ShellB8585
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2013
Cozumel
Up at ready to go by 7:30 when we headed to deck 9 to take in the views and have some hot drinks and bananas from Goofys Galley for breakfast and filled up our water bottles to take with us. We then headed to studio sea (1st time we had ever visted in 3 cruises!) to check in for our excursion Caves, Caverns and Paradise Lagoon. Here is the blurb from the Disney website:
Swim and snorkel among the fishes and impressive rock formations in Playa del Carmen's mystic natural swimming holes.
Explore the freshwater lagoons of a Playa Del Carmen and learn about their place in Mayan culture and natural history.
On this adventure you will...
· Embark on a 45-minute ferry ride to Playa del Carmen on the Mexican mainland.
· Meet your eco-guides and walk approximately 5 minutes to your air-conditioned mini-van before taking a 40-minute drive south to 2 natural cenotes. Cenotes are natural water formations caused by sinking limestone bedrock. The Mayan culture sometimes used cenotes for spiritual rituals.
· Hear about the history of these impressive rock formations and enjoy a refreshing snorkeling session in the crystal clear waters.
· Travel to a unique natural aquarium where you'll have approximately 45 minutes to snorkel among a variety of tropical fish and colorful marine life. Note: This is a freshwater lagoon, not a typical aquarium with sea life in a tank.
· Arrive at a beach club for a Mexican lunch and complimentary beverages. Here, you can relax, enjoy the sunshine or take a swim at the beach.
· Take a short ride back to Playa del Carmen where you will board your ferry back to Cozumel.
Take note of that explanation, it’ll come in handy later 
Once we were all assembled we were taken down to the ferry to the mainland (Playa Del Carmen). As we were waiting to get on the ferry it absolutely poured down so we were wet before we even started!
The ferry is a bumpy ride, I do not get any motion sickness but I felt queasy on this and there were a lot of green faces onboard! It was a little funny seeing tanned legs, arms and necks with very white/green faces (not for them though) when we were getting off we passed a lady who had a bin next to her and several sick bags!
Back on the safety of land we started to queue up to be put into groups for our trip. There was a slightly unpleasant start to this, we were queued up and one woman and her husband marched to the front and ended up joining the front of our group (the 2nd group) her sister and brother in law quite rightly joined the back of the line and joined the 3rd group. We were led to our minibus and all the time this woman was going on at the guide asking when she will meet back up with her sister. The rest of our group were getting a little irritated and felt sorry for the guide as he was trying to explain there were 3 groups and we may not meet up with them until later, all the while trying to organise with the other guide so the 2 sisters could be in the same places at the same time at least. Keeping your personal group together is the responsibility of you, yourselves alone. Perhaps she should have done that instead of worrying about being the front of the group.
We got on the bus and Hector, our guide, started going through the days itinerary and as soon as he mentioned snorkelling guess who got very upset – uh huh – She kept saying she had not signed up for snorkelling, nowhere did it mention snorkelling, she wasn’t doing it. I don’t know if you noticed the blurb above? A whole 30 minute mini bus ride of this and the rest of the group were starting to get annoyed with her passive aggressive loud comments we felt so sorry for Hector who was really getting it and trying to organise us meeting up with her sisters group so she can go with them. It clearly states it is a snorkelling trip!
On arrival at our fist port of call she chatted with her sister and flat out refused to take part. She was told there were benches by the lagoon so she at least had something to look at but no, she chose a bench in the car park instead. Her sister tried to talk sense into her but I think it was just one of those instances where she had gotten herself so wound up she couldn’t back down or make the best of the situation. She was there and had to wait for us to finish so why not go paddle your feet and take in the beautiful lagoon?
However, it was a fantastic ice breaker for the rest of us!!
The rest of us headed into the lagoon which is a natural aquarium with both fresh and salt water and a variety of fish. Our camera didn’t pick up a great deal – those fish are fast! - but we did get some shots and hector kindly offered to take pictures of us (this is rare, these things usually supply a photographer you have to pay for the photos!)...
We spent about 40 minutes in the lagoon, the pictures don’t do justice to how pretty it was. It was chilly in there but there were little pockets of warm water which were nice to swim over.
Hector managed to arrange for our unhappy companions to be picked up by another bus from their company and now we had nothing but good vibes for the rest of the day!!
Once we were all assembled we were taken down to the ferry to the mainland (Playa Del Carmen). As we were waiting to get on the ferry it absolutely poured down so we were wet before we even started!
The ferry is a bumpy ride, I do not get any motion sickness but I felt queasy on this and there were a lot of green faces onboard! It was a little funny seeing tanned legs, arms and necks with very white/green faces (not for them though) when we were getting off we passed a lady who had a bin next to her and several sick bags!
Back on the safety of land we started to queue up to be put into groups for our trip. There was a slightly unpleasant start to this, we were queued up and one woman and her husband marched to the front and ended up joining the front of our group (the 2nd group) her sister and brother in law quite rightly joined the back of the line and joined the 3rd group. We were led to our minibus and all the time this woman was going on at the guide asking when she will meet back up with her sister. The rest of our group were getting a little irritated and felt sorry for the guide as he was trying to explain there were 3 groups and we may not meet up with them until later, all the while trying to organise with the other guide so the 2 sisters could be in the same places at the same time at least. Keeping your personal group together is the responsibility of you, yourselves alone. Perhaps she should have done that instead of worrying about being the front of the group.
We got on the bus and Hector, our guide, started going through the days itinerary and as soon as he mentioned snorkelling guess who got very upset – uh huh – She kept saying she had not signed up for snorkelling, nowhere did it mention snorkelling, she wasn’t doing it. I don’t know if you noticed the blurb above? A whole 30 minute mini bus ride of this and the rest of the group were starting to get annoyed with her passive aggressive loud comments we felt so sorry for Hector who was really getting it and trying to organise us meeting up with her sisters group so she can go with them. It clearly states it is a snorkelling trip!
On arrival at our fist port of call she chatted with her sister and flat out refused to take part. She was told there were benches by the lagoon so she at least had something to look at but no, she chose a bench in the car park instead. Her sister tried to talk sense into her but I think it was just one of those instances where she had gotten herself so wound up she couldn’t back down or make the best of the situation. She was there and had to wait for us to finish so why not go paddle your feet and take in the beautiful lagoon?
However, it was a fantastic ice breaker for the rest of us!!
The rest of us headed into the lagoon which is a natural aquarium with both fresh and salt water and a variety of fish. Our camera didn’t pick up a great deal – those fish are fast! - but we did get some shots and hector kindly offered to take pictures of us (this is rare, these things usually supply a photographer you have to pay for the photos!)...
We spent about 40 minutes in the lagoon, the pictures don’t do justice to how pretty it was. It was chilly in there but there were little pockets of warm water which were nice to swim over.
Hector managed to arrange for our unhappy companions to be picked up by another bus from their company and now we had nothing but good vibes for the rest of the day!!
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It was so great, thank you so much!!!
