Progreso, Mexico

Wednesday we both woke up feeling fantastic! The patches were a blessing. We noticed about half the people on the ship were wearing them so we know now!!! We arrived in Progreso, Mexico at 7:00. We ate an early breakfast and were off the boat at 7:00 to get on a tour bus that was taking us to Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins. It was a 2 and a half hour bus ride and we had a great little tour guide named Julian who was of Mayan descent who talked and told us a lot of interesting info. We made one stop just prior to arriving at Chichen Itza at one of the shopping areas for trinkets and junk. Finally arrived at Chichen Itza and our tour guide led us to some of the major ruins there like the pyramid and the ball court. It was very informative and oh so hot. The sun was out and the temps were in the 90’s. We ended up only having less than an hour to walk around on our own there but we were ready to leave before the hour was up and walked back thru the locals who were aggressively trying to sell their stuff. That is one thing I hate about these cruise trips… the locals overwhelm you trying to push their stuff for sale. It was fun just walking around and looking and taking pictures though. Back on the bus we were served a bag lunch with bottled water. The lunch consisted of a submarine type sandwich, bag of chips, chocolate dessert, apple, mints and the bottle of water. It hit the spot. Julian talked a little more then said it was time for a siesta and we took advantage of that to take a nap on the return trip back to Progreso. We arrived just in time to board the ship and set off for Cozumel. We went on deck to sunbathe some more and take part in a TV show theme song trivia game. I knew almost all of the older TV show theme songs but none of the new ones. It was still fun. Following that was a Fear Factor contest and there were 2 teams of volunteers. It was funny. We decided to take advantage of the 50% off at the internet café onboard the ship and used it for the first time. It was still very expensive but we used it for about an hour. Tonight none of our table mates showed up for dinner so it was just Jamie and me dining alone. We went to see the comedian after dinner and he was funny. We enjoyed his show. The lunar eclipse was this night and we had planned to go on deck since they were having a lunar eclipse party but ended up doing other things instead. There was a guest talent show so we went to that and it was great fun. We did end up going on deck after that but the eclipse was over by then. We watched some dancing then went to bed around midnight. It had been a fun day and we were both thrilled that we no felt motion sickness.

boarding the busses for the trip to Chichen Itza

we were met in Progreso by these festive dancers

Julian was our tour guide for the bus ride and while at Chichen Itza

the Mayan pyramid at Chichen Itza

Our Oceanview Cabin

We had a nice oceanview cabin with two little port hole windows. The twin beds were pushed together and made as a king size bed when we arrived but we had them separate them into two beds and it opened up the room so we had more space. We had a nice TV and actually got quite a few channels. One of the "local" stations was actually Denver, CO, so it was quite funny to hear the weather reports etc... from Denver each day. All that snow and here we were in the sunny, hot Mexican Riviera. The room seemed larger than the one we had on the last cruise and the bathroom was definitely larger. It was a comfortable room. The beds were very cozy with down comforters and the most amazing down pillows I have ever slept on! We also had 2 comfy bathrobes and 2 large fluffy beach towels provided. Below are some photos to give you an idea of what our room looked like.

the beds upon or arrival were one king size bed

the room once the beds were moved. I had the one next to the windows

Jamie's bed

the view from the bed looking toward the door (with all our junk on the desk)

the shower, it was nice and roomy

the sink and toilet area

Tuesday At Sea

Tuesday was a full day at sea. We sunbathed on deck then in the afternoon went to the Newlywed Game show which was a riot. We also went to play Bingo but the prices were steep… $10/card and they were only going to play one game of straight bingo so the chances of winning were not that great considering the amount of people playing. Instead I opted to purchase 10 scratch and win tickets for $10. I didn’t win anything on any of them but there was to be a second chance drawing afterward and you had to write your name and room number on the back of each card. I had 10 cards in the box and I would say there were probably less than 50 cards in the box at drawing time so I felt lucky! Sure enough, one of my cards was pulled and I went to the stage to accept my prize… a bottle of champagne along with some coupons for the spa and a Carnival winners medal. Whoo hoo! Jamie still felt bad all morning but as the day went on she started to feel better. Not long before dinner time I started getting sick. We had been on rough water, rocking like crazy for 24 hours by the time it hit me. It was formal night and I had really been looking forward to getting dressed up. Jamie had been dreading it. The closer it got to dinner time the worse I felt. We got to the table and it was the first night we met our table mates. Two women who were a mother and daughter and couple more women who I think were sisters. All were from Oklahoma but the daughter lived in Arkansas. We had a great dinner but I was feeling worse and worse by the minute. I couldn’t even eat the food I had ordered. One of our waitstaff suggested I have an apple and some ginger ale and she brought the ginger ale for me to sip on. The sweet mother and daughter told us they were wearing patches to prevent motion sickness and seeing how bad I was feeling and hearing about how bad Jamie felt they offered us two of their patches. Their doctors had given them a prescription and each had 4 patches and they only needed one each for the cruise so they offered one to each of us. There were life-savers! I went directly back to our cabin and put my pj’s on and Jamie went with the women to their room to get the 2 patches. Jamie placed mine behind my ear for me as I was too sick to even do it myself. After a couple of hours I thought I was feeling better so decided to go see one of the shows. Jamie wanted to stay in the room and watch something on TV so I went alone. The show was OK, but I was still feeling poorly and the stage had a part that rotated and the dancers were also running and turning around as it rotated… just what I needed… more motion!!! I left at the first opportunity and went on to bed.

the champagne, medal and coupons I won

my Carnival medal

Jamie and Linda on formal night (I was so sick when this photo was taken)

the daughter and mother who saved our trip by giving us the patches

Naughty Towels

OK, now for the naughty towels. I kid you not, this is the view we saw when we walked into the room on the last 2 nights. We both nearly fell over in fits of laughter when we saw the first one here. You will have to use your own imagination to figure out what it looks like. It took us quite a while to figure out what it was supposed to be and it only looked like a cobra once we bent the head forward and looked at it from the side. It was standing straight up like this when we entered the room. I don't know when I have laughed harder. This one will show up again... LOL. The second one here was the seal/walrus on the last night. Jamie immediately thought it looked like the female counter part to the other one. Again we laughed until our sides hurt. So here they are for you to be the judge. What do they look like to you???