Cozumel: Paradise found in Mexico

by Chris Owen on

In the news, it seems we most often read of a Mexico that is unsafe to visit. Always with an eye on the safety of their passengers, cruise lines have modified itineraries for ships that call at Mazatlan on several occasions. While frequent visitors to Mazatlan stand up for it as a testament to it being safe, it seems the place just can’t get over the safety issue. Travelers want to go places to have fun, not to get robbed, beat up or shot at. Still, to discount the entire land of Mexico as unsafe would be wrong. There are some very safe places to visit in Mexico and Cozumel is one of them.

Cozumel is an entirely different place and to think for even a minute that it is unsafe to visit because it has a Mexico after it’s name is about as wrong as saying Martin Sheen is crazy because Charlie is.
First, let’s get our bearings straight. Cozumel is the biggest island in Mexico, located on the Yucatan Peninsula on the eastern, Caribbean side of Mexico. Mazatlan is on the west side of Mexico, way far away from Cozumel. It is separated from the Yucatan Peninsula by the Yucatan channel which is 12 miles wide.

The town of Cozumel is called San Miguel with a population of about 95,000 people. Most of the population of the island is in the town of San Miguel, on the west coast of the Island facing mainland.

On a land vacation, there are plenty of luxury hotels, first class facilities and services. Cozumel International Airport (CZM) is easily accessible from most major cities by many airlines and not far from hotels, beach and other attractions. Cozumel is world renowned for its diving because it hosts one of the largest coral reefs in the world, a big attraction for SCUBA freaks and snorkelers.

On a cruise vacation, one of the most attractive parts of the deal is that you unpack once but get to visit multiple destinations. As your floating hotel goes from place to place, you can choose to go ashore to get up close and personal with wherever it is you are visiting or stay on the ship. In most cases, it’s worth getting off the ship but if you’ve been there before there is a temptation to stay on board and enjoy the ship while most passengers are gone.

Cozumel, Mexico is one of those places that no matter how many times you have been there, the order of the day is to get off the ship. If you cruise much, odds are you will be seeing Cozumel from time to time and that is a very good thing.

That said, let me introduce you to a place I found in Cozumel years ago and return to almost every time we visit.

Paradise Beach is a short cab ride from the cruise terminal and a must-do destination when visiting either by land or sea. It’s a day at the beach like no other with crystal clear water and some of the best food and drink on the island.

Located 5 miles from the International Cruise Ship Pier, it’s about a $10 cab ride each way and there are plenty of cabs available. Once there, one of the first things you notice is how very clean the place is. From the parking lot to pretty much every square inch of the 300 foot-wide sandy beach, the place is spotless, much like you might find in a 5 star beach resort.

The next thing you’ll notice is that it is free. There is no admission here like many other beaches and prices for optional services, food and beverage are reasonable. You could probably just come here and sit in the sand on the beach for free but that would be a mistake. They have some of the best food and beverages on the island which really add to the whole experience.

Chairs are available to rent for only $2 (I paid $15 on Miami Beach not long ago) and the array of toys they have to play with is considerable. A trampoline, 14 foot-tall climbing iceberg, full snorkel gear, floating mats , kayaks, 10ft water slide, a Jungle Joe floating multi-tiered climbing structure, paddle boards, coconut trees to climb or a spacewalker bungee can be had for $12, unlimited use, all day.

It’s a good idea to get there early but only because more time at Paradise Beach is just a good idea. Once settled in, someone will be by to attend to your every need. They will bring you food from an extensive menu that does not get any more authentic than this. Try the Chicken Quesadillas or Guacamole and Chips. You will thank me later. Everyone does.

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Cruise prices rise but bargains are out there, nevermind the view

by Chris Owen on

As promised, cruise lines have raised prices in reaction to increasing demand. It seems the all-inclusive nature and higher-than-other-things safety level of a cruise vacation is once again filling up ships. But there are still a few bargains out there, if you don’t mind the view.

Royal Caribbean International, who eternally vowed to never discount new Oasis and Allure of the seas is doing the next best thing. In what they call a summertime “family-friendly” promotion running through the 13th of April, the line is offering $200 onboard credit for sailings during June, July or August 2011.

Vacationers booking two or more Central Park- or Boardwalk-view balcony staterooms, that are grouped together, will receive a $200 onboard credit per stateroom, up to a maximum of three staterooms for a total of $600 onboard credits per group.

Here’s the catch: Nobody wants those cabins.

When most people think “balcony” they think “overlooking the ocean”. These don’t. Your view will be of whoever is across the interior Central Park Neighborhood if you look straight ahead or of the Central Park landscaping below. Look up and you will see the sky but not much of it.

The Boardwalk-view location is better or worse depending on how you look at it. The aft location does provide a view of the ocean. Sort of. If you look past the Aqua-theater and there is a lot going on back there. The down-side is that there is a lot going on back there. Someone who wants a lazy day on the balcony watching the ocean roll by will be disappointed if not angry.

I was on the ship with a bunch of really loud people who we put out on the balcony, hoping they would fall off. They didn’t fall off but when the balcony door was closed and I was standing inside the cabin looking at them it was like putting them on mute setting.

Still, this is a great promotion if you don’t have plans to relax, fool around, smoke or otherwise misbehave on your balcony. Concerns over noise from the area below are more true in the bustling Boardwalk area than the serene Central Park but not very well founded.

Don’t get me wrong, Oasis and Allure of the Seas are great ships. The cupcakes from the Cupcake Cupboard alone are reason enough to sail on either one. Take Royal Caribbean up on this deal and you’ll have plenty of cash for them.

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Photo: Whitney Owen

Post-race wedding ceremony a win for charity

by Chris Owen on
The Cooper Ridge Bridge Run in Charleston, South Carolina is the third-largest 10K race in America. In a first-ever post-race wedding ceremony at the 2011 run this last weekend, the culminating event was a Race to the Altar contest and fundraiser which resulted in a $10,000 donation to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Children’s Hospital.

Sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines, a nationwide search selected Andy Cook and Tina Berwanger as the winning couple based on their inspiring personal story. The couple met at Surry Community College in North Carolina and were two of over 40,000 participants in this years race, their first. Using preparation for the race as a goal to aid in an ongoing, realistic weight loss/lifestyle program, they said the race to the altar “is symbolic of the healthy lifestyle that we want to continue to lead” after they were married.


Andy and Tina ran in custom-designed wedding attire then, after the race, they were married in a beach-themed ceremony complete with sand, calypso band and slushy drinks in Charleston‘s Marion Square. The couple also got the first dance at the Cooper River Bridge Run Finish Festival in front of family, friends and 40,000 fellow runners plus a honeymoon cruise aboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ Fantasy.


Fulfilling a promise made on New Year Eve in Times Square, this was part of Carnival’s “Hey America, DidJa Ever?” social focus where the line collected “Top 100 Firsts” from over 420,000 Facebook fans. Fans were encouraged to tighten up relationships by sharing experiences through photos and videos aimed to create events and memories. Carnival promised to help make those dreams come true for fans giving away anything from cruise vacations to appearing on stage with a favorite band.

Bucket List travel blog locks in on people, experiences

by Chris Owen on
This week, Princess Cruises reached the half-way point of it’s travel blog “50 Essential Experiences: The Travel Bucket List” with a post by Commodore Giuseppe Romano, senior captain of the Princess fleet. Different from others, this travel blog focuses on people, namely people who work for Princess Cruises and their personal, qualified experiences traveling the world.

Over the past 45 years, Princess ships have sailed to all seven continents with many of their employees logging thousands of sea and air miles visiting hundreds of places around the planet.

The 50 Essential Experiences blog asks of them: “You’ve seen it all. What places do I really need to have on my travel bucket list?”

For President and CEO Alan Buckelew it was about his time in Vietnam both as a soldier in 1969 and returning some 40 years later via cruise ship.

In A Soldier Returns…as a Tourist, Buckelew brings his experience right down to ground level, including the emotional, personal side of his travel back in time which could have gone a number of ways.

“I really hadn’t thought about how I would react to my return to Vietnam. However, I had expected a flood of memories to overtake me. But that didn’t happen. Faces did come to mind, but they weren’t of the young men with whom I had fought. Rather, they were their current portraits.”

Rooms Department Manager from the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge, Kristen Helgren took us to Santorini, Greece.

In her blog post, The Sounds of Santorini, Helgren adventures through some preconceived notions about Greece and takes us along on a journey to the cliffs of Santorini.

“As our ship maneuvered to drop anchor at Santorini, I got my first glimpse of the island’s iconic steep cliffs. Though I may have glimpsed what towered above me at that point, my attention was actually focused downward, as I contemplated the fact that we had just sailed into a giant, submerged volcanic crater, or caldera.”

Rob Roberts, Manager of Shore Excursions for Europe & Exotics takes us on My Grand Tour of ancient sites and great cities of the Mediterranean.

In a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what goes into the research and planning of shore excursions he notes

“I remember reading Mark Twain’s “The Innocents Abroad” in college, which chronicled his own Grand Tour by steamship in 1867, and became one of his best-selling books of all time. To think that here I was, following in these grand footsteps as I helped to plan a similar experience for thousands of passengers”

In the most recent post, The Gift of the City of Lights, Commodore Romano goes into great detail, revealing a side of someone who lives at sea that is rarely seen. I met then Captain Romano several years ago when he presided over a renewal of wedding vows ceremony we enjoyed on board Star Princess. Knowing him then reading his post this week really drove home the notion that these are all real people, sharing their personal experiences with us. Romano tells of surprising his wife with a trip to Paris, a place she had dreamed of visiting one day.

“We boarded a flight from Miami to Paris under the guise that we were continuing on to Amsterdam. It wasn’t until we went to collect our luggage that I handed her a Fodor’s guide to Paris, her go-to book whenever the family joined me on board, and told her, “Happy Anniversary!” Knowing my sense of humor, she thought I was joking. But once she realized we were finally going to Paris, she was overjoyed”

These are just a few posts from this great blog that comes at us from a different angle than we see elsewhere. Reading about places you may not have been to or those you have visited many times, it is easy to see why they made the 50 Essential Experiences bucket list. If you have not been reading along, it’s not too late to catch up either. Sign up online and Princess will even email you when a new one comes out. With over a million hits so far and thousands of comments, this one is creating a lot of loyal readers and probably adding some destinations to more than a few bucket lists.

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The unexpected: part of traveling, even on cruise ships

by Chris Owen on

If we travel by air, we hope our flight will be on time, our luggage makes it with us without damage and that no one sits next to us in that vacant seat. Once at our destination, we hope for good weather, friendly people along the way and the opportunity to make great memories that will last a lifetime. That’s pretty much universal regardless of what we’re doing. Still, the unexpected does happen and there are two ways to look at it when plans go awry. We can be disappointed and allow deviations from our plans to ruin our travels or we can accept those deviations, regroup and move along, often ending up with a richer, more fulfilling experience than we ever dreamed of, let alone planned on.

Be it Backpacking, Hiking, Camping, Climbing, Scuba Divng, Skiing, Surfing or Biking, we hope for the best. Smart travelers prepare for the worst too and usually end up with an experience somewhere between good and great if we did our homework. We know things can go wrong and do what we can to avoid situations where that might happen. All-inclusive vacation packages or cruise vacations promise to take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation but sometimes the unexpected happens with those as well.

Earlier this week, Carnival Pride was docked at Port Canaveral earlier when an 85-knot guest of wind blew the ship out of position and caused some minor damage. The result was a late departure from Port Canaveral and a modified itinerary that skipped good-port Nassau, leaving not-so-good-port Freeport, Bahamas as an overnight visit.

This was not the cruise that passengers paid for, true. But travelers, and cruise passengers in particular, often forget that the very nature of travel brings upon us the unexpected from time to time. That is part of the deal as well. It’s not spelled out in any contract or brochure but the unexpected happens. Sometimes, even with the best of preparation, the unexpected happens and there is nothing we can do to prevent it. We can, however, roll with those unexpected changes and make the best of it. Often, it is the unexpected that elicit some of the best travel experiences that we will be talking about long after the end of that vacation.

Andy Hayes (@Andrewghayes) is the managing editor of SharingTravelExperiences.com and recommends:

  • Always Take the High Road. Being a total jerk doesn’t do anybody any favors, and usually works against you. Remember, it isn’t usually the employee you’re dealing with who caused the issue (and even if it was, still…). Be firm and friendly.
  • Get on the Phone. If you’re stuck in long queues (esp at the airport), get on the phone as sometimes a phone agent can be easier to reach and can get you a manager to authorize off-policy changes. It is better to deal with someone in person though, so use the phone option as a backup.
  • Accept what you can’t change. When the weather or mistakes or whatever means that you just aren’t going to get home on time, or you’re going to miss out on something special, try to find the inner peace to accept it. Yeah, it sucks, but if you let that negative energy fester it can spoil your entire vacation.
That’s good advice that can be applied to just about any travel situation. Often, the difference between “I had a lousy time” and “That was awesome!” have to do with how we look at the unexpected. We can choose to be mad about changes that come our way or we can choose to take those changes in stride, determined to get the most out of every situation we are in, regardless of what that might be.

While cruise lines publish itineraries far in advance of sailing, like a hiking trip, variables along the way can change what actually happens. A gust of wind made a real impact on the cruise experience of passengers on that Carnival ship earlier this week.

A similar gust of wind might have altered the plans of someone on a camping trip, blowing their tent down. If you have ever camped much, you know that happens. You take precautions by pitching that tent in the right direction, using long enough stakes set deep and at an angle to keep them in the ground. But every once in a while you might come back from a hike and find that tent blown down. It happens. You get over it. You move along. It is certainly nothing that will ruin your day or the entire trip.

Cruise passengers need to have that same attitude about itineraries, on-board programs, off-the-ship activities and the like. The unexpected is part of traveling, a part not to be feared but just dealt with when it happens. If possible, turn it in to a good thing, a shared experience with others. It’s often just how we look at it.

Flickr photo by Sparkles Tuey