Cozumel is my favorite port. I have other favorite cities and other favorite places to travel, but if I’m on a Caribbean cruise I want it to go to Cozumel. We have been to Cozumel five times and we have done something different every time we visited. Almost every time we have booked an excursion through the cruise line, but there are still excursions I want to book!
But the amazing things to do in Cozumel is a whole post by itself. Link that post here
We docked mid-morning in Cozumel so we decided to order some room service. We like to get room service on days when we arrive late in port and want to eat right before we get off the ship. We drank coffee and ate our yogurt & fruit on the balcony as we sailed past a little of mainland Mexico and other Mexican islands. It was nice to have a leisurely morning and an unhurried cup of coffee watching the water slip by before we had to get ready to fight the hustle and bustle of Lido.
Because it was super busy. We stood in line for an omelet for so long that we ended up having enough time to give an entire tutorial to the older gentleman in front of us in line on how to work the time setting feature on an apple watch. But we were finally fed and had even more coffee before we finally grabbed out stuff and headed off the ship.
Cozumel funnels you through a giant duty-free store filled with perfume, alcohol and cigarettes with incredibly dire warnings (if you smoke you and others around you may die a painful death). After the store, we burst onto the port shopping area. The area where the pier meets the town was full of people holding tour signs. We had pre-booked our tour through Carnival. We found the sign for our tour right out front of Three Amigos (why not Tres Amigos?) and were able to get our tour started!
We booked the Amazing Race Cozumel and I think it was my favorite excursion we have ever done. We literally raced around downtown Cozumel from the market to a boat to a museum to a henna tattoo parlor to a restaurant. It was so much fun. Since it was April it wasn’t that hot, but they still had cold waters they were handing out and even some cervezas on the small boat ride. It was absolutely a blast! See more about that experience in our review of that excursion. Link that post here
The tour ended at a restaurant where we got a short menu. By this point we had walked quickly all around downtown Cozumel, so we were glad to see some tacos, a quesadilla and, of course, the giant margaritas. They gave out awards to those people who had won the race and then we were put in a complementary taxi and taken back to the cruise terminal.
We thought about shopping or stopping at the confusingly named Three Amigos (we had a voucher for a free margarita), but we were tired and dusty so we went on back to the ship for some much needed showers and sunset photos.
It was definitely a night to veg out with a show and then the balcony!
