Day 14 - Friday - 3/28/25 - Cozumel

 Our arrival into Cozumel (Puerta Maya) wasn't until 11 o'clock so we were able to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely morning before watching the sail in. There were seven ships in port and we were the seventh to arrive and also the last to leave. Those ships were.: Carnival Firenze, & Liberty, Miracle; RCCL HARMONY of the Seas; Celebrity Constellation; Norwegian Getaway; HAL Nieuw Amsterdam.


Docking today was the most challenging that I've ever witnessed in all of the cruises that we've ever taken. There was quite a bit of variable wind, and we were moving into a berth that was sandwiched between the Harmony of the Seas and the Carnival Liberty. This gave little room for error. Six attempts at approaching the dock were made. For the first five, it would get very close and then suddenly the thrusters would come on and the ship would move back out about 20 feet away from the dock before attempting the maneuver once again. And finally on the sixth try, it nestled up against the pier with narry a feel to us as passengers.  Later I spoke with Captain Baijen and he confirmed it was really tricky due to  the currents first, then the variable winds, and then the blocking effect of the larger Harmony of the Seas.  


We booked a short excursion to visit the San Gervasio Mayan ruins and tour of a chocolate facility. Our guide was Jorgé and he was an energetic Mexican of Mayan descent. It was only about a half hour ride out of town to the ruins. Once at the ruins we had two entry tickets each. We presented the first one and the stub was tore off. Then not under 50 yards away we presented the second one and it was punched. I don't know why they needed two entry tickets. Once inside the grounds Jorgé led us on a 45 minute walking tour of these ruins and it was pretty interesting with lots of commentary about the Mayan civilization and what the rules represented. It was also really interesting to see iguanas throughout the facility and even a large termite nest.












Back on the bus, we crossed over to the east coast, where it was extremely windy and the waves were crashing on the coral rocks. We made a brief stop for a chance to purchase some food. We elected to buy some quesadillas, which were really tasty. Angela had a shrimp quesadilla and I had a beef quesadilla And I was able to eat mine before we got back on the bus. Once we we were back on the bus, we continued to proceed down the east coast and reach the Mayan Cacao Company facility where Jorgé led us on a tour throughout the facility, explaining the significance of cacao in the history of this area and we were able to sample various kinds of chocolate and we ended up purchasing a couple varieties. There's also a really colorful parrot that was quite noisy and made for a good photograph.










Our final leg was to do a short drive back to the port area, where we disembarked the bus and we proceeded to do a bit of shopping in the port. Since we were here a week ago before on the Sun Princess, we were quite familiar with the port area. Our onboard time wasn't until 8:30 PM so there was no rush to get back to the ship. We were back on board just after 5 PM and then went to the Lido buffet for the Dutch themed dinner, which was actually quite good.


The night's entertainment was the One Step Dance Comoany's performance of Humanity which is my favorite of their routines.  Afterwards we watched the singer/pianists in Billboard Onboard before attending the very crowded and large Orange party in the Rolling Stone Lounge.





Tonight we lost an hour to get back on EDT.  Tomorrow is a busy sea day before we reach Fort Lauderdale on Sunday morning.

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