Carnival Ecstasy Cruise - September 5, 2022 - Cozumel, Mexico

 We are no stranger to Cozumel.  Paul has joked that they should give us honorary citizenship after all the times we have stopped there.  This was a sixth visit there, third since the restart with 2 more scheduled still this calendar year.  As we stood above the bridge to watch our arrival, a gentleman overheard us talking about the different piers and speculating as to whether we would back in or not and so he asked us "How many times have you been here?"  So beyond walking off the ship to get some good photos and videos of the Ecstasy, we had no plans to do anything on land in this port.

Breakfast enjoying the view from the aft before our arrival in Cozumel

Above the bridge watching our arrival

After arrival, we decided to take advantage of an empty ship and try out Carnival Waterworks.  There was a fairly long tube slide which I really enjoyed (although Paul got a bit stuck in) and then there were racing slides.  After a few runs down the slides, we found some loungers and just admired the blue of the Caribbean Sea and the Grandeur of the Seas parked at the other dock.

Mid-morning, we took a short walk around the port area.

Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas was also in port
(Royal Caribbean's oldest ship, just like the Ecstasy is Carnival's oldest ship)

We found the small nature area.

Iguana

Back on board, I took some time to film some footage for my ship highlights video and to just relax in the various lounges.

Some more photos of the blue of the Caribbean Sea in Cozumel.

Grandeur of the Seas

At sail away, I went up above the bridge to see if there were any pier runners and I was not disappointed.  And the captain was clearly impatient enough to blow the horn several times!

That evening, we decided to give the main dining room a try and we were actually seated at a private table.  Our servers were really good.  Carnival now has MenuMate on iPads to handle dietary restrictions.  They select your allergen and then it shows you which dishes are already free of that allergy and which dishes can be easily modified.  For some reason, chefs don't seem to think they can cook without dairy so I didn't have many options but I found something I could eat.  I was able to pre-order of the next night so my dishes would be ready.  Paul was able to enjoy his favorite melting cake for dessert.

There were two musicians/musical groups on board that we especially enjoyed.  L'Estro was a pair of violinists that usually played a few hours each evening in the Atrium.  Kiara Taylor was a singer/acoustic guitar player that usually performed in the promenade.  We tried to catch each of them most nights.  While listening to Kiara Taylor in the Promenade, I tried one of Carnival's beers, the Parched Pig Toasted Amber which was quite good.  Our evening ended a bit early because there was a very rowdy group of women playing some game that seemed to involving yelling and screaming who had chosen a table just a few away from the performer.  They were get some pretty dirty looks from both the performer and others trying to listen but that didn't stop them.