Thursday, December 24, 2015

Cozumel

This was a 5 day cruise with two ports of call. Cozumel was number 2. Fortunately this is a port where the skipper can tie up at the pier and passengers can walk off the ship.
 These pictures are our view from the balcony as we tied up to the pier.




Not everyone knows until you  take a cruise, that as a general rule, cash is useless on the ship. When you go aboard you assign a credit card to cover your expenses. You are issued a 'do it all card'. It is your door key, ID, and how you purchase things. (One exception, I am told, is the casino). At the beginning of the cruise as you go on the ship your picture is taken and digitally placed on the card. After that when you depart or return, your card is scanned and they can see your picture and compare it to you. There is one main departure  point and everyone goes and returns there. At the end of the day, before sailing the computer knows exactly who is missing, if anyone is. It is definitely a tight system.


One more thing. WE forgot to take any aspirin (etc), so I needed to purchase a small bottle of Ibuprofen.  I ran down to the ships store used my magic card and was charged $11.50 for the small bottle, word to the wise take some standard meds with you!

There are shore tours in every port, only two of our crew chose tours. From my experience, if you are going to take a tour ashore, use the ships tours. I scheduled our own tours on the net for one cruise and two of them never materialized and I got no response from the net to fix it.

We walked for a mile or so. Seeing the largest Thatch roof I had ever seen, it happened to be in the Grand Park Royal.



WE thought it might be fun to do a carriage ride, $70 per person. Down town and back. (For truth after the taxi ride we took, I realized it would have taken the Horse hours to do the trip, so $70 would not have been bad, but it would have been too much for me to enjoy.)
 Lots of scooters and motor bikes to rent. But we B too old for that.
We decided on a Taxi for $65 and a tour of down town.






The water at the beaches is fantastic.















Good by to our taxi driver, he was a good guide and the price was fair.  Of course I took 100 pictures. I tried to select a sampling.

I find myself getting tired after a day. I am heading to my 77th birthday next month, I think I am beginning to feel it.  The blog entry does not do Cozumel justice, it is a lovely place.

Nite Shipslog

<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>




1955 Olds, Packard and the Pontiac

6 comments:

betty said...

For some reason, Jack, your blog is not showing up on my feed; weird. That is a great system for keeping track of passengers on the cruise ship. Also great system with the card to use for purchases; don't really know what you are spending, if you aren't careful, until the end of the cruise :) Also seems like the town knows how to make the most of the passengers that come off the ship; but it does look like a very nice town to visit :)

betty

Jackie said...

It is Christmas Eve...6 PM (EST)
and I wanted to wish you both a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.
Sending you both love,
Jackie

Mevely317 said...

Here you are, Jack! Like Betty said, this post didn't show up on my feed earlier ... I spotted your link out on Facebook.

Cozumel looks much different that I'd imagined ... so clean and modern!

We're off to Tom's son and family's home for Chinese, but send our love and best wishes to you and Sherry!

Rick Watson said...

I felt like I was there with you Jack.
You and the missus have a Merry Christmas.
R&J

shirl72 said...

Like seeing the pictures...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

It does look like a wonderful place to visit. Hope you all are having a Merry Christmas !