We wake up early (thank you Central Standard Time for the extra hour!), shower & get dressed, have breakfast in the buffet and make our way off the boat for an 8:15 meet time for our excursion. As with our previous cruises we planned adventurous excursions. This year most of the excursion in Cozumel involved scuba/snorkeling or hanging out on one of the many beaches. We didn't want to do either of those and we were planning on doing the beach thing in Great Stirrup Cay on Thursday.
So we decided to take it easy in Cozumel and we chose a highlight and shopping excursion. Our guide, Mike, took us around Cozumel by bus. Our first stop of the day was a place called Discover Mexico, a museum type of place showing Mexico's culture. There were miniatures of the Mayan ruins and other famous Mexican buildings. We traveled next to el Cedral, an old, small village with lots of local shops. Here Mike tells us about Black Coral and how to spot the true from the fake. Black Coral is like a type of jewel popular in Cozumel. It is actually a deep-water, tree-like coral that is kind of expensive and there are some dishonest shops who sell fake Black Coral. Since a lot of the shops here sell it, Mike didn't want any of us, "his family", to get ripped off. After about a half hour here, we are back on the bus to drive around to the other side of the island. We stop at a beachy area for about 20 min and then on to our last stop -- The Cava Antigua Tequila Factory. Here, we see the Agave plant that tequila is made from and learn the distilling process of tequila. Afterwards, we are let loose to sample about 10 different types of tequila. Stan liked the Cava Antigua Anejo Tequila while Amy found that she preferred the flavored ones, like coffee, almond, orange. We bought a bottle of Anejo tequila and a small bottle of the Cream of Cava flavored one and then back on the bus to take us back to the ship. We were back on the ship around 3:00 and had a late lunch. This gave us the rest of the afternoon to relax before the Great Big Sea sail away show on the pool deck. As we expected the show started a little later than the 6:00 PM start time. We were sitting towards the side of the stage near the water slide with our feet in the pool. This seemed like a good place to wait except for the 2 kids who kept going on the slide and splashing as they ran back to the top of the slide. When the show started we stood on the ledge where we were sitting and had a pretty good view of the stage over all the people who were standing down front. As per usual with GBS, it was a very energetic show and we barely noticed the sun setting and the tempurature going down.
After the show, it was time for dinner. Since it was a little bit late for diner for us (around 7:30), the main dining rooms were filling up. We walked by Tangos, one of the $10 cover charge restaurants, that served a mexican fare, and saw that they weren't busy, so we decided to try it. It turned out to be a good choice. They gave us complimentary margaritas, we enjoyed our quesedias and enchlaidas, and this ended up being our best meal of the cruise.
Our night was little different from the previous 2 cruises in that BNL would be playing a Main Show and we were not seeing them. The first time in 3 years of Ships & Dip and we did not see them!
We still had a great night and enjoyed some great music. First up at 9:00 in Bar City was Gaelic Storm. We would finally now be seeing a full set by them. And boy did they not disappoint! They played most of our favorite songs and a few that were new to us but the rest of the crowd knew. The Bar City venue is a weird place and not that great for a concert. The stage is very small and there are a few chairs set up in front of the stage (how you could sit for a GS show, I don't know?) and then behind the chairs is an area for standing (Where we were) and finally behind that is the Bar. Off to the side there are stairs that go up to the next floor where there is another bar and from there you can look down onto the chairs and audience - You can barely see the bands feet as the "stage" is set back and the ceiling is low. During GS's last song the singer, Patrick, started singing/walking out in the crowd. He made his way to the stairs and went upstairs. From our vantage point we could see him up on the second level still singing. Then for a second we lost him and couldn't see him.
However we heard him as he was carrying his microphone and went into the upstairs bar and ordered a shot of whiskey! While this is going on, Twigger and Jesse, also make their way up the stairs still playing,just in time to meet Patrick as he is coming out of the bar with his shot. The show then ended with them up there and we make our way up there to say hi to them and get a couple of pictures. What a great show!
With Gaelic Storm's set going a little long we arrived about 20 minutes late for the 10:00 Boothby Graffoe show in the Fyzz lounge. Boothby is an English comedian who does his routine in songs. We first heard of him on last years cruise and wanted to catch him this year. Being a little late we still ended up with good seats and we were laughing as soon as we sat down. Mid-way through his set he was joined on guitar by Brian McMillan from Thin Buckle for the rest of the set. Between each song he would do a little stand-up and it was all very funny. We had a good time laughing for almost an hour.
We made our way over to the Spinnaker Lounge for 11:30 to see Butterfly Boucher. We heard of Butterfly from when she opened for BNL in 2004. We had her first album and Stan really likes her music and was looking forward to seeing her set. She played a really good set with just her and a guitar to start. She then brought another guitarist to play and she also had a drum machine for some songs. She played some songs from her first album and some from her new album which were really good. (yes we did buy the new album from the merch store) About half way through her set just as she gets to the chorus of "I Can't Make You Love Me", somebody comes running down the aisle towards the stage singing along. He then hops up onstage behind Butterfly signing the chorus and you could tell she was a little confused by this because it happened so fast and it took a second for her and the crowd to realize it was Ed from BNL! I guess their main show was over. What a great moment. A definite highlight! Ed only stays for the one song and is gone as fast as he appeared. But we are not done with the BNL guest appearances. Butterfly is later joined on stage for her last song by Jim from BNL. They play "Another White Dash" and this ends another great show on the cruise.
With that, we now come to the close of another day by having our ritual late night snack in the cafe and finally back to the cabin for some sleep by 1:30. We have a day at sea tomorrow with a bunch of shows scheduled for the Stardust Theater.
Finally here are a couple photos from Cozumel.
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