode out to the tour site in a city cab. This place is only a short cabride away from the port, but isn’t easy to walk to even if you are in shape. Out front was a sampling of agave plants, which are used to make tequila. Upon arrival into the air-conditioned building, we all got margarita samples to drink before the seminar began.

As I mentioned earlier, the relative humidity must have been 80 percent today, it was oppressive but thankfully our tequila seminar took place in a nice climate-controlled room. Ruy said it takes something like 5 agave plants to make a bottle of tequila and presented us with three different types of tequila to try, along with snacks that help enhance the taste. Much like with rum, they have a type that is made and then sold quickly, a more aged and darker type, and a well-aged and of course, more expensive and rare type and we got to try them all. They were presented in wine glasses and accompanying our drinks were coffee beans, crackers, and cinnamon sticks. They all served a purpose in enhancing the taste of the beverages. I thought this seminar was quite interesting. He also gave us a few ideas of how to cook using tequila. I will have to try those recipes at home sometime. A few women next to us either didn’t like or couldn’t finish their tequila, so of course they offered it to me to drink and I surely didn’t want to waste any of it. It was good.

So, after a good hour in the classroom and after getting a nice buzz, we headed off to a museum of sorts to see some Mayan cultural history. Following that, we were given an opportunity to take a picture with a donkey. Of course they want to sell you these pictures that they take and so I didn’t get one done but I did get a picture of a donkey. Ha.

Moving on, we stopped at an outside bar and were given mango tequila margaritas with chili lining the rims of the glasses instead of salt. Interesting. Of course they wanted to sell you more before moving on, in souvenir glasses no less, but I declined. What am I going to do with more souvenir crap once I get home anyway? They have a neat outdoor setup with scale models of old Mayan communities and the ruins, with descriptions of each to read. Very interesting. After that, we watched an old reproductive health ritual that involves guys climbing up a 40-foot pole and then slowly lowering down using ropes, upside down as the pole spins until they reach the ground. This is supposed to help when mating time comes or so they said.

After the tour was nearly over at 1200 or so, it was time for lunch. We got vouchers for one beverage, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, from the bar and got rice, beans and tacos made for us. It was a buffet style set-up and some people got seconds but the first round was pretty filling. You could buy more beers or sodas or whatever at the bar if you wanted of course. We hung out here for a half hour or so and Ruy got our tequila expert certificates ready as we enjoyed lunch. I got a Corona (what else in Mexico) and mom got a Coke in a real glass bottle. Hard to get them here.

Anyway, after lunch, we headed back to the cab and we got our official keepsake certificates that we completed the tour, and were on our way back to the port. They do have a gift shop at the Discover Mexico where you can buy tequila and other stuff but I didn’t get anything because A) where am I going to store it on the trip home and B) in Texas, they tax all alcohol you bring back with you so you are not saving anything. Since the ship did not leave for a few more hours and we were back in the port area by noon, we pondered what else to do while we were in Cozumel.

I will assume most of you reading have been to Cozumel before but if you haven’t, it is a really nice and prosperous island. I think under 100,000 people live there and it is mostly uninhabited, government-protected wildlife land and you can make your way completely around the island in just a few hours. If you are very adventurous, you can rent your own jeep and drive around but keep in mind local driving laws and that some of the vehicles they give you when you rent can be not so great. I know this as some dinner mates we had on a cruise a few years elected to drive around in a rented jeep and they didn’t feel all that comfortable with what they got. Not that this is the norm but just be careful with who you rent from and where you go if you go on your own there. Just like in any other port. Other than a small international airport, the only other way to get to mainland Mexico is through a ferry that runs every hour or something and charges a nominal fee. It does have some not great looking areas but in general, Cozumel is a really nice place to visit from what I have seen in my travels there.

Anyway, there is a restaurant called Pancho’s Backyard in the port area, and it really does have good food and margaritas. There is also a gift shop located in the same building, you can get a lot of souvenir type stuff there. Supposedly the vanilla you can buy there is the best around, if you know people who cook with vanilla or use it for anything else, pick some up here as a gift for them. We were seated and I ordered a burrito and a frozen strawberry margarita as we relaxed in the restaurant. The margaritas cost about $9 but they are huge and very good. Our timing was perfect as just as we relaxed with lunch, the sky opened up. Thunderstorm. The first of many on this cruise. Just a hint but I have never had such overall lousy weather on a cruise. You will see what I mean later as this thing goes on. Rain and lightning becomes a recurring theme. Rained so hard that the local band playing Mexican music outside moved inside, under the awning to stay dry but note that they never stopped playing. Cool.

So, after the rain slowed down some around 1400, we headed back outside to make our way back towards the ship. There is a great photo op area right near the restaurant, a small man-made beach with palm trees and beach chairs to relax in. If you stand in just the right spot, you can get a nice view with the pier, water and ship in the background with you standing on the beach. It is a must. We took each other’s pics here, as it was still raining lightly but the thunderstorm had moved away by this point. We walked through the port shopping area (many chain stores offering the same stuff) and stopped at Fat Tuesday to cash in one of our two free margarita coupons. Included in the tour was a coupon for a freebie at Fat Tuesday and one at Three Amigos. They weren’t great but free is still free, and my mom headed off to buy some stuff in the duty free on the way back to the ship and I got my free drink at Three Amigos. If you ask me, Fat Tuesday is far superior to Three Amigos in Cozumel in both quality and service. I have had good experiences at Fat Tuesday and a few bad ones at Three Amigos.

Keep in mind that ship time stays the same even if the local time zone in port changes. Sailaway was 1500 ship time, so we were to be back by 1430. Of course that is just so everybody gets back in time to get processed and onboard well before sail away and there are always pier runners who will not be turned away if they show up at the last second. Getting back a half hour early is plenty early. I stood in a long line to get back onboard, and an obviously drunk guy asked me what day it was. I played along and said Saturday, and he was like, yeah, you’re worse than me. We both laughed. It was funny. We were all back onboard shortly afterward and a quick hint, when you get on, if you don’t want to wait forever for an elevator, walk up one deck, walk to a different elevator bank further down and away from the gangway, and you can go wherever you want much more quickly. My mom dropped off her shopping items in the room and I went up to lido to get yet more food.

Today’s theme was Caribbean, which Carnival does really well. It is my favorite lido featured lunch theme. It is only served until 1530 so head up there as soon as you get onboard or you will be stuck with pizza or grill food until dinner. I believe Carnival should offer lunch later on port days and I have talked about this in past reviews and in surveys that I have received post-cruise in the past. Anyway, I got island stew, beans and rice, and also stopped at the Tandoor Indian buffet, located all the way at the back of the ship, on lido. Got some really good basmati rice and chicken. Tandoor is never crowded and is pretty decent. After lunch, I headed back to the room to chill for a while and watch sail away. Having a balcony is an advantage in situations like these. We sailed away sometime around 1600, and waved goodbye to the Triumph, which was still in port after we left.

I had to fight the urge to go to sleep and went to the aft pool and hot tub to hang out for a while. There were just too many kids here and it was too crowded, so I went up to the Serenity deck on Deck 14 forward, but they don’t have pools either and during the middle of the day, sitting in a hot tub in the sun is just too hot. So, I headed back to the aft pool and hung around there for a little while. Around 1730 I had enough and went back to the cabin to take a nap until dinner. I was not able to get a picture of sunset tonight either, as it was again on the other side of the ship but besides, it was still mostly cloudy and wouldn’t have looked good anyway.

I woke up around 1900, and watched NCIS (one of a few shows I will never miss an episode of) on the TV in the cabin before getting ready for dinner and we headed off to dinner around 2000. One good thing about being at sea where there is little television to choose from means I don’t have to watch the stupid political debates and the non-stop analysis of them on all the news stations.

So, around 2030 we went to dinner and they offered their special braised rabbit dish from the didja menu (as in, stuff you always wanted to try but never dared to back on land) and of course I tried it. It wasn’t what I expected it to be, rather it was just a couple bites of meat that could have been confused with ground beef but I guess it wasn’t all that bad. They have really good navy bean soup on Carnival as an appetizer and I also got a flat iron steak. The flat iron steak gets a bad rap here on CC but I think it is ok. Not great, not awful. I am not paying a $20 upcharge for a slightly better cut of meat from the steakhouse item upgrade menu. I got my usual Coke at dinner but also made sure to take advantage of the carafes of water on the table, as I was still dehydrated from my earlier drinking and even had to take an ibuprofen before dinner. We joked with our neighbors about the tequila tour and talked about what we were going to do the next day in Grand Cayman over dinner tonight. Our other neighbors were celebrating their honeymoon so the waiters came by, sang to them and gave them a cake to enjoy. Quite a few honeymooners on this cruise so it seemed.

After dinner, I stopped by the casino bar to see how the baseball playoff games went on this evening, and I saw that the LA Dodgers and the Cubs had won. The Cubs actually beat the St. Louis Cardinals, the favorites to win it all which was surprising. I was also pulling for the Dodgers because ex-Phillies legends Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley were playing for the Dodgers and I wanted them to beat the NY Mets. The Texas Rangers were still alive in the playoffs at this point as well against Toronto. After checking the scores, I also saw that legendary college football coach Steve Spurrier retired. Even legends have to hang them up sometime I guess.

Since there wasn’t much else going on tonight, the early Russ Nagel show was full and I was not able to get in. While I waited for the lounge to open up again for the Jeff Jena show, I stopped by the casino and lost 10 bucks on the slots. The penny slots are fun to play but don’t expect to win much and if you do somehow get ahead at some point, just cash out and move on as the house will always win in the end. And be sure to use your sign and sail card to accumulate points towards free drinks in the casino if you play enough.

I made sure to get to the 2330 Jeff Jena comedy show early, and he was funny. Being the only people from the mid-Atlantic region in the lounge, we were the only ones who even remotely got the New York jokes that he made all show long. I was going to get an Angry Orchard tonight but I drank enough earlier and just wasn’t feeling up to it. Got nothing instead. After the show, we did our usual trip upstairs to the lido for late night food and to talk about the day but the pizza line was just too long tonight so I settled for some fries and a hot dog instead. I also got some hot chocolate which is great on Carnival, regardless of how warm it is outside. I actually started a thread a few years ago about what makes the hot chocolate so good, it is a mystery. So, after all that we headed back to the room for the night at about 0100 but since I was not that tired yet, I just sat out on the balcony for a while and stared off into the darkness and went back inside and to sleep around 0200.

And with that, an eventful port visit day is complete. Hope you enjoy and a bunch of pictures to follow. Day 5 featured a visit to Grand Cayman, and hopefully I can get to that sometime in the next day or two. Good night!

　

　

　

　

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

A look at the dock from our balcony, when I first woke up on Cozumel morning. Note my thumb in the corner of the pic. I am not a professional photographer, lol.

 

 

The long dock and Puerta Maya.

 

Our RCCL friend approaching, they were following us all this time!

 

Meeting area for our shore excursion. Our tour guide, Ruy was in the middle of this picture.

 

 

Out in front of the Discover Mexico complex. Note the agave plants on display. They are what you make tequila from.

 

 

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

 

Inside the museum part of the tour.

 

 

A donkey! You could have your picture taken with the donkey but I declined.

 

 

Our chili mango margaritas. Nice outdoor atmosphere. They had a bar where you could buy more stuff here also.

 

 

Scale models of Mayan communities. You can compare the displays to the people in the picture and get an idea of how big these displays were.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

 

 

More outdoor displays.

 

 

Lunch

 

 

Mayan sexual health ritual. Climb up the pole, hang from rope upside down as you spin back toward the ground. Centuries old tradition.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

 

 

More of the show, amazing.

 

 

 

Margaritas and a burrito at Pancho's Backyard. Been here many times, great every time.

 

Our ship as seen from Three Amigos, near the pier. Nice view.