Spring Break 2016 Cruise – Part 5 – Cozumel

Cozumel day arrived sooner than we would have liked.  We really like spending time on the ship.  We’ve done this cruise itinerary a number of times, so Cozumel’s attractions are already familiar to us.  We decided to get off the ship this time though, so we could head to eat at Pancho’s Backyard.  Nancy had read that it had decent food, so we thought we would give it a try.  It’s also located in Los Cinco Soles, one of our favorite stores.

I love the color of the water in Cozumel, so I always make sure I snap a few pictures (just kidding, I take A LOT of pictures of the Wonder) when headed off the ship.  The ship docks in the middle of Cozumel, so everything is within walking distance.  Immediately after getting off the ship, you will see some pedicabs for hire.  Don’t get too excited, because they will only take you to the end of the pier.

At the end of the pier, you will see the gateway to the Cozumel shopping and dining areas.  There’s no problem getting off the ship, except they route you through a touristy shopping mall and make you wind through the entire thing before you can enter the main part of Cozumel.  I don’t think we’ve ever entered the shops here, but we just keep walking until we get to the main street in Cozumel.

Once we got to the main street, we immediately headed to the left to go up towards the main square and Los Cinco Soles.  (Hint: If you go to the right, you’ll find the MEGA, which is like a Mexican version of Walmart.  Good place to pick up some snacks or drinks, including some unique items you won’t find in an American supermarket.)  As you walk through Cozumel, there are lots of store vendors standing outside their shops trying to entice you to enter.  It is their job, after all.  We usually only go in the stores in the main square itself, although they sell the same stuff as every other shop in Cozumel.  I wonder if they go to the same warehouses every day to restock.

We always stop for a soda once we reach the main square.  We’ve gotten it from some little shops or even stopped in the 7-11 there.  Then we usually just walk around and look in the shops.  We’ve never ventured much off the main square by more than a block or two.  We are pretty timid tourists.

The main square is really nice, we’ve hung out there for a few hours before just to people watch.

After leaving the main square, we headed down to Los Cinco Soles.  The girls love to look at the jewelry and the other items in the shop.  We usually find stuff here that we haven’t seen in the other shops in Cozumel.  Mainly, its just an excuse to look around and buy stuff we don’t need.

After looking around the shop, Nancy coaxed me into Pancho’s Backyard.  I’m really nervous about eating in Mexico and getting sick, probably abnormally so.   I was not excited about lunch at all because of it.  We got seated right away and handed menus.  The first thing I saw on the menu is that they have a reverse osmosis water system for water and ice.  That made me feel better.  

Overall, the food was good, but it was not cheap.  The prices we paid were close to Disney prices for food, which is about 4 times what you would pay back home for the same food.  Nancy and I ordered margaritas, because hey, we were in Mexico.  I am not a big drinker, so after about half of one, I was feeling it.  We spent some time after lunch using the free wifi, catching up on emails and Facebook.  The meal was a success though, as I encountered no problems from the lunch.

After lunch, we started heading back towards the ship.  We usually spend the afternoon hanging out by the pool and watching Funnel Vision.  Here’s a few sights from our walk back, including some of the rocky shoreline.

We made it back to the ship with no problems and immediately headed to the pool deck.  We love hanging out on the pool deck and watching movies.  There are soft pretzels available from Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, which are great.  They have cream cheese pretzels and regular salt pretzels, in addition to the normal pizza.  The girls either swim in the pools or watch movies with us.

Cozumel day also hosts one of our favorite nights, Pirate Night!  There is a special pirate menu in the dining room as well as a Pirate Party at night, complete with fireworks.  I really tried to get video of the fireworks, only to discover when it was all over that I wasn’t recording at all.  How bad is that?  Well, at least the Pirate Party was fun.  Our youngest enjoys the games that take place before the Pirate Party starts.  They separate the kids into two groups that compete with each other through various tasks.  Then, the two groups join forces to defeat the evil pirates.

One last photo of the night.  Here is the stateroom set into the sleeping configuration.  The top bunk folds out of the ceiling and the bottom bunk is constructed from the couch.  According to the kids, the bottom bunk is more comfortable than the top.

Planning | Travel | Boarding | Sea Day | Cozumel | Sea Day | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation

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