Enchanting Weather

A couple of days before this trip, I was trying to decide what to pack. One of the things I was undecided about was the footwear. I had a pair of Pumas that I usually bring on vacations, but was hesitant this time because the forecast was showers & thunderstorms for the entire trip... in all 3 locations! My Pumas have never touched rain before. I figured I already had them for years and it's a special occasion, so I decided to bring them. My other pair of shoes wouldn't have been good enough for the gym and track.

Guess what? No rain for the entire trip! We arrived in Florida to nice sunny weather. Key West was perfect... not a cloud in sight. Supposedly it started raining after the ship left. When we got to Cozumel, the weather still held up. At about 1pm, the sky started filling with clouds, but nothing came down and the sun came back. The day at sea also did not see a drop of rain. It was supposed to rain also on the day I returned to New York. It did, but stopped long enough for the plane to land and for me to get home. Then we had that massive thunderstorm overnight. So my Pumas are still perfect! It makes me wonder... did we get lucky or was it the shoes that magically killed the rain?

The Wall

Today was the only day I didn't have a conflict with the rock climbing wall's hours. So Ifore and I made it there at 3pm for a short, but strenuous workout. The rules said that we weren't supposed to climb without lessons and neither of us has done this before, but the staff said it was easy... gave us a few pointers and let us go for it.


I thought it was fun. I rushed a bit and slipped once, but eventually made it to the top. Ifore made it up pretty quickly (see video). The wall was located on deck 10, so if one were to look at us from outside of the ship, it would've looked dangerous. But once I started climbing, I was concentrating so much on which grips to reach for that I forgot all about how high I was.

At Sea

After a schedule intense couple of days, today was more relaxing... a full day at sea for the journey back to Fort Lauderdale. Today, I got a chance to do all of the things I wanted to, but conflicted with the port arrival schedule. I woke up and followed the usual gym/jogging routine. Then I met up with the rest if the group for breakfast at Windjammer. Edwin & I ate quickly so we could head back to the cabins to watch the French Open Final between Roger Federer & Robin Soderling. Federer made history by tying Sampras with 14 grand slams and finally completed his career grand slam. Aside from that, he made short work of his opponent in straight sets. That gave us more time to do other things!


For lunch, my dad tried to get the whole group, as the 12 of us never had a meal together. My parents have always tried this with each group cruise they go on. It was pretty close to working... 11 of 12 of us made it. We went for our first sitdown lunch at My Fair Lady, which was renamed Royal Brasserie Thirty. We found that the lunch offerings were better than any of the dinners we had previously. There were soup specials and dessert specials.

Enchantment Staff Dance

We almost had the full group on the 3rd night for dinner at My Fair Lady. Ifore & Edwin joined us, making that 11 out of 12 of us. It was the most exciting dinner so far because the staff did a dance at the end. After we got our desserts, a little bit of music came out of the speakers. I thought it was a mistake, but shortly after, there was an announcement that the staff would do a dance.


Thanks to our waiter, Rommel and bread/water server, Edgar!

Buccanos Bar & Grill

Location: @ Club Cozumel Caribe, Playa San Juan, Cozumel, Mexico
Cuisine: Mexican
Phone: (800) 833-5971
Website: www.clubcozumelcaribe.info
Prices: $18/person
Credit Cards: MasterCard & Visa

Food: 9
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 10

Frequency: Unique

As part of the tour, we were taken to a restaurant called Buccanos Bar & Grill inside Club Cozumel Caribe. This paradise of a resort was seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The tourbus circled around the island. To our left was always a field of green and to the right, beaches. Entering the resort felt like arriving at an oasis. We were allowed to use all of the beach amenities. It was too bad I didn't bring my swimming gear along with me. I really didn't think I needed it.


I was happy that we all ate lunch together. Before booking the tour, I thought we'd just end up in some downtown area where some of the group would just spend the time shopping in tourist trap stores. I was determined to get a good Mexican meal! It was great that everyone got a taste of it. Some people in our group feared the swine flu because of all the news and media. A couple were even hesitant about leaving the ship.

We ordered a variety of foods consisting of both safe dishes and more adventurous ones. The service was great, especially the way they handled the large group. As far as environment, I can't think of any place that was better than this one. The scenery, with one entire side open to the beach was unbeatable. The restrooms were super clean. All toilets and urinals had foot pedals for flushing. They also had free wi-fi, so I was able to check email while waiting for the meal.

For more details on the food, visit the Picasa album.

Cozumel

Since the Cozumel disembarkation was scheduled for 10am, I was able to go back to my regular gym schedule. There weren't really a lot of people in there, but it was still full because of the small square footage. I was also able to try out the track. They didn't post how many laps was equivalent to 1 mile, but I figured it was around 4. The QM2 track was 3 laps to 1.3 miles. On this ship, the track didn't go around the entire circumference of the ship and also, the ship was shorter. Early in the morning is the only good time to jog because the track was also pretty narrow. During the day, it's filled with people getting tans and wandering aimlessly.

After working out, I met up with the others at Windjammer for breakfast. We were able to take our time because the ship was a little behind schedule docking at the port. We planned on taking a tour of the Mayan ruins because it was the one thing that was not related to shopping or eating.


Once docked, we all met up at the gangway and went through the port shops quickly so we could find a tour bus with room for 12. My dad found a large van with more than enough room and a reasonable price, who would take us around to a few scenic spots, the Mayan ruins and lunch at Club Cozumel Caribe. For more information on all of these activities, visit the Picasa album.

The Blond Giraffe

...All Things Key Lime and Coconut!

Location: 511 Greene Street, Key West, FL
Cuisine: Dessert, Cafe
Phone: (888) 874-PIES
Website: www.blondgiraffe.com
Prices: $7/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 5
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

Most of our group continued checking out the shops, but Ifore and I broke off and headed to a cafe that served key lime pie. We had already passed by many places, mostly food stands that served it. Then we came across The Blond Giraffe, a nice little sitdown cafe. It was empty and didn't even look open, but we went for it because they had a free wi-fi. It turned out that The Blond Giraffe was one of the better known places. As we ate there, we read a pamphlet on the Key West port and this place served an award-winning key lime pie as seen on Food Network 20!


The pies were great. I was expecting an overly strong lime flavor. I normally don't like key lime pie, but since it was a big deal in Key West, I wanted to give it a shot. It actually tasted good and natural, unlike the artificial neon green variety you can get at any dessert place. I also tried their limeade, which was pretty strong.

The only quirk about The Blond Giraffe was they ran out of limeade. I ordered the last one, but it was obvious that we were the first customers of the day!

Key West

Normally, the first thing in the morning for me on a cruise is the gym, but the stay in Key West was so short that I had to go for that first. We were only at that port from 7am-1pm. By the time we ate breakfast and got everyone together, it was about 9am already. Luckily Key West isn't that large and didn't have that many major attractions. My main goal was to get the key lime pie mentioned in everything I read about the island. The port area was right by many stores and restaurants already, so cruise passengers weren't locked into booking an overpriced tour.


We got very lucky with the weather as well. The forecast that I kept checking everyday before we left was consistently thunderstorms and showers. However, for the entire time we were docked, the weather was perfect. Hopefully we'll have the same luck tomorrow in Cozumel where the forecast is also thunderstorms for the whole weekend.

Burgers & Ice Cream

After the show, Edwin & I met up with Ifore back at the rooms. We watched a little bit of the game, then headed out to Windjammer with Uncle Charlie for our late night cruise meal... aka Burgers & Ice Cream. The menu was limited as they only offered hot dogs, burgers & pizza. I thought I was going to miss the ice cream half of the tradition we started last year, but on the way back down I came across the ice cream machine. So I brought my dad a glass of punch and then headed back up to the ice cream machine to fulfill the mission and end the night with this blog entry.

Welcome Show

After dinner, we walked around the ship a bit and then rested a while before going to the welcome show at the Orpheum Theater. I was originally not going to join the rest of the group for it because I wanted to catch the Magic vs. Lakers NBA Final. Then I figured I could still leave in the middle to watch the 2nd half. I ended up staying the whole time because it was pretty good and we had front row seats so I could see in detail what the illusionist was doing. Here are some clips:




The show ended earlier than I though, so I actually saw the end of the 2nd quarter of the game.