We arrived in Cozumel on Thursday last week. It was our final stop before returning to Houston and I had an excursion planned. I was doing the 12 Meter America's Cup Regatta Sail. Now I had done this same excursion in St. Martin several years ago during a Celebrity Cruise and it was the best excursion I had ever been on. So, you can probably imagine how excited I was to do it again and in a port that nearly every ship in the Caribbean hits at least twice a month. Imagine the possibilities if it turned out to be as great as it was in St. Martin. I could find myself on a 12 meter America's Cup boat twice a year if that were the case.
The excursion was supposed to meet in the theater on the ship at 8:30 AM. I was really excited and didn't want to miss a thing. So I got there at 7:45. As I arrived, I was told by one of the cruise directors staff that I could go on down to the dock and meet the excursion there since customs had already cleared the ship. So I got on the elevator to go downstairs and leave the ship with a couple who had been told the same thing. It turned out we were all going on the same excursion. So, we walked together and chatted as we made our way to the meeting place. Their names were John and Freda and they were from Longview. John seemed to be as excited about this excursion as I was, but Freda might have walked away if it was left up to her.
John and I continued to talk about the excursion, their sons golf and various other topics as Freda regularly checked in with the guy in charge of the excursion. Finally a little after 8:30 we were told that it was too windy and the port wasn't allowing small boats to go out but they were going to check again at 10:00. So I decided to go back to the ship and see if I could find Mom and Dad. When I arrived on the Aloha Deck, Mom, Dad, Doris and Don were all having breakfast out near the pool so I sat down and visited with them and we all decided to go to shore after they finished their breakfast.
You probably don't need to know all the details, but eventually the excursion was allowed to proceed around 10:30 or 11 and we were taken over the 12 Meter Regatta office which is just a few steps from the dock to wait for groups that were coming from other ships. Once we were there they showed us a video of the 1986 America's Cup in which they raced some of the boats we would be boarding and there was time to scout out some tee shirts to purchase after we finished sailing. After everyone arrived, we were lead off to a boat which would take us to the sailboats. In route we were each given assignments. I was assigned the job of Wench Witch, ironically the very same job I had when I did this in St. Martin. Basically, I was to sit at the back of the boat and wrap rope around a wench or let rope off the the wench when we needed to make a turn. I was on the True North IV. The boat we were racing against was the Stars and Stripes. In St. Martin there was a 3rd boat. In Cozumel, they only have the two boats to race.
We were told along the way that a Canadian started the business in St. Martin a number of years ago after obtaining a number of the old America's Cup boats. Once it was successful in St. Martin, he expanded to Cozumel. In St. Martin, all of the crew members on each of the boats had America's Cup sailing experience. In Cozumel, the two captains had regatta sailing experience. But I'm not sure that anyone had been in an America's Cup race. These two captains in Cozumel were brothers from Australia. Our captains name was Ian and as is generally the case with Australian men, they were both pretty good looking. The other crew members were all from Cozumel.
In St. Martin, during a straight away, a boat came up behind us and the captain had us all turn around for a photo that turned out to be awesome and we were able to purchase after our race. They didn't do that in Cozumel which seems like a missed opportunity for them to make some money since just about everybody bought the photos in St. Martin. We ended up losing the race in Cozumel which makes my personal America's Cup record 1 and 1. But, we did protest. The judge seemed to have it in for our captain, Ian. Probably a jealousy thing since Ian was so good looking. During the race, my foot slipped as I was tightening the rope at one point and my knee hit the bottom of the boat resulting in a scraped knee. I was pretty happy that this is the closest I came to falling down during the entire cruise. It was all very minor and for me, a real victory.
After the race, we were taken back to the office where we could buy tee shirts and caps and had a rum punch. Then I walked on back to the ship. I didn't do any shopping in Cozumel. After all, I have plenty of vanilla and I'll be back there in June. Back on the ship, I spent time on my balcony taking pictures of the next group doing the sail boat racing which is where the picture below came from. Mom and Dad said they watched my race from the ship and took lots of pictures, but I haven't seen those yet.
Dinner on Thursday night was formal and it was steak and lobster night. So we were all in attendance in the dining room. I even got to have escargot which I love. After dinner Mom and I stayed downstairs and played a game before going back to our cabins. Princess didn't do much as far as the normal cruise games go. I never saw a Quest or Newlywed game to attend. There wasn't much Karaoke which I would NEVER participate in but love ridiculing those who do and believe that they are really good singers. Karaoke singers who actually are good bore me a little. To me, it's not good Karaoke unless there are a lot of participants who have mothers who have allowed them to go through life believing that they are among the most talented people in the world despite evidence to the contrary. But that's a blog topic for another day. They did do a lot of trivia type games at all hours. They also had a number of opportunities for ballroom dancing which I think is neat.
Friday was our last day at sea and it was a little chilly out as we headed back into the Gulf of Mexico. I bought a few charms for my cruise bracelet and a couple of bottles of alcohol to take home from the duty free shops on board. We made the rounds saying goodbye to Joseph and attended a cooking show in the theater where we were entertained watching the chef create a few of his signature dishes and by one of the head waiters, Hector. I haven't told you about Hector yet. He sang to us almost every night in the dining room. The man is from Mexico and has an amazing voice. It's hard to believe that his job title on the ship is head waiter and not entertainer. Here's a video of Hector's amazing performance during the show. Sorry it's a little shaky. But I'm not a videographer. I must say that we were entertained in the dining room better on this ship than on most others that I have been on. However, the shows after dinner left a little to be desired in most cases. But we did have a good comedian on Wednesday night. There was a magician scheduled one night but he apparently got sick and couldn't perform. That was good news for me since I don't really like magicians.... they creep me out.
All in all, I had a good time. There are things that I like a lot about Princess and other things that I think Royal Caribbean and Celebrity do better. As I said at the beginning of these posts, Caribbean Princess will be going into dry dock at the end of April and then she'll begin to sail out of Port Everglades. If you want to get on board before she leaves Houston, you should get in touch with me. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
You probably don't need to know all the details, but eventually the excursion was allowed to proceed around 10:30 or 11 and we were taken over the 12 Meter Regatta office which is just a few steps from the dock to wait for groups that were coming from other ships. Once we were there they showed us a video of the 1986 America's Cup in which they raced some of the boats we would be boarding and there was time to scout out some tee shirts to purchase after we finished sailing. After everyone arrived, we were lead off to a boat which would take us to the sailboats. In route we were each given assignments. I was assigned the job of Wench Witch, ironically the very same job I had when I did this in St. Martin. Basically, I was to sit at the back of the boat and wrap rope around a wench or let rope off the the wench when we needed to make a turn. I was on the True North IV. The boat we were racing against was the Stars and Stripes. In St. Martin there was a 3rd boat. In Cozumel, they only have the two boats to race. We were told along the way that a Canadian started the business in St. Martin a number of years ago after obtaining a number of the old America's Cup boats. Once it was successful in St. Martin, he expanded to Cozumel. In St. Martin, all of the crew members on each of the boats had America's Cup sailing experience. In Cozumel, the two captains had regatta sailing experience. But I'm not sure that anyone had been in an America's Cup race. These two captains in Cozumel were brothers from Australia. Our captains name was Ian and as is generally the case with Australian men, they were both pretty good looking. The other crew members were all from Cozumel.
In St. Martin, during a straight away, a boat came up behind us and the captain had us all turn around for a photo that turned out to be awesome and we were able to purchase after our race. They didn't do that in Cozumel which seems like a missed opportunity for them to make some money since just about everybody bought the photos in St. Martin. We ended up losing the race in Cozumel which makes my personal America's Cup record 1 and 1. But, we did protest. The judge seemed to have it in for our captain, Ian. Probably a jealousy thing since Ian was so good looking. During the race, my foot slipped as I was tightening the rope at one point and my knee hit the bottom of the boat resulting in a scraped knee. I was pretty happy that this is the closest I came to falling down during the entire cruise. It was all very minor and for me, a real victory. After the race, we were taken back to the office where we could buy tee shirts and caps and had a rum punch. Then I walked on back to the ship. I didn't do any shopping in Cozumel. After all, I have plenty of vanilla and I'll be back there in June. Back on the ship, I spent time on my balcony taking pictures of the next group doing the sail boat racing which is where the picture below came from. Mom and Dad said they watched my race from the ship and took lots of pictures, but I haven't seen those yet.
Dinner on Thursday night was formal and it was steak and lobster night. So we were all in attendance in the dining room. I even got to have escargot which I love. After dinner Mom and I stayed downstairs and played a game before going back to our cabins. Princess didn't do much as far as the normal cruise games go. I never saw a Quest or Newlywed game to attend. There wasn't much Karaoke which I would NEVER participate in but love ridiculing those who do and believe that they are really good singers. Karaoke singers who actually are good bore me a little. To me, it's not good Karaoke unless there are a lot of participants who have mothers who have allowed them to go through life believing that they are among the most talented people in the world despite evidence to the contrary. But that's a blog topic for another day. They did do a lot of trivia type games at all hours. They also had a number of opportunities for ballroom dancing which I think is neat.
Friday was our last day at sea and it was a little chilly out as we headed back into the Gulf of Mexico. I bought a few charms for my cruise bracelet and a couple of bottles of alcohol to take home from the duty free shops on board. We made the rounds saying goodbye to Joseph and attended a cooking show in the theater where we were entertained watching the chef create a few of his signature dishes and by one of the head waiters, Hector. I haven't told you about Hector yet. He sang to us almost every night in the dining room. The man is from Mexico and has an amazing voice. It's hard to believe that his job title on the ship is head waiter and not entertainer. Here's a video of Hector's amazing performance during the show. Sorry it's a little shaky. But I'm not a videographer. I must say that we were entertained in the dining room better on this ship than on most others that I have been on. However, the shows after dinner left a little to be desired in most cases. But we did have a good comedian on Wednesday night. There was a magician scheduled one night but he apparently got sick and couldn't perform. That was good news for me since I don't really like magicians.... they creep me out.
All in all, I had a good time. There are things that I like a lot about Princess and other things that I think Royal Caribbean and Celebrity do better. As I said at the beginning of these posts, Caribbean Princess will be going into dry dock at the end of April and then she'll begin to sail out of Port Everglades. If you want to get on board before she leaves Houston, you should get in touch with me. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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