Conquest November 20 Sailing...Day Six

[texas greeneyes]

Friday morning my cabin mates slept in a bit. I, as usual, was out on the balcony at dawn, watching as the darkened sky slowly gave way to streaks of purples and pinks. Sunrises are so fleeting. Before I knew it the entire sky was a clear brilliant blue. Breathtaking!

Since we had no deadlines to meet for excursions or anything else, we all agreed to give the dining room a try for breakfast this morning. We met up at about quarter to nine, and were seated right away. It turns out that our waitstaff for the evening meal were also our servers for breakfast. Wow, do they work long hours! Following the meal, ten of us tendered into Cozumel to do some shopping.

When we reached shore, there was a group of protesters with signs at the entrance to the shopping strip. Unfortunately, all the signs were in Spanish, so I could only make out a little of what they were marching for. It had to do with cruise ships being sent to Cozumel rather than other Mexican ports, and that this was hurting their businesses and their families. There were armed police to separate the protesters from the tourists, which was a bit unnerving at first. :eek: But, after assessing the situation, we decided it was under control and that we were all comfortable continuing on.

After stopping in a couple of shops, we realized that our group of ten was just too big for us all to stay together while we shopped, and we split up into smaller groups. Using a flyer from Carnival to guide us, we decided to meet up at Carlos & Charlie’s for lunch at 1:30.

Sister two, sister five and I all had some serious souvenir buying to do, so off we went. I know a tiny smidgeon of Spanish, which helped a bit when bargaining. What also helped the bargaining aspect of our shopping was sister five whipping out a little hand held calculator when the shopkeepers were tallying up our purchases. Also, when shopping with others, if it is feasible to do so, have one person present all your purchases together at one time and bargain on the whole lot. Think buying in bulk…it worked for us.

Among other things, we chose brightly colored dresses and bathing suit wraps, ceramics, costume jewelry, carved wooden baskets…you get the idea. Many of the Christmas gifts I give this year will have a Caribbean or Mexican theme. I was sure to pick up some vanilla for my self and DD #1, since both of us bake quite a bit. By the time we had checked off everyone on our souvenir list, we were ready to be done shopping.

We decided to treat ourselves to a horsedrawn carriage ride (actually, the rickety old thing we rode in hardly qualified as a carriage) back to the other end of the shopping strip, where Carlos & Charlie’s was located, at least according to Carnival’s flyer. It was a quick five minute ride, but saved our feet a good twenty minute walk, maybe more. And it was fun! Well worth the $15 for the three of us.

Sadly, only the shell of the building where Carlos & Charlie’s was located remained. :( The entire building’s contents had been gutted by the storm surge and flooding during Hurricane Wilma. We had seen evidence of storm damage before we even reached shore that morning. Palm trees everywhere were practically bald. The pier, of course, was washed away. We could see a car that had been deposited by the floodwaters on the second floor of one of the ruined stores. They have a long road ahead of them in Cozumel before recovery is complete. My heart goes out to the hard-working people there.

Since Carlos & Charlie’s was no longer an option, we decided to eat at the restaurant we had passed just after entering the shopping area. I am sorry that I don’t remember the name of it, but it is the one closest to the entrance. I had the nachos, which were just okay, but their homemade salsa and chips were absolutely fabulous! One of the sisters had the soft beef & chicken tacos, which she enjoyed. I stuck with bottled water, but others in my group report that their Margaritas were very good as well.

Following lunch, we were all worn out from our day of shopping in the Mexican sun, so we decided to get in the tender line to head back “home”. The line was very long, and we were behind a group of twenty-somethings who all sported matching wristbands from the party boat excursion that they were on that day. These folks were very intoxicated, especially one young “gentleman” (I use the term loosely) who was quite large. I’ll call him “Big Guy.” He was only about 5’10” but had to have weighed at least three hundred and fifty pounds, maybe more. This man was huge. And drunk. Our group was chatting while we waited in line, when without warning Big Guy just falls over backwards…BOOM! :eek: He missed squashing my little three year old niece by mere inches! Without so much as an apology, Big Guy’s friends (it took several of them) scooped him back up, laughing and joking as they struggled to keep their large inebriated friend upright long enough to get him on the tender and back to the ship. . Sounds funny now, but he really could have injured my niece, or worse. I would hate to experience the kind of hangover Big Guy got from his party boat fun!

A good hour passed from the time we got in the tender line to when we finally were back aboard the Conquest. I stopped for a frou-frou drink on my way up to the room. My sisters had all done the Margarita thing, but tequila does not like me one bit, so I had some catching up to do! We hung out on our balcony for a while, then joined the other sisters on deck to listen to some live music.

We hadn’t checked out the photo gallery for a couple of days, so decided to stop there next. What a zoo! I really dislike Carnival’s method of displaying and selling photos. I hope they work on that to make it more guest friendly. Anyway, we saw the portraits from formal night 2, including the Billy Bob teeth photo, which was hilarious! Carnival made a bunch of money from all us sisters by selling us photos, I’ll tell ya’!

The Guest Talent Show was scheduled for that evening, and we were excitedly anticipating nephew’s performance. We met up in the Toulouse-Lautrec Lounge for the show, which had six performers scheduled. Nephew and his buddy were the only act that did not sing. They played a jazz-infused bluesy rock instrumental number (nephew’s description, not mine). Nephew, who was not quite sixteen at the time and a self-taught musician, played lead guitar. His buddy played bass. They had people in the audience clapping and swaying to the music, yelling out, “Play it, little brothers!” by the end of their act. This is one proud Auntie! :D

After dinner and the Talent Show, most of us wanted to gamble, but I decided to get the dreaded packing out of the way as much as possible, so that my last day would be free for fun. My cabin mates left for the casino, and I got the drudgery over with as soon as I could. Then I went to hunt my sisters down in the casino. Donated a little to the slots; won it back at roulette, so came out even. We all decided we wanted to hit the dance floor, so off to the lounges again. Found the band we had been seeing all week, again they smiled and nodded greetings to us Crazy Sisters as we walked in. And, wouldn’t you know it, after finishing the song they were playing, they went right into “Blue Bayou” as they waved sister five up onstage for a third time during the cruise! I’m guessing they liked her performances, ya think? This is one proud Sis! :D

We stayed up drinking, dancing, and singing again, until the wee hours. Nobody was mentioning that the cruise would be ending soon. We were in happy denial! We stopped off for pizza and ice cream sometime after 2:00 before heading back to our room. After devouring the yummy food, we settled out on the balcony for a bit, just to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. It was three in the morning before we gave in to heavy eyelids. Sisters two and five crawled off to bed. I gathered pillows & blankets and dozed out on the balcony for a while (loved it!) before wanting something softer to lie on. Then I slithered into bed and off to the Land of Nod I went.

Next: Day seven…is it really almost over?

[Mgetta]

What a great review. I'm really enjoying it, and looking forward to my cruise on the Conquest in February.

[BettyB2]

Great review so far...hate to see it end!!