In March we took a joint anniversary trip with my grandparents. Catch up on the fun here.
Isaac and I have been on several cruises, and we've always booked our excursions through the cruise line. The convenience of it all normally won us over. For this cruise, by the time life allowed us to have 5 free minutes to look at excursions, we realized that most of the excursions we wanted were either booked or didn't allow pregnant women. Because pregnant women are only allowed to breathe while pregnant. Don't even get me started
So, we had to come up with Plan B to get our booties off the ship while in port. Isaac and I are not ones to sit around and do nothing when there are new wonders to explore. We've both been to Cozumel on multiple occasions. We'd both rather be scuba diving than just about anything, but that is one activity that I will begrudgingly concur shouldn't be on my list while pregnant. My grandparents are pretty much content to shop at the awesome cruise terminal in Cozumel, so Iforced sweetly convinced Isaac that he couldn't dive that day. He needed to be with me, doing something fun. I mean, it was our anniversary trip too!
My fabulous researcher of a hubby found all kinds of fun things for us to do outside of the cruise line for Cozumel. Isaac did this for each port of call, and I'm excited at what he did. Now, I'll be honest. I was a bit of skeptic at first. It's not secret that the cruise line will not wait for you if you are on a private excursion and are running late back to the ship. There's very little recourse for passengers at all in those situations. That was the last thing I wanted to deal with. We scourged Trip Advisor and other similar websites for reviews of the outfits we wanted to use. Apparently the travel outfits have gotten the memo that no one wants to miss their ships, so they have all kinds of policies in place to guarantee that folks won't. I suppose that when your reputation is on the line, that makes complete business sense.
In Cozumel, we used Cozumel Tours to book a full day of island fun. We typically stay at the beach or Isla de Pasion in Cozumel, so I was excited to see the whole island.
Our taxi took us to a Hotel Cozumel where we met up with our guide Hernan and the rest of our very small group. The hotel is gorgeous, and we both said we'd totally be willing to stay there if we ever did a non-cruise vacation to Cozumel. We loaded up in little beach coupes for an island tour. Poor Isaac got to fight a manual transmission that didn't have first gear. He was a trooper! The coupes were cute and a perfect way to enjoy a warm, sunny day!
Our first stop to was an old mission house that has now been converted into a restaurant and blue agave distillery demonstration. True tequila can only be made in the state of Jalisco in Mexico. One of the distilleries from there, Los Tres Tonos, has set up a little tourist stop in Cozumel to share the process with local tourists. I had no idea just how long it can take to get the blue agave turned into good tequila. Isaac said it was fabulous, and it smelled delicious!
We then drove our coupes to the opposite end of the island to find mile upon mile of beach. Breathtaking! We stopped at a little beach hut where we could get snacks, take a bathroom break, and walk on the beach. I was so excited to be warm!!! The sand and water felt perfect, and I soaked up every bit of being in paradise.
All too soon we had to move on to our third stop. We went to the town of of Cedral. This is an old Mayan town where the remains of a Mayan temple are still viewable. A Catholic church was built next to it as the Mayans and Catholics worked side by side when the Spaniards first arrived in Cozumel. We toured a traditionally built Mayan home and had a snack prepared for us of fresh salsa and tortillas and beans. Yum!
Our last stop was back to the hotel where we had begun our day. There we were able to snorkel the reef immediately outside the hotel. It was the most fascinating snorkel ever, but we did find two puffer fish and some other little guys that were very pretty. After our snorkel, we were treated to the hotel's lunch buffet, which was delicious! A taxi took us back to the cruise terminal with over an hour of time left for shopping before we had to get back to the ship.
Very few of the cruise line excursions offered such a full day with so many different types of activities. Our private excursion was perfect-safe, professional, and on time for everything. Breaking out of the norm and our comfort zones to use a private cruise excursion totally works for me!
Linking up with Kristen!
Isaac and I have been on several cruises, and we've always booked our excursions through the cruise line. The convenience of it all normally won us over. For this cruise, by the time life allowed us to have 5 free minutes to look at excursions, we realized that most of the excursions we wanted were either booked or didn't allow pregnant women. Because pregnant women are only allowed to breathe while pregnant. Don't even get me started
So, we had to come up with Plan B to get our booties off the ship while in port. Isaac and I are not ones to sit around and do nothing when there are new wonders to explore. We've both been to Cozumel on multiple occasions. We'd both rather be scuba diving than just about anything, but that is one activity that I will begrudgingly concur shouldn't be on my list while pregnant. My grandparents are pretty much content to shop at the awesome cruise terminal in Cozumel, so I
My fabulous researcher of a hubby found all kinds of fun things for us to do outside of the cruise line for Cozumel. Isaac did this for each port of call, and I'm excited at what he did. Now, I'll be honest. I was a bit of skeptic at first. It's not secret that the cruise line will not wait for you if you are on a private excursion and are running late back to the ship. There's very little recourse for passengers at all in those situations. That was the last thing I wanted to deal with. We scourged Trip Advisor and other similar websites for reviews of the outfits we wanted to use. Apparently the travel outfits have gotten the memo that no one wants to miss their ships, so they have all kinds of policies in place to guarantee that folks won't. I suppose that when your reputation is on the line, that makes complete business sense.
In Cozumel, we used Cozumel Tours to book a full day of island fun. We typically stay at the beach or Isla de Pasion in Cozumel, so I was excited to see the whole island.
Our taxi took us to a Hotel Cozumel where we met up with our guide Hernan and the rest of our very small group. The hotel is gorgeous, and we both said we'd totally be willing to stay there if we ever did a non-cruise vacation to Cozumel. We loaded up in little beach coupes for an island tour. Poor Isaac got to fight a manual transmission that didn't have first gear. He was a trooper! The coupes were cute and a perfect way to enjoy a warm, sunny day!
Our first stop to was an old mission house that has now been converted into a restaurant and blue agave distillery demonstration. True tequila can only be made in the state of Jalisco in Mexico. One of the distilleries from there, Los Tres Tonos, has set up a little tourist stop in Cozumel to share the process with local tourists. I had no idea just how long it can take to get the blue agave turned into good tequila. Isaac said it was fabulous, and it smelled delicious!
We then drove our coupes to the opposite end of the island to find mile upon mile of beach. Breathtaking! We stopped at a little beach hut where we could get snacks, take a bathroom break, and walk on the beach. I was so excited to be warm!!! The sand and water felt perfect, and I soaked up every bit of being in paradise.
All too soon we had to move on to our third stop. We went to the town of of Cedral. This is an old Mayan town where the remains of a Mayan temple are still viewable. A Catholic church was built next to it as the Mayans and Catholics worked side by side when the Spaniards first arrived in Cozumel. We toured a traditionally built Mayan home and had a snack prepared for us of fresh salsa and tortillas and beans. Yum!
Our last stop was back to the hotel where we had begun our day. There we were able to snorkel the reef immediately outside the hotel. It was the most fascinating snorkel ever, but we did find two puffer fish and some other little guys that were very pretty. After our snorkel, we were treated to the hotel's lunch buffet, which was delicious! A taxi took us back to the cruise terminal with over an hour of time left for shopping before we had to get back to the ship.
Very few of the cruise line excursions offered such a full day with so many different types of activities. Our private excursion was perfect-safe, professional, and on time for everything. Breaking out of the norm and our comfort zones to use a private cruise excursion totally works for me!
Linking up with Kristen!
1 comment:
Great information sharing with us.
Thank you
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