Hello, friends! Gosh, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged and it feels good to be back! When we came home from our cruise a few weeks ago, I got sick and I feel like I am FINALLY 100% again. That respiratory infection really kicked me on my ass! I don’t get sick often, but when I do, it’s horrible (in the Dos Equis guy’s voice). So I’ve been trying to rest and recover and just haven’t been in the blogging mood, but now I am feeling refreshed and ready to get back into it!
In today’s post, I’ll be sharing some pictures from our recent cruise to Cozumel and Progreso, and some small tips if you’ve never taken a cruise before. This post is also really exciting for me, because I’m sharing my first ever VLOG! This was our first time vlogging, and I must say, it’s so much fun! So if you get a chance, I would love for you guys to check out the video on YouTube, give it a thumbs up, and SUBSCRIBE to my channel! I will definitely be doing more vlogs in the future, but I am also going to try my hand at filming some makeup tutorials for you guys, so more to come on that!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH
Cozumel – Mr. Sancho’s Beach Club
Kristle’s Tips:
- Carry your luggage onto the ship yourself, rather than checking it with the cruise line. It may be more of a hassle carrying all of your crap onto the ship with you, but it’s so worth it. If you check your luggage, chances are you will be waiting for hours before your stuff gets delivered to your room.
- If you have more than one person staying in your room, pack an extension cord! The rooms on the ship are tiny, so your room may only have one plug. An extension cord will come in handy when both of you need to charge your phones at the same time.
- Bring your own liquor on board. Well, I guess I should say “sneak” your own liquor on board lol. Amazon sells lotion/sunscreen flasks for really cheap that we filled with rum and vodka. I put them in a freezer bag, packed them in my suitcase, and brought it on board with no problem. Drinks on the ship are pretty expensive, so since we were each able to take a 12 pack of soda/juice onto the ship, we just made drinks in our room. You may not be comfortable doing this, but to each their own. The worst thing they can do is throw it away.
- Pack some Non-Drowsy Dramamine in case you get motion sickness. It’s also a good idea to take some before the ship takes off to help calm your stomach and prevent the motion sickness before it comes.
- Take extra cash. You’ll need this for shopping when you stop in Cozumel and Progreso. You’ll also need it for tips, cab rides, and gambling. If you gamble at a table and use your room card, they will charge you a fee (I think it’s 3% of whatever amount you play).
- Bring a light jacket! Even though this is a beachy cruise, the nights on the ship tend to get very cool, and since you’re on the water, it will be windy.
- Download the Carnival app. This will make it super easy and convenient to see all of the things going on each day, like shows, happy hours, karaoke, trivias, and bar events. If you don’t get the wifi on the ship and don’t have access to your apps, then pay close attention to the papers that are delivered to your room every day. Those will also show the break down of activities going on each day.
- Purchase your own bottled water ahead of time on the Carnival website. The water on the ship is not very good, and it’s just convenient to have bottled water in your room. It will be delivered to your room by the time you get there.
- Pay the room attendant gratuity ahead of time. You will get a designated room attendant that makes up your bed each day, gives you fresh towels, and really just gets you whatever you need during your stay. They are really awesome and helpful! When you book your cruise, it will ask you if you want to pay gratuity now or later. It’s better to pay it at the time you book so that you don’t feel it as much. You have to pay it either way, and getting a huge bill after the cruise just sucks because it will also include all of the other things you charged while you were on the ship, like alcohol, excursions, gambling, etc…
- Bring a book, crossword puzzles, or playing cards. Contrary to popular belief, a cruise isn’t all just party party party 100% of the time. There is going to be down time where you just want to relax. Well, for me anyway. So I think it’s a good idea to bring something to keep you occupied during your down time.
- Read the reviews of the excursions before you book them. There were a few excursions that we were interested in while we were in Progreso, but then when we read the reviews, we ended up changing our minds. We found that it was either a 2 hour drive there and a 2 hour drive back, or the experience of the excursion was just not as the website described. And these excursions are not cheap, so I would definitely do your research before booking. I even watched YouTube videos, which helped a ton!
Final Thoughts:
The highlight of our cruise was definitely Mr. Sancho’s Beach Club. It’s a private beach in Cozumel where you pay $55 a person, and it includes all food and all drinks, which were AMAZING! I was so impressed with the food, the service, the drinks, and the atmosphere. This isn’t something you can book through the cruise line though. We reserved our tickets on their website before our cruise, which guarantees you a table and reserves your spot. They ask you to pay $5 when you book, and then you pay the balance when you arrive. It’s only about a 10 min cab ride from the port, so you really get to spend the entire day there. It was 100% worth the $55 and I highly recommend it if you take this cruise.
Overall, the cruise was a great experience and we had a really good time. A couple of things I was disappointed in was the food and the stop in Progreso. I guess I expected the buffet to be much better, and it was actually pretty underwhelming. Most of the time, only one section of the buffet was open, leaving our options pretty scarce. And even with what little food was offered, none of it was really great. We found ourselves stopping for pizza instead (which was SO tasty). The burger bar was also really good, but it closed pretty early around 6pm. The dinners we had in the main dining room were good too, but on this specific cruise, you have to go to dinner at a certain time (it’s listed on your room card). In our case, our dinner was at 6pm, so we weren’t able to make it in time on some nights.
As you probably saw in my video, there is not much to see in Progreso. I know there are some excursions you can do there that look really cool, like the watering holes, but all of the ones that we liked were a really long bus ride (at least 2 hours) and we would’ve spent half of our day in a bus. Other excursions were pretty much all ruins, which we weren’t interested in doing/seeing. So, we opted out of doing an excursion in Progreso and just went into the city to shop and went back to the ship after.
Thank you guys so much for reading! Leave me your thoughts or questions in the comments!
