Cozumel Submarine and Pirate Night

I waked up before the wake-up call and then breakfast came. No possibility for gluten free and only continental breakfast. Most cruise ships have options for hot breakfasts for room service. My granddaughter had ordered hot chocolate for both of us and a fruit bowl. I had some muffins and she had rice krispies. I didn't care for the muffins - they were dry.

Submarine ticket

We were to meet for our tour which was a Submarine ride at 8:30 so we went up to the D lounge. This time I told the tour minder who was so unhelpful yesterday that I wanted to get down the elevator ahead of everyone.

Cozumel pier

I was worried about walking down the long pier from the cruise ship in Cozumel until I remembered that there are men with bikes who will pedal you down the pier for a dollar or so. For me - a pedibike guy will have to work really hard, so I don't begrudge them a dollar

Jitney Bike

So he said to go ahead, and the girl at the other end brought the bike to me. My granddaughter followed the guide (Roberto) and the bike with me brought up the rear.

My granddaughter walking in front of the bike

From the Jitney Bike

Fantasy and a Tall ship

Then she let us go through the back gate to outside

under the pedestrian overpass

and put us in a taxi which she said would be $8.00 (she was paying)

Ad in the back of a taxi

We had wrist bands for this tour which said they were worth 27 pesos. The taxi took us to the Atlantis submarine place which was out past Papa Hogs.

Papa Hog's dive shop from a taxi

There is a new lighthouse along this road- Punta Ealetita built in 2007. When we were in Cozumel the first time, I saw the lighthouse near the CG Base. At that time it was active.

Lighthouse in 1998

Old lighthouse peeking up over the new stores

Now it has been OTBE (overtaken by events). The cruise ship companies have built up shops around it so that there needs to be a new lighthouse. This lighthouse is out along the shore, but south of the new cruise ship docks.

From the ship dock 2013

Punta Ealetita is a cylindrical concrete light tower with four ribs, lantern, and gallery. The lighthouse was repainted white with green trim and large black lettering on the sides. Located about 1 mile south of San Miguel de Cozumel on the west side of the island. Site open, tower closed.

From a taxi 2013

We were the first ones at the Atlantis submarine place. I suggested to my granddaughter that she look at the shop there and she came back and said "There's nothing there, not even a key chain, for less then $150.00. I said that must be pesos.

After a little argument back and forth I told her to go and ask how much it was in dollars for what she wanted. It was $4.00.

They showed us a safety video and loaded us onto a boat which took us out to the submarine. This was really pretty interesting. We saw a lot of fish and coral and my granddaughter saw a shark.

sponges

coral head

depth

fish

When we got back to the office and gift shop I asked if they could take us to a store my granddaughter wanted to go to. (When I asked on the ship they said absolutely not.) The lady said sure, and put us into a cab and he took us out there.

Cozumel central square

Senor Frogs and Carlos and Charlies on the way to Cariloha

My granddaughter heard about this store in the port talk and wanted to come here. This is a store which is in almost every port that cruise ships go to, and also they have a website for sales. Everything in this store is made of bamboo. It is very soft and comfortable - cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I can testify that it is soft

All Bamboo

I charged some stuff which is going to my house and then I wanted to send some stuff to Beth and that time the card was refused. So I spent a lot of time on the phone to the credit union to get the card to work again. Which eventually it did. I got some sheets and throws - mostly as presents for people. But I like the shirts so later I got some for myself on-line. I found them soft but not very sturdy - they soon got holes in them

Took a taxi back to the pier ($6.00) and took the trike back to the ship. My granddaughter wanted to get the free charm bracelet from Diamonds International because she has three charms now and no bracelet.

The cruise ships put shops at each stop that are branches of the main stores, and these stores are NOT local stores. You can find them at each port where the cruise ships stop, and in some places they close in the off season. You will find that there is not much bargaining at these stores and they probably do not employ local people.

Such places as:
Diamonds International (120 locations in Mexico, US and the Caribbean)
Diamonds International Watch and Design
Colombian Emeralds International (50 stores)
Tanzanite International
World of Jewels
Effy Jewelers
Touch of Gold
Goodmark Jewelry

and non-jewelry places like
Tequileria International
Carpet International
Ron Jons Surf Shop
Del Sol

What to buy: I don't recommend buying anything from any of these places. We did go to Cari-lo-ha and buy some sheets, but I think I would have done better to buy the cotton sheets.

I persuaded my granddaughterto go back to the ship and eat first. She decided that she was hungry too.

We went to the Royal Court - Unlike most ships, Disney apparently has dining rooms open on port days for lunch. She got

tomato mozzarella salad

and a duck salad with pomegranate dressing as an entree. I had

Yummy Pineapple soup

Seafood rissoto

We took a scooter tour of the promenade deck and looked at the photos from last night.

Cozumel waterfront

Looking down on the dock - return time listed

We also looked at some of the "Art" that they sell on the ship in an auction at inflated prices. These were the nicest two

"Art"

Tonight is pirate night

My granddaughter got all dressed up and she looked wonderful.

granddaughter dressed for pirate night

I had a gold mesh head scarf and earrings (probably garnet) and a lot of necklaces.

Selfie in the elevator

our waiter (right) Agus dressed for pirate night - Royal Court

Photo of us

We went to dinner and were the only ones at the table so there was no one to admire our costumes. My granddaughter had chicken.

granddaughter's dinner

cornbread for me

I had a crab cake appetizer, and

spare ribs

which were tender enough to cut with a fork. I had the

my half eaten beef wellington

Floating island

for dessert.

We went back to the cabin and talked until about 9:30 when we went up for the show. I thought the waiter said 'fire walker' but really it was fireworks. There was a space set aside for wheelchairs, but it wasn't very big and we didn't pack into it carefully enough. In any case we had a good view of the fireworks and also the show. (which wasn't much - mostly a bunch of fake pirates doing fake sword fighting- might have been more interesting if I had seen the movie which I have not.)

Pirates of the Caribbean show

Part of the pirate show

Disney is the only cruise ship line which has a permit to set off fireworks, so they make a big deal of this, and the fireworks show was pretty good.

Fireworks

Fireworks

Fireworks

My granddaughter wanted a picture with Jack Sparrow. He was listed in the program that he would be available and she went up to where he should be, but he was not there. A disappointment

after he came down on a wire

I cannot wear either of the pants that I brought as they are too tight in the waist to button. I can get the white ones on, but the button is pretty hard to button or unbutton.

There is a noise here and elsewhere in the ship that sounds like some light metal object being thrown against a surface. Like horse shoes only with maybe aluminum shoes. Can't figure out what it is. The ship is VERY noisy - a lot of Disney music playing at all times usually loud, and of course all the character photo ops.

June 13 - Sea Day

We slept late because of the late night and also because of turning our clocks forward to get back on Eastern time. We ate up the things in the fridge that we had left over and listened to the disembarkation talk.

The deal is - you have breakfast at 6:45 or 8 am (depending on early or late dining) and you have to be off the ship by 9. There was nothing about Back to Back people because apparently no one ever does that, so I phoned and asked. They said, yes we had to be off at 9 and that our special instructions would be on the fish outside the door.

So I looked. That said that we had to be off by 9 and could not get back on until 11.

So I called again and asked if I really had to sit in the terminal for two hours. They said they would have the clearance officer call me, and she did. So we may be able to get back on without a 2 hour delay. At the end of the conversation came the information that we could borrow a laptop. It would have been nice to know this before the last day. Disney has no public computer area on their ships. My granddaughter has had to borrow my computer to write emails.

So we went down to lunch
My granddaughter had mulligatawny soup and strawberry ice cream and I had raspberry soup,

my cajan mahi mahi sandwich

bread pudding

I picked up a laptop, but it won't let you do anything except log in and do email. No games and no browsing the internet. You cannot even compose the email offline and then log on and send it to save your minutes. (The cheapest price is $150 for 500 minutes.) But my granddaughter can now write her emails in peace. I also looked for a pair of pants and she bought a small purse to clip to her camera and keep her room key in and I bought a pair of flip-flops but they are too small (they are long enough but there is not enough space vertically for my foot. When I got home and my feet un-swelled, they did fit.

Atrium

Wandering around the ship

I thought that I might be able to get the photos off my camera card and put onto a CD. So I took the camera up to the photo area and they took the card.

Grandma at the Animator's Palate

It was semi-formal night and we were back in the Animator's Palate. This time I took some photos of the black and white cartoons before they changed to color

black and white

color

I also took photos of some of the animated figures

Animated figures

Animation

I am on the right with a camera around my neck

The names of the diners

There was popcorn soup which was even more horrible than it sounded.

Popcorn soup before the popcorn was put in

Popcorn soup

I had

Oysters Rockefeller

my lobster tail after waiter removed shell

My granddaughter had minestrone and

pork tenderloin

Disney version of baked Alaska

Tomorrow is Castaway Cay