Kreuzfahrt nach Cozumel

A good idea!! The sport club Body Business, Austin, in which we are
members since early 2003 , celebrated its 20 year old anniversary and offered a 5-day cruise from Galveston (Texas) to Cozumel (Mexico) for a good price. Beside some employees of the sport club also many members took the opportunity and booked the tour.. We also participated. We could decide to takeour own cars or a charter bus. We decided to take the bus, in order to have vacation from the time we left home. We travled by bus on Thursday, April 1st 2004 at 8:00 AM from Austin to Galveston, a small place at the coast at the gulf of Mexico (a small town close to Houston).

The ship was already waiting, when we arrived in Galveston: Celebration (Carnival Line). We where lucky, to go directly on board. We had booked an cabin to the sea side with window. It was at the sventh floor and was called the 'Empress Deck '. Thus we had it not far to the restaurants...

After we had stowed our things away, we went into the Bistro, in order to be able to test already once the kitchen. There was a lunch buffet available with a variety of food.

We had to exercise an emergency situation before the boat could leave the harbour. That was required to make sure, all passengers get familiar with the safety precautions and the life jackets. It was quite warm and we had to wait until everybody showed up at the meeting place with life jacket put on.

Now back to another topic: meals and some beverages and drinks such as ice tea, lemonade, water, coffee and chocolate were included in the price. There was the possibility to get 24 hours around the clock meals (snacks) and drinks at self service stations. But there was also the possibility to have breakfast and dinner in the restaurant ' Horizon '. One night, we had a fantastic midnight buffet, from which we took some photographs:

As already mentioned this was a 5 day trip. We left on Thursday at about 16:00 from Galveston and reached the port of Cozumel on Saturday morning at about 9:00 AM. There where games and other things offered during all the time we travelled on the Caribbean ocean both during the day and in the evening. The first evening on the boat was a Cocktail Meeting organized and paid by the owners of the sport club. That was a great evening and gave everyone the opportunity to meet the club members and the stuff of Body Business.

The ' Fun ship Celebration' has several meeting areas which looked like theatres. One of those large areas, the Astoria Lounge, had a stage and a place for, I estimate, several hundred people (approx. 1600 guests were at board). A talent show, musicals and other events took place in the Astoria Lounge. Our cocktail receipt was celebrated in the 'Iceland into the Sky' lounge. There was dance music each evening... from Western over Rock'n roll up to soft songs. For the ' small ones ' there was a Disco.. and of course... there was also a Karaoke area ... there was something for everyone.

We got several different offers before the departure to Cozumel .... we had a 7 1/2 hours stay and decided for the snorkel route with a catamaran. It should go to a colourful corral reef with colourful fish. Unfortunately it was not what we have been told and what we expected! The catamaran was ok and well maintained. We took the tour right after our arrival in Cozumel. The catamaran left from the same jetty, which was used by the Celebration. We arrived at the first snorkel station after about 15 minutes! Snorkel-time! 45 minutes were planned. We snatched our things (we brought the fins and dive mask as well as the snorkel with us,... that was a good idea: we didn't trust the statement that only new equipment at board was... and I was right) and jumped into the beautiful warm water. We did not see the the promised multi colour corals... the ' professional snorkel the master ' had to feed the fish with bread to get at least some fishes together for the crowd of snorkelling tourists. Wasn'r realy what we expected..

We have been asked back to the boat after about 45 minutes. We continued to drive, listening to Discomusic and a loooot of Margarita & beer, to a sand beach, where we could relax and swim before we have been asked to go back to the boat and the party continued.

So. What did we still miss after that catamaran tour?? A visit of the city and lunch in the the Hard Rock Cafe. We brought the snorkel things into our cabin, went ashore and snatched ourselves a taxi. It took us 'downtown' and cost only 6US$. We stopped at the ' first HRC ", we didn't know, that 2 HRCs exist. The first HRC was more some kind of Bistro. We asked for the ' real HRC ' and experienced that it was only 6 of blocks (on German: 6 roads) further down the road. We walked along the main street, until we found our hot desired HRC, turned in, drank a good cool beer and ate a large HRC salad. We then walked through the small roads and went into some of those tourist shops searching for a nice t-shirt. We took a taxi back to the ship.

And then? It didn't take to long and the Celebration left the harbour for his way back to Texas. Unfortunately we could not enjiy the sun like we did on our way to Couzumel. A bad weather front hit us and we had wind and also some light rain on our way back. Nevertheless... it was a nice trip and we can only recommend to join the second trip next year... at least to those, which are lucky to be a member of the Body Business Health Club in Austin (Texas)