It’s day 3 onboard Carnival Celebration and we arrived at our first port of call, Cozumel, Mexico. With this being my 49th cruise, I lost track of how many times I’ve been to Cozumel and how many times I’ve said, “This place sucks.” However, the next port of call is Costa Maya which makes this place look like Dubai.
We arrived a little after 8 am and pretty much by 10 am most of the people were off the ship and exploring all that Cozumel has to offer. I actually wrote that with a smirk and laughed a little. Western Caribbean cruises are not known to call on the most beautiful ports in the Caribbean. If you want to see those, you need to book an eastern Caribbean cruise.
When it comes to pricing, western is usually cheaper. Eastern is more expensive due to higher port fees and more fuel is consumed traveling to the islands which are further from the United States than the western ones are. But if you’re like me and the ship is your destination, a western is fine.
Cozumel doesn’t have too much to offer other than the typical sightseeing, snorkeling, beach diversion, catamaran booze cruises, etc. Then of course there is the whole straw market experience.
In Cozumel, there are three different ports you can arrive at depending on your cruise line. The first, used by Norwegian, is the Punta Langosta Cruise Terminal. How do you know? The first thing you see is Senior Frogs. This port is a little out of the way from the other two.
The second is the International Cruise Terminal. This is pretty much right next to the third one, the Cozumel Cruise Terminal. I call these two, bad and worse. The International Cruise Terminal is mostly used by Royal Caribbean and MSC. You can tell you’re at the International Cruise Terminal if the first thing you see is… Senior Frogs!
The International Cruise Terminal has a smaller, older straw market with not a lot going on. There’s also a Margaritaville at this terminal and it’s a quick walk across the street, to a Hard Rock Cafe. They make it intentionally difficult to find the exits to the town here, so if you’re looking to make your way out of the terminal… follow the crew!
The Cozumel Cruise Terminal is the best out of the three and is mainly used by ships under the Carnival umbrella. The terminal is more modern and has a fairly new Dufry Duty-Free shop that is clean, well-lit, and not high-pressure. Once you get out of the duty-free, you’re in the main shopping area where there are dozens of shops to browse, and a bunch of restaurants including Pancho’s Backyard which is highly rated right on the beach.
You know you’re at the Cozumel Cruise Terminal if you’re passing through the Dufry Duty-Free. If you want to venture out, it’s very easy to find the exit at this terminal and you can walk around (not recommended at night) but don’t venture too far. There are the typical Mexican pharmacies selling just about every pill you can imagine, drugs are easy to obtain, as are Cuban cigars. This is also a short walk to the Hard Rock Cafe and the Fiesta Village Shopping Center.
I usually hit up the duty-free as they do have Cuban cigars, so I ventured out and much to my disappointment, the only ones they had were being sold in a box for $700.
Sorry, no sale.
I walked around the shopping area for a bit then ventured out into town dodging the carnival barkers pushing the aforementioned pharmaceuticals, horse-drawn carriage rides, taxi services, and “you want weed?”
I started walking back to the ship and a local came up and started talking I happened to ask him, “Where can I get legit Cubans?”
“Follow me, I take you to the best.”
We walked and walked, and walked to the point where I thought I was going to meet my demise by some Cuban cigar cartel intent on dismembering Americans visiting Cozumel. He took me way back into a residential area (aka, slum) where attached to the side of the “house” was a tent where trinkets and all kinds of cigars were being sold.
Well, there was a good selection, some cheap, some expensive, and all legit. I ended up negotiating a box of Cohiba Cubans for 3,300 pesos which comes out to around $171 with the “tip” for the bird dog who took me to this remote area. Now, after the purchase…. He disappeared and I was left to walk through this sketchy area of Cozumel myself to get back to the ship.
Obviously, I made it back alive.
Once back onboard, I spent some time walking around the ship taking photos of different areas and finding some of those Easter Eggs I talked about in a previous post.
Carnival Celebration is the ship built to celebrate the line’s 50th anniversary and there are nods to the company’s history throughout the vessel. The Golden Jubilee Lounge is one place where you can find a great deal of this nostalgia.
An interesting piece that is on display is the original brass telegraph from the 1956-built Carnivale. A telegraph, or engine order telegraph, was used on older ships to relay engine speed to the engine room. Up on the bridge, the telegraph would be moved to the desired position and a bell would ring. When the bell was heard in the engine room, the crew there would move their telegraph in the same position to acknowledge the order and adjust the engines accordingly.
This particular piece was originally scrapped but then purchased by maritime historian Peter Knego. He agreed to sell it back to Carnival to have this almost lost piece of history on display on Carnival Celebration.
Along with the telegraph, one of the glass walls of the Golden Jubilee is actually a restored piece from the TSS Mardi Gras which was built in 1960 and joined the Carnival fleet in 1972 as its first ship! Carnival sold her in 1993 and she eventually was scrapped in 2003, but this piece of history remains and is older than the line itself.
By the way, the Carnival Mardi Gras is the sister ship to the Carnival Celebration and was the first ship in the Excel-class and currently sails out of Port Canaveral (Orlando).
In the same area, you will find medallions of all the ships in the Carnival fleet embedded in the floor.
Just outside the Golden Jubilee is the Carnivale Restaurant, named after the second ship to join the fleet after the TSS Mardi Gras in 1976 is a model of the third ship to join the Carnival line, the Carnivale. Originally launched in 1955, she remained sailing with Carnival Cruise Line until 1993 and was eventually scrapped in 2008. You can use this model to compare the size of one of the lines original ships to the giant model of the Carnival Celebration in the same hallway.
Inside the art-deco-inspired Golden Jubilee lounge, you can find tabletops adorned with comical works of art which were popular during the period as well as wallpaper that is actually blueprints of a few of the older Carnival ships.
It’s definitely a very cool area to check out!
Time to talk about the evening’s activities. After a few libations in the Golden Jubilee, our group decided to have dinner in the ship’s Italian restaurant, Cucina del Capitano. We booked our table via the Carnival Hub app and upon arrival we were immediately seated in what was a welcome surprise, an al fresco table where we dined open-air as we sailed towards our next port of call.
The decor outside was nothing special, but the inside of the restaurant was much nicer. I’ll take eating outside overlooks. The menu itself is “Olive Garden of the Sea.” Nothing is stand out special where you would shout, “OMG I HAVE TO GET THIS!”
We got a bunch of starters to begin including what was billed as “Nonna’s Meat Balls,” but despite the plural, there was just one lonely ball chilling by itself covered in cheese and sauce. We also tried out some Caprese salad, minestrone soup, as well as mussels and clams. Each one was basic and underwhelming.
For mains, we ordered Rigatoni Ncasciata Alla Siciliana, which is billed as the Captain’s favorite dish which consisted of rigatoni, a bolognese ragu with ham and eggplant, and then baked. For a main, this was actually the size of a small appetizer, so thankfully many of us ordered this as a second entree.
We also tried the spaghetti carbonara, chicken parmesan, short ribs, grilled shrimp, pork chop, and veal marsala. All the portions were very small, none of which came with a side of pasta – odd for an Italian joint – and were as equally underwhelming as the appetizers.
A quick poll around the table revealed that the short ribs were the best of the entrees.
For dessert, most of us went with the apple crostini, the chocolate melting cake, or the lemon frozen torte. None of which were anything special.
Cucina del Capitano is a specialty restaurant, but one that does not come with an upcharge except for one item on the menu, Osso Bucco, which is $25 per person. Honestly, if there was a charge to dine here, I would have been even more disappointed.
After dinner, we stopped by Celebration Central to see the evening show based on the movie “The Greatest Showman.” As I pointed out yesterday, this venue is the absolute worst to have shows like this in. Seating is woefully inadequate, views are definitely not the best, and it’s simply frustrating when all you want to do is see a show after dinner and you’re forced to stand to see it. All of that adds up to making it a less than satisfactory experience, even though the shows generally only last 30 minutes.
We are currently docked in Costa Maya, there’s that smirk and laugh again. Not as many people got off the ship today as they did yesterday as that is pretty understandable as there is even less to do here than there is in Cozumel, but more on that tomorrow.