Day Six, November 20, 2009: At Sea

Lazy day at sea, involving meals, snacks, ice cream… we worked a lot of it off, though. 

Except for the very first time onboard, when there was no choice, we walked up and down stairs many times a day.  We were on deck 9.  Restaurants and shows were on either 12 (or 13) or 7.  I’m surprised my knees survived!

There was the usual napping, reading

Sometime during the day we put a deposit down on another cruise to be used within 4 years.

We also got copies of pictures that were taken that first night, when we ate in Tango’s.  Tom as surprised – he hadn’t realized that we had had our picture taken.

We thought of doing several things, but ended up going in the pool, reading, napping and – eating, of course!

Despite today’s forecast of “Sunny”, there was a bit of rain out to sea and some thunder and lightning.

On balcony

In The Great Outdoors

Resting in the comfy chairs in Spinnaker

This evening we ate at Mongolian Hot Pots. I was very excited about this because I happen to have a Mongolian Hot Pot at home although I haven’t used it for years.

It looks like this (although I never had flames like this):

The idea is that there is coal or another heating element in the middle chimney so the food in the outer bowl area cooks more quickly.

The Mongolian hot pot tradition originated from northern nomadic tribes.  Nomadic households used pots like this to save volume and weight during migration.

So, I was looking forward to trying this out cooked by someone other than myself!

We had some trouble finding this restaurant – turned out they had set aside 4 tables in Chin Chin Asian Restaurant.

The 4 tables all had an electric heating element on the table.  No coal here!

We all had seaweed salad, dumplings and steamed edamame (baby soybeans) as appetizers.

Then the waiter brought out the gingery broth for the Shabu-Shabu, white rice and 3 dipping sauces for each of us.  The broth included silky tofu and vegetables, including hakusai, chrysanthemum leaves, nori (edible seaweed), onions, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and enokitake mushrooms.

Then came the plates of thinly sliced beef which we put onto long forks and cooked quickly in the broth.

Then, a second plate of beef.  Had we finished all this, we could have had the broth over the rice for a final soup course but we never got that far.

Wonderful!

For dessert, rice ice cream in matcha (powdered green tea), coconut and azuki (Red Bean) flavors. 

Waiting for the show to start.

The show this evening was another Jean Ann Ryan Company production called Le Cirque Bijou.  What a great show!  Acrobats, aerialists, gymnasts, bungee jumpers hurling themselves from the 2-deck high ceiling.  People swung on trapezes, used scarves to swing from.  Amazing, the whole show.

At the end, they said that we could photograph or video the finale, so I did.  This was the last contract for this company, so it was their very last show (on this ship, anyway)

Today's Stats:
Forecast: Sunny, 82F/28C
Sunrise: 6:58am (We changed the clocks back today)
Sunset: 5:38pm

Day Five, November 19, 2009: Costa Maya, Mexico

We hadn’t signed up for anything in advance like we had the zipline and when we tried to sign up the night before docking in Costa Maya, everything was booked except Beach Blast.  No thanks.  So we just decided to go ashore and look around.  Some of us were still tired from the day before.  No names, though!

At 9:30am, I took this picture on our balcony. 106.9 degrees.

At 9:31am, 107.1.  I decided it was time to go back inside before it rose any higher.

We mainly goofed off in the morning, resting by the pool, taking pictures, reading our Kindles, and so on.

The long pier into Costa Maya:

Finally, we decided to check out Costa Maya and started the long walk down the pier. 

The port of Costa Maya Mexico is located on the southern east tip of Quintana Roo Mexico near the tiny fishing village of Mahahual.

Costa Maya's port has a new and modern tourist shopping mall. The center has a central plaza with a neat-looking pool there with real sand and 'swim-up' style bars.

There are several jewelry stores and many small shops selling ubiquitous souvenir items. It is generally open only to cruise ship passengers. One of those shops was called…Zingara.

Tom bought a hat and a T-shirt (or 2) and I finally bought something – a swim coverup with embroidery on it.

Costa Maya is the closest port of access to many of the lesser known Mayan ruins in the Yucatan including Chacchoben and Kohunlich. These sites are substantially less excavated than the better known pyramids near Cancún.

The port sustained heavy damage due to Hurricane Dean in August 2007. This included the dock designed for cruise ships. Holland America's Westerdam was the first cruise ship to return to the port since Hurricane Dean on October 31, 2008.

Bidding fond adieu to Mexico…

 

Luckily, they had jitneys for people who couldn’t/didn’t want to make the long walk up that pier.

While walking, we were passed by an ambulance which stopped at our ship.  We wondered what possible event would be dealt with by someone taken off a cruise ship into Mexico for care.  We’ll never know.

The standard onboard sunset pictures for today:

 

We decided to eat tonight at the Tsar’s Palace.  Although it has  Russian name and decor, the food was not Russian.  Drat!

Tonight’s entertainment was Jane L. Powell, a singer with a five-octave range.  She sang all types of music and was very humorous and entertaining.  Another great show!

Today's Stats:
Forecast: Mostly Sunny, 84F/29C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 5:11pm
Arrival: 8:00am
All aboard: 4:30pm