Today was the best day of our Caribbean season to date. One of the best days. One of the five best days.
Today was a good day.
The Emerald Princess arrived early in Cozumel, Mexico, and we were still in bed but awake at 6:57am when we heard the announcement that the ship was secured at her berth and had been cleared by the local authorities for passengers to proceed ashore (this is almost word for word what we hear nearly every morning, spoken by someone with an Indian accent). There were no lines today (there never are when the ship arrives early) when we walked off the ship just after 8am, packed for another beach day.
I guess I can rightfully claim that life's a beach...at least while we're on the Emerald Princess in the Caribbean.
I had been following the Cruise Critic roll call for this cruise, and read a recommendation from fellow passenger Laurie about a beach resort called Nachi Cocum on the southwestern coast of Cozumel. For $55pp, we'd get access to a pool, jacuzzi, loungers, palapas (natural sun umbrellas), all we could drink (including premium brands) and a four course lunch. It sounded good enough that we had made the $11pp deposit via PayPal while we were home in December...and prayed for a sunny day.
We walked off the Puerta Maya pier and through the "enter through the gift ship...and then through more gift shops" area required to get to the taxi stand. There was a group of passengers, including Laurie, going down about an hour later this morning, but G wanted to get an early start and Nachi Cocum opens at 8am in the winter. A taxi cost $17 and it was about a 15-20 minute ride south along Cozumel's only major north-south road.
We commented, as we rode along, about how much Cozumel has changed since we first went there to dive in 1998. Then, there was one cruise ship pier in the town of San Miguel; now there are multiple piers and those piers keep expanding to accommodate more ships. We were lucky today, as there were only two ships in port. In Cozumel, that's a very slow day.
Once we arrived at Nachi Cocum (which, coincidentally, was located right next door to the Allegro Diamond Resort we used to stay at), our photo was taken, as it usually is at these things, and would be available for purchase later, after we were nice and tipsy. We did buy it, of course. We'll add it to the other photos we have of ourselves on Cozumel, also purchased at the end of days when we were nice and tipsy. Honestly, the photos of us on Cozumel are the ones that are stuck on our refrigerator at home. Not only so they bring back great memories of very fun days, but they provide a somewhat painful but completely accurate chronicle of our aging visages. Today we paid the remaining $44pp due via credit card and were shown around the property. Nachi Cocum limits guests to 110 per day; today, there were only 22 of us. This really was like a private beach resort.
Beaches on Cozumel are not the powdered sugar variety we've seen on Barbados and Antigua, and even on a good day have much stronger waves than we saw yesterday on Roatan with its protective reef. Today, was not a good day, wave-wise and the surf was very strong, though still safe to swim in. The beach was slightly littered with normal sea vegetation, but, by Cozumel standards, it was pretty darn good. But it was the setting that was perfect, and we were soon settled in loungers that were sanitized for us with small plastic tables that were cleaned for us too. And the best part...though there was some music up by the pool, all we heard in our loungers was the sound of the crashing waves. A catered day on a beach with only the sound of crashing waves. Heaven!
I dove right into the water (the temperature was 80F) and snorkeled a bit to see what there was to see. Not much. Though just a few hundred yards offshore are some of the best reefs in this part of the world, I saw only one lonely coral head with a couple of Moorish idols and several sergeant major fish.
I returned to my chair on the beach (climbing up out of the water was a bit of a trick) and we ordered our first drinks of the day from our waiter Joseph. He gave us wonderful service throughout the day...maybe too wonderful when it came to our drinks. I tried to break them up with several long swims, at one point swimming the boundaries of the swim beach. The current was so strong that it was difficult to do anything other than get in the water on one side of the beach and try to get back out before ending up half way down the coast. G teased me that I was going to end up back at the Emerald Princess via the water and he was almost right.
By 11ish I was getting hungry, and, when I came out of the water, discovered that Joseph had dropped off the menu for us to order our lunch. And here's when things really got good...we had a choice of appetizer, soup or salad, entree and dessert, and we could order each course one at a time and eat them right where we were sitting on the beach.
We started with chips and gaucamole for me and breaded cheese sticks for G
G slept at some point, and I walked up to the pool area to use the free wifi. Free wifi! I am down to 19 minutes left on the ship's Internet for this cruise, and took advantage of the Nachi Cocum internet to upload some photos to the blog posts for the past couple of days and for today.
Beach loungers and palapas
Nachi Cocum pool and jacuzzi with a swim up bar
Eventually we ordered our entrees; G ordered the mixed meat fajitas and I asked for the freshest fish they had. I think my grouper was caught this morning. Honestly, we thought both meals were even better than what we've been eating on the ship (and that's been good). But the freshness of the ingredients in today's meals really made a difference. For dessert, we both ordered coconut ice cream and Joseph suggested we have it topped with kahlua. Well...if he insisted. So wonderfully yummy!
Naturally, we had continued to drink, mostly margaritas, all throughout the day, and for my last swim of the day, I momentarily considered whether I was sober enough to be able to climb my way out of the water back onto the beach. I did, of course, but I was just at the edge of having too much tequila. The far edge. ;-)
It really hit me as we left our loungers and walked back through the resort about 3:30pm. They called a taxi for us and our driver was there by the time we reached the parking lot. Everyone who worked at the resort was very welcoming and friendly (I remember that, too, from our Cozumel stays, about the wonderful hospitality of the locals) and we enjoyed our day so much that we are actually considering returning again on a later cruise. We loved that Nachi Cocum specifically states that Spring Breakers and wild crowds are not tolerated. It's kind of the 55+ beach resort on Cozumel, and was just perfect for us, and might be especially attractive as we head into the Spring Break timeframe.
Thank you, Laurie, for the recommendation!
We managed to get through the Puerto Maya shopping area and back down the pier without bodily injury, though the sound of our Check Liver Soon alarms was getting really annoying. We did rock, paper, scissors to see who was going to shower first (I lost), and generally tried to clean up a little more than usual because tonight was this cruise's MTP cocktail party.
Just shoot me.
We were not in the least hungry, but we did need to eat a little something to soak up the alcohol (past and future). We went to our usual table in the Michelangelo Dining Room where Victor served me alphabet soup from the kids' menu and sorbet. And for the first time ever, we declined his offer to open the drapes so we could see the ocean rushing by just outside the window. No thank you. That would not help at all.
We had time after dinner for a quick nap (really quick, and I set the alarm just in case we didn't wake up), and went to the MTP party in the Adagio Lounge at 7pm. I was happy to be able to tell Chief Roddy that the pool temperatures were just perfect now, thank you very much. It was funny...Captain Forteeze came over while we were talking to tell Roddy that another passenger had just complimented him for the warm pools. :-) However, my favorite Splash Pool on Deck 17 aft is unheatable, which actually works out perfectly for me. First, no one wants to use it because it's chilly; second, it's quite comfortable when I run around in circles in it.
I wasn't intending to stay for the entire party, thinking I'd leave after just one Perrier (the only beverage I was up to drinking), but, as always, I start chatting and before I knew it, we were the last group to finally leave. Production show Magic To Do is being shown twice tonight, and I could make it to the 10:15pm performance...
...but a comfy bed and a book sound a lot better.