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February 6, 2008: Belize City, Belize |
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A Tour of the Inside of the Jewel of the Seas |
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Return to the Caribbean Cruise Master Index |
Docking in Cozumel, Mexico
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I went back to the room to collect Fred, and we decided to go up to the Windjammer Cafe to get some breakfast before we arrived in Cozumel. After breakfast we went back to the room to get ready for docking and for our shore excursion, and then went up to Deck 5 and to the bow of the ship.
When we got there, we could see that we were entering Cozumel harbor, passing the main city center (and what I think is either a lighthouse of some kind or a signature tower). We passed one dock where there was already a cruise ship docked, and went a bit south to Paradise Beach to pull into our own dock. When we arrived there, we could see that there was already one ship docked- the Costa Fortuna. Costa, of course, is the Italian line Grant and I sailed on in 1991, although the ship we were on, the Costa Riviera, is no longer in service- it being way too small for what people expect these days.
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We slowed down considerably and now were just inching along next to our dock, slowly passing the Costa Fortuna. As we slowed to a stop, I made a short movie of the procedure.
It was about time for us to head back to the cabin to get the things that we would need for our shore excursion here in Cozumel. Just before we left the bow of the ship, Fred got a picture of me and the Costa Fortuna. We went on back to the cabin to collect our stuff and head down to Deck 2 and the debarkation point.
Disembarking in Cozumel The disembarking procedure was just like in Key West, with the only difference being we came off the ship on the opposite side. As soon as we got onto the pier, we found ourselves in a canyon formed by the two docked ships, and that made picture-taking a bit difficult. Fred did get an acceptable picture of me between the two ships, and I tried to return the favor and get a good shot of Fred, but I should have used the flash.
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As we walked down the pier towards shore, I made a movie of our progress, and you can watch that movie using the player at right.
As you can see from the movie, the pier makes a turn to the left down at the end of both ships, and we walked down to that point where we could look back and get some good views of the ships. I've put some thumbnails for a few of these pictures below, and you can view the full-size image by clicking on the thumbnail. You might note, in the first picture, that there is a just-submerged structure at the bow of our ship. At first I thought it was something added when we docked, but I asked one of the crewmen and found it to be a permanent part of the ship. Its function is to break the water just ahead of the bow to add a bit of stability and reduce wear on the actual bow itself. Being underwater, he said, it doesn't matter if it wears or hits something, and it can be fairly easily repaired or replaced. Anyway, have a look at some of these pictures:
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We walked to shore along the pier and found the representative for our shore excursion. Everyone was still gathering; we were a little early. We got little stickers to identify us as members of the excursion, and then wandered around to wait for its departure. From the rondesvous point, we could look back and see both cruise ships.
When everyone was together, we walked as a group over to the beginning of a smaller pier while the boat we would be on was brought to its own pier. Where we were waiting was right by a small enclosed beach, which actually looked as if it was for volleyball or something. Anyway, I snapped a picture of Fred with the Costa Fortuna in the background. Then I could see that our excursion boat was at its pier (you can see the small boat docked at the right in the picture), so it wouldn't be long now.
Semi-Sub Excursion
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When we boarded, we immediately descended a short stairway down into the boat, which had been designed so that the interior was one long cabin with two rows of benches along each side of the boat. The sides of the boat were actually large window panes made of fairly thick glass, and the passengers could sit on the benches facing these windows. Each person basically had his own window, and so the views underwater were pretty much unobstructed.
During the ride across the reefs, Fred took two pictures inside the craft- one of me peering out my window and one of some of the passengers on the excursion.
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On the Cozumel map above left, I've indicated the approximate route that we took on the excursion. Basically, the captain took the craft anywhere that he thought there might be good views of the reefs, the fish, divers and so on. Everything looked the same underwater, so the route is hardly an attempt at accuracy. We passed back and forth over the reefs so that people on both sides of the boat could get the same views.
One of the things our guide pointed out was that the reef-viewing is not nearly so good now as it was just two years ago. In the past two years, hurricanes like Wilma and Rita came through the area and did a number on many of the reefs, scouring them clean in places. So, while the fish have returned, there is not nearly so much coral and bottom creatures as there used to be. We were told that it will be many more years before the reefs return to the beauty they once had.
I should point out that while we did take a lot of pictures during the excursion, many of them didn't turn out well for one reason or another. But I will include a representative sampling of the better ones here. Rather than just give you one large group of thumbnails, I will try to divide up the pictures and group them by subject. At least for this excursion, the order in which the pictures were taken is immaterial.
The Movies One thing I discovered early on was that movies were going to be a lot better than still pictures through the underwater windows. With the movies, the constant light and focus adjustments served to keep the subjects (fish, divers, etc.) in excellent view. So I think that before you look at some of the stills, you might want to look at a few of the movies.
I've put six different movies here. In case you don't have time to look at all of them (they are an average of 45 seconds long), you'll find a title and my personal rating at the top of each of the movie players for each of the movies. Look at as many as you wish; any of them will give you an excellent idea of what the excursion was like. Indeed, it will be as if you were sitting looking out the window yourself.
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The Reef, the Residents, and the Visitors We took lots of pictures from the submersible- pictures of the reef itself, of the various marine creatures (mostly fish) that were swimming on and around the reef, and a group of SCUBA divers that were exploring the reef area. As for the reef itself, we could see some of the coral that remains and some of the plants and sea creatures that have returned and re-colonized the reefs. Due to the nature of the day, our limitations on camera equipment and the lighting through the windows, you may not think that these pictures are at all spectacular, but they DO represent what the reef looked like as we glided over it.
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I have put the pictures of the reef, the fish, and the SCUBA divers into a 31-image slideshow so that you can look at them easily and quickly. To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.
The ninety-minute excursion was certainly well worth the time and expense; it was one of the few things in Cozumel that really interested us. (Greg and Grant went to learn how to cook authentic Mexican cuisine but Joe and Virl just stayed on the ship.) The captain got us back well before lunch, and so we spent some time on the pier before heading back into the ship.
At the Cruise Ship Dock
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In the aerial view at the left (courtesy of Google Earth), I have diagrammed where our ship was relative to the Costa Fortuna, and also a ship that you will see in an upcoming picture- the Trans-Caribe vessel Superflex Tanker (which I assume was some sort of working ship plying a route between Cozumel and Playa del Carmen across the straight from the island of Cozumel.
I also want to point out that the dock has undergone some construction since the Google Earth pictures were taken. If you will look at the picture of me with the Costa Fortuna and the Coral See in the background (click here for the picture), and compare this picture with the aerial view, you will see that the short dock that the Coral See is using is not in the aerial view, and so must have been added later. I have marked the approximate location of the new dock on the aerial view.
I also marked the location where all the shore excursions met (yellow star) and we walked back over to that area to get pictures of the nearby resort area and, in the distance, the center of Cozumel. You can see that there must be another cruise ship dock up the coast for there are two more large ships there. We walked around the dock for just a bit on our way back to our own ship for lunch, and took some interesting pictures of our ship, the Costa Fortuna and the Trans-Caribe vessel. I have put thumbnails for five of the best of these pictures below; you can click on these thumbnails to view the full-size pictures:
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Once back on the ship, we did go and have lunch in the Windjammer Cafe, and then we tried our had at using the shipboard wireless Internet to check our email. The connection speed was not very great, and the one session of about twenty minutes ended up costing just over ten dollars. But we did get our email, with nothing of particular note. Then it was back to the cabin to drop off the laptop and get ready to go out and walk around Cozumel.
Walking Around Cozumel
Walking South
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We decided to head south, just to see what we could see. Just a few blocks from the pier area, there was a traffic circle where another road that crosses the island comes into this main street. When we got to the circle, Fred got a shot of me looking back towards the pier area; view that picture here.
We continued walking south past the traffic circle, and pretty soon we came to some kind of new development that was being build between the road and the water. They'd put in some nice entrances and some new sidewalks, and it looked like a mixed-development residential/retail type of thing. Here is Fred on the new sidewalk out in front of this development, and here is a picture Fred took looking toward the water with me and some of the new development.
Eventually, as we walked south, the development ended and so did the nice sidewalk and we found ourselves walking on a narrow road that paralleled the main highway. It appeared that this narrow road was for scooters, bicycles and pedestrians, but that's just an assumption. Along the way, Fred found a beautiful stand of Firecracker plant and took a picture of me in front of it.
After about a mile, the road curved around and we could see that there wasn't much else going south. There did seem to be some kind of museum or tourist attraction across the road, so we went in there. We found ourselves in some kind of gift shop or museum store, and there was a door at the back leading out into a garden that had some miniature buildings- models, I guess. We also found that there was a $20 entry fee. We really didn't have a great deal of time, so we just left and walked back up the road to the pier area.
Walking North
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About a quarter-mile up the street, we came across the Park Royal Hotel, an interesting-looking hotel on the east side of the street. The roof looked especially interesting; it appeared to be a huge thatched roof (although I would assume that it was built to look that way and wasn't actually thatch). I wanted to get a look inside the hotel, so I walked past the hotel sign and up the driveway to the hotel lobby. The lobby was an open air affair, with the pyramidal roof looking cavernous above the seating, shops and registration desk. Only two sides of the lobby were solid walls- the reservations area on one side and the small shops on the other. This arrangement allowed a constant breeze to flow through the lobby, eliminating the need for (or possibility of) air-conditioning.
In the center of the side of the lobby opposite the entry, there were stairs that led down to the two- and three-story guest room wings. Beside these stairs, at the lobby level, there was a statue/fountain and a waterfall down to the level of the guest rooms. The waterfall was actually outside, since the guest wings appeared to be separate buildings entirely. I could also see an underpass that led under the street to the beach (presumably part of the hotel property). Anyway, the hotel was really neat. I left the lobby and walked back down the drive to rejoin Fred.
While I'd been inside the hotel taking pictures, Fred had noticed some colorful street traffic out front. We walked a bit further north along the street and came to a pedestrian overpass back to the side of the street where the Park Royal was. Just so we could get some better views, we climbed the stairway up onto the overpass. From this vantage point, we could look back at the Park Royal, as well as north along the coast road towards the center of the city of Cozumel.
Coming south along the road we saw yet another horse and buggy, this one apparently carrying some tourists. We'd come far enough up the road to get an idea of what the area was like, so we crossed the overpass and headed back on the other side of the street. Before we left, though, I got a picture of Fred on the overpass.
We walked back to the pier area, showed our IDs (apparently, entry to the pier area is restricted to shop owners and passengers) and came back out into the small shopping mall immediately adjacent to the pier. Here, Fred took a few pictures of the colorful decoration, and I have put thumbnails for these pictures below. Just click on the thumbnails to view the full-size pictures:
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Then it was back to the ship.
The Jewel of the Seas Leaves Cozumel
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We also took a few good pictures of our own ship from our vantage point on the dock, and I've put thumbnails for these pictures below. They are similar, so click on the thumbnails to look at whichever full-size images you wish:
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Then it was back on the ship for some quiet time in the cabin and to watch the departure from the deck. Our next stop is to be Belize City, in the country of Belize, which is also on the Yucutan Peninsula. We've learned that the distance is short enough that the ship will be doing some circuitous maneuvers so that it does not arrive too early in the morning.
The Pre-Dinner Evening Show
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As I've said before, the shows in the Coral Theatre are timed so that there is a later show for the folks who eat early and an earlier show for those of us who eat late. Tonight's show, which began at 7PM, was entitled "West End to Broadway," and featured the "Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers" performing a wide variety of musical numbers based on theatrical productions. One can't expect Broadway-quality productions on a cruise ship, but I must admit that the production was certainly enjoyable- easy to watch and listen to.
I took some pictures during the production, and they turned out pretty well. You can see one of them at the left. You can see a couple more here and here.
I also made three movies this evening that you may want to watch, and you can do so by using the movie players below:
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After the show, it was on to dinner.
Dinner in the Tides Dining Room
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After dinner, Fred and I walked around the ship some more, going up to the bow and back to the stern, and also spending some time in the solarium. Cruising, I think, is at its best at night. After a pretty full day, we retired to our cabin, looking forward to our first major excursion in Belize tomorrow.
You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.
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February 6, 2008: Belize City, Belize |
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A Tour of the Inside of the Jewel of the Seas |
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Return to the Caribbean Cruise Master Index |
