There is something magical about eating breakfast with a Caribbean breeze wafting around me as the ship steams over the smooth blue sea. I caught myself wondering what lies beneath us. What living creatures are just out of sight under the surface? What stories the wrecks lying on the sea floor could share?
Another cruise ship sits just above the horizon, kind of paralleling us. I wonder how far away she is? I know nothing about gauging distance at sea. I can cover her with my middle finger tip. She’s fascinating to watch as over the course of less than a minute, she gets smaller and then larger. Just now she’s almost disappeared, I can only presume a small fog bank has swallowed her, yep! Now I can see the sun glinting on her bow as she emerges.
I enjoyed yesterday. We spent the morning docked at Costa Maya, which I discovered was a multi-cruise line venture project. Apparently, a few years ago, several of them got together to turn that tiny village in a major stop by building a huge pier accommodating half a dozen large cruise ships, no tendering like has to happen at Cozumel. Here passengers just walk off and on. Very useful for folks who want the comfort of their cabin supplemented by the shopping, dining and activities offered just a short walk away. On the topic of other cruise ships, I was in error in an earlier post – the largest ship not named Avalanche, it is the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas, which is indeed enormous, overshadowing even the MSC ship next to it.
I wandered around for a while, bought tees for Bill and Caleb, a fan for Jessica and a tee and earrings for me. I know, I know, I can’t believe I fell for Antonio’s hype, but my refusal to buy at his first stated price had him offering “a deal just for you, ‘cause you seem like a nice lady.” The 35% price drop brought the earrings down to what I would have spent in the US. And they look great with my bracelet.
I watched a dolphin show and caught the tail end of a Mayan dance/chant show. Impressive. I would have stayed for the next performance but I was beginning to melt in the heat and knew I had that walk back to the ship.
Even the palm trees were clad in Mayan colors!!
Met Scott and Dianne for lunch in the Great Outdoors, which has become my go-to place on the ship. (Seldom crowded and the wind through the rigging over whelms most of the chatter from neighboring tables.) The three of us spent nearly 3 hours talking. We covered gun control, Trump’s actions with the Haitians, immigration policies, first dates, family stressors, holiday food favorites and the lack of equality in anything in this world. I adore these two people!!!
We separated for naps and quiet time. Then met at Moderno to dine a la Churrascaria. The dinner was superb. We all ate too much, as always happens to me when I do this because the portions are so small that I pay no attention to how many I’m eating. My favorites for the night were the lime cooked pork sausage and the roasted pineapple slices. Dianne agreed with me about the pineapple (she had 7 slices!). Scott is planning how to bake their own pineapple in his countertop rotisserie at home. I was tickled they so enjoyed the experience as it was one my free meals and they had to pay. I even got thee two non-drinkers to sample my Strawberry caipirinha.
Several hours after we sat down, Scott and Dianne booked it to the show so they could get their usual seats. I declined as magicians aren’t really my thing; I rather read a good book, which I am at the moment – The Names of the Dead by Kevin Wignall.
I discovered today that the stateroom corridors’ carpet of swimming fish has a purpose: the fish are all swimming forward toward the bow and the every so often red fish has turn around and is swimming aft. Very handy for passengers!! This tidbit of information should be in every welcome packet!!!!!
Back to today. Saturday morning and the day holds promise. The wind has picked up while I’ve been typing and the swells are running high enough now that ship has a slight roll. I can’t help but snicker internally as QM2 would be so rock steady in this environment that surgery would be possible.
I’ve been reviewing my last few posts and have decided they offer a slightly negative view of NCL Sun which is not fair. She offers many positives which may seem minor but kind of like eating churrascaria mount up. The closet organization and layout is marvelous as is the stateroom storage design, which offers multiple stateroom inhabitants their own spaces, unlike Cunard which has everything all one one spot. The USB ports set in the bed headboards are genius! Best of all, I discovered Florida residents get a discount!!! I will definitely be sailing with this line again, even if I have to drive to Tampa.
I found out Costa Maya is also Quintana Roo, famous Maya site!
I found out Costa Maya is also Quintana Roo, famous Maya site!
I spent the afternoon with Scott and Dianne, who taught me to play their version of canasta. Yes, it's true I willingly played a card game!! No, the tropical sun has not affected my brain!! It's part of my "Do something new" vow. Here's the kicker, beginner's luck showed up and I won! Not saying when I'll play again, but it was not as bad as I thought 8 out of 10. I'm guessing try pleasure was more due to the other players rather than the strategy of gaming.
I learned today that you can wait too long to make dinner reservations. I had such fun eating with the Hantons this cruise that I didn't use my 2nd dinner credit until tonight, only to discover that the only times available in the three restaurants that had spots left were 8;45 PM and 9:00 PM, neither appealed, so I chose to lose the free meal upgrade and dined with Scott and Dianne one last time.
Over all, this has been a 10 out of 10 week. I really like this short cruise and I am very sure I'll be taking it again. Very relaxing and entertaining.
