Our Cozumel Cruise

In honor of our 10th anniversary last summer, Jason and I decided to celebrate in a big way... by taking our first cruise together! We were SO thankful for Matt and Kim's willingness to watch our boys so that this trip could become a reality. What a gift!

As we boarded the Carnival Triumph, I was still wiping away a few tears after saying good-bye to the boys (my first time being gone from them for more than just an overnight!). One of the crew members even joked with me, "Don't cry! You're going on a cruise!!" I knew he was right. We had an awesome trip ahead of us, and I knew our boys were in wonderful hands!!

When we first got on board, we spent some time just exploring the ship.

These cruise ships sure are massive!

The top deck, Lido Deck-- swimming, lounging, waterslides

We both chuckled a bit to see this playzone on board, knowing that we would NOT have to spend any time in such an area this trip! :)

After checking out the ship, we sat down for a few snacks from the buffet. What a treat to have yummy, ready-to-eat food available nearly ALL the time!

Then, we discovered shuffleboard! Yep, we love it. :) We found time to play at least a couple games every day of our cruise. It was a bit interesting compensating for the moving ship as we played, but we both got the hang of it pretty well.

After dinner, we attended a Game Show Trivia. It was set up like Jeopardy with questions mainly concerning pop culture from the 80's and 90's. Often, they'd play an excerpt from a TV show or song for us to guess a particular actress or singer. We were surprised that we knew quite a bit of the answers (usually pop culture isn't our thing), so I convinced Jason to volunteer. The crowd at the game show wasn't huge, and I'm sure it helped that Jason danced the sprinkler like crazy, too... but for whatever reason, Jason was chosen!

Jason's round was the last one of the night, so they made it a lightning round-- first player up to 300 would win. Here is a shortened video of Jason's correct answer buzz-in!

The round went quickly, and Jason ended up earning a second place medallion. Way to go, my love!! :)

Our room steward was named Putu, and he was such a gentle, friendly guy. Every time we'd ask him how his day was, he'd say, "Oh, no, Mr. Jason and Ms. Amy, it's not about me. It's all about you!" He always greeted us by name and was ready to help with anything! Each night, he'd turn down our bed and leave us a folded towel animal.

We got an elephant,

a dog (I think...),

and a koala. It was definitely a treat to be so pampered!

During our first full at-sea day, we weren't too impressed by the ship's planned activities during the afternoon, but we found enough to do. We played some more shuffleboard, walked around a bit,

tried the pool for just a short while (Amy was pretty wimpy about the chilly water, so we didn't last long there), sat in the hot tub a bit longer, lounged out on some deck chairs,

and eventually settled down with a deck of cards to play some Euchre and cribbage (with some great live music in the background). We both commented on how strange it felt to not have anything we needed to do! I guess we were long overdue for a vacation together. :)

That night was elegant-dress dinner night. My handsome hubby even brought out his suit for the occasion! Doesn't he look sharp?!

We actually only had 1 other couple ever join us for dinner, even though our table was always set for 8. We got to know this other couple, mail carriers from Dallas, quite well! Thankfully, they were fairly easy people to talk to. One unique aspect of our dinner was that each night the wait staff would gather along this staircase in the center of the dining room to sing to all the guests. I'm not sure what they sang this night, but the last night they sang, "I'm Leaving on a [Boat Ship]" and did the macarena and the chicken dance up on some of the serving tables. It was very entertaining!

Following dinner, we listened to a couple of comedians in this bar/lounge (one was not very good at all, and the other guy was only okay).

This room, the Rome Lounge, was probably where we spent most of our time during our cruise travels. In the evenings, they gave their showtime productions from this stage-- the first was themed "The Big Easy" from New Orleans and the Marti Gras. The other large show was "It's a Wonderful World," each scene containing music and costumes from different countries all across the world. We weren't allowed to take pictures of any of the shows, but we were quite impressed. It was particularly amazing to watch all the dancers moving around in their high heels, knowing that we were on a rocking ship!

After a day and a half of sea travel, we finally pulled up into port in Cozumel, Mexico. We were a bit disappointed to see very dark and overcast clouds above us!

At the point of our debarkation, however, it wasn't yet sprinkling, so we hoped for the best.

Here is our view of the Triumph before entering the touristy walkway.

Jason and I purchased an excursion option ahead of time so that we could maximize our experience in Cozumel. We figured that we could see more of the island on a guided trip, so we signed up for the Adventure Jeep excursion. Somehow, in our group of 10-15 people, we were the only ones that ended up getting a jeep all to ourselves. Nice! Jason was our chosen driver for the day.

Our first stop was to this Corona Beach for some snorkeling lessons. Isn't the view gorgeous? We were thankful that the rain was holding off for our snorkeling time.

Here we are, all ready to dive in! Our guide, Monty, was energetic and very entertaining. He kept calling us "mi familia" and telling all these jokes. We didn't purchase an underwater camera, so we don't have any snorkeling pics. The experience was wonderful, though! It's amazing to have such a clear view of what's beneath you in the ocean. We loved it!

After our snorkeling time, we jumped back into the jeeps for some more adventure. As you can tell, we didn't make it long until the downpour began. From this point onward, our jeep top had to be up. :(

Because the rest of our afternoon was pretty much spent in pouring rain, I didn't chance taking my camera out. Instead, I found a few pics online of the places we visited so you can get an idea of what we saw. Just imagine everything being dark and gray in all these below pics. :)

Our next stop was at Punta Sur, Cozumel's largest ecological reserve.

We got out at this rustic boardwalk to see some crocodiles.

Our view of the crocodile wasn't this clear, but we did see the heads of two crocodiles. By this point, our group was standing, holding soaking wet towels over our heads trying to prevent even more rain from pelting us, so we didn't stay out in the open too long...

We then got to see this small Mayan ruin (which in real life is now even smaller than this pic shows) while Monty gave us a brief Mayan history lesson. It was a bit tough to concentrate on his speech, though, since we were all getting a bit chilly in the rain.

Also at Punta Sur, we visited this historic lighthouse, El Celarain. 

We climbed up the VERY narrow, winding staircase to get to the top and were rewarded by some great views of the park and the beach. At this point, I probably could've used my own camera, but we were in such tight quarters at the top, that it was a bit tough to get the camera out of my backpack! Besides, the online, non-rainy photo is much more happy-looking anyway. :)

At the base of the lighthouse, we toured a small navigation museum. It was interesting seeing all the antique paraphernalia. 

The only other stop along our Cozumel adventure trip was to this beach, still in Punta Sur, to have a Mexican buffet. Thankfully, our meal was served in a covered area, so we could all dry off and warm up a bit while enjoying our tacos & rice. Jason and I grabbed a couple lounge chairs under this tiki hut in an attempt to get a bit closer to the ocean.

You can't tell very well in this photo, but, yes, the rain is still coming down nicely, so we sat in our chairs, using our towels as blankets to keep warm. The beach experience was certainly different than we had expected!

Still, it felt good to relax! Ahhh....

Here is our lovely guide, Monty. The poor guy drove an open-top beach buggy the entire time, so he was way more wet than any of us! He certainly made the experience a fun time. He was positive, funny, and didn't seem to mind the wetness one bit. So, yes, while we would've preferred a warm, sunny day in Cozumel, we still felt like we had a fun excursion experience.

Once we got back to port, we had just a bit of time to do some shopping, and then it was back to the ship. Time for a warm shower and a dry towel!

I didn't take any pictures of our last at-sea day since we weren't really allowed to take pictures of the shows we attended. Overall, though, we were much more pleased with our entertainment options on this day. We saw a magician/mentalist (He was amazing!), did a movie trivia game, watched a newlywed game-type show (with 3 couples who'd been married for varying lengths of time-- very funny!), listened to the Liars Club (a balderdash-type game), watched some ice carving, did some crossword puzzles (Amy), played some mini-golf (Jason), went to a comedy show, and played some more shuffleboard. It was another relaxing, enjoyable day! I guess I did take one photo from our last day-- Putu's last towel-creation gift. Awww... :)

What a treat to get to spend 4 days straight with my wonderful husband! We definitely had a memorable time and treasured our time to visit, make decisions for just ourselves, to not play referee, to eat warm food, to sleep in, and to carry only 2 pieces of luggage. :) It was definitely a special anniversary trip!