Onboard Activities

The cruise ship has lots of activities to keep you busy 24 hours a day. One such activity was the Hairy Man Contest. There were several male volunteers who came up on the deck stage and one girl volunteer who was blindfolded. Each of the men came forward when called by number and she had to feel their chest and rate each one on how hairy he was. A few photos are below. Another was an ice carving exhibition that was fun to watch. One night we attended the Battle of the Sexes game and it was very funny. They asked for 2 men and 2 women volunteers to come up on stage. They had to place a quarter between their butt cheeks and walk to the front edge of the stage and drop it into a glass. It was hilarious! Another night we were entertained by more volunteers… two teams of 6 people each… 3 men, two women and one child on each team. They had parts to play… the father, the mother, the house, the woodsman, the bed and the child. The cruise director read a story involving the players and each time they were mentioned they had to run around the group, up thru the middle and take their place in the line again. First team to have their member return first scored points. It was hysterical and fast paced. Those are just a few of the fun things that kept us busy and entertained while onboard.

These were the guys in the hairy man contest

This guy was the winner, the girl feeling his chest was the judge

This was the ice carver in action

the final ice carving

The Last Day

Friday was another full day at sea. The trip back to Galveston was smoother sailing but we could still feel the ship moving at times but with our patches still intact we didn’t feel sick. We spent the morning hours sunbathing and then attended the debarkation talk that was required for our return to Galveston. Most of the day was spent in the sun and just relaxing. That evening we went to another show and it was soooo bad we got up and left. It was a man playing a sax and singing. He couldn’t sing worth a darn and his talk between songs was not funny (although he was trying to be). He could play the sax well but… oh my gosh, I don’t enjoy that type of music at all. So many in the audience got up and left right away, Jamie and I toughed it out for awhile but just couldn’t handle it any longer so we got up and left too. I am sure some people like that type of entertainment but it was torture for us. We went back for the Battle of the Sexes game and that was fun. (more about it later). I think we went to bed around 11:00. Overall the trip was a good one but comparing it to our last trip this one was not up to par. Last time we cruised on Royal Caribbean and it was a much larger ship and the entertainment was so much better and more professional. It seemed like we had a lot more to do on that ship than on this one. The food this time seemed blah… dinner was always really great but the buffets were what you find at any buffet type restaurant and nothing to brag about. The dessert areas were the prettiest but I am not a big dessert person and hardly tried any of the desserts on the cruise. Many of the activities seemed unorganized and that was a let down. I am glad we went and so glad I finally got to see the pyramid at Chichen Itza but I wouldn’t go back there again. It’s funny because so many people on the ship had gone to Cozumel before and were returning again… we kept hearing about all the bargains to be found but unless you are really into jewelry (I am not) or cheap junk then there is nothing more to purchase.

Cozumel

We arrived in Cozumel at 8:00 on Thursday morning. We didn’t purchase any of the land excursions but instead opted to go out and spend the morning shopping on our own and just walking around Cozumel. I wasn’t too impressed. Again I felt we were being hit hard by pushy people trying to get you to buy what they were selling or come into their store to shop. We did end up finding an internet café and dropped in there since it was so cheap to use. We both checked our email and wrote a few then were on our way back to the ship. We had considered taking a taxi to one of the local beaches but decided instead to sunbathe on deck. We found out we’d have to take a 15 minute taxi ride each way plus pay an entrance fee of around $13 each to get in the beach area and we’d only have about an hour or so to stay there before we had to be back onboard the ship. We felt we could do better to save that money and get our tan by laying out on deck. The water was an amazing shade of blue and we saw a huge sea turtle and some big fish from the deck. That night we went to see the show called X-treme Country which was a western type song and dance and was pretty good. We hit the casino 2 nights but I can’t recall which 2 nights it was. Neither of us lost much and we both won back around the amount we had bet so it was fun.

our cruise ship docked at the pier in Cozumel

some colorful chairs at a restaurant in Cozumel

the beautiful clear blue waters in Cozumel... amazing!

Jamie sunbathing on one of the top decks

a view of Cozumel from the ship

a view of Cozumel from the ship

a view of Cozumel from the ship

Jamie holding a bucket of her winnings from the casino

The Locals

Mexico is always so colorful. In order to enter and exit the ruins at Chichen Itza you have to walk thru tons of locals trying desperately to sell you their wares. It is overwhelming. I can’t tell you how many times we heard them saying “one dollar”. I felt bad because some of the women were trying to sell hand embroidered handkerchiefs for only $1 and I knew all the work and time that had gone into each of them only to be sold for just $1. There were lots of nice looking trinkets, all very cheap. Lots of silver jewelry too but again I hate the pushiness of trying to make the sell. Everywhere we went the locals were right in our faces trying to sell, sell, sell. Below are some photos taken by Jamie while we were walking thru the markets at Chichen Itza.

this adorable little Mayan lady was trying so hard to sell her hankies for only $1, she was only around 4 feet tall

pretty colored plates

beautiful dresses

hear no evil... speak no evil... see no evil...