|
 |
Cozumel - CruisinStarFish's Rating: 5+
Ah Cozumel! I love this port. This was my 4th time and my boyfriend's second. I don't like the new dock area and their little fenced in shopping area. It felt like I was walking into a theme park or something. But, we weren't there for shopping and touristy stuff. We grabbed a taxi van and he took us to Nachi Cocom that I had pre-booked through Island Marketing. After the $15 cab ride, plus tip we arrived down this little dirt road not knowing that beyond the buildings and bushes that an island oasis awaited us. There were maybe at most 15-20 people on the beach that day. It's all inclusive place and we thoroughly took advantage of that with yummy margaritas and FRESH FRESH food from the menu. The guacamole was to die for as well as the homemade pita chips that come with it. We also had seafood ceviche and shrimp rice. Along with fellow CC friends, warm 85 degree crystal clear waters, great food and drink, this made for a memorable day and we will book this beach day again should we dock in Cozumel in the future.
|
 More Cozumel Reviews
|
|
Cozumel Port Profile
|
Cozumel Forum
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Grand Cayman - CruisinStarFish's Rating: 5+
You can definitely tell this is a British colony. It is very posh and upscale metropolitan in the downtown area chock full of banks. We weren't here for that though so we hopped into a bus and had them take us to Royal Palms/Reef Grill resort. I highly recommend this FREE beach area. The bus was only $3 per person each way. The sand is like baby powder and there is plenty of shade if you need it from several large pine trees. We planted ourselves under one that was crawling with tiny cute lizards. The water here lives up to its name as the top beach in the world! It's very warm and has gentle waves, just be careful of the drop off. You can go from knee deep to shoulder deep in just a few steps. After sunning for a few hours and nice walk down to the private condo areas and exchanging fantasies of how nice it would be to drop everything and move there soon, we went to the Reef Grill for several Caybrews, the islands own beer. It was crisp and light with a lemony twist. After that, we headed back to the ship because it was an early port day and still had to catch the last tender.
|
|
More Grand Cayman Reviews
|
|
Grand Cayman Port Profile
|
Grand Cayman Forum
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ocho Rios - CruisinStarFish's Rating: 3.0
1. This port makes me appreciate for what I have in life and 2. Not sure why this is a cruise stop. The place IS beautiful yet sad with so much poverty and beggars. How awful it is that this place has to be divided into barbwire fences to keep the locals out! They tried to sell you everything even through the fences! I'm usually not intimidated by going off the beaten path but this time around I was very happy to have my boyfriend there with me. We escaped by going into the cruise area and headed to Margaritaville. Normally I would avoid that place like the plague but it seemed the best option as we didn't book any tours or anything so we were on our own....or so I thought. We made our way onto this sad excuse for a beach. Also, you may think you are safe from the bead sellers here...nope, the water is fair game and they literally blocked the water way so you couldn't go for a swim without passing them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making fun of these folks, I understand what they are doing and why. I felt guilty sitting there on that beach really. BUT, on a lighter note... After a couple beers I got up some nerve and decided to venture around the corner to go over to Lobster Daves. I admit I was nervous and a little scared walking over there. It's only a few feet from Margaritaville but the walk felt like forever. One of the ladies selling beads helped us over the little fresh water stream that feeds into the ocean and sort of yelled at the locals that were sitting around eating and drinking to leave us alone because we were new to the area. For that, I bought a necklace from her in thanks. Talk about an interesting experience! Lobster Dave was so very friendly and happy to see that we wanted a local experience. I told him I only had $20 and asked him to cook us up something. He brought us THREE lobsters, jerk chicken, rice, greens, and bread fruit plus 2 beers each!! Try getting that over at Jimmy Buffet's Nest egg. We tipped him $10. Not bad for an authentic experience!
|
|
More Ocho Rios Reviews
|
|
Ocho Rios Port Profile
|
Ocho Rios Forum
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
