Friday, July 12, 2019

Dreams Do Come True- Cozumel

Nobody Likes a Shady Beach… Except Us! 
Cozumel, Mexico 
Monday, July 1, 2019 

Mr. Sanchos... It's been too long!

Morning
It is hard to believe it is ALREADY JULY! Where has our summer gone? We both did not sleep very well and woke up many times. The Carnival Dream was scheduled to be in Cozumel from 9AM to 6PM and we ventured out of our cabin shortly before 8AM expecting to watch the approach into the island and were not only already in Cozumel, the Carnival Dream was getting inspected by the local authorities. 

We ran upstairs to the Lido deck for breakfast and found all of the other 4, 570 passengers in line for breakfast as well. Once again, I had breakfast at Blue Iguana and the lines, while long, moved very fast! In fact, the taco line didn’t have anyone in it. I ventured to the very back of the Lido buffet area and found a table near the pizzeria. Chris waited about 15 minutes in the buffet line before getting his food. TIP- Remember that the MAJORITY of the passengers will be getting off the ship (especially at the 1st port) and will be at breakfast about 1 hour before the ship is supposed to arrive. This is typical for ANY ship or Cruise Line. If this is not your cup of tea,  wait until an hour AFTER the ship arrives to go to breakfast OR just order room service and be done with it. 

The Carnival Dream had passed the local inspection and began letting off passengers about 8:45AM. Since we were already prepared to exit the ship, we went ahead and went down to deck 0 when the 1st announcement was made. This was not what we typically do and will not be doing it again in the near future. Once again, all of the other 4.5K passengers heard the announcement and made their way to the gangway as well. It was SO CROWDED and hot! TIP- In our experience, it is just so much easier to get off the ship about 30 minutes to an hour after the initial wave of people. Keep this in mind, especially if you are doing excursion via a 3rd party. 

Once off the ship we made our way to the taxi stand area at the Puerta Maya pier and literally walked right into a taxi to Mr. Sanchos. TIP- The taxis are all lined up ready to go and the lines are usually fairly short. There is a SET amount to get to MANY tourist places on the island and they “should not” fluctuate. 
Taxi Prices from Puerta Maya (Carnival and Princess) and International (Royal Caribbean) terminals. 

After a 15 minute taxi rider... We are HERE! 

Once at Mr. Sanchos, we paid the remaining amount on our reservation and then made our way to our spot for the day. This was not at all like I remember it. There was only about 2 rows of chairs ON the actual beach and there was NO PROTECTION from the Sun. Like… AT ALL. If you wanted shade, you had to sit at the tables where they served food or rent an umbrella for $12. We were fairly early to arrive at Mr. Sanchos but passengers from the Enchantment of the Seas had already been there and had already reserved the palapye (natural) shaded areas so we just sat at a table with an umbrella over it. This was super aggravating to me since I was remembering the chairs ON the beach with shade and coverage. I sulked for a little while before ordering a drink and forgetting all of my troubles. TIP- Remember, your're on vacation and do not let little things bother you. We ordered some drinks and then lathered up a LOT in sunscreen. We then spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach, food and drinks. And even after applying sunscreen pretty much every time we ordered a drink, I still managed to get sunburnt a little! 


The 2 rows of chairs ON THE BEACH! With no shade... 


A Panoramic of Sanchos!

The waters were calm and featured a lot of "Beach" and water area that was shallow. Very family friendly! 


Our chair area... Haha, you can already see the sunburn coming (In hindsight) 

I highly recommend a FULL FACE Snorkel mask! We got ours off of Amazon. 

 LINK TO THE SNORKEL MASK HERE

That's a wrap Mr. Sanchos!

Mr. Sanchos Review 
Mr. Sanchos is WIDELY known for being a great all-inclusive resort in Cozumel. It is $55 per person for all you can eat and drink as well as the use of kayaks, stand up paddle board as well as a locker. We always leave a GENEROUS ($20-30) tip but even then it is still just $130 for BOTH of us! This is overall a GREAT value and the service was UNBELIEVABLE. However, after having been to Nachi Cocum, Paradise Beach and Ocean VIP (Also All-Inclusive), Mr. Sanchos will not be on the top of our list anymore. Despite having outstanding service, Mr. Sanchos lacked the small resort feeling we like and was VERY BUSY with PEOPLE. Here, there and EVERYWHERE. There were LOTS of kids (which doesn’t bother us) but not what we are looking for in a relaxing day at the beach. Plus, most of the adults were there to PARTY… Not us! We just wanted to eat, drink and “be merry” at the beach! I REALLY didn’t like the layout of the beach club as it felt more like a restaurant where we were sitting. And even then, we were packed in like cattle and so close to each other. Every 2 minutes someone who passed by and hit my chair or rub against me.  The food was great but nothing to write home about. TIP- Get the CocoNut Shrimp… it was the BEST. The water was clear which made for “OK” snorkeling… But not great! However, you will have to get away from tourist places to get the best snorkeling! We still enjoyed Nachi Cocum and Ocean VIP both much better. This is just our opinion but we will going to these 2 in the future. 


The Food and Drink Menu!

Coconut Shrimp and the Cozumel Breeze were our favorites! 


The SPA services prices! 
These are GOOD prices but we've see cheaper in Costa Maya and Progreso!

Chicken Quesadilla

Beef Fajitas 

Coconut Shrimp... ORDER THEM! Trust Me! 

Beef Tacos 

Chips and Guacamole... This was excellent as well! 


Afternoon 
We stayed at Mr. Sanchos until about 3PM before getting a taxi back to the ship. TIP- Cozumel can be VERY busy with multiple ships in port and it takes 15-20 minutes to get back to the ship from Mr. Sanchos or any of the beaches listed above. Give yourself PLENTY of time as there is only 1 road to the ship and it can get VERY BACKED UP with traffic! The 20 minute ride has turned into 45 many times before. So just be mindful of this! Especially if you want to shop in the terminal area! 



There she is... Our Home Away from Home! She is a BEAUTY!

I don't know why but I love this sign! 

Evening
We got back on the ship, took showers and then took a brief nap before heading out to deck 5 forward to look for pier runners. We did see a man running down the pier before getting on a rickshaw to get back to the ship. Even with this “pier runner”, the Carnival Dream set sail for Progreso at 6:03PM which was only 3 minutes late. 

The pier runner on the rickshaw... The WHOLE ship was waving and cheering (and some booing) for him as he came to the ship!

Not a TRUE pier runner but it was a spectacle to see! 

We went to dinner in the MDR and our window table was taken but we still got our same great waiter, Putu! The food and service were both very good and we had a very fast dinner. We went and caught the sunset at the aft of Deck 5 and it was so pretty but of course, the haze made us miss the actual dipping of the sun into the horizon.

Even if we cannot see the entire sunset... This is just priceless!
It is my favorite thing to do on a cruise ship!

There was a very long break in the entertainment for this evening so Chris went and took a nap while I kept exploring the ship. I ended up in the Serenity Deck enjoying a clamshell chair and the beautiful cooler weather. 

We met up at 10PM for the Love and Marriage Show with the CD, Gary. TIP- We absolutely LOVE this show and try to attend on any and every cruise it is offered. It is a funny show, but it is an ADULT ONLY show! 

As the show was ending, I left early to ensure we had chairs at the “Adult Game Show” in the Burgundy Lounge. We assumed this was the QUEST but were unsure. It started out slow but it turned out to be the QUEST Adult Scavenger Hunt. TIP- This is a funny but sometimes vulgar adults only scavenger hunt AND NOT suitable for kids… like at all! This particular round of the QUEST was crazy and we have never seen anything like it. In fact, one of the Carnival workers, Mark E Mark, who played along in the game was whipped with a belt and picked up and hit his head on a chandelier. It is here we learned that he suffered a concussion and was in a LOT of pain! It was crazy! We were only spectators but this was the worst I have ever seen. It is a fun thing to watch but we haven't played along in quite a while! We called it a night shortly after 12:30AM. 

This day proved to be another great day in Cozumel and even though Mr. Sanchos is not our favorite, we made a day of it and had a GREAT time! The next port is Progreso, Mexico and we had never been! We were anxious to see what it is all about! 

Thanks for following along! 

Next Up… Progreso, Mexico 


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