Bring Your Swim Trunks and Your Flippie-Floppies. It’s a Fantasy Cruise Report!

tiaragirl · Jun 10, 2013

Ashley, I'm so glad you listened to my very relevant criticisms and added some people pictures. Very thoughtful.

Looks like you coulda skipped Hell.. but the turtles were supa supa cute! And the water! And za food!

On all the cruises we've done, I've never done an excursion. I don't know why that is - maybe because Mom and Dad found them expensive to do as a family of four and then when I go with friends we're all students. Something to look into for next time!

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 12, 2013

englanddg said:
I am so hungry now.

Me too.

foreverbelle said:
OK that water in those pics looks gorgeous, and sooo inviting!!! I was like hello, sign me up LIKE RIGHT NOW!

And yes, I find that store, and the logo to be very very creepy. Umm yeah no thank you I do believe I will be skipping that one.

Poor you and the camera scares!!! Seriously. I think I would have had a heart attack in deed.

And isn't it funny how you see things, and it makes you wish to be that age (aka teenagers again) sigh....good times.

The water was gorgeous at every stop on the cruise! We really lucked out with weather. We only had rain the first day as we were leaving the port. It doesn't get much better than that!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was so creepy!

Yea, the camera problems were not fun. Now I'll be bringing a backup and a backup for my backup as a precaution.

sweetpee_1993 said:
Grand Cayman is the port we want to revisit the most! The water there was gorgeous...snorkeling was incredible! So jealous y'all logged some time at Satellite Falls. We never got around to it...which bugs me to death. It was such a big to-do on my list. The Vibe outside deck area looks so cool. I know. Brian said he got in those hot tubs and met one of his friends (a girl) when she did a cannonball. LOL! The older teens amoung us, Chandler & my 16 yro niece, weren't so impressed with any part of Vibe. They avoided the place like the plague. The beef dish at Animator's is one of my favorites. The beef is usually pretty good but the big star for me is the potatoes. Wasabi mashed potatoes. They're creamy and tasty then you get this little hint of bite at the end from the wasabi. Soooo amazing! I love the bok choy, too. Just so yummy!

Can't wait to see what y'all did for your next port days!!!!

I bet snorkeling in Grand Cayman would have been awesome! You must try out Satellite Falls the next time you are on the Fantasy! I know you all don't lay by the pools that much, but it is so worth a visit. I need to write down all of the dishes I need to try the next time we cruise! I didn't remember that you loved those mashed potatoes when I was on the ship but now that you mention it, I remember you talking about how good they were in your last trip report. I need to make sure to write myself a note next time.

Billy6 said:
Awesome report thus far, Ashley...Brings back tons of memories from our Fantasy cruise! Our dining seat number was 115(same when you ate at Enchanted Gardens). The Pina coladas and strawberry daquiris were flowing for me and Heather all day every day!!!

Keep it going!!

Thanks Billy! You guys had a nice table! I really like pina coladas but they are just so heavy. I've been really into Bahama Mamas and Mai Tais recently. Those are some tasty drinks!

More coming now.

disneyfan1995 said:
Sorry to hear your excursion wasn't the best. The
turtles looked really cute though!

Yea, we were a little bummed with our excursion but the turtles were really cute! Even though we didn't like our excursion, I'm still glad that we tried it because now we know not to do it again.

tiaragirl said:
Ashley, I'm so glad you listened to my very relevant criticisms and added some people pictures. Very thoughtful.

Looks like you coulda skipped Hell.. but the turtles were supa supa cute! And the water! And za food!

On all the cruises we've done, I've never done an excursion. I don't know why that is - maybe because Mom and Dad found them expensive to do as a family of four and then when I go with friends we're all students. Something to look into for next time!

It was the least I could do, Kenzie!

Yea, surprisingly Hell wasn't that fun. Hahaha

We didn't do any excursions on our last cruise, outside of on Castaway Cay, so it was a change for us this time to do one in every port. I can understand how it could get pricey for a family of four or students to do a bunch of excursions. There were only two of us and it was a little pricey for some of the ones we chose. I thought they were worth the money though and our next two excursions were a lot better than the one in Grand Cayman. More on the Costa Maya excursion now...

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 12, 2013

Tuesday May 14th – Salsa, Salsa and More Salsa in Costa Maya

This morning we were woken up by our cruise director, Brent Davies, at 7:24am with an announcement that a fire alarm had gone off at 6:10am due to one of the industrial dryers overheating in the laundry room. He said that some guests had seen smoke and were concerned but assured everyone that there hadn’t been an actual fire and everything was fine. After that announcement, we went back to sleep for another hour and then it was time to get up and head to Satellite Falls!

It was a really hot day so before an early lunch, we decided to head down to the Quiet Cove pool for a quick dip before lunch at Flo’s. I really like the Quiet Cove Pool but it was always so crowded during our cruise. Satellite Falls was less crowded, which I prefer.

Around 10:30, we decided to grab some lunch from Flo’s. We had to meet for our excursion at 12:30 so we decided to do a really early lunch. We also skipped breakfast so I was pretty hungry by 10:30. Wes went with the spicy chicken sandwich again and I got a hot dog. We also split some fruit.

After lunch, we went back to our room until it was time for our excursion. We sat on the verandah and read while we approached Costa Maya.

Almost there!

Wes went back inside to take a quick nap and I stayed on the verandah and watched us dock. It was really cool to see how this enormous ship approached the pier.

Turtle!!

We docked and then went to meet for our excursion in DLounge at 12:30. It took a little longer today to get off the ship than it did yesterday. I was really anxious to get to this excursion because it was probably the one I was most looking forward to. Today our excursion was Salsa & Salsa. We were going to make salsa and then do some salsa dancing. I LOVE salsa. The food, that is, so I was really excited to make (and eat) some salsa.

Today we were in Group Peter Pan.

From where we were docked, the pier was like an L shape. We walked to the end of the bottom of the L, and still had the other way to go. When we got there, our guide, Francisco, asked if we wanted to wait 10 minutes for the trolley or walk. A ton of people in our group said that they wanted to wait for the trolley. I would have preferred to walk, but I was outnumbered, so I took pictures of the ship while we waited.

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 12, 2013

After waiting a couple minutes, Francisco asked if anyone wanted to walk. We said that we wouldn’t mind walking and a family of 4 also said that they wanted to walk. So our guide left us with another guide and he walked us down the pier.

Cool backpack.

We got to the end of the pier and waited for the rest of our group. Francisco arrived with the rest of our group a few minutes later and we were off to catch a bus to our excursion.

We were waiting for our bus to take us to the hotel and it was a hot one. I was so glad that I wore my bathing suit and coverup. We were waiting for probably around 10 to 15 minutes when two vans showed up. We were in the van with our main guide Francisco and he apologized for the delay. He said that our bus didn’t show up because they were having a gas shortage.

We arrived at the hotel after a short drive. I don’t remember the name of the hotel but Francisco said that it was an Italian hotel and was one of the best in Mahahaul (aka Costa Maya). It was a pretty nice setup. There were numerous tables of 4 set up on a patio with a view of the ocean.

Table setup

View from the patio

Francisco gave everyone 3 drink tickets and gave us a drink on the house to start us off. Wes and I both got the blue margarita. It was tasty.

Francisco also came around and gave each of us a chef’s hat!

Lookin good.

The tables were set for 4, so we were seated with a rather interesting couple. They were a lady and gentleman, probably in their late 50s, who weren’t married but were just good friends. I say they were interesting because the gentleman has quite the back-story. He informed us that he used to be a police detective and when he was done with that, he started training service dogs. He actually brought a dog with him on the ship. He had foot surgery so he was currently in a wheelchair but he was also born deaf in one ear and had a cochlear implant. We saw the couple a few nights later with his service dog and I regret asking him one question that I kept wondering…where do service dogs go to the bathroom on a cruise ship? Do they have one of those Astroturf pad things, like they have in the SkyMall magazine? I know its weird, but I really wondered about that. Hahaha I wish I would have asked him.

Anyway…back to the excursion.

Francisco started our session on how to make salsa. We made two salsas and some guacamole.

englanddg · Jun 12, 2013

Awesome! Great shots of the boat.

Now, I really can't wait to see her in August!

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 12, 2013

Our table was a little cramped so Wes was my official chip holder.

Making another kind of salsa

I helped!

While making our salsas, we each ordered two more margaritas and then decided to switch to beer. Once we got our beers, we realized we should have been drinking those from the beginning. The margaritas were good but they were definitely weak. Of course, that is expected when the drinks are free.

Wes looks very perplexed.

Very tasty guacamole!

After we made our salsas and guacamole, we were given some time to enjoy them before our salsa dancing lesson. While we were enjoying our salsa, (the food), a beach vendor came up to our table to try to sell some Cuban cigars, purses and necklaces. I wasn’t interested but then I saw it. A tiki necklace! Wes and one of our college buddies love Scrubs. They were obsessed with the episode where JD and Turk go to the Bahamas and get those tiki necklaces like the kids on the Brady Bunch found on the episode where the Bradys went to Hawaii. When Wes and I saw the tiki necklace, we both just looked at each other and went “Na na na nah!”

I knew we had to buy it and luckily, we remembered to bring some cash today! I asked how much and the guy said $8 but I haggled him down to $7. I’m a pro like that. Hahaha Wes was super excited to tell his friend that we got it for our beach trip Memorial Day weekend.

Na na na nah

After our purchase, it was time to dance some salsa. We learned 4 different steps and it was pretty funny trying out the moves. We had already had 4 drinks at this point, so it made us a little more willing to dance.

When we were done dancing, we were given a survey to fill out and told that we could spend an hour out on the private beach area. It was about 3:40 at this point and our excursion was supposed to be over at 3:50 but Francisco wanted to give us some extra time since we were late getting there. Normally I would be super excited to have extra time but there was movie quote trivia on the ship at 4pm that we really wanted to get to. I wanted to at least see the beach and ocean before we left.

Really pretty resort

There’s the Fantasy!

We went back up to the patio and asked Francisco if we could get our voucher for a cab back to the pier. I wasn’t super thrilled about having to take a cab but we had vouchers so I figured it should be okay. Our cab driver drove super fast and was blasting his techno music. We felt like we were at a rave.

We weren’t upset by it since we were trying to hurry back to the pier anyway so his fast driving was actually very welcomed.

We got back to the pier at 3:49. We had exactly 11 minutes until movie trivia in O’Gills. I know, it seems crazy that we would be leaving the beautiful Costa Maya to hurry back on the ship for movie trivia but we really love movies and we knew that this was our challenge!

So we had 11 minutes. The challenge was on! We made moves and walked faster than we have ever walked before. Even though we were short on time, that didn’t mean there wasn’t time for pictures!

We saw the trolley sitting there and Wes asked if we should take it. I figured we could out walk it even if it started moving. So we continued down that long, long pier. As we were speed walking, I kept saying “We’re not gonna make it! We’re not gonna make it!” a la Dinosaur.

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 12, 2013

Run, Westin, Run!

Almost there!

We made it back on the ship at 3:55. We had 5 minutes to get back to O’Gills! When we walked up the stairs and were finally on Deck 4 I changed my tune and said “We’re gonna make it!” We arrived at O’Gill’s with 2 minutes to spare. Whew! We found seats and I ran to use the restroom. I did drink 4 drinks during our excursion after all, so I had to go!

I went back into O’Gills and the trivia was just starting. We got ourselves some beers to congratulate ourselves on making it to trivia in time and then we put our movie knowledge to the test. There were 50 movie quotes and we were doing really well. Wes kept joking that I didn’t even need him there because I was answering so many of the questions without even needing to consult with him.

It was time to score our answer sheet. We got one point for the movie and one point for the name of the actor, not the character, who said the line from the movie. After scoring, we got 82 out of 100. Woo hoo! We revealed our scores and drum roll please…WE WON! WOO HOO!!

This time we won DCL water bottles! Wahoo!

I was so excited that we won! It really made the speed walking back to the ship worth it.

We went back to the room to get ready to see Wishes. We quickly got ready and I took some pictures on the balcony before we headed to the Walt Disney Theater.

Tonight, we decided to sit up in the balcony. We originally sat in the second row but Wes thought it would be better to sit in the first row. Once we got down there, I realized that we would have been better off staying in the second row because we had a bar in front of us in the front row. Oh well.

The view from the second row

The bar that partially obstructed my view

I hadn’t seen Wishes before so I was looking forward to it. At first, I wasn’t sure if it would be too cheesy but I really enjoyed it. My favorite scene was the Kiss the Girl scene. They did some really cool effects. One great thing about sitting up in the balcony was that we could see the floor opening up and bringing props on stage. We like seeing the behind the scenes stuff like that so it didn’t ruin the show, but actually added to our enjoyment.

After the show, we decided to go find some more clues for our case from the Midship Detective Agency.

We walked past the portholes on Deck 4 and it just looked so pretty outside, that we needed to go take some pictures.

We went back inside and continued to collect clues to solve our case. We stopped in the Vista Gallery and there was another family there so we looked around the gallery while we waited. They were done with the painting and then the other kid in the family decided that he also needed to have a turn on the picture. Ok…not like anyone else is trying to solve a case here. To pass the time, we started looking at the Thomas Kincaid paintings to find all of the hidden characters in them. I didn’t even realize that there were hidden characters in his paintings. Wes found the first one and we thought that there might be more. We found a ton and it was a lot of fun! His paintings are crazy detailed. It’s amazing!

After the other kid was done, they kept standing there and continued to get clues from the same painting. It was quite frustrating. We probably waited there for 10 minutes. A guy working at the gallery, not sure if he was an official cast member, but he noticed that we had been waiting for awhile and came over to me while we were looking at the Thomas Kincaid paintings. He told me that I should go hip check the Mom in the family. Hahaha

It was quite funny! Luckily, it didn’t come to that and they finally left so we could get our clue.

Our clue sent us up to Deck 10 to solve our case. When we got up there, there was a grandma with her granddaughter and grandson getting clues from the painting we needed. Again, the kids decided that each of them needed to try the painting. We looked at the artwork in the stairwell and took some selfies in the mirror to pass the time.

First Attempt…could be better

Much worse

Almost got it…

We did it!

The family was finally done with the painting and we solved our case! Woo hoo! We still had about 10 minutes until we could go to dinner so we decided to slowly make our way down to the Enchanted Garden and checked out the artwork along the way.

Does anyone else find this concept art of King Triton to be a little too sexy? Hahaha

Concept art for Lady and the Tramp

We arrived to dinner and were shocked by what we saw…

We are the first ones to arrive!! Wooo hooo!

It was a shock to both of us. We couldn’t believe that we were finally the first couple at the table. We knew we had a slightly better chance because one of the couples was going to Palo tonight for their anniversary. So we only had one couple to beat to dinner. Regardless, this meant that we would finally not have to sit in the middle seats. The other couple showed up a few minutes later and we told them how we were shocked that we finally were the first ones to dinner.

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 12, 2013

For an appetizer, I ordered the duck quesadilla. It sounded a little strange but LaToya recommended it. I don’t remember what Wes got but I have a picture.

Duck quesadilla

Wes’ appetizer

The duck quesadilla was excellent! I also ordered the coronation of mixed greens salad and it was very tasty.

For dinner, I finally decided to order some beef. We both got the NY Strip and I thought it was good but not great.

For dessert, I went with the lemon cheesecake, which (surprise) was very lemony. Wes got the sugar free strawberry something and he said it was delicious. He also ordered a chocolate dessert and he took a bite before I could take a picture. He liked it but said the strawberry one was better.

At dinner, Cristian decided to give us some brainteasers using crayons. The first one he did was a horse and he told us to move only one crayon to change the direction of the horse. It was really challenging and the four of us sat there for a while trying out different scenarios. Finally, Wes figured it out. Yay Wes!

He gave us another one and told us to move two crayons to turn 3 triangles into 4. This one was worse than the last. We were stumped. Finally Cristian came over and moved the two crayons to make “4 triangle”. He made the number 4 and then there was one triangle. You should have seen Cristian when he revealed his clever little puzzle. Hahaha

He just started cracking up laughing at us for not figuring it out. He really got a kick out of himself, which made me crack up because he was so funny laughing at us. He gave us a couple more teasers and I am proud to say that I solved two of them!

Go me!

After dinner, it was back to the room real quick so Wes could change.

Elephant

Tonight we decided to go to the POP game show in the Tube. We hadn’t been to any of the bars in Europa at night yet, so we thought this sounded like fun. And, after the POP trivia, it was an 80s music trivia challenge! I decided to leave my camera in the room and just use my phone for the rest of the night.

When we got to the Tube, we found a table to the left of the stage. I looked over and saw the other couple from our table who had eaten at Palo tonight! We decided to go sit with them so we could chat and team up for the music challenge. I ordered a Mai Tai.

Cute straw, tasty drink.

The POP game show was pretty fun. We were split up into teams; the left side and the right side. It’s a little hard to explain the game but it was a combination of pop culture trivia, memory and physical challenges. The physical challenges were pretty funny. During the game show, we were introduced to Stefan, a French Canadian, who had to act out the “show me the money” line from Jerry Maguire. He had the entire place cracking up!

Next up was 80s music trivia and Tina, our trivia leader, announced that teams could get extra points if they came up and danced during certain songs where she said it was a bonus round. Well, the first song was Beat It by Michael Jackson and Stefan jumped up on the dance floor and started doing Michael Jackson dance moves right away. Everyone was cheering and laughing. Tina complimented him on his dance moves and then informed him that it wasn’t a bonus round.

We did pretty good on the challenge with 43 out of 50 points but there were a couple teams who got 50 out of 50 due to the bonus dancing rounds. We decided to stay for an 80s and 90s music dance party and said goodbye to the other couple as they weren’t staying for the dance party. I was hoping that the dance party would be a good time but there weren’t many people left. The trivia had been packed with people and by the time the dance party started, there were only about 20 people left in the Tube including cast members.

I danced for a couple songs and ordered another Mai Tai. I even got Wes to dance with me! We showed off some of our newly learned salsa moves.

After our salsa dancing, we took a seat to finish our drinks. The place had really cleared out and there were only 2 ladies dancing on the dance floor. There was a guy sitting near the dance floor staring at the ladies and he just closed his eyes and shook his head in disapproval of their dance moves. Hahaha

It was hilarious. It was so funny seeing this guy sitting alone and disapproving of these ladies dance moves. Throughout the rest of the cruise, Wes and I would occasionally look at each other, close our eyes and shake our head in disapproval.

Once the disapproving guy left the Tube, we decided it was time to go to bed. We quickly finished our drinks and left. It was a little after midnight and the atrium area was pretty empty so I took just a couple pictures before heading back to the room.

So pretty

We made it back to the room and went to bed to another Disney movie.

Up next: Our adventure with Mayan commercialism in Cozumel

englanddg · Jun 12, 2013

Mayan commercialism?

Hrm...do tell!

Tidbit · Jun 13, 2013

Don't "they" meaning our husband's or children "know" they can NOT take a bite of Disney food BEFORE Mom takes a picture!!! LOL My kids are like "Mom, hurry up I'm starving! Or didn't you take the same picture last year??!!! LOL" Well I got news for them I just got a new Tamron lens, so look out hungry children!! LOL

AWESOME trip report so far, and I can't wait to read more!!!

englanddg · Jun 13, 2013

Tidbit said:
Don't "they" meaning our husband's or children "know" they can NOT take a bite of Disney food BEFORE Mom takes a picture!!! LOL My kids are like "Mom, hurry up I'm starving! Or didn't you take the same picture last year??!!! LOL" Well I got news for them I just got a new Tamron lens, so look out hungry children!! LOL

AWESOME trip report so far, and I can't wait to read more!!!

Fittingly, the pose of your avatar matches your post!

I can hear her saying "tsk tsk!" in my head!

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 13, 2013

Holy cripes if we'd had weather that gorgeous on our Costa Maya day I don't think we'd have gone back to the ship. We may have just said said, "Eff it. We're staying forever." The salsa y'all made looks sooooo good! Yum! I bet it's a healthy thing, too, huh? I can do that! The dancing...uh...I would do it. Tracey? Nooooooope. Love that y'all rushed back for trivia. That's cool! I love '80s stuff. And the POP show! We really considered going to that but it prob'ly was time for more meds so I wasn't up to it. We spent waaaaay too many nights vegging in bed watching on-demand movies. LOL! We *may* or *may NOT* have ordered a dozen Mickey crispy treats on-a-stick and/or Mickey's premium bars from room service for in-bed movies.

This is such a fun report to read since we were in all the same places right after y'all. The contrast is so neat. What's even MORE fun is taking notes from your perspective to use for our September do-over. Lovin' it! Can't wait to see what Cozumel did for y'all!

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 13, 2013

englanddg said:
Awesome! Great shots of the boat.

Now, I really can't wait to see her in August!

The Fantasy is absolutely stunning! We loved the Dream, so it was no surprise that it's sister ship would also be amazing.

englanddg said:
Mayan commercialism?

Hrm...do tell!

Hahaha you will see...

Tidbit said:
Don't "they" meaning our husband's or children "know" they can NOT take a bite of Disney food BEFORE Mom takes a picture!!! LOL My kids are like "Mom, hurry up I'm starving! Or didn't you take the same picture last year??!!! LOL" Well I got news for them I just got a new Tamron lens, so look out hungry children!! LOL

AWESOME trip report so far, and I can't wait to read more!!!

I know, right?! They should know by now that they aren't allowed to touch their food until we have a picture.

I told Wes that if he didn't want to wait for me to take a picture he had to order the same thing that I did. Hahaha

Thanks for reading!

sweetpee_1993 said:
Holy cripes if we'd had weather that gorgeous on our Costa Maya day I don't think we'd have gone back to the ship. We may have just said said, "Eff it. We're staying forever." The salsa y'all made looks sooooo good! Yum! I bet it's a healthy thing, too, huh? I can do that! The dancing...uh...I would do it. Tracey? Nooooooope. Love that y'all rushed back for trivia. That's cool! I love '80s stuff. And the POP show! We really considered going to that but it prob'ly was time for more meds so I wasn't up to it. We spent waaaaay too many nights vegging in bed watching on-demand movies. LOL! We *may* or *may NOT* have ordered a dozen Mickey crispy treats on-a-stick and/or Mickey's premium bars from room service for in-bed movies.

This is such a fun report to read since we were in all the same places right after y'all. The contrast is so neat. What's even MORE fun is taking notes from your perspective to use for our September do-over. Lovin' it! Can't wait to see what Cozumel did for y'all!

We were so lucky with weather. It was hard to leave that beautiful beach but we really wanted to win that trivia. I'm all about free stuff! And I love our water bottles that we won so it was well worth it! I literally had to beg Wes to get on the dance floor. Normally he wouldn't so don't be too jealous. Hahaha We loved the onDemand movies! We watched parts of movies every night before we went to bed and would normally finish watching them while we were getting ready for the show or dinner. That is such an awesome feature of the staterooms! I know that you can watch movies anytime but to have an extensive library of Disney owned movies at your fingertips is amazing! I am sad to say that we didn't order a single Mickey rice crispy treat or premimum bar from room service!

It just never crossed my mind while we were in our room to order one. I need to write that down so I remember next time! Hahaha I saw your Instagram picture with all your rice crispy treats and I was sooooo jealous! Next time I'm hoarding them like it's my job.

I'm glad I'm giving you some ideas for your September do-over.

You are giving me a lot of ideas just from your comments to my trip report so I can't wait to read yours!

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 17, 2013

Wednesday May 15th – Tequila and Mayan Ruins in Cozumel

This morning we ordered room service to arrive between 7 and 7:30am. At 7:12, there was a knock on the door and I was still tired so Wes ate his breakfast while I slept a little longer. I woke up about 10 minutes later and ate my portion of the room service. Sorry, no pictures. We were already docked in Cozumel when we woke up this morning.

Good morning, Cozumel!

We were meeting for our excursion in the Walt Disney Theater at 8:30. Today we were going on the Cozumel Highlights and Mayan Ruins excursion and were in the Pongo group. We didn’t wait very long after arriving in the theater before we made our way off the ship.

We walked down the pier and then through a shopping center to get to our bus. This was our first encounter with the vendors in Cozumel. We were on our way to the bus so none of us could stop to make any purchases but that didn’t stop the vendors from trying.

View form the escalator up to the shopping center

We boarded our nice, air-conditioned bus and picked seats a few rows back from the front. We wanted to be close to the tour guide so we would be able to hear him. After our tour in Grand Cayman, we didn’t want to take any chances.

Our tour guide was David and our driver was Antonio. The first stop on our tour was the Mayan Ruins. I was excited for this because I am fascinated with ruins of any kind. There’s so much to learn from them.

We arrived at the San Gervasio Ruins and David let us know that we would have a few minutes to go “pee pee” before our tour. I thought it was humorous that he said “pee pee”.

Yes, I’m a child. Hahaha More on the “pee pee” talk later.

Courtyard before you enter the area with the ruins

You can see that there are shops in the courtyard area. Wes used the restroom when we arrived and some of the shop attendants were trying to sell me merchandise while I waited for him. I was in the center of the courtyard, away from the shops, and they were yelling “Hey Miss! Come look at this.” I ignored them and continued waiting.

About 5 minutes after arriving, it was time to start our tour. Woo hoo!

Yikes! That’s a big iguana.

David started our tour with telling us of the history of San Gervasio. Apparently, the land was purchased by a man with the last name Gervasio, hence the names of the ruins. The real name of the area is sadly lost to history. This man who owned the land, decided to use dynamite to excavate a lot of the ruins and essentially destroyed a ton of artifacts. It’s really sad. Luckily, the Mexican government bought the land and was able to salvage some of the ruins.

David was a pretty funny tour guide. Before he would tell us something he would say “I’m sorry to tell you” or “Do you want me to tell you? Okay, I will tell you.” He was very entertaining. He walked us around to several different structures and informed us what each building was.

I spy an Iguana!

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 17, 2013

After the last structure, David let us have about 20 minutes to explore and then meet back on the bus.

This arch was the entrance to the Mayan village. There was a seven or nine mile, don’t remember now, road that led the Mayan people from the ocean to the city right through this arch.

Around this time, my camera battery started flashing. Darn it. I forgot to charge it before our excursion. I knew that I would have to use my battery wisely since we still had 3 other stops to go. Luckily, I had also brought my iPhone so I had a back up just in case.

We were walking along a path back to the bus and we were following behind another couple. All the sudden they stopped and we weren’t sure why so we walked around them. I looked over and could see why they stopped.

YIKES!

The ruins were pretty cool. I was sad that there wasn’t any giant pyramid type structure to see but it was still a cool experience. David informed us that there was a pyramid ruin on the property but it wasn’t open to the public. Bummer.

Next up on our tour was the tequila factory. Wes was really excited for this part of the excursion.

We arrived at the tequila factory and were given a brief history on how tequila is made. There were some kids on our excursion and it is worth mentioning that the kids were taken to a piñata party instead of the area with the tequila.

We were told to pick up some little cups for our tequila tasting. Señor Tequila walked around the room with bottles of tequila with pump tops on them and gave everyone a couple pumps of each flavor of tequila.

TEQUILA!

This is me after a few tastes of tequila.

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 17, 2013

We tried all kinds of flavors of tequila. I didn’t even realize that they had that many kinds. There was Añejo, coffee, orange, and cherry flavored. There was also a blue kind and some other varieties. I stopped tasting after the 5th one they gave us. I just couldn’t taste any more tequila. Hahaha Again, we were given some time after our tequila tasting to look around and make purchases. I took the time to take some pictures.

Pretty fountain in front of the tequila factory

So you know how I mentioned that David kept telling us that we could go “pee pee”? Well, in Cozumel, they actually call restrooms “pee pee stations”!

David made sure and pointed out the sign to us and explained that this is what they call restrooms. I guess he didn’t want us to think it was funny that he kept saying “pee pee”. Hahaha

I’m such a child.

Our next stop was the beach. While on the drive to the beach, I accidentally put the lenses of my camera right up against my leg. Ugh! Why?! I smudged it pretty good and we didn’t have anything to clean it with without risking damaging the lens. I was so mad at myself. I sure was having trouble with this DSLR. It was time to switch to the iPhone.

We got to the beach and were given 15 minutes to explore. There were some vendors on the beach, selling various souvenirs and snacks. There were also some rocks that David warned us were very sharp so if you weren’t wearing good shoes or you were slightly clumsy, you should avoid. The beach was gorgeous!

I wasn’t sure if we should try climbing any of the rocks but Wes thought we should be okay.

We started climbing the rocks where they had this giant Mexican flag and I saw this.

A hole straight down to the water. A little scary…

I started having a slight freak out at this point because I was so worried that I would fall in the water. I told Wes and he let me hold his hand as we walked back down to the sand. What a nice husband!

We got back on the bus and made our way to our final destination, a Mayan village called El Cedral. We drove into the village and David let us know that people only live in the houses there on the weekends. He said that if they stayed at the houses during the week, they would have a 20 minute commute to work which is just too long.

What some of us would give for a 20 minute commute, am I right?

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 17, 2013

There were more shops at El Cedral and people there with some animals to take pictures with. There was also a guy dressed as an ancient Mayan. They didn’t charge for the picture but they wanted tips. Every time you walked past them, they asked if you wanted a picture. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t already been to 3 other destinations that also had shopping.

We got back on the bus and heard a guy said, “Let’s go back to the ship. We’ve seen enough Mayan commercialism for one day.” We couldn’t help but laugh because we really had seen a lot of shops and vendors throughout our excursion. There wasn’t a single stop that had less than 3 shops or vendors, and that includes the beach. It was a little intense.

We made our way back to the ship and Wes dozed off for a little bit.

We were dropped off on the other side of the shopping center and then made a beeline to the ship. We had had enough of the vendors and I wasn’t in the mood to be harassed any more. We moved really quickly and managed to avoid any more vendors trying to sell us anything.

We really enjoyed our excursion. I learned a ton of interesting facts about the Mayans, we got to try some tequila and got to see a beautiful beach. The only downside was all the vendors. I get it that there are shops around tourist attractions but it was a little much that we had to fend them off at each and every stop. Before our cruise, this excursion was the one Wes was most looking forward to but after he said that the Salsa & Salsa excursion in Costa Maya was actually his favorite.

We got back to the ship around 1:45 and went up to Cabanas to grab some lunch.

After lunch, we went to our room to change into our bathing suits and then up to Satellite Falls. I left my camera in the room so I could charge the battery. iPhone pictures would have to do.

Satellite Falls was pretty empty so we had our pick of seats. We sat out for a while and enjoyed the pool. Before we headed back to the room, we decided to ride the AquaDuck. We hadn’t been on it yet and luckily the ship wasn’t that crowded so the line was pretty short. I like the AquaDuck but riding it once was enough for me.

After our ride, I took some more pictures and then it was time for some ice cream.

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 17, 2013

When we got back to our room, we found this little guy.

Iron Man 3 was showing in the Walt Disney Theater at 5:15 so we quickly showered and got ready. It was also Pirate night but sadly we didn’t have any pirate attire. This would have to do.

We got good seats right behind the control booth in the theater. A family sat next to me and left one seat in-between us. Right when the movie started, the little boy decided to move and sit in the seat right next to me. That would have been fine except he decided that he would continue to stand up and then sit back down, stand up, sit down, stand up and sit down. He did it repeatedly and I thought that maybe it would stop but he just kept doing it. He probably did it for a minute straight and finally I leaned in and said, “Can you please stay seated? Thank you.” The little boy looked at me and then sat back down. A few minutes later he moved to his original seat. Hahaha I felt bad but I really couldn’t handle sitting next to him all movie with him doing that. There was also a family behind us who had a son who was probably around 2 years old who, midway through the movie, sounded like he was throwing up, and the parents didn’t do anything about it for a solid 5 minutes. I even saw the kid covering his mouth as he was making the hacking noises and his parents were just watching the movie. Crazy times.

Aside from the drama with the people around us, we really enjoyed the movie! I was so excited that they were showing this movie on our cruise. After the movie, we went up to Deck 12 to see the Pirate show before dinner.

I love this painting.

I realized that I should have brought my big lens so I could get a good shot of the stage. Oh well.

There’s Cruise Director Brent Davies in full costume! He’s the best.

The show was cute but it was definitely geared towards the kiddies. I don’t remember seeing the whole thing on our last cruise so I wanted to give it a try. After the show, it was time to head down to dinner. We walked through Cabanas and saw them setting up for the buffet that would follow the fireworks.

So cool!

Tonight, dinner was at the Royal Court. It felt a little strange having Pirate Night in such a fancy restaurant. The other two couples at our table were dressed up so we felt bad that we didn’t wear anything. LaToya asked us where our bandanas were and I had to confess that we left them in the room. We’re terrible. Before our next cruise, we need to get some puffy shirts.

I love this menu.

Since it was Pirate Night, I decided that ordering a Mai Tai was necessary.

Yummy

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 17, 2013

For appetizers, I ordered the crab cake and Wes got some kind of pot stickers. The crab cake was very tasty and Wes also enjoyed his appetizer. I also ordered the conch soup which was also very good.

For entrees, I got the shrimp and scallop pasta and I’m not sure what Wes got. I think it was a beef dish.

For dessert, I got the sugar free Angel food cake. It wasn’t good. The previous night, Wes had ordered a sugar free dessert and said it was great so I thought it might be okay but it was not.

After dinner, we went back to the room to change before the fireworks. I knew it was windy up on deck so I switched out of the dress and put some pants on. When we got back to our room, was saw this beauty on our fish.

Yay! Palo tomorrow night!

We quickly changed clothes and lenses, and we were off to Deck 12 starboard side.

Unfortunately, by the time we got up to Deck 12, there were no spaces near the railing so we had to stand behind some people. I was bummed since I brought my big lenses and I really didn’t have a very good view. I just held up the camera and hoped I could get a shot.

My big lens really did come in handy for Jack Sparrow’s entrance though!

The show was okay, but we really couldn’t see it very well so it is hard to know if we would have liked it better if we had a better view. Next up were the fireworks. It is just so cool that they can do this off a ship out in the middle of the ocean. Amazing.

My lens was not great for fireworks since it zoomed in way too close. I took a few pictures without really looking through the viewfinder and just enjoyed the fireworks.

One semi decent shot.

There was another show before the pirate dance party so we grabbed a spot along the railing and watched.

Once Club Pirate started, we made our way to Cabanas to check out the spread. I wasn’t hungry but I figured I could take some pictures. My big lens wouldn’t work, so the iPhone it was. It was neat seeing all of the watermelon carvings fully setup with decorations.

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 17, 2013

TURKEY LEGS! I’m sad to say I didn’t get one.

Love this mural!

Wes grabbed a plate of fruit (yes, with all of those food options, Wes went with fruit

) and we headed back to the room to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Wonder why I was in the mood for that?

We fell asleep sometime after midnight.

Up next: Beautiful day at sea

Bring Your Swim Trunks and Your Flippie-Floppies. It’s a Fantasy Cruise Report!

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