Day 05 - Wednesday - 3/19/25 - Cozumel

The Sun Princess arrived in Cozumel around 9 AM on this last port day. We, however, did not feel the docking and did not get out of bed until after 9:30 as we didn't have to report for our snorkeling trip until 1:30 PM.  So we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before scanning off the ship and exploring the port area. There were five ships in Port today. Joining us for the Carnival Valor, the Eurodam, the Icon of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas. The port area adjoining the piers is filled with all sorts of tourist activities, including bars, restaurants, shopping venues. We explored those for a bit before heading out of the port gate and exploring the Puerto Maya town area. The main street outside the court area is filled with more shopping venues for tourist type items plus a number of pharmacies. It's a constant attempt by vendors to lure us into pharmacies, but we declined. There's no medicines in particular that we need.

Left of the shopping area there remains of a Mayan temple and a little square which there were some five men who were suspended by ropes from a tall tower, and they proceeded to give a show by dangling from these ropes and spinning their way to the ground. We then headed back to the port And found our tour meeting point where the operator pointed us towards the pier where our catamaran was waiting for our snorkeling trip.

 

At the pier, we boarded the Fury 5 catamaran and discovered that there was virtually no seating under cover. The boat was jampacked with well over 100 people wanting to go snorkeling.  Angela took a place under the sun cover and I elected to sit on the stern just behind the Captain. After departing the pier during the sailout the tour leader gave a number of safety instructions and information about the upcoming snorkel. However, he left out some really important information: the snorkel for today was going to be a drift snorkel and the boat would meet us at the end of that. That would've been really helpful information to know before getting in the water. About 10 minutes out of the harbor we reached the drop off point. We weren't able to don our swim fins before leaving the boat, but had to put them on once in the water. Getting in the water was a little tricky and that you had to go downstairs in the bow of the boat and then pop into the water. I much prefer to jump off with fins already on. And of course, with 100 snorkelers it was extremely crowded. In addition, the current was positively strong so you had to be quite conscious of that water movement. At best I would say it was organized chaos, and actually downright dangerous to have that many people in the water trying to put on fins and being swept along by the current and needing to follow a guide who had a large buoy so he was easy to see. The water was pretty clear and there were quite a few fish and they were quite curious and approached us. There were a lot of sargeant majors and also some fish that looked like tuna  fish. The area underneath of us was sand with a little grass. There was no coral reef or anything like that and the current was quite strong. We were supposed to be in the water for 45 minutes, but I don't think we were in more than 30 minutes. At the end of the drift, it was again chaos to get on to the ship with the movement of the current and the need to approach the stairs, grab a rope with one hand, and with the other hand take off both slippers while people are thrashing all around you. Again, I think it was a very dangerous situation.

Once back on board, they served soft drinks and alcoholic beverages and it was about a half hour ride to what they call a beach club which is essentially just a private sand beach that's  marked for their company. Once at the beach, the boat grounded itself and they lowered the stairs and we stepped off into roughly knee-deep water and walked on the beach. I found a set of lounge chairs underneath of a canopy, and that became our parking place for the rest of the afternoon which was about an hour and a half stay there. Once again, beverages were provided, but if you wanted food, you had to pay for it. We elected to buy each of us cheeseburgers, and they were excellent and came with potato chips for $12 each. We ate those under the shade by the grill before going back to our lounge chairs on the beach. There were many water toys out in the area off the beach and the number of people took advantage of those and frolicked throughout our stay there. They were four on their boats there besides us so there were a number of people there.  Those folks were at the location well before us so they started leaving the area to just boat number five.

It was then a 40 minute sail back to the harbor and we got back to the harbor around 5:15 which meant that the trip was really 20 minutes shorter than what they advertised that it would be and which the guide had said would last. We disembarked the boat and walked the long pier back to our ship, the Sun Princess. Both the Carnival and the Holland America ships left while we were gone, and during the time that took us to board the Sun Princess, the  two Royal Caribbean ships left as well.

Back on board, we showered and changed into dry clothes. Angela didn't want any dinner as she wanted to go to a karaoke session. So I made my way to the Americana café and had a nice salad of tuna and many kinds of veggies. During the captain's departure announcement I figured out why it will take us two days to get back to Fort Lauderdale. It seems that we're going to only cruise in about 10 knots and the distance is about 515 miles. It's the proverbial slow boat. 

I went to the Arena and found seats for us in the section facing the stage. There was a nice couple next to me and I enjoyed some good conversation with them while I waited for Angela to show up just before showtime. The night's entertainment was a vocal performance by two fellows who go by name of the Kings of Soul and Swing. The first fellow was Julius Thomas III and he was a star in the musical Hamilton. Mark Kopitzke was a lead singer for the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The two fellows really complimented each other well in the performance singing, both solos and doing individual numbers. It was a very good act.

We chilled for a bit before finding seats in the Laff Lounge to watch a comedian, Kevin Bozeman, who was pretty funny. He was from Chicago. The seating was extremely tight in there, but a couple young ladies who were Taylor Swift fans had a couple seats and we were able to sit with them and have some fun conversation about cruising and music.  As young people they have cruised a lot because their parents were travel agents.

With tomorrow being a sea day, and a light schedule day we are under no compulsion to get up early. It'll be nice to relax.