20240226 NCL Escape Neighbors Cruise - Day 3 - Cozumel - Chocolate & tequila

NCL Escape Neighbors Cruise Day 3 - Cozumel, Mexico

We arrived in Cozumel, Mexico Monday morning under partly cloudy skies and modest temperatures.

The plan for today was a ship's excursion - an island tour, and chocolate and tequila stops. Woo!

Six of the twelve of us were doing this tour today. We arrived at the pier early, checked in, and wandered around the shops until tour time. We weren't told that there would be two tour buses for this tour. Our friends arrived on the pier after our bus was already full, so we missed out on taking the tour with our friends. Dang.

Our first stop - the Mayan Bee Sanctuary

We were greeted with a Mayan blessing and an introduction to Mayan culture surrounding bees and their role in pollinating crops.

Receiving the blessing

The stingless Mayan bees are quite small. They only produce about 0.75l of honey per year - much less than European and African bees. The honey is said to be of superior quality with lots of health benefits.

They have created artificial hives for the bees so they can thrive.

You can see the tiny bees congregating around the opening of the hive.

Arlona spotted the bees working some of the local flowers for nectar.

I thought the water drops were pretty

This bee is just over a quarter inch in length

Next, we stopped at a beach overlook for scenic views and tequila tasting.

Look - water!

Our next stop was at a chocolate producer. We learned about the history of cocoa as a currency and treasured reward for the upper class.

This was our greeter

Paty demonstrated how six ingredients were combined and rolled with a single stone to produce Mayan chocolate paste

As a reward, we enjoyed chocolate margaritas

At our final stop, we learned about tequila. To be called tequila, it needs to be made from 100% blue agave. Blanco, silver, and platinum tequila - three names for the same thing, is a double-distilled new tequila. Aging it in oak barrels turns it light brown and it becomes reposado tequila. Aging it longer turns it into smoother anejo tequila. We sampled different flavors before heading back to port.

In port, we browsed the shops but didn't find anything compelling enough to buy.

As we approached the ship, Jill, Lynn, and Freddie greeted us

We sailed right on time, just before 4:00 PM - farewell Cozumel

Dinner tonight was at La Cucina - the Italian specialty restaurant. We enjoyed dinner with eight of the twelve. It was good - not great. If we didn't have two included specialty dining experiences as part of our package, dinner tonight would have run an additional $108. If we were actually charged that for the meal, we would have felt robbed. We are dining at Cagney's - the steakhouse - tomorrow night and are hoping for a much better meal.

After dinner, we caught the 9:00 PM adult comedy show with Warren B. Hall. It was a very funny show and he worked the audience very well. There were lots of laughs all around.

As the day winds down, some observations:

• This ship is crowded - period. 
• We wait in line at bars. 
• We were jam-packed into the comedy club. 
• The best time they could fit us in the steakhouse tomorrow is 8PM. 
• When we got back on the ship this afternoon, there was a line waiting for the elevators that would have taken 20 minutes to get through.
• Getting food and a table in the buffet is ridiculous
• Getting back on the ship was stupid - 4,000 people all cramming into the same elevator area - why not open gangways front and back to handle the load - it's not that hard
• The pad on our bed was an improvement - a minor improvement
• The toilet paper on NCL could double for sandpaper. I'm thinking of using it to sand the mattress - I'll let you know how that goes.
• There are angry people on this ship - we saw some of that tonight - not sure why
• The premium internet is dog slow
• The rooms aren't perfect, but overall, they are comfortable and as I mentioned yesterday, the bathrooms are surprisingly roomy

So, Day #3 is in the books and so far, we're still thinking that this is our final NCL cruise. NCL has four more days to convince us otherwise. Tomorrow, we'll be anchored off Grand Cayman. It will be interesting to see how they handle 4,500 people in tenders to and from the port.