A Christmas Cruise Adventure 11 months in the making

[Shaded Lady]

Is there a charge for the steakhouse demonstration?

No it’s free. But get there early, they only have room for a certain number.

[Quilcruisers]

My son is a gamer and I am a geek so I appreciate your references. Sounds like you had fun and I look forward to reading more. The cooking demo is great but it is on a sea day and I really like to go to brunch. Guess I should either go to brunch earlier so I will have a full appetite for the demo or skip that days brunch. The last two cruises, I have done both and it is way too much food for me but I try not to miss either.

 

 

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[CarrieAP]

Enjoying your review very much!!

[Dankinia]

Really enjoying your review! It looks like you took to cruising like a "duck to water".

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

 

Thank you. I admit I spent 11 months reading this forum so I knew what to expect and it helped a lot.

[Dankinia]

Is there a charge for the steakhouse demonstration?

 

No it’s free. But get there early, they only have room for a certain number.

 

Yes the steakhouse demonstration was free, and yes seating is limited. We got there about 15 minutes early and were lucky to find three seats.

[Dankinia]

My son is a gamer and I am a geek so I appreciate your references. Sounds like you had fun and I look forward to reading more. The cooking demo is great but it is on a sea day and I really like to go to brunch. Guess I should either go to brunch earlier so I will have a full appetite for the demo or skip that days brunch. The last two cruises, I have done both and it is way too much food for me but I try not to miss either.

 

 

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I can see how it would be a lot of food if you ate brunch shortly before. In my case, since I was only able to taste the dessert it was fine and we had eaten brunch about 2 hours before so it worked out ok. We treated it like a small lunch.

 

Enjoying your review very much!!

 

Thank you.

[Island Crazed]

Following - Our nephew is Director of Special Effects for Blizzard (WOW). Works at the Blizzard campus in Irvine, CA.

 

 

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[Dankinia]

Day 5 of the adventure - Day 3 of the cruise - First port Cozumel.

 

So we had booked a non-ship sponsored excursion for a Discover Scuba Dive. Anwyl was a certified diver, but the other 7 in our group had never been before so this was an adventure. Elcarth and I were up by 730 to get ready and grab a quick breakfast at the buffet before we headed off the ship. Leaving the ship was fairly straight forward and there was pretty much no line at all.

 

We had all planned to meet up right outside the ship on the pier at 9 so we could walk to where we would meet up with the excursion provider. Once we were all there, we headed through the port area and down the road a bit to the location provided. We met up with our guide after about a 10 minute walk and walked with her for about 5 minutes to where she handed us over to Alex, the dive master/instructor for our adventure. He lead the way to a small area right by the water where his assistant Leo already had chairs, a table, and dive gear set up and waiting for us.

 

After a 30 minute or so class that went over the basics of what we needed to know, they started helping us suit up in all the gear so we could head down the stairs a bit to the water. This area wasn't really a beach so much as about 6 steps down and then you are in the water with a very rocky shore line and very little sand. I was really surprised at how much the vest and tank weighed. I guess I figured a tank full of air wouldn't be quite as heavy as it was. They did offer to carry the gear into the water for those of us who needed help and we could put it on there just like we would do for the fins and masks.

 

Once in the water Alex and Leo had us one by one do our "skills" to make sure we could recover the regulator if we lost it and how to clear the water from our masks while still under water. After all of us demonstrated we could do that, we headed towards deeper water with Alex in the lead and Leo following.

 

This was an amazing experience. The water was perfect and so very clear. We were seeing fish right by the shore line when we first started out and the sea life grew more abundant the further out we went. I will admit I did struggle a bit with breathing through a regulator. I love to swim and was on the swim team though out high school. I also go to a gym and swim 3x per week for exercise. The struggle I had was I wanted to breathe out through my nose while underwater and this really doesn't work. So I'd start to panic a bit and have to keep reminding myself I was fine, I had air and to just breathe though my mouth. This happened a few times, but I was always able to calm myself down and relax again.

 

About halfway though the dive, I was about 10 feet down I'd guess, my weight belt decided to come undone. I tried to grab it, failed, and started floating towards the surface while it made it's decent to the bottom. Luckily Leo was behind me and saw it happen. He dove down to get it and with Alex helping me stay under, they were able to help me get it back around my waist and fastened again. Alex gestured to ask if I was ok, I signaled back that I was and went back to enjoying the dive. We saw quite a few different types of fish and coral and really enjoyed the experience. Alex signaled it was time to head back to the beach so we all turned around and made our way back. Along the way, Anwyl and I spotted a sea snake was pretty cool to see, and yes we did keep our distance from it. Living in Arizona, I tend to avoid snakes so it seemed a wise choice here as well.

 

When we got back to shore, Alex and Leo offered to carry our gear back out for us and since I knew I couldn't manage to go up the stairs with the vest, tank, and weight belt without falling backwards I took them up on the offer as did a few others in our group. We rinsed off in the showers they had up by the top of the steps and all of us sat around and relaxed a bit as we talked about how much fun we had. I know Elcarth, Antibus, Teramaku, and myself have decided we enjoyed it so much we want to get certified before our next cruise.

 

After relaxing a bit, we gathered up our stuff and started the walk back to port. As we were walking back though the port shopping area, I saw a Pandora jewelry store and headed inside. I get a new charm for every trip I take to a new location and I knew I wanted the cruise ship charm to commemorate this trip. While I could have bought it after the trip when we got home, since there was a shop right there, and the prices was actually a bit less then I would have paid here, I purchased one for my trip bracelet. We continued to walk though the area until we reached the Three Amigo's restaurant where we split up. The K's and the A's went in for some nachos and drinks and Elcarth and I headed back to the ship. We decided we'd split a Guys burger and then head down to our cabin to shower and get ready for dinner. We had an earlier dinner tonight since all the adults in our group were scheduled for the Chef's Table while the kids were going to the MDR alone.

 

Up next...The Chef's Table

[pooksma]

Following along and enjoying your report!