Blogger Michael Poole is on Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas and is sharing what he did today. Enjoy!
Morning on board
I can’t think of a better port to visit in the Caribbean than Cozumel, Mexico.
I woke up at 7am and it was still dark outside, so I grabbed my Starbucks coffee and did a little blog work. I happen to turn my cell phone data on just to see if it work, and it did! I’m an employee for a wireless company so I was able to use my employee plan and do morning Periscopes of the Independence of the Seas docking in Cozumel, next to us.
At 8am, I decided to head back to the cabin to shower up for a full day in Mexico.
Day in Cozumel, Mexico
They were already letting passengers off the ship, so it appeared we were a half hour ahead of schedule. I didn’t realize getting off, but Cozumel, Mexico is on central time.
I pre-booked an all day beach day called Nachi Cocom, if you have never heard of this place I did a full blog post on what all they have to offer.
It costs $55 per person and it includes all the food and drinks.
I arrived at Nachi at 9am ship time, but it was 8am there and most of the staff was not even there. The nice lady, who always takes your pictures, just told me to make myself at home.
About an hour later other guests started to arrive and that was when they came and collected my payment. When you make reservations it’s $11 deposit per person online and $44 cash per person when you arrive.
I noticed a few changes since my last visit in November. First, when you arrive (during opening hours) they hand you a glass of champagne.
Also, they added a new bar area behind all the beach chairs.
This helps the staff bring you drinks faster, but also if you want to go grab one yourself or sit in the shade at the bar.
For lunch, I ordered their ever so famous guacamole and I’m going to be honest with you, I ate it all! I also ordered a chicken quesadilla, which also disappeared. They had plenty more options, but I was just too hot to eat a large meal.
I would also recommend ordering as soon as you can, since almost everyone places his or her order at the same time. The food service started at 10am local time, and goes through the afternoon, in case you need lunch #2 (Matt’s style).
Approximately, 3pm I was ready to head back to the ship, they will call a taxi for you and they always arrive within 5 minutes.
The taxi ride takes 10-15 minutes to get back to the ship and cost $17 each way.
Back onboard
I headed back to my room to drop a few items off and noticed I had a paper on my bed.
It was the information explaining the back-to-back process.
They have two options, one explains if you want to get off and explore Tampa or stay on board. I’m not really sure why anyone would want to get off a cruise ship. But based on the information we will meet at 9am, and will walk off together then right back on.
They did leave a customs form for me to complete, so hopefully it’s a painless process. I’ll be sure to take my camera and document as much of the process as I can.
I don’t think I mentioned this but there were six ships docked in Mexico today. I noticed they had them docked together by cruise line, which I loved so I could get a close-up look on the Independence of the Seas.
She is a larger ship than the Brilliance, so I was looking up on her. The one thing I enjoy about the Freedom class ship is they have an H20 zone for the children to have a blast in.
Evening on board
Tonight I enjoyed some live music in the centrum for the first time. They were playing mostly country music, which I love being from Tennessee. However, I’m more used to the bands playing a mixture of all types of genres.
When the band took a break they played battle of the sexes. I’ve never seen this type of event in the centrum and it had a little “adult theme” in the games.
Dinner in Windjammer
So at this point, I’ve been having dinner each evening in the Windjammer and that held true tonight. I thought I would talk about meals in here in a little more detail for you.
If you have ever been there for breakfast you will notice almost all the options are repeated on both sides of the Windjammer. In the evenings for dinner they have a sections with themed food items.
They are making sure they have a different variety for everyone’s liking. You can also find them making a unique bowl of stir-fry with the ingredients you wish.
I won’t be dining in here for the next cruise, but I’m happy to have learned of all their options if you want a simple-casual dinner.
Dancing under the Stars
Tonight was the pool deck party, called Dancing under the Stars.
The party started at 10:30pm and goes until people just keep dancing. They had the light up cups to purchase, I’m sorry I didn’t look at the price.
The Cruise Director, Ricky Mathews, got the party started off with some the standard line dancing songs, I’m sure we have all heard before.
It then turned to more fast pacing dancing; as much as I love to dance I sat this one out. I noticed they had a table set-up with fruit kabobs, it was a beautify setup that went fast.
Well friends, at this point in the evening I decided to call it an evening.
Tomorrow is our last day on the cruise and it’s a sea day. I’m doing some first time activities for myself on a sea day and I can’t wait to share it with you.
