2022 Disney Cruise Report Day 3 - Morning in Cozumel, Mexico
For Day 3 of the 2022 Disney Cruise Trip Report, the Disney Fantasy arrives in Cozumel, Mexico, and we begin our adventures there!
Monday, June 6, 2022
My phone alarm once again went off at 7:00 AM to get us started for the day. Of course, that had been 800 AM the previous day since we had set our clocks back an hour before going to bed. I actually had to compare my phone and my iPad, which I had not set back, to make sure that I knew what time it was supposed to be. Confusing, but fun! Before we left home, I had wondered how they might handle that, knowing that we would be sailing across time zones.
Once Laura and I got up, while Jaylin was still sleeping, we went out on the verandah to watch us arrive at our first port for this cruise, which was Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. If you are unaware, Quintana Roo is the state in which Cozumel is located, just like we live in the state of Tennessee. Plus, it is just fun to type or say Quintana Roo.
Good morning, Mexico!
Good morning, more of Mexico!
As a bit of past history, Laura and I had been to Cozumel before, during our 2016 Carnival Cruise to Mexico. However, on that cruise, we did not spend much time in Cozumel. Once the ship docked, we took a boat to the mainland (Cozumel is an island, by the way) to go on an excursion to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. It was fun, but there were no excursions to the mainland offered for this 2022 cruise, so we did not have any concrete plans for the day besides just having a good time.
By the time that we docked, Jaylin was up and it was time for breakfast. We had arranged the night before to eat breakfast with whoever of the Luttrells showed up and my parents, arranging to meet outside our doors instead of trying to find each other at Cabanas. At the arranged time, Jennifer and Kaitlyn were ready to meet us, while John and Kyle stayed in the room for some more sleep. Jennifer and Kaitlyn had a Dolphin Encounter excursion planned, so they were on a schedule, and we were just wanting to go ashore at Cozumel.
Breakfast was once again in our usual spot of Cabanas. And I once again had my usual breakfast of a Mickey waffle, a pastry, and fresh pineapple, along with orange juice. A good breakfast rut is a good thing.
We Burnses had decided that the morning would be a good time to ride the Aqua Duck water coaster on the upper deck of the Disney Fantasy. We assumed that the line would be short because many people would have shore excursions planned. We got there just after 9:00, when we thought it would open, and it was not open yet. I checked the splash area nearby, and it was set to open at 10:00, so my guess was that the Aqua Duck would open at that time.
Since we had some time to pass, we went up to the front of the ship to the Satellite Falls area. We watched the people down below as they exited the ship and walked along the dock, and we were able to see Jennifer and Kaitlyn as they left. Because we had eaten breakfast together, we knew what they were wearing; otherwise, they would have been hard to spot.
We already had our bathing suits on, so we decided to pass the time in the Satellite Falls pool. Once again, the water was not falling at Satellite Falls, but we did not mind too much. But while we were there, one of the maintenance crew members came up and asked if we wanted him to turn the waterfall on. Laura said, “Whatever you want to do, it’s your ship!” So he disappeared, and a few minutes later the water started falling! The water was slightly cool, but the sun had already been up for a while, so it felt good. We enjoyed sitting in the water and watching the birds fly overhead.
John and Kyle wandered over sometime around that time. I am not sure if they were intentionally looking for us, but they found us. So we chatted for a while, and I let them know of our plan to go ashore sooner or later. John said that they might go with us, so I would let him know when we were going.
I walked over to check the Aqua Duck again at 10:00, but there was still no water flowing through the tube. So it finally dawned on me to check the hours on the Disney Cruise app on my phone. When I did, I found that the Aqua Duck would not open until noon. What? That completely changed our plans! At least it was not a total loss since we had gotten to spend some time in the Satellite Falls pool. But we decided that we might as well go ashore instead of waiting two more hours to ride the Aqua Duck. Besides, there were still several cruising days ahead of us. We would have other chances.
I let John and Kyle know of our plan, and then all of us Burnses went to our rooms to change clothes. We met John and Kyle outside of our rooms, and we headed down to Deck 1 to disembark. We really did not have much of a plan for Cozumel besides just walking around to see what we could find. The port did not look familiar to Laura and me from our previous visit, so we either did not remember it at all or the previous ship docked somewhere a little farther down. I never did figure out which it was.
An up-close view of the Disney Fantasy
The rest of the Disney Fantasy docked at Cozumel, since I was too close to get it all in one photo
Once ashore, we walked down the long dock to the port building, and we were in Mexico! Ahoy, Mexico! Or maybe I should say, Buenas Dias, Mexico! The port building was a two-story building with lots of shops of local vendors. We looked in a few different ones before moving along, down the stairs and out onto the streets of Cozumel.
With the blue water of Cozumel behind us
One more Disney Fantasy view before walking in Cozumel
I said above that we did not have a specific plan. But I did have one specific goal, which was to find some Coca-Cola made with real sugar. From the top deck of the Disney Fantasy, I had seen a large building with a sign that said Mega Soriana. When Laura and I were in Jamaica several years ago, we found a grocery store named Mega Mart that had real sugar soft drinks and good prices. I wondered if this Mega was actually a similar store and if there might be any relation, so we decided to find out.
Walking over a street in Cozumel
Look at that beautiful sky and water! And I took this for the Mexican flag, too. Just to show that we were there.
In case you were wondering where we were
The store was easy to find, because it was on the main street that ran along the coast. Once we found the building, it still looked like a store, so we went in. On the ground floor, there was space for different vendors, not unlike the port building that we had left a few minutes earlier. But there were shopping carts, and there was an escalator going up, so we hopped on. And interestingly, the escalator was a flat ramp instead of stair steps; my guess is that it was easier to get your shopping cart up and down.
As we were riding the escalator up, someone in front of us turned around and said, “I hope you have a great day in the port!” It was Nolan, our head restaurant server from the ship! Because some of the crew members were here, I figured it must be a good place to go!
Once we reached the main floor, it was obvious that this was indeed a large grocery store, except that most of the brands were not what we were used to. And the prices were in pesos instead of dollars as well, which took a little getting used to. For example, a Sharp 70” television was $14990.00! That sounds pretty steep for a television, but it was actually only around $750 US, which is similar to the price back home. I had seen a sign when we were in the port building that the exchange rate was about 20 pesos for one US dollar, so with that information, I could calculate prices in my head. Or with my phone.
That price might give you a heart attack until you remember it is in Mexican pesos instead of US dollars.
We kept looking around, and in the refrigerated section, we found a cooler with bottled drinks! Just what we were looking for! They had Coca-Cola for me, and they had Cherry Dr. Pepper for Laura! Cherry Dr. Pepper is getting harder to find here at home, so Laura was especially surprised to find it there. Jaylin got a Sprite, and John got a regular Dr. Pepper to take back to Jennifer.
We also ran into Nolan again, so we talked to him for a bit. He said that was only the second week that the crew members could disembark anywhere besides Castaway Cay. They were all quite happy to get to go ashore in places instead of having to stay on the ship all of the time. He said for so long, they had known what they would eat every day and what they would do every day, so they were all enjoying some new freedom. It was great to get to talk to him for a few minutes away from his regular duties.
We kept looking around and we found a section of Cozumel t-shirts and such. A quick calculation showed that the shirts were around $7.50 US each. Bargain! Especially when compared to what the vendors were selling shirts for in the port building shops. I found a shirt that I wanted and added it to our drink haul. We checked out using my credit card, although my parents paid cash for their purchase. And with that, we had accomplished one of our main goals for Cozumel!
Of course, most of us could not save our drinks for when we got back to the ship. We were already working up a sweat, so an ice cold beverage with real sugar hit the spot. While we drank, we kept on walking down the street to see what else we could find.
Coming up, more from Day 3 in Cozumel! Check back soon for more from our 2022 Disney Cruise!
