Second Sea Day (last cruise day)

We started the day with everyone sleeping in.  I would have let it go on indefinitely, but I knew that we wanted to eat in Savor with Cher and her team and that closed around 9:30 A.M.   I woke up the kids a bit after 9 and everyone jumped into their clothes or swim suits.

They gave us two tables by the window today instead of the long table we’d had every other morning.  I ordered Katriel the peaches and blueberries again today.  When the waiter learned she only ate the blueberries (I ate the peaches) he brought her a small dish filled with blueberries. 

Man it was going to be hard to go back to normal life tomorrow.

There were not a lot of photos this day.  There was a lot of pool time.  Waterslide time.  Mini-golf time.  And club time. 

We left the water areas long enough to eat lunch in the buffet.  We settled for this outside but not in the sun section.  I didn’t want to be cold in the A/C and many did not want to eat in the blazing heat. 

See Tab at the bar behind me?  That was where their buddy Craig worked.

 

It got a bit busier in the pools this afternoon, but it was far from unbearable.  Much of the crowd waxed and waned.  We were some of the only ones to practically take up residence. 

We did take a little time around 3 P.M. to all head back to the room and do some packing up.  Thankfully, we pretty much just had to throw stuff into suitcases without much sorting.

We had dinner reservations for 6:30 P.M. at Moderno Churrascaria, their Brazilian themed dining spot.  Nan and Kelly decided to eat in the MDR as their credits and dining package had gotten used up.  The food here was pretty unique.  There was a buffet with a variety of items – sushi, bamboo shoots, salad, asparagus, etc.  They also brought a serving dish with potatoes, yucca, mushrooms, and rice.  They did not bring us beans because of Stewart’s allergy.

They had, we believe, 8 roaming servers with huge skewers of meats, as well as one with grilled pineapple.  It was a LOT of meat, and I confess we probably didn’t appreciate it as much as we would have liked to. 

They brought Stewart a crazy amount of meat.  Like, two pieces of every kind.  They grilled his separately. 

I had to take someone to the bathroom and I got a glimpse of the setting sun.  As Marie and Tabitha wanted to hurry back to the stateroom to change and go to their club, I grabbed the camera and hurried back to the aft deck to take photos.

It was windy, warm, and wonderful. 

Dessert was a zero.  That’s ok.  We stopped by the buffet for a few more before we retired.

Boys went to hang with Craig a while and we took the little girls back to the room for bed and packing.  Marie and Tab enjoyed their club til about 10.

 

It was hard going to bed knowing it was the last night on the ship.  It had been so much fun.

 

Port day 4 ~ Cozumel

My desire to take my family to Playa Mia Waterpark is the reason I picked a Western Caribbean itinerary.  We’d been talking about their giant inflatable for over a year. While the ship had an excursion to Playa Mia, I booked it via Viator, an off-shoot of TripAdvisor.  They have a solid reputation, and a back-to-the-ship-on-time guarantee.  They were cheaper by about $15/pp.  Kelly made her own plans to visit Mayan ruins.  As she was traveling solo she went ahead and booked through NCL.

I had to set an alarm to get up.  And it was hard.  Very hard.  The busy-ness was getting to me AND we lost an hour sleep last night adjusting the clock… (or did we?)  I got up around 6:45 A.M. and got the kids up around 7:15.  They didn’t rouse easily.  Getting only about 6 hours sleep between our two Magic Kingdom days didn’t phase them; but today was a work-out for some of them.

We somehow mobilized and headed to the buffet because we knew it would be quicker.  The permission to go ashore was likely to come around 8:10-8:30 and we wanted to be ready.  Moods cheered as we left our stateroom and breakfast was as yummy as ever.

Nan and Kelly ended up meeting us at the buffet.  Kelly was to meet her excursion group in the atrium at 7:45 A.M. 

We drew closer to the pier as we were eating.  It was the most overcast day we’d had, but still projected to be hot and dry. 

As we finished our speedy breakfast I asked Nigel what time it was. (Nigel was “Master Timekeeper” as John’s watch had stopped working back in Disney.)  Nigel told us it was 8:05 A.M.  I declared this was perfect.  Then I paused.  Kelly’s ears perked up and she said, “It’s 7:05, right?”

I offered that, no, we had to advance our clocks last night.  She has a moment of panic.  I have a moment of shock.  We all look for a black-clad employee and find one.  She confirms it is 7:05 A.M.  We were to move our clocks forward later THAT night.

I got them up an hour early.

I’m considered turning in my vacation planning credentials then and there. 

It was a low moment. 

No one scolded me.  They knew how badly I felt.

We went back to our room and just did nothing until it was time to get off the ship.  We were in the first hundred or so folks off the ship.  We walked down the pier and stopped for photos.  I was pretty nervous, I admit, on that pier.  It felt dicey.  I don’t know.  Maybe I was vacationed out?

None of us took photos of the port area.  We were all sort of off, I think.  We followed the directions on my paper from Viator and found a representative from the club.  He stated we were a little early (don’t go there, dude); but concluded that as we filled a van he’d get us one.  (One nice thing about being a large group is we never had to wait for more people to fill a taxi to go somewhere.)   He explained our package to us painstakingly: admission, transport, food, non-alcoholic drinks, non-motorized watercraft. He also mentioned all the things we were missing out on (alcohol, umbrellas, and motorized watersports) with Great Emphasis and assured us we could add those features to our package when we got there.

He lead us over and yon to a main street and called a taxi/van for us.  We drove about 15 minutes and arrived at Playa Mia.  The man from the port had told us to look for Julio when we got there and he would direct us into the park.  Julio actually met our van and he again reiterated what was and was not included.  He also told us that cabs leave every hour on the hour to go back to the port and we could decide when we wanted to return to the ship.  He then said, “You have a lot of young princesses.  When you want to go back, anytime, just come find me.”  That was nice to know.

He lead us through a clean little shopping plaza to the cashiers.  He gave the women in the booth our paperwork and they proceeded to remind us what was and was not included.  They offered to sell us whatever else we wanted to add to our package.  Um, we’re good.

The place was all but empty.  I wonder now if they were even really open!

Pool area.

Looking back through shopping plaza we’d walked through.

Buffet/dining area.

Beach side pool with swim up bar.

Some dining tables available on beach.

The inflatable course.

It was so windy the chairs would blow closed as quickly as they’d reopen them.

We found chairs (there were thousands) and John and the older four went out to the inflatable.  The sand was course.  Very course.  There would be no lounging in the sand here.  That was hard for me to swallow.  Frankly, I’d never go back.  Beach was as yucky as the ugly one I went to in Jamaica with Emily 2014. 

The water was gross and grassy.  It was rough water; that isn’t their fault. 

After John and the kids came back in, they told me how “scary” it was to fall off the course.  There was really grassy water just beyond the inflatable and the water was murky. 

We hung out in that area for more than an hour.  It took that much time, incidentally, for cruise ship excursions to start arriving.  The Viator angle DID get us an extra hour there.  Yay us… :/

When John and Tab came back in, they went with Nan, Johanna and Katriel to the beach side pool.  Soon Marie and Stewart came back in, then finally Nigel.  We all relocated away from the beach.  I think we are all a little let down.

We decided to eat.  This meant figuring out what Stewart could and could not eat.  Honestly,  he didn’t miss anything.  The buffet was immense… but it was so American-ized!  I was really hoping for spicy food, but it was very bland. 

It looked so good, but was so bland. 

We headed to the waterpark side after lunch.  We spent a few hours over there.

 

Here is a photo of the kids and I in the whirlpool just moments before they told us kids were not allowed in the whirlpool.

Which, I gotta tell you, was not posted and makes ZERO SENSE in the world when you consider its location right smack dab in the MIDDLE of the main pool.

 

We had fun.  We were on vacation on an island in the Caribbean.  But we wouldn’t go back.  It was far from awful.  But it was far from amazing, as well. 

It was 2 P.M. on the nose, I believe, when we decided to find Julio.  He had a cab/van right there for us to pile into and we were back to the ship in no time. 

There are three ports there, and the one we were at was very nice.  We saw some street performers, and peeked in a store or two.  But mostly we headed back to the ship.  Of all the places we stopped it was the most built up port.  Hotels and such immediately outside the port complex.  You have to go up and over the road to get back to the port side.  It made for nice photos, if not a little jumbled for strollers and wheelchairs. 

We did the ropes course again (most of us – Katriel wasn’t keen to repeat it) and did some pool time.

It really was so fun. 
The plank was closed today.  I’m guessing it was because it was so windy????

We had our last group dinner tonight at Le Bistro, the French restaurant.  It was beautiful, and strikingly small. 
 

The service was attentive and sophisticated.  They were exceedingly nice. 
The menu – I think it was really good.  But I think after two weeks of eating out it was hard for us to be moved by food.  For appetizer Marie had escargot, and Nigel may have as well.  

This was an app, as well, but none of us know exactly what it was.  Something fishy?

The soup course was fun.  They brought us out this.  At first I wondered if maybe this was it and I was going to have to explain to my kids that what makes this fancy is the exquisitely small servings?

Then the waiter returned to soupify my soup.

And yet another server (the creme-bearer???) came by to add the white swirls.

It was delicious.

I had to take some girls to the bathroom between courses.  A lovely older couple signaled for me to stop and they proceeded to tell me how fantastic my family was, asked if that was Grandma at the end of the table, and shared how much we made them miss their extended family.  We chatted a few minutes and she later grabbed Nan on her way by, as well.  It’s always an encouraging thing to hear, especially when your kids are the only ones in a finer dining room.  

Dinner came under silver domes.

Well, Marie got a pot?

Tab ordered pizza, but they gave her Daddy’s plate somehow…

Can you see the reflection?  Katriel was on my lap.  She was tired. 

I had a lamb dish.  I thought I would try something new.  When the boys heard what I had ordered, they made sport of me until I couldn’t eat it. 
“Yer eating a widdle lammy?”
”Was he baaaaaad?”

I was careful to to waste any of my beans. 
Five beans. 
And that smear was some other bean concoction.  I am clearly too bourgeois to be impressed. 
Of course someone suggested what part of that lamb that was…

Tab gave Daddy back his plate.  That is a bamboo shoot.  Is bamboo native to France?

Now  - there were no jokes when dessert came. 
Honestly – their desserts might be a reason to eat there. 

Four or six of them got these desserts for two.  Siblings who would pierce one another’s cheek with a dull carrot for looking at them wrong are suddenly UN peacekeepers when there is chocolate to share.

Rivaled only by the tiramisu as best dessert on the ship.

After this gourmet brownie, Hanny still said normal brownies are more fun.

I think there were a few kids to the clubs, and a few to the golf course and Craig.
We were all tired, and I believe all in bed by 11. Or 10?  Or is that 12?  Island time?