Caribbean Cruises - Easter 2015: Day 10

We docked early in Cozumel and had breakfast again on the balcony – all items were correctly delivered this time.

We eventually got off the ship. Wow was it hot! We could feel the sun searing into our skin despite having Factor 20 on and we were always keen to get in the shade. There was yet another duty free shop you had to go through to get on shore and the prices were dearer than at home and there were several ‘samey’ souvenir shops.

Luckily the whole area was really there just for cruise ship passengers, so we didn’t get hassled too much. We had a beer in a local bar which boasted wifi but, as is so often the case, neither we nor fellow cruisers we spoke to could get into it. After a quick walk round and a bit of shopping we returned to the ship for a burger/hot dog and fries and then a sit in the shade, reading.

At lunchtime yet another Carnival cruise ship appeared – this time it was the Carnival Ecstasy. It docked right next to us. Boarding and leaving our ship was suspended while they tied up alongside.

How many ships does one cruise line need, we wondered. We’ve seen so many different Carnival ones round and about. They’re old ships offering a fairly budget experience and this one had fake palm trees in one deck area and was pumping diesel fumes in our direction such that we couldn’t sit out in some parts of the ship.

We left around 5pm and then the highlight of the evening was the Mardi Gras party in the Piazza (atrium). These things don’t go on that long and the staff here do seem to have trouble stirring up a party atmosphere among the guests. We also saw our first show on board – just about stayed awake – and it was a very good song and dance show.

We also went – just to watch – a ‘game show’ called “Where in the World?” The first part was 10 questions long – 2 marks for the building and the place. We got pretty much all of them – including a wild guess at what turned out to be the Alamo in Texas, but we couldn’t do the USS Arizona memorial in Honolulu. The most fun happened when they put a photo of Buckingham Palace up on the screen. Almost no team in the room got it right and the wildly varying answers regarding the building and the country were a damning indictment on the average American’s lack of a sense of elsewhere!

Yesterday also saw us at the top end loyalty event (now that we’re Platinum members!!) hosted by the captain – except that he wasn’t there as he was driving the ship out of Cozumel! In fact, this will be the longest time we’ve spent on a ship with0out meeting the captain. We have glimpsed him at the latest welcome party but he hasn’t been visible at any of ‘his’ events.

Some things we’ve noticed on this cruise: the overlarge people seem to have two distinct characteristics when cruising. First of all, when we get back on board after going ashore, a group of us will get into the lift together. We usually go back to our room for at least a ‘pit stop’. The large people seem to press immediately for Deck 15 where the cafeteria is – rather like a smoker who can’t wait to get inside the terminal building after a flight in order to have a fag. Second, they are quite likely to be found putting food into their mouths as they walk from the servery to their seat in the cafeteria.

Wifi – we found none on either cruise that was both free and accessible. As for the so-called ‘free’ wifi in bars, we found we invariably couldn’t connect to them and the ‘pay for’ was always limited to one device and unique log-in credentials were given so that access was not transferable.

Excursions – we thought they were generally quite pricey on these cruises. Quite a number of Americans we met chose to arrange their own – some in advance – rather like we did the first time we went to Antigua. They seemed to offer better value. The one exception was the chairlift at Roatán which was cheaper via the ship than on shore.

We’ve also realised that Princess have no formal nights on a 4-night cruise, one on a 5-night cruise and 2 on a 7-night cruise.

We’ve seen some fun T-shirts while we’ve been here – from the unrepeatable such as “I love to f**t” to one with a large arrow pointing to the wearer’s right side with the words “I think he’s gay” in large print. The best one though by a long chalk is “I don’t need Google. My wife knows everything.” We’ve also, after all these years, finally worked out our own system in the cabin to know whose dressing gown hanging up in the bathroom is whose and whose towel is whose when they hang in line – “Lizzie’s Left” – two Ls and “Graeme’s always right”. Works every time!