When last we visited, we went over the beginning of the Meyers Girls Cruise last week. Just to catch you up in case you missed that post, me, two cousins, my sister-in-law and 3 aunts all sailed out of Galveston on Navigator of the Seas for a 7 night cruise to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Falmouth, Jamaica. Generally, I travel with one other person, my travel buddy Jenny. But I've also done cruises with nephews and my niece, my parents and our family friends Doris and Don Bailey. However, I've never been on a cruise traveling with 6 other people all at once. I have to say I was a little intimidated by the possibilities prior to the trip. It's hard to say if the trip will become more work than fun when you are talking about trying to make sure all 7 of the travelers including yourself are pleased most of the time. I must say that it was, perhaps, the most fun I have had on a cruise.... ever! I only hope that they had as much fun as I did. I feel like there was a perfect mixture of family time as well as just plain old fun. Maybe it was the company we were keeping. After all, most Meyers' are pretty laid back people.
So our first stop was Cozumel. I have been to Cozumel 13 times now. I am done with it. There is nothing wrong with Cozumel. They have more excursions to choose from than just about any other port you can visit in the Caribbean. The only problem is that all Western Caribbean cruises go there and almost every cruise I have ever been on was a Western Caribbean cruise. Basically, I've just been there so many times that it is no longer a novelty to me. However, if you haven't been there, it is a wonderful stop for fun and adventure or just a terrific place to relax on a beach.
My sister-in-law and I decided to do the ATV excursion while we were there. It was about the only one left in Cozumel that I was interested in that I hadn't already been on. So, it was time. Many times in the past, I have seen people getting back on the ship covered in filth and smiling from ear to ear to discover that they had just returned from an ATV excursion. They always talked about how much fun it was and I thought, this is something I should try. One other detail, Eileen and I are both Parrotheads, so we had decided months ago that we were going to have to visit Margaritaville in each of the ports that we visited. So, when we arrived in Cozumel, we disembarked from the ship immediately following breakfast to head to Margaritaville first before our excursion which was not set to begin until 11:00 a.m. We had roughly an hour and forty-five minutes to get to Margaritaville, shop there, have a drink and then get back to the dock where we were supposed to meet for the excursion.
Now, I've only been to the Margaritaville in Cozumel one other time and it was about 3 years ago. When I went there previously, we were at the other dock that is located closer to downtown. Margaritaville was within walking distance from that dock. As it turns out, it wasn't within walking distance from the dock we were at on this particular occasion. But Eileen and I persevered.... as long as we could. After walking a couple of miles and still being unsure of how much further we had to go, we gave up and flagged down a taxi. As it turned out we only had about another mile to go. But I am not ashamed to tell you, the taxi was totally worth the price for that one mile. After arriving at Margaritaville, we shopped a little. Eileen was able to find a cap for my brother Robbie that she thought he would really like. Of course, we'll never know if he would have liked it since it got lost somewhere between Margaritaville and the ship. But I think he would have liked it. Before leaving we got on their free WIFI network, posted a few photos on Facebook, caught up on texts, and I called to check in with my mother to see how dad was doing. Then we finished our shopping and caught a taxi back to the dock. In the taxi, the trip from the Royal Caribbean dock is about 5 minutes long. It is considerably longer by foot especially if two of the feet in question are mine.
Back at the dock we caught up with our excursion group and were taken by bus to a place about 15 minutes from town where they had built trails through the jungle. Some of the trails were paved with rocks while others were nothing but a little creek bed or sometimes a flowing creek to drive the ATV through. Before we got on the 4-wheelers, there was a short lesson on driving them. They apparently had both fully automatic ATV's and manual ones. We thought we were getting automatic ones, but as it turned out we didn't. Shifting the gears while driving through foreign terrain and using a thumb throttle rather than a hand grip throttle proved to be quite the challenge. But again, we persevered. My poor thumb may never recover. But I had a great time. As you can see from the photos, it was rough and wild at least for this girl. 
After an hour and a half or so on the trails, we were taken to a beach for another hour to relax. By the time we got to the beach, I just wanted to go back to the ship, take a shower and eat. So, I didn't really do much other than walk in the water to get the mud off of my legs and then lay on a chase lounge under an umbrella.
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| From under the umbrella on the beach in Cozumel |
Next time I'll tell you all about our day in Grand Cayman where I don't think I could ever spend too much time. Have a great weekend!
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