Cruisin’ Cousins, Part Two {Cozumel}

We woke up on Tuesday morning as we were pulling into our first port: Cozumel, Mexico. On our last cruise we had to tender in, but this time we scored a spot at one of the huge docks. We were off the boat just after 8am and walking to the end of the pier to find our excursion meeting point.

First, though, Jeff and I noticed the catamaran that we went on with Nola and Nopsi during our family cruise in 2001, the Fury. Then we found Three Amigos, where Jeff and Nopsi hung out before they got back on board that same year. Cub decided it was as good a time as any to start drinking, so he went in and ordered a shot of tequila and a margarita. Impressive specimen at work. All before 9am.

 

Fueled up and ready to go, we followed our excursion leader to a cab stand and caught a ride to our home for the morning, Dolphinaris. We got to swim with a dolphin, y’all!! It was so freaking cool. And the facility was gorgeous.

 

Jeff and Cub were both skeptical about doing this excursion, but they graciously agreed to come with me. And they both ended up having a great time. We were in the water for about 45 minutes with trainer Anna and dolphin Esparta. We got to touch her sides, hold onto her front flippers, give her kisses, and even take a belly ride on her. It was amazing.

Please excuse these next few; I surreptitiously snapped them. (And didn’t check to see that one of mine was blurry….UGH!) The pictures were insanely expensive, but Cub managed to get them to give us 3 extra with our package so we each got 2 shots with Esparta.

Once our session was done, we said goodbye to Anna and Esparta and found a spot overlooking another pool where we could have drinks and lunch. The food was really good, and the margaritas were tasty. Plus we got to see other dolphins performing right below us. So cool.

 

 

Once we were done with lunch, we reluctantly packed up and moved on to our next destination. Cub read about a great beach restaurant/bar, so we caught a cab to Alberto’s. Our driver was awesome!

We hung out at Alberto’s for over two hours. The mango margaritas were exceptional, and the boys liked the nachos. We watched passing boats, took a dip in the water, and played cards.

  

After Alberto’s, we caught another cab to Cozumel’s main square area. There was more tequila consumed, a luchador mask tried on, and awesomely authentic chicken and beef tacos eaten before we finally headed back to the ship.

  

We got back to the dock with about a half hour to spare, so we took some more photos before bidding Cozumel adios. We were relaxing on board in one of the ship’s starboard side hot tubs (of course with more drinks) before we pushed away from Mexico.

 

This was the night that Jeff and Cub unknowingly dressed alike for dinner. This was also the night when Cub took a slew of hilarious solo pictures in the lobby before dinner. He made great friends with one of the photographers, Volha, who didn’t know what to think of him but seemed to enjoy his antics. I wish the pictures weren’t so expensive; we discovered some gems in the stack the next day.

 

 

This was also the night that Cub got rip-roaring drunk. We went to the piano bar after dinner and finally got to meet Phil, a 70-year-old widow whom Cub met the first night on the ship. She was so cool. This was also the night that Mignon forced water into Cub in an attempt to counteract some of the booze. (Hint: it didn’t really work.)

When Cub finally got back to the room, he decided to lay down in the hallway outside of our door. Then, once he was finally inside, he realized that Jeff had gone to get him a midnight snack of pizza and almost cried when he saw it. Good times.

  

Recap of Belize coming up next!