Carnival Ecstasy Cruise - September 6, 2022 - Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico

My morning started about 4:30 a.m. with someone pounding on the door of one of the cabins near us that went on for over 10 minutes but that wasn't going to deter me from enjoy our day in port.  Today had finally arrived.  This was the whole purpose of this trip - to visit Chichén Itzá.  We were scheduled to dock around 9:00 a.m. and were supposed to meet our tour on the pier by 9:15 a.m. so we headed up to breakfast shortly after 7:00 a.m.

On our way to breakfast, we discovered that towel animals had taken over the pool area!

They had an omelet station and small breakfast buffet on the pool deck between Guy's Burger and Blue Iguana.

We then checked out the area above the bridge to see our progress on arriving and a male magnificent frigatebird flew right past me - it was such an amazing experience to see him up close!

We wanted to be ready to go so we didn't stay to watch docking but had a great view of it from our porthole windows!

Having a cabin located on deck 5 and being in the forward where the first gangway would open, was a huge advantage.  We were one of the first ones off the ship and quickly found our group which turned out to be a group of only 24.

We boarded an air conditioned Mercedes bus and had about a 2.25 hour ride to the site.  Shortly before we arrived there, we stopped at a tourist stop for bathroom breaks, souvenir shopping, and to pick up bag lunches to eat on the bus quickly before arriving at the site.

It was hot and humid but that is expected.  As our guide said, they really have only two weather scenarios - hot and very hot!  Here is a video of our time on the site followed by some photos.

El Castillo or the Pyramid of Kukulkan (it's 30 meters tall)

Temple of the Warriors

Platform of Venus

Temple of the Jaguars

Ball Court

We had over 1.5 hours at the site which was really a great amount of time and then it was back on the bus for another 2.5 hour ride back to the port.  Our excursion was scheduled for essentially the time in port and we were running a few minutes late so as we rushed through the cruise port, all the shops were closing, and people were up on deck watching for the pier runners (just as we had done the day before).  The benefit though to booking an excursion through the cruise line is that they wait for you and you won't have the captain blowing the horn impatiently!

After a shower, we headed to dinner and were lucky to be seated at a private table again in the same section as the great servers we had the day before.  They remembered me and my special order and were quick to bring me olive oil and balsamic vinegar for my tasty warm bread.

After dinner we watched the sunset from the Serenity area in the aft.

Carnival Ecstasy Cruise - September 7-8, 2022 - At Sea and Disembarkation

 Today was our last day at sea.  After breakfast, I grabbed an iced latte from the Rolls Royce Cafe and snagged a chair on the deck with Carnival Waterworks that overlooked the aft hoping to catch some sun but glad for the clouds and the breeze as it meant the temperatures were quite comfortable.  At one point, I think I saw a pod of dolphins swimming past us but by the time I stood up to look closer, they were too far away.  

The water was like glass and the clouds were quite neat this morning.

Paul found me around 10:30 and so we went to grab a sandwich from the Deli to take back to the room and get set up for the Apple Event that would be lived streamed at noon.  

We watched the Apple Event in our room and then headed out to find a lounge to relax in.  We found a table in the promenade where we could people watch and that had a window seat overlooking the sea.  Paul splurged on a donut from the Rolls Royce Cafe.  I had purchased a bottle of wine at dinner the night before and so finished it as we watched the day go by. I also was a bit hungry as they had messed up my sandwich for lunch and I had not eaten as much so I ordered poke from Bonsai Express specialty food stand.

 Clouds had really started to build and then it started to look quite foggy so I took a walk up to the lido deck to try and get some foggy photos.  At that point, it started to downpour so I went exploring further.  I was curious as to what the view would be like from the front of the ship.  (Fortunately, the ship is small enough, I could easily go back to our cabin to change after exploring in the rain.)

I finished recording video for a ship highlights tour which you can see here.

We had one last dinner in the main dining room.  We still were given a private table but in a different section this night with some servers that were incredibly slow.  After about an hour and a half our desert still had not arrived and they were getting ready to put on their show.  I really hate how they make the wait staff sing and dance at dinner every night on Carnival.  So we just walked out as it was starting and thus we were able to avoid the song and dance every night.

We briefly stopped at our cabin and saw that the sun was just beginning to set so we hurried up on deck for some beautiful colors.

Paul grabbed some dessert from the buffet and came back to watch the last of the colors.  We then parted ways.  He wanted to see the Motown Show which he said was really good.  I wanted to go back and listen to the Kiara Taylor in the Promenade.  With my loyalty status, I also wanted to take advantage of the free drink I was entitled to on the last night.

A Tropical Mule

I found a table right outside Cherry on Top.

After the show and performance, we headed back to the room to finish packing.  The next morning was disembarkation morning.

The next morning we were up early.  You could tell the ship had been slowing as we came into the bay.  I think they said we were picking up the pilot at 2:45 a.m.  And as we got back to the pier, the side thrusters could be clearly heard in our cabin.  We enjoyed one last breakfast up on the Lido deck.  We were in line before Blue Iguana even opened.

We were scheduled to start embarkation at 8:00 a.m. with those walking off with all their luggage who were assigned to muster station A (which fortunately was our muster station as we hoped to be home to work the afternoon).  We knew the line would form through the art gallery on deck 7 so about 7:40 p.m. we made our way to that area and only about 10 people had started lining up so when the announcement was made around 8:00 a.m., we were among the very first off.  They had installed facial recognition at Mobile for those with passports and so going through customs was a breeze.  We walked right into an elevator to get up to our parking deck level and were quickly on the road and back in our apartment shortly after noon.