DAY 3- WELCOME TO COZUMEL

We wanted to begin by saying that after just our second full day on the ship that we feel that we are now that we have almost everything in place so we are ready to enjoy much of the enrichment and other activities on the ship.

We also wanted to note that for the first two legs of this voyage that we are signed up for very few shore excursions as we have visited most of these ports one or even several times over the years.  As this adventure continues with the start of the World Cruise in Los Angeles you'll see from our posts that we have many excursions book and that as we reach places such as Southeast Asia we have many organized tours.

The focus of this first voyage is mainly to enjoy the ship with our fellow passengers and the crew.

As we mentioned, last evening was the first formal night of the cruise.  As such, Keith gave Anne Marie extra time to get ready for the evening activities.  While Anne Marie was getting ready for the evening Keith was enjoying a conversation with friend Bob and one of Bob's friends from his hometown who is on the Holiday Voyage.

When Keith returned back to the room there was a look on Anne Marie's face.  For a second Keith wondered did he do anything wrong but quickly learned he was not in any hot water.  Rather, Anne Marie thought she had forgotten a pair of shoes for the formal dress.  Now, Keith is thinking that half the closet is being taken up by the shoes that Anne Marie has brought with her and that we could open up a shoe store with all of the shoes that she has brought with her.  So, he can't imagine that she can't make do.

Well, the good news is that Anne Marie did have the right shoes with her for last evenings dress and Keith has made up this story just to be getting everyone to be thinking of the dress for formal night.

One final comment that Keith has about the shoes.  If the dress is a full length dress that goes almost to the floor, what difference does it make what color shoes one is wearing.  Oh, we'll save that discussion for another time.

Before dinner last evening we attended the Captain's Welcome Aboard reception hosted by Captain John Okland.  This photo was taken outside the reception and this is Keith's point.  You can't see the shoes.

The reception was held in the a public room knowns as the Palm Court.  This room also had several holiday decorations on display.

Three of the Fabulous Lido Deck Stewards who we have come to know very well over the past several years.

Cruise Director Gary Hunter getting ready to introduce the Captain.

Captain Okland welcoming everyone to the reception and getting ready to introduce the ships Senior Officers.

Following the reception, we enjoyed dinner in the Crystal Main Dining Room.  This is one of Anne Marie's favorite dinners and her favorite on formal night as one of the items featured on the menu was Broiled Fresh Main Lobster.

Anne Marie had the Maine Lobster and this is a photo of Keith's plate as he had the Maine Lobster and a half portion of the Halibut.

We both thought the lobster was superb.  Keith prefers many items "naked" if you will without lots of sauce or other items on them so next time he'll order the Halibut without any sauce on top.

Anne Marie had the Sugar Free Mocha Cream Puff and Keith had Blueberries and Strawberries.

After dinner, we stopped by the second seating Captain's Welcome Reception.  We just stayed for a short time to visit some of our fellow passengers who dine in late seating.

Everywhere you walk around the ship you see beautiful holiday displays. Each display is done very tastefully.

Happy Chanukah

Merry Christmas

Following are the menus from last evening.  If you want to see a larger version just click on it.  The same goes for any of the photos we post.

When we arrived back to the room we saw that "Pink Piggy" was having a celebration as well and seemed to have met someone to share some bubbly with.

The good news is that before we went to sleep we set the clocks back one hour as we were sailing into a new time zone.  The bad news is that later this evening we will set the clock forward by one hour.

We slept very well and the seas have been relatively calm.

Keith worked out first in the morning and enjoyed another nice ninety minute workout in the Fitness Center.  He watched the news during the workout.  Seemed like the two biggest items they highlighted was that after starting the season 0 and 13 that the Indianapolis Colts won last evening for the second game in a row.  The other newsworthy item was that there will be a shortage of mistletoe this year primarily caused by the drought in Texas.

Afterwards, Keith took care of the remaining laundry that needed to be washed and then stopped by the Lido Cafe for some coffee.  A little while later, Anne Marie walked for one hour.  Then it was breakfast time and we both enjoyed breakfast in the room as we got ready for our visit to Cozumel, New Mexico, our first port of call on this voyage.

The last time we visited Cozumel was about ten years ago before one of the devastating hurricanes destroyed some areas in the local town and the pier.  Since we have been to Cozumel numerous times, we did not book any excursions.

There were five ships in port today including our ship.  Two of the ships were docked where you could walk into the local town.  We ended up just staying around the pier area and walked all around that area. On our return back to the ship we ended up seeing friends Bob and Glo so we walked back with them and then we also ran into several fellow passenger's and crew members.  So while we didn't get into town we at least had a nice walk and caught up with many people.

The beautiful Crystal Serenity in Cozumel.

There were four other ships in port.  If you click on the photo you should be able to see all four ships.

The Royal Carribean Allure Of The Seas Which Can Carry Over 5,000 passengers.  This cart was used for those guests who didn't want to walk from the pier to the stores.

When we saw this tree we thought of the song that goes put the lime in the coconut.  After all, we are in the Caribbean.

A Nativity Scene.

On the 2007 World Cruise we first met crew member Anne Marie.  She not only shares the same name as Anne Marie does but it is spelled the same way.  Anne Marie has worked in several different positions on board both ships and now works as the night-time accountant.

After returning to the ship we enjoyed our first lunch up at the Lido Cafe which serves a wide range of buffet luncheon items.  We each made ourselves nice salad entrees and we sat outside.

After lunch Anne Marie took a long walk on the Promenade Deck while Keith played Paddle Tennis for the first time since March.  While we've heard that the courts would be busy on sea days because of all of the children on board we figured that since this is a port day they would be quiet. As it turned out even quieter than we expected as Keith played the entire time with one person but that turned out good to get back into the swing (no pun intended) of things.

We each took care of a few more items in the afternoon.  Keith pre-ordered wine for dinner this evening and also sat with a few fellow guests.  Anne Marie wrote out holiday cards that we are sending to some fellow passengers and prepared some gift items that we are giving to some members of the crew.  She also sat out by the pool.

This evening we are going to dinner at Silk Road with friends Ashley and Kelly.

Keith and Anne Marie