Seven Days on the Dawn and Christmas in New Orleans: A Review

[PaulInPGH]

 

Nachi.

[PaulInPGH]

 

More Nachi.

[PaulInPGH]

We spent a while enjoying the peaceful water before heading over to the swim-up bar for another round of drinks. Last time we were at Nachi, the bartender made us tequila slammer shots—a fun mixture of tequila and Sprite, which you slam on the bar to make fizz, then slam down your throat. I guess things have gone wrong with that shot though, as they were unwilling to make them this time around. We settled for more frozen concoctions, to help fight off the heat of the day.

 

We hopped out of the pool and settled back in our loungers. We wanted to order some food, but our waiter was nowhere to be found. After a bit of a wait, we were able to order some very tasty food—amazingly fresh, large shrimp for me, and my wife was able to get her all-time favorite ceviche.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Lunch at Nachi.

[PaulInPGH]

We spent an extremely enjoyable day swimming in the ocean and relaxing on the beach. The only negative was our waiter, who completely vanished after putting in our first food order. Last time we were at Nachi, the service was absolutely unbelievable, but this waiter went M.I.A., which left us at a bit of a loss when we wanted to order more food. We didn’t see him again until we went to leave, but other than his poor service, we had a great day. If you’re looking for a place to have a relaxing day at a beautiful beach, I can’t recommend Nachi Cocom highly enough.

 

Even though we didn’t need to be back to the ship until 3:30, we decided to head back at 2:00. There were seven ships in port that day, carrying over 23,000 passengers, so we intended not to get stuck in a ridiculous return-to-ship traffic jam. This turned out to be a good call, as the return trip that typically takes 20 minutes took more like 45. We made it back without a problem, though navigating the Punto Langosta pier area was a bit confusing.

[PaulInPGH]

Enjoying the review. We too have a private tour with Victor Bodden so appreciate the advice. There is meet and greet first day at sea if you check out the Jan 29 roll call. Getting excited. This is my sister's second cruise but my 14th. My husband and I are on the Celebrity Equinox in October. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences!

 

 

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Glad you're enjoying the review. I'd definitely like to reach my 14th cruise one day. We actually considered a land-based vacation next, but we loved our Dawn cruise so much we changed course and are now booked on our first Med cruise this October. I'm afraid my review of that ten-day, ten-port cruise is going to be a hundred pages long.

[bigblue1952]

Wonderful review. Love the food pictures.

[BACHI04]

Enjoyed your informative posts, we are taking this cruise in Feb.

[PaulInPGH]

Since we were full of food and sun, we decided to take a short nap when we got back to our cabin. There’s something about relaxing on the beach all day that really takes it out of you, you know?

 

Feeling refreshed, we walked up to deck 12 to see if Los Lobos had any openings. Having popped in most every night, either to eat or to grab a drink at the tequila bar, I think the staff at Los Lobos was starting to grow rather fond of us. They found us a table right away, so we ended up topping off our day of Mexican food with an evening of Mexican dinner. This time, I had enough belly room to not only eat my empanadas, but to also eat a very tasty chicken quesadilla. My wife returned to her favorite queso fundido and also tried the chicken enchiladas with mole sauce.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Chicken enchiladas.

[PaulInPGH]

We finished dinner and had just enough time to squeeze in a Tropical Paloma before heading down to Bliss to watch the Second City family-friendly improv show (they’d do an adults only show the next night). Again, this show was absolutely hilarious. It was also packed, so be sure to get there early if you want a seat.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Second City.

[PaulInPGH]

After the comedy, we headed over to the theater to watch the Elements show. For a blind man, this show had very little appeal. And my wife, who can see, felt that the show was unremarkable.

 

We’d intended to head back to Bliss to watch the adults only comedy show by Julie Barr. Unfortunately, my day of feasting on Mexican food caught up with me, and without going in to any detail, let’s just say we went back to our cabin and made it an early night, and leave it at that.

 

Coming soon: our last day at sea, but definitely not our last day of vacation.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Sunset from our balcony.

[Russ Lomas]

Loving your wonderful review. We fully agree with your comments on Nachi. It is our go-to place in Cozumel. Relaxing, nice beach, not busy, fantastic food and drinks, great value, nice pool, etc. We are heading back there again in March. We would love to try somewhere else but keep enjoying Nachi so much that we always re-book there.

 

The waiters have been ok but I totally agree that would be the most negative thing we could say about the place. They seem to go M.I.A. for long periods of time after the food is delivered. We had a spot in front of their recently built 2nd bar just down the beach so we just popped in there and ordered our drinks if our waiter was nowhere to be found. We also told them to send the waiter over to us if he stopped in there, which usually worked well too.

[PaulInPGH]

Loving your wonderful review. We fully agree with your comments on Nachi. It is our go-to place in Cozumel. Relaxing, nice beach, not busy, fantastic food and drinks, great value, nice pool, etc. We are heading back there again in March. We would love to try somewhere else but keep enjoying Nachi so much that we always re-book there.

 

The waiters have been ok but I totally agree that would be the most negative thing we could say about the place. They seem to go M.I.A. for long periods of time after the food is delivered. We had a spot in front of their recently built 2nd bar just down the beach so we just popped in there and ordered our drinks if our waiter was nowhere to be found. We also told them to send the waiter over to us if he stopped in there, which usually worked well too.

 

Yes, I forgot to mention the new second bar. We did the same thing when we wanted a small bite later in the afternoon before we went back to the ship.

 

With the addition of the second bar, I'd actually wondered if they'd started letting in more than 100 people, as it did seem busier than the first time we went a couple years ago. I think, though, the difference is our first trip was during that week right after Thanksgiving, before people cruise over the holidays. I think we had like 30 people at Nachi that day, and this time we had a full house. Still, however many people were there, it was still fantastic.

[Russ Lomas]

Yes, I forgot to mention the new second bar. We did the same thing when we wanted a small bite later in the afternoon before we went back to the ship.

 

With the addition of the second bar, I'd actually wondered if they'd started letting in more than 100 people, as it did seem busier than the first time we went a couple years ago. I think, though, the difference is our first trip was during that week right after Thanksgiving, before people cruise over the holidays. I think we had like 30 people at Nachi that day, and this time we had a full house. Still, however many people were there, it was still fantastic.

Yes, the addition of the new bar was great since we were at the far end of the resort area and it would have been a long walk back to the pool/bar area. Nice tables and hammock chairs in the bar as well, not to mention the washroom building and showers also added in another new building right behind the new bar.

 

In regards to your comment about permitting only 100 people and you believing they now permit more, I believe you are correct. We took a group of 30 and were seated next to a woman who said she had a group of 20. That would have been 50% capacity of Nachi. There were definitely more than another 50 people there that day. I walked from one side of the resort to the other and counted around 140 people. I am sure I missed some people as well as I did not go in the buildings area/washroom, etc. When I reviewed it on TripAdvisor, I gave them a fantastic review but did mention that they were over 100 people. They responded saying that they only allow 100 people and would investigate the day that I was there. That was the last I heard from them.

 

That said, it was still good enough we are booked with them for March with our group of 25.

[PaulInPGH]

Yes, the addition of the new bar was great since we were at the far end of the resort area and it would have been a long walk back to the pool/bar area. Nice tables and hammock chairs in the bar as well, not to mention the washroom building and showers also added in another new building right behind the new bar.

 

In regards to your comment about permitting only 100 people and you believing they now permit more, I believe you are correct. We took a group of 30 and were seated next to a woman who said she had a group of 20. That would have been 50% capacity of Nachi. There were definitely more than another 50 people there that day. I walked from one side of the resort to the other and counted around 140 people. I am sure I missed some people as well as I did not go in the buildings area/washroom, etc. When I reviewed it on TripAdvisor, I gave them a fantastic review but did mention that they were over 100 people. They responded saying that they only allow 100 people and would investigate the day that I was there. That was the last I heard from them.

 

That said, it was still good enough we are booked with them for March with our group of 25.

 

That is very interesting, thanks for sharing. Like you said, it definitely wouldn't prevent me from going there in future, but it does explain, too, why the service was worse this time around.

[SouthLakeDad]

It now states on Nachi Cocom's Facebook page that it is limited to 130 people per day. We love Nacho Cocom! We go there when we visit Cozumel by land as well. I was not going to reply to this thread as we were hoping to keep NC as our secret :) Mr. Sancho's is nice as well.

[PaulInPGH]

Day 8 (Cruise Day 7): A Lazy Day at Sea

 

On our final sea day, I finally got the lazy morning I’d been missing. We managed to sleep until 10:00, which was lovely.

 

With nothing on our agenda that morning, we ate a leisurely breakfast up at the Garden Café, which—most decent folks having been up for hours—was pleasantly calm. Okay, not calm, but not its usual madhouse.

 

After breakfast, we went down to the shops on deck 7 to buy a commemorative Dawn shot glass for my collection. I was hoping for some kind of last day sale, but if one happened, it was after we made our purchase.

 

Desiring more quiet reading time, we went back to our cabin and enjoyed a couple of our remaining hours peacefully reading on our balcony.

[PaulInPGH]

The weather on our last sea day was fantastic; it had cooled off a bit, getting down to around 70 degrees, and the skies were sunny and blue. We went back up to our favorite outdoor drinking spot at Bimini Grill to enjoy some final frozen beverages while listening to the reggae band.

 

At 2:30, we made our way down to the theater to watch the crew talent show. We’d expected it to be kind of cheesy, maybe worth a laugh or two, but the crew on this ship had some extremely talented folks. The highlight, at least for me, was Dan France singing opera, but every act was really, really good. They only do the one performance, so be sure not to miss it.

 

Since we ended up with a few tickets for the free cruise raffle, we hung out in the theater to wait and see if we’d get lucky. We considered playing bingo, but the cost for this last afternoon’s game was $40, which seemed a bit pricy for our blood, so we just watched everyone else play until they held the raffle. Needless to say, we did not win the free cruise.

[PaulInPGH]

We next headed up to Los Lobos for one last delicious round of Mexican food. I finally worked my way to the entrée portion of the menu and tried the carne asada, which was very good. My wife sampled their ceviche, which she said was good, but not quite the sublime offering available at Nachi Cocom. She also tried the nachos, which were also excellent. Of course, we stopped at the tequila bar and enjoyed one final Tropical Paloma with Rodell.

 

We really enjoyed Los Lobos, as you probably have guessed. Not only was the food great, but everyone who worked there was really wonderful. Just about everyone stopped by our table to chat with us that final night, and you could tell they enjoy making connections with people in a job where relationships with people are fleeting.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Carne asada.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Ceviche.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Nachos.