Carnival Magic Cruise - DAY 8 - Friday, Dec 5, 2014 - Cozumel, Mexico

You can find the beginning of this review here, DAY 1

MEXICO DAY

I woke up around 7:00AM and my roommate was still asleep. I snuck out of the cabin and went out on deck to see if I could see Mexico. 

Good thing I brought my camera with me, the Lido deck was full of towel animals!

It was really cute to see them all. It made me smile first thing in the morning. 

There must have been 100 towel animals out there:

And on the bench in front of the pool was the biggest towel animal I had ever seen! 

It was a big elephant with a baseball hat on.

During the night we had traveled from Belize to Cozumel Mexico.
Cozumel is a little island just off the coast of Mexico, below the Yucatan Peninsula.

I have never been to Mexico, and I was so curious and excited about it. I wasn't sure what to expect.


I noticed we were just pulling into the port. Looking off the side of the ship, I could see a couple of ships already docked:

I noticed the water was really blue! It hadn't been very blue in Honduras or Belize, so I was happy to see the beautiful blue Caribbean water here in Mexico:

I decided to go up to the secret deck and see if I could get some good pictures as we pulled into the port.

From the secret deck,  I had a great view of the dock we were heading towards, and the port area was coming into view:

As we got closer, I noticed the 2 ships were both Royal Caribbean. I definitely want to sail on RC one day, I was glad I would get to see 2 of their huge ships up close.

As we pulled up to the dock, I thought I had better go to the cabin and get ready for the day. My roommate and the neighbors wanted to leave at 8:30

Back in the cabin, my roommate was just waking up as I came in. It was 7:30AM.

Since I had exactly an hour until we were supposed to be ready to go, I decided I had enough time to go up to the spa. I grabbed my things and went upstairs:

I spent a few minutes laying on the warm tile beds in the green room and the red room:

I soaked in the Thalassotherapy pool:

And I showered in my favorite shower. As usual, I had the locker room to myself that morning:

Back in the cabin, it was now 8:30 and my roommate wasn't even close to being ready to get off the ship.
I got dressed and went out to the smoking area to wait for her.

I sat and waited and waited.
I went down to the breakfast buffet and made myself a plate and took it back up to the smoking area to wait for my roommate and the neighbors.

The neighbors showed up first, and we all waited for my roommate.
By this time, I was considering just getting off the ship on my own after all. I was getting tired of waiting around.

My roommate was finally ready to get off the ship at 11:00AM.

I wasn't very happy, but as I had been doing all week, I pushed it aside and concentrated on the positive things.
I was going to Mexico today!
I wasn't going to have to go into Mexico alone!
It was a beautiful day out!


The 4 of us went down to deck 0, and got off the ship.

The pier was long and the neighbors opted to take a bicycle taxi to the other end.
My roommate and I walked and met them down there.

The neighbors decided they weren't going to spend much time off the ship after all. They said they were going to get a few things and go back to the ship.

This left my roommate and I on our own. Since she was in a good mood that day, I went ahead and walked around with her.

We ended up having a nice and enjoyable day.

The sad part is, I took a ton of pictures but somehow I lost them all!
YIKES!
My camera has done this before, and I thought we had solved the problem. I had been taking care the entire cruise to check to make sure my pictures were fine and that the camera was working properly.

Well, my camera did malfunction but it wasn't until the next day that I realized I didn't have any pictures since the morning in Mexico. UGH.

But at the time, I thought my camera was working fine and I kept clicking away all day.


We walked out of the port area and down the block about a half mile. As we walked we stopped and bargained with different vendors for souvenirs to bring home.



With Google Eatheview, I was able to get a couple of pictures showing where we were that day:
Thanks Google, you saved my review!!


This was an area of the street we walked down. I actually remember seeing the walking bridge over the road ahead:

 (Google  image)






We stopped for lunch at this place with the thatched hut roof. They had a nice balcony overlooking the beautiful ocean.

We both had a Margarita and I ate the first REAL Mexican food I have ever eaten in my life. I had 3 beef soft tacos. They were actually more like steak fajitas, and they were SO GOOD!!

(Google image)


After lunch, we walked back toward the ship, stopping to haggle and shop along the way.

Back in the port area, we continued to browse and shop. My backpack was stuffed full and by that time I was also carrying a large (very full) shopping bag. I think I bought one of everything they had in Mexico. When I didn't have any more room to carry anything, it was time to go back to the ship.

I had a heavy load to carry back to the ship. I had a hammock, a large Mexican blanket, a Mexican sweatshirt, a  large hand painted wooden bowl, a hand carved wooden sun and moon, souvenirs for my kids and some friends back home, and 2 Harley Davidson shirts for my Sweetie.

When I got back on the ship, I went straight to the cabin to drop off my load. I had had a great time in Mexico, and I was exhausted.

It was mid-afternoon, and my roommate was off somewhere.
 I went out on deck to watch sailaway.

I saw Phyllis and Myron and we traded stories about our day in Mexico. I had no idea where my roommate was at the time, and since it was Phyllis's birthday, I invited them to join me at the Past Guest Party that afternoon.

I called down to Guest Services and asked if I could bring 2 guests to the party, and they said it would be fine.

So at 4:30 Phyllis, Myron, and I  went down to the theater to attend the Past Guest Party. It lasted about 45 minutes and they served drinks and some hors d'oeuvres. <<<------  I had to look up the spelling on Google!


We actually sat down on the lower level, but this is the only picture I have of the theater.

After the party, Phyllis and Myron were off to eat dinner in the MDR. It may have been Elegant night that night.
Since I had no dinner companions, I went to the buffet and took my plate back to my cabin.

I watched TV while I ate and thought it was going to be another long night if I had to spend it by myself again. I was glad to be on the cruise and I was loving the ship life, but I wasn't prepared for the amount of time I was alone. I had been on 4 other cruises and hadn't had this happen. My past cruise mates all wanted to do things together whether we were on the ship or on the islands.


After I ate, I decided to go to the spa. I had already been there once that day, but I couldn't think of anything else to do. I was pretty tired that night, I think the lack of sleep was catching up with me.


I got ready and went up and relaxed for an hour in the hot tile beds and the Thalassotherapy pool.
After I was good and relaxed, I took a long hot shower in the women's locker room.

Around 10:00 I went out to watch some of the Mexican Fiesta Party. They were having a dance party on the Lido deck and after that was going to be a Mexican buffet.
I watched the party from Deck 11. I had a great view and the Latin music was very good. Phyllis and Myron, and Jen and Bobby were all out there and I had a good time.

I took a lot of pictures of the party, and even some video, but these were in the batch of pictures I lost.

I didn't feel like going down for the buffet, so when the music was over I said goodnight to everyone and went back to the cabin.

My roommate wasn't there.

I watched TV and probably ordered something from room service. I think I ordered room service almost every night on this cruise. Their BLT's were a perfect midnight snack! And its FREE, so why not??!!

I was aware that I was eating a lot (and shopping a lot) and I assumed I was going a little overboard because I was lonely.
I knew this was what I was doing and I gave myself permission to eat whenever and whatever I wanted. What the heck??! I'm on a cruise and I'm sitting here alone, the food is free (AND IT"S GOOD!!) so go ahead and order the BLT at midnight!

 And the shopping...........I had brought plenty of spending money and I was definitely spending it.
So far I hadn't gone over my limit I had set for myself before the cruise so I was fine with my depression spending at this point.

I don't remember what towel animal we had that night. I'm sure I took a picture of it, but it was lost.

I was so tired that night, I went to bed shortly after midnight.
My roommate came in after I fell asleep.

DAY 9 is HERE!!