Man, I love this itinerary and I love Cozumel. It's one of my favorite ports, for sure.
It was a pretty sail in.
We didn't get to dock right away. The current was strong and the Captain had to stop the process and attempt again. Cozumel is a port we've had problems with before with wind and cancelled excursions and multiple attempts at docking so we weren't too worried about hearing his announcement. One more crack at it and he had us in.
The worst part of Cozumel is the walk through the Dufry duty-free shop, of course. You must walk through the length of the entire store to get anywhere. (Although today they are doing construction in one end so it wasn't the whole store. Woo hoo!) If you're a crew member you get to bypass the store. If you're one of the first folks off the ship you can sometimes bypass it, too. When a ship first gets into port the store can't handle the hundreds of people all at once so they let you use the outside sidewalk. But soon the gate closes and you're stuck going through the store again.
If you are having to go through the store here are a few tips:
*Don't dawdle or you'll either have a crowd pushing you from behind on their way out the door or you'll have a store worker making a bee line to you to try and get you to make a purchase.
*Walk with a purpose
*Be prepared to say no more than once.
*Be ready to dodge the throngs of people making their way through.
But once you get through it is a bit better, but not totally. The folks working in the stores inside the port area will also be calling you over to buy again and again and again.
And one more thing to know about Cozumel - you must present your bags, backpacks and purses to the dogs to sniff. So don't bring fresh foods off the ship. You will be caught!
Cozumel is a port we've been to a lot. I mean A LOT. Enough where I even have a top 5 list for Cozumel. That list is here. Hubby's limitations keep him from experiencing everything the port has to offer but we have two things we do again and again that work for him.
Our first stop is always the Money Bar. Snorkeling for me and eating and drinking for hubby. (Their menu is here.) I spent several hours in the water today finding all kinds of things to look at. I wish I had a new underwater camera so I could share everything I saw. So amazing!
Instead you get two of my best photos of the day from Money Bar.
I'm planning on doing a separate write-up for Money Bar and their facilities for one of my Wanderlust Wednesdays so I won't add a ton of water and lounger and food pics yet.
Our other must-stop is Pancho's Backyard. Their banana leaf wrapped tamales are to die for! All aboard wasn't until 8:30 tonight so we ate there for dinner. Unfortunately, the tamales we love were on their lunch menu. Darn. But we sure love being able to stay in port late and come back after dark.
I've combined my updates to make the progression of the roll-out more clear.
August 18-25 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here.
Sept 1-8 updates can be found here.
Encouraging Word Money Pocket Drop Off:
Left in the restroom at the Money Bar.
Tomorrow is a sea day on our way back to Ft. Lauderdale. Boo hoo. So glad we have another week to go