Day 4 - Cozumel, Mexico
Day 4 - Wednesday May 27
We were up at around 6:00am again. We just go too hard and crash early and then end up waking up early this trip! We lounged on the balconies a bit and watched the ship come in and dock in Cozumel, Mexico! The massive Icon of the Seas was the other Royal Caribbean ship that joined us in Cozumel. We headed over to breakfast in the Windjammer around 7:00am and got a seat by the windows to watch the Icon come in and doc. She really is a massive ship and just think, the Freedom was the largest ship in the world when she was launched in 2006 and now the Icon is.
LT didn't join us for breakfast. They had booked a snorkeling trip and therefore ate early in order to make their excursion as they needed to be early off the boat. They would join up with the 4 of us later in the day.
We chose to do the Nachi Cocom Beach Club. I did a good bit of research and wanted to give our daughter a chance to play in the white sand of Mexico. She was also a bit young to do stuff like snorkeling or other adventures Cozumel has to offer. There were three major beach club that offered you a lounger in the sand, a pool, open bar and lunch; Mr. Sancho's, Paradise Beach and Nachi Cocom. Mr. Sancho's is known as the party area. Not opposed to this but traveling with my mom and our 5 year old, it was the obvious one to cut. We highly considered Paradise Beach and it is a nice middle ground between activity and party and calm / relaxing but we ultimately went with Nachi. Nachi was the quiet, calm one. It had a max of 130 people where as Paradise was being said to be pretty crowded. We wanted the calm.
None of the beach clubs were offered through the cruise line as excursions so I pre-booked through Nachi's website a month or two prior. They required a downpayment and then took the rest upon arrival.
We got off the boat about 8:15 and actually ran into LT on the doc as they were gathered for their excursion. We said our mornings and got a view of our Freedom from dockside. We then got a cab to take us to Nachi Cocom Beach Club. We arrived at about 9:00am. On the drive over I realized that I didn't bring a credit card (learned later that my mom had one). Nochi required a down payment but we still owed the rest of the amount. Luckily, their machine took Apply Pay and the iPhone came through.
We were surprised that the resorts was pretty quiet. There was maybe 40-50 people there. Apparently their summer is the quiet period and I thought having the Icon in port, along with multiple other cruise ships would lead to busy beach clubs but not so, at least not here. Another thing I liked about Nachi is they did have a guy come by and see if you wanted to do a massage, parasailing, snorkeling, etc; the uncharge things. He came by once and that was it. They didn't keep asking all day which was nice. I had pre-booked the massages and E and my mom were on his list for the massage and he was able to get them all set.
We got some loungers on the beach and the kid and I got busy with our sand toys while my mom and E got an ocean side massage. It was far more reasonable here than on the ship and they had no complaints. While playing in the sand, we went back and forth into the ocean. One thing to note is that the ocean got deep pretty quick, at least for our vertically challenged 5 year old daughter. So I had to keep a sharp eye to make sure she was okay. Nochi had a nice pool just off the beach and we went up there late morning. Since the report was pretty quiet, we didn't feel bad having a 'hold' on both beach loungers and a table by the pool. LT showed up about noon from their snorkeling.
Overall, we let the drinks flow all day. They had an open bar and part of our entry was whatever we wanted to drink whenever. The drinks were good but not strong. They seemed to specialize in the usual frozen drinks (piña colada’s, Miami vice, margaritas, etc) as well as beer, sodas and stuff. They couldn't make an old fashioned which I was surprised but the drinks overall were fine. As far as food, they didn't do all you can eat all day but had a fine lunch option with appetizer, entry and desert setup. Both E and I had fajitas that were good and the kid wanted a hot dog that was tasty. We had nachos for the appetizer and ice cream for desert. Like the drinks the food wasn't outstanding but wasn't anything to complain about either. Overall the location was beautiful, the staff was outstanding and the drinks and food were decent. They really treated us well there and catered to the 5 year old like she was a princess. I would probably try Paradise next time just to see as it might have more activities for kids but would also not have a problem with Nochi again if that is the direction the group wanted to go.
The 6 of us left about 2:30 to head back to the ship. The Freedom was scheduled to leave port at 5:00pm but since we also had dinner at 5:00, we wanted to go back and clean up and the sun did take it out of us today. When we got back to port, my mom, E and LT stayed back to shop in the area around the port a bit while the kid and I got in line to go through security to get back to the Freedom and Icon. She was so tired she slept in my arms until we got to the metal detectors and she had to walk through. It was hot and humid and she was heavy but it was all worth it. The line to get through the port security was actually kind of backed up at 3:00pm but it moved quick enough. It really was probably only 10 - 15 minutes. I was up in our cabin by about 3:15pm with the other 4 arriving about 20 minutes later.
We all showered and cleaned up and rested in the room. Our daughter fell asleep as we played hard today and she ended up being a bit grumpy the rest of the evening. We did our usual dinner table in the Main Dining Room and it was White Night so we all dressed in as much white clothes as possible. The Mexican food was solid!
The Freedom really didn't have a show to feature that night. We are not sure if something happened to the show or this was the ship's plan after all. There was a Price Is Right show in the main theater that was probably a lot of fun but we passed on it. The entire group was worn out from the day and we ended up in the rooms by 6:30. We couldn't let her go back to sleep so I took her out and walked the halls of decks 7, 8, 9, 10 and up to 11 searching for ducks.
So I am not sure how it became a thing but people hide little rubber or plastic ducks around the ship for other cruisers to find. My sister and her husband heard about this and started to look for them and found a few in the previous days but really got our daughter into it. So she would lead us through the hall ways as we would help her check the baseboards, picture frames, etc for hidden ducks. Safe to say, she was obsessed.
We made it back to the room a little after 8 and again called it a night pretty early. E and I read in the room as our daughter knocked out easily. The water between Mexico and Cuba was again a bit rough, though not as rough as our passage in. Again, people were complained about being a little sea sick but we were all fine. The gentle rocking was very pleasant in our mid-ship room.
- Breakfast at Windjammer
- Spent the day at Nachi Cocom Beach Club
- Lunch, Drinks and Massages at Nachi Cocom
- Dinner in the Main Dinning Room (White Night / Mexican Night)
- Duck Hunting for our Evening Activity
We were up at around 6:00am again. We just go too hard and crash early and then end up waking up early this trip! We lounged on the balconies a bit and watched the ship come in and dock in Cozumel, Mexico! The massive Icon of the Seas was the other Royal Caribbean ship that joined us in Cozumel. We headed over to breakfast in the Windjammer around 7:00am and got a seat by the windows to watch the Icon come in and doc. She really is a massive ship and just think, the Freedom was the largest ship in the world when she was launched in 2006 and now the Icon is.
LT didn't join us for breakfast. They had booked a snorkeling trip and therefore ate early in order to make their excursion as they needed to be early off the boat. They would join up with the 4 of us later in the day.
We chose to do the Nachi Cocom Beach Club. I did a good bit of research and wanted to give our daughter a chance to play in the white sand of Mexico. She was also a bit young to do stuff like snorkeling or other adventures Cozumel has to offer. There were three major beach club that offered you a lounger in the sand, a pool, open bar and lunch; Mr. Sancho's, Paradise Beach and Nachi Cocom. Mr. Sancho's is known as the party area. Not opposed to this but traveling with my mom and our 5 year old, it was the obvious one to cut. We highly considered Paradise Beach and it is a nice middle ground between activity and party and calm / relaxing but we ultimately went with Nachi. Nachi was the quiet, calm one. It had a max of 130 people where as Paradise was being said to be pretty crowded. We wanted the calm.
None of the beach clubs were offered through the cruise line as excursions so I pre-booked through Nachi's website a month or two prior. They required a downpayment and then took the rest upon arrival.
We got off the boat about 8:15 and actually ran into LT on the doc as they were gathered for their excursion. We said our mornings and got a view of our Freedom from dockside. We then got a cab to take us to Nachi Cocom Beach Club. We arrived at about 9:00am. On the drive over I realized that I didn't bring a credit card (learned later that my mom had one). Nochi required a down payment but we still owed the rest of the amount. Luckily, their machine took Apply Pay and the iPhone came through.
We were surprised that the resorts was pretty quiet. There was maybe 40-50 people there. Apparently their summer is the quiet period and I thought having the Icon in port, along with multiple other cruise ships would lead to busy beach clubs but not so, at least not here. Another thing I liked about Nachi is they did have a guy come by and see if you wanted to do a massage, parasailing, snorkeling, etc; the uncharge things. He came by once and that was it. They didn't keep asking all day which was nice. I had pre-booked the massages and E and my mom were on his list for the massage and he was able to get them all set.
We got some loungers on the beach and the kid and I got busy with our sand toys while my mom and E got an ocean side massage. It was far more reasonable here than on the ship and they had no complaints. While playing in the sand, we went back and forth into the ocean. One thing to note is that the ocean got deep pretty quick, at least for our vertically challenged 5 year old daughter. So I had to keep a sharp eye to make sure she was okay. Nochi had a nice pool just off the beach and we went up there late morning. Since the report was pretty quiet, we didn't feel bad having a 'hold' on both beach loungers and a table by the pool. LT showed up about noon from their snorkeling.
Overall, we let the drinks flow all day. They had an open bar and part of our entry was whatever we wanted to drink whenever. The drinks were good but not strong. They seemed to specialize in the usual frozen drinks (piña colada’s, Miami vice, margaritas, etc) as well as beer, sodas and stuff. They couldn't make an old fashioned which I was surprised but the drinks overall were fine. As far as food, they didn't do all you can eat all day but had a fine lunch option with appetizer, entry and desert setup. Both E and I had fajitas that were good and the kid wanted a hot dog that was tasty. We had nachos for the appetizer and ice cream for desert. Like the drinks the food wasn't outstanding but wasn't anything to complain about either. Overall the location was beautiful, the staff was outstanding and the drinks and food were decent. They really treated us well there and catered to the 5 year old like she was a princess. I would probably try Paradise next time just to see as it might have more activities for kids but would also not have a problem with Nochi again if that is the direction the group wanted to go.
The 6 of us left about 2:30 to head back to the ship. The Freedom was scheduled to leave port at 5:00pm but since we also had dinner at 5:00, we wanted to go back and clean up and the sun did take it out of us today. When we got back to port, my mom, E and LT stayed back to shop in the area around the port a bit while the kid and I got in line to go through security to get back to the Freedom and Icon. She was so tired she slept in my arms until we got to the metal detectors and she had to walk through. It was hot and humid and she was heavy but it was all worth it. The line to get through the port security was actually kind of backed up at 3:00pm but it moved quick enough. It really was probably only 10 - 15 minutes. I was up in our cabin by about 3:15pm with the other 4 arriving about 20 minutes later.
We all showered and cleaned up and rested in the room. Our daughter fell asleep as we played hard today and she ended up being a bit grumpy the rest of the evening. We did our usual dinner table in the Main Dining Room and it was White Night so we all dressed in as much white clothes as possible. The Mexican food was solid!
The Freedom really didn't have a show to feature that night. We are not sure if something happened to the show or this was the ship's plan after all. There was a Price Is Right show in the main theater that was probably a lot of fun but we passed on it. The entire group was worn out from the day and we ended up in the rooms by 6:30. We couldn't let her go back to sleep so I took her out and walked the halls of decks 7, 8, 9, 10 and up to 11 searching for ducks.
So I am not sure how it became a thing but people hide little rubber or plastic ducks around the ship for other cruisers to find. My sister and her husband heard about this and started to look for them and found a few in the previous days but really got our daughter into it. So she would lead us through the hall ways as we would help her check the baseboards, picture frames, etc for hidden ducks. Safe to say, she was obsessed.
We made it back to the room a little after 8 and again called it a night pretty early. E and I read in the room as our daughter knocked out easily. The water between Mexico and Cuba was again a bit rough, though not as rough as our passage in. Again, people were complained about being a little sea sick but we were all fine. The gentle rocking was very pleasant in our mid-ship room.
