We woke up this morning at 6:30 to prepare for our long day. We have a 30-minute ferry ride, 2-hour van ride to get to the Chichen Itza Mayan Ruins. The only thing we did in Cozumel is walk down the pier from the ship to a ferry. We were technically in Cozumel for all of 5 minutes. The rest of the time was really spent traveling to Chichen Itza. Which is guess means I need to do this cruise again, so I can actually see somethings in Cozumel.

We started the morning in Cabanas. The middle section of Cabanas has a coffee and drink bar. As we enjoyed breakfast we chatted with a cast member about our excursions for today. He told us to check out the obsidian rock (you can hold it up and look at the sun). Then it was time to head off and meet for our excursion down that Buena Vista Theater (we are good at finding this location now). 

After we docked we were taken out to the ferry to take us from Cozumel to Playa de Carmen. We opted to sit down stairs to avoid the rush of people getting off. It was a nice and choppy ride with a man running around the ship with green bags, paper towels, and cleaner for all the people who got sick. Nana took a bag and did not get sick! We finally made it into Playa de Carmen (30min later) and left the ferry to find our cruise group. We met out tour guide Irving. We walked a few blocks from the port to the location where the vans were held. We walked through the very touristy sections with tons of American products (so far 3 Starbucks). We walked past a school just as kids were coming out for recess or PE. They had a very blue turf looking soccer field to play on.  When we arrive where the vans were they gave us our lunch, and they took us to the bathrooms. Not a good order, as the bathroom area was small and now you had more stuff to hold. Our tour was broken up into small groups, so our group had 17 people. Now it was time to hit the road. As we left town we passed some gas stations (Gas stations in Mexico has attendants to pump your gas), we saw Oxo a convenient store that appears a lot sort of like 7Elven (which we did see). We passed a large grocery store they Irving compared to Wal-Mart, then we did pass a Wal-Mart too. As we were leaving the city we saw some government housing. Irving said the government builds the house and the people then buy it from the government. The problem was every year the government could change the interest rate and payments. The new president is working on changing the laws, so the monthly payments are fixed. We then saw tons of new single-family homes and condos that were going in, very different from the government housing section. On the way out of town there was a police checkpoint. All we did was slow down, they were all on their phones and I don’t think even looked up. 

We were given a lot of information about the Mayan’s way more than I could process. Irving was telling us that until tourist really started to come and explore the ruins, the Mayan culture was not respected in Mexico. People didn’t share they Mayan ancestry or learn the langue. Now in Mexico the language is being taught in schools again. That has started in the last 30 years. Once we arrived in Chichen Itza we got off the van and began out tour around the ruins. Man was it hot!!!! 

The square-based pyramid is about 98 feet tall. The pyramid is built for astronomical purposes and during the vernal equinox (March 20) and the autumnal equinox (September 21) at about 3 pm the sunlight bashes the western balustrade of the pyramid’s main stairway. This makes 7 isosceles triangles to form the body of a snake 37 yards long!

The temple has 365 steps—one for each day of the year. Each of the temple’s four sides has 91 steps, and the top platform makes the 365th

The temple has 9 square terrace each about 8″ high on all 4 sides. The 9 terraces on 4 sides

The Mayan feathered serpent know as Kukulkan. Since snakes can shed their skin, it symbolizes renewal and rebirth.

People used to be allowed up the stairs, but people were destroying the pyramid so now you have to have permission and an educational purpose. U.S. presidents when they come are allowed to have their picture taken on the 3^rd stair. Our guide said unofficially they may climb to the top. Only Jennifer Lopez has been allowed to climb the steps officially as part of one of her music videos.

The Pyramid was made to be an optical illusion. It would look like a different size depending on where you were standing. Mom and I did not move, but our guide changed how he stood to take the picture. Sometimes he held the camera really high and squatted to make the pyramid look different in each picture.

The figure in the middle at the main entrance is know as the Chacmool. It is considered to be an intermediary between the Supreme God and men. It is believed that this is a symbol of slain warriors that carry gifts to the gods.

We drove back to Playa de Carmen, we took a toll road most of the way they were very much like any American roadway. Once we got back into Playa de Carmen it really looked like we could have been in Miami. We saw Office Max, Office Depot, Wal-Mart, Sam’s, Old Navy, 4 Starbucks (I didn’t have time to go into any of them!), and more American stores.  

We were dropped off at the pier in Playa de Carmen to take the ferry back to Cozumel. This time we sat upstairs so mom could stare off the back of the boat. I must say while it was really hot it was super mesmerizing to watch the wake from the boat as we rode back. 

We arrived at the pier at 4:30 and made it back on the ship by 4:43….all aboard time was 4:45, which is why I like to book through the cruise there was no chance of us getting left behind. The gangway was on Deck 1, so we had a lot of stairs to walk back up. Deck 10 does require you to walk up a lot of stairs after dinner, but I find I go up to Deck 11 more than I have before. 

Dinner tonight was at Royal Court. Our tablemates still are not any more talkative. At times you can ask the boy questions and he will respond, but the mom doesn’t talk much. We try asking questions to engage them, but she doesn’t really want to chat.

After dinner we went to O’Gills pub and had a drink while watching a little college basketball. Our waiter was very friendly and this was his first contract with Disney. He said he has been with Disney for almost 3 months. He said they do 90 contracts to start to make sure you are a good employee and that you enjoy working on a ship. He said he had a few more weeks left on his contract before he finds out if he will get a renewal. He also told us that the bartenders and staff work on a 2 week bar rotation. This was their last week of the rotation and then he would be working in a new bar on the next cruise.

We went up stairs and started watching the Star Wars: The Last Jedi, while we waited for the fireworks to start. At 8:15 we went upstairs to watch Muppet Treasure Island, but all the chairs were put away for Pirates night so we went back to the room. We decided to watch more Star Wars.

At 10:15 we went back upstairs for the pirate show and fireworks. Once the show was over no fireworks came. We were very confused and went to check out the food in Cabanas, nothing there either. We found a Cast member and asked what was going on. The Cast member asked us if we had missed the announcement. We said well at 9pm we head an announcement that said “Bright star, bright star and a number”; we did know what this meant. We were then told that there is a medical emergency on board and we are headed back to Cozumel. At this point we are 4-5 hours away from Cozumel. So the fireworks were postponed until tomorrow. That also meant we are not making our stop tomorrow in Grand Cayman. Since there are not fireworks we headed down for bed, there was more deck noise tonight.