Mexico
Eventually, you'll get to Mexico. The Caper will tell you all you need to know, and you can catch several talks by the cruise director in the Astoria or on the TV. The ship will have all sorts of coupons and raffle tickets to entice you to go to particular stores. As you would expect, the freebies are pretty lame, but fun if you have the time. Don't forget your Sign and Sail card (can't leave or return to the ship without it). Also, this is when you need your cash and your normal identification.
If you are a swimmer, there are several excursion trips you can take (these are pricy -- anywhere from $50 to $100/per person). If you aren't a swimmer, your options are more limited. Everyone we talked to enjoyed the Passion Island excursion. This is where they take you to a private island and give you free food and drinks (even the booze is free). The water is absolutely stunning -- crystal clear with white beaches. We were going to do this excursion but decided that we had already had enough sun.
There is a horseback tour that takes to by some minor Mayan ruins. There is a weight limit of 240 pounds -- I normally weigh right at 240 (well, I've lost a lot of weight lately on Atkins, but this was before that) and after 3 or 4 meals in the dining room I was afraid they would stop us from going! We wound up taking the "shopping tour" -- it was OK, but probably not the best value (you'll see why in a minute). For the shopping tour, we were rounded up by a nice Mexican lady named Barb. She herded us on a Bus (driven by Fernando). The bus was very modern and comfortable with big chairs and air conditioning.
The bus made three stops. First, we went to a little village where they presumably make jewelry to sell. The stores here are little shacks. There is a very old church next to "Mayan ruins" (which are really just a pile of rocks in a man-made cave configuration -- nothing very exciting). You spend a half hour there.
Next, the bus stops at a beautiful beach where you can get some great pictures. The sand is very grainy. I'd suggest you take your shoes off in the bus and get your feet clean before you get back on board. There is a pro photographer there, and you should take your camera too. You aren't there long enough to lay out or swim or anything (too bad; the water is crystal clear), but it is very beautiful and a great photo opportunity:
Finally, the bus stops in downtown Cozumel. Here you will find all the same stores and eateries that are at the pier! So if you just want to eat and shop at these stores, you might as well just stay at the Pier. I didn't find any of these stores especially good bargains. We ate at Pancho's Backyard (http://www.panchosbackyard.com). The food was good (although we get just as good here in Houston). With two margaritas, the cost was US$30 so we could have had just as good a meal in Houston for about the same price.
You only have 2 hours in town, so if you eat, you don't get much time to shop. We didn't get a chance to explore the side streets where the shopping might have been better. If we had to do the shopping over again, we would just take a cab to town (US$6) and we'd explore some of the stores off the beaten track. Sure, the line warns you that you might get ripped off if you don't shop at the approved stores, but that's part of the fun of travel, isn't it?
Don't get me wrong, Barb was funny and very informative -- we were glad to get her tour talk. But we just think we'd have done better shopping on our own. In retrospect, we wish we had gone to Passion Beach.
By the way, shopping in town is about like shopping in parts of Houston. Everyone speaks English and everyone takes US currency. In fact, nearly everything is priced in US currency. I did exercise my lame Spanish in a few of the stores which always resulted in the clerks streaming Spanish at me so rapidly that I had to give up!
By the end of the day, we were back on the pier and exhausted. If we had to do it over, we would probably not get as much sun the day before and then we would have spent the day at Passion Island. Oh well, there is always next time!
You might want to call home while you are in Mexico. I had thought about this and tried to find out how to use my phone card in Mexico. I couldn't get a good answer, so I bought an AT&T phone card from Eckerds and found out how to dial from Mexico. They warn you that you have to use one particular type of pay phone. Naturally, none of the pay phones we found at the pier or in town were anything but Helix phones (the wrong kind). I tried using it and got a rapid-fire recorded speech in Spanish! So much for that. The Helix phones will take your credit card, but I was hesitant to give out my credit card number to a Mexican operator -- particularly since the fee was 6 pesos but they didn't tell you 6 pesos for how much time (per second? per minute?).
At the pier there is a store that has phone booths, fax machines, and computers. You give them your ship card, and they let you call on the phone. When you are done, you settle up with them in cash. It was about $2/minute but I was satisfied to pay with cash. Just don't talk too long. I did see some people using cell phones, but I had not thought to check what it would cost to roam in Mexico.
You get back in time to have dinner onboard and catch the show (which was the talent show, on our cruise). Luckily, we had the late seating, so we napped a little first.
Overall, we enjoyed shipboard life more than going ashore although it was a nice break to see beautiful Cozumel. The bad part about leaving Mexico is that it marks the beginning of the end of the cruise (see the next page).