Winter Break 2024. Chapter 6. Bags Out By 10PM.
We woke up this morning in sunny Cozumel, Mexico.
Friday
We didn’t plan an excursion today because it’s always gross, so we took our sweet time. We opted to have breakfast in Central Park at the Park Café. More limited fare, but enough to get by and less crowded. The weather was nice and we ate outside in the park. Behind us were a table of Jews that only just figured out that the frosted donuts were Kosher. I don’t understand how they went 5 days without knowing that, or at least asking the staff or any of 1 million other Jews around. Anyway, good for them.
We decided that we were going to get off the ship and walk around the port because, as Texas Todd said at the shopping talk on Day 2, Cozumel has the best shopping. Well, he must have low standards. It’s your general kind of gross port. Same stores, same people trying to call you in, same crap sold at every store, and same token Israelis trying to sell you skincare. The first thing we did was get the kids’ hair braided. Hallie has been asking all cruise, and I kept telling her that last year when she got them done she took them out within 24 hours, but alas, there we were getting the braids. We got some free charms, spent way too much money for color changing t shirts at Del Sol. The kids also bought color changing putty, because apparently that’s what they came to Mexico for. I also bought a rum cake, much to Tzvi’s protesting. [Tzvi: Every cruise we go on, Steph buys a rum cake. She brings it home, sticks it in the cabinet, and a year and a half later I throw it in the garbage. Well, not this time. She has 2 weeks to eat it or I’m tossing it.] Then we got back on the ship and left Inbar to do some shopping at the port (really trying to press her luck there).
Back on the ship we had lunch at the buffet and then hung out at the pool. It’s always fun to be on the ship on port days because it is so much emptier.
Around 3pm Inbar came and took the girls and we went to the spa for our 75 minute couples’ massages. Like every other cruise they try to upsell you (‘you really need hot stones’) which isn’t fun, but the massages were actually great. After that we went back to the room and got ready for Shabbat, watched the sail-away from Cozumel, and then went down to take some photos before dinner.
Tonight was formal night, and we were originally going eat in the dining room, but because we rescheduled things due to Tzvi’s illness, tonight was Jamie’s Italian. I’m kind of sad we didn’t get to see all the Jewish families doing Shabbat, but oh well.
The meal was great, except the girls were a little nuts. The restaurant is located in Central Park, so the kids kept going in and out. There was another family there, clearly Jews, with 5 kids between 21 and 2 years old, and one on the way. At first the baby kept hugging Hallie and leading her around by the hand, which Hallie just found entertaining. Then they tried to take the baby back to the table to feed it, and she was not happy to leave Hallie. From then on, that baby did not stop screaming and it took them forever to take her out.
After dinner, we took the girls back to the room and Inbar stayed with them while Tzvi and I saw Columbus, the second show of the cruise, with the same performers as Grease. I thought I was ok, not great, not bad, enjoyable. It was pretty silly – it was the story of Christopher Columbus’ cousin Marvin, who’s father sends him on his own ship to find his own destiny. It was all contemporary pop songs and there was a huge ship on the stage that rotated and moved around, which was fun. But the story was just ridiculous and ended with them hitting land in Florida and running into a Royal Caribbean ship. The cruise director came out, and then somehow Marvin’s father got younger even though he was 600 years old. I think the most notable thing about the show was that we got an awful Kahlua and cream. I said earlier that you couldn’t mess those up. I was wrong.
After the show we got a better Kahlua and Cream, and then we went to bed.
Saturday
We woke up with no idea what time it was. It’s amazing how much calmer the seas have been the past two or three days. It’s actually been enjoyable. We knew that we likely wouldn’t have a ton of sun today, so we got ready for the pool early and went to get chairs. They are pretty strict about not reserving chairs, so we had to come up with a game plan. It would take too long to go to the regular buffet, especially with the huge line and only 8 sinks. So, instead we opted for the Solarium Bistro, located in the adults only area, but open to kids for breakfast. It was actually great, had most of the options the buffet had, and had zero wait. Good call.
We spent the morning at the pool, and at one point I went downstairs to get coffee and go to the Veterans salute. This was a wonderful tribute to the members of the armed forces, veterans, and fallen soldiers. There was a huge American flag hung from the ceiling, and a large cupcake flag display. They went through every war since WWII and acknowledged the veterans in the crowd. They also shouted out all non-US citizens who have served their country. Unfortunately, Inbar wasn’t there. Then the cruise director read a poem given to him by a veteran, and a veteran from Vietnam (I think) read another poem. They ended with taps and the national anthem. It was such a nice display of appreciation that is too rarely seen.
I went back to the pool and we swam and went to the hot tub for a while. Then, around noon, the skies opened up, and that was it. We were in for the day. There was lightning and very quick (and loud) thunder.
For lunch we wanted to go to Johnny Rockets, but apparently so did everyone else. We ended up waiting and actually getting a table. I was surprised by the lack of tuna in my sandwich, but otherwise it was a good meal and everyone loved the onion rings. It finally stopped raining and we spent a lot of time riding the Abyss, climbing the kiddie rock wall, and just hanging at the Boardwalk. They had a kids “carnival” with some cute games and balloon animals for the kids as well.
Around 5pm we all went to the Royal Promenade to watch the flash mob. There were tons of people waiting to see it, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. Inbar was the best one, but the young religious boy and his mother came in at a close second.
After that we had to get to a 5pm dinner, our last in the dining room, and we also had to pack. There wasn’t time for both, and neither could be undertaken without first getting drinks, Tzvi went to the Trelis Bar in Central Park and ordered a couple of drinks to bring to the room. Tzvi has been trying to get someone to make him a margarita with mezcal this whole trip, but none of the bars have had mezcal. Well, he finally found it. Apparently this was impressive to the man sitting at the bar, who asked where Tzvi was from. When Tzvi said New York, the man was shocked. “A New Yorker who likes mezcal?” The man was a Vietnam vet and gave Tzvi his card, which interestingly doesn’t actually have his contact information.
No one was hungry for dinner, but we did what we could. Luckily there wasn’t much worth eating, so we didn’t miss out. The humus appetizer was pretty bad, and Tzvi’s moussaka was basically an uncooked mess. My pecan crusted salmon was meh. The best thing we had was the apple crumble.
After dinner we had reservations for the final attempt at performing the Fine Line, the Aqua show they kept cancelling. Well, today they finally did it! The show was very cool. There was lots of diving and for the finale a man did a tightrope walk 55 feet above the deck and then dove from that height. The girls really enjoyed it.
When that ended we did our final night shopping. We bought some shirts and Hallie got a keychain model of the ship. Then we went to the photo area to buy our photos, for which we paid a million dollars. Cruise ship photos are kind of like airport tuna sandwiches; their prices have no basis in reality.
Tzvi took Madeleine back to the room to go to sleep which Hallie and I walked around and got her last strawberry daquiri. Inbar went to her last 18-25 gathering. And then Tzvi and I got our last Kahlua and Cream. Tzvi was hungry because he hadn’t actually eaten at dinner, but there was nothing to get other than pizza, which wasn’t great.
We did a final walk around the ship to check out all of the areas we’d never seen, and then went to bed.
Sunday
Sunday morning we woke up too early. We had luggage tag 64, which was the last luggage tag, meaning we were supposed to be the last ones off the ship. The luggage had been taken away the night before, so all we had to do was get up, dress and go to breakfast. That’s why we set our alarm for 8am. Unfortunately, at 730 am they started making announcements over the PA system… in our room! I’ve never had that before and it was not pleasant.
Anyway, we went for our last breakfast at Windjammer and sat at our usual seats at the back of the buffet. For some reason it was like a Jew only section. All around us. Every table. A large group of them even had personalized sweatshirts (I kind of want to do that for next cruise). We kept hearing announcements that it was time to get off the ship, but we were all taking our sweet time. The entire buffet was empty except for our section. It kind of felt like a kiddush where we all just hang around until the last possible minute.
Finally it was time to get off the ship. We were all very nervous. We had spent the last week trying not to think about what would happen to Inbar when she got off the ship. We were all hoping the answer would be nothing, but there was always the chance they would stop her and make a fuss, that she’d need to enter the US on her tourist visa and then be kicked out of the program and sent home in 30 days.
We swiped our sea pass cards one last time and stepped off the ship and then headed down the ramp to the terminal to find out whether or not Inbar would be permitted back into the United States.
