Cruise to Key West, Fl. and Cozumel, Mexico. Part 2
The adventure continues on our 4-day Carnival cruise with Part 2: Our trip to the Dolphinaris for the Tabasco Cooking and Tasting Class excursion in Cozumel Mexico, and our last evening on the Carnival Sensation. March 7th, 2020.
Cozumel, Mexico
Pre-booked excursions
When you book excursions like the Tabasco’s Chef Maestro Cook and Tasting Class thru the Carnival website, the tickets will be delivered to your cabin when you first arrive on ship. Booking thru Carnival Excursions also guarantees the ship won’t leave you if the excursion ends up running later than planned.
Arriving in Port
It was a beautiful afternoon in Cozumel! It was sweltering hot the last time we were here in Sept 2019. But this time (in March) there were sunny skies with a cool breeze.
Donna and I had breakfast in the Seaview Lido Marketplace and walked around the ship before we ported at 1pm. Upon leaving the ship, we were greeted by people in costumes and photographers ready to take your picture with them. The photographers are from the ship and the photos are available on ship if you want to purchase them later.
Donna and I usually skip the cruise ship photographers. We can always find another person or couple to take photos of us on our camera, and then we take photos for them on theirs.
Heading to transportation area
The Dolphinaris guides held signs to make it easy for us to find them, and after everyone arrived we quickly head to the transportation area for our taxi out of port. I don’t think anyone was late, therefore I honestly don’t know why we were walking so fast threw the port shopping area. Luckily, Donna and I have been to Cozumel before so it wasn’t a big deal. I did managed a few photos on the way.
Dolphinaris
The Dolphinaris is located close to the Cozumel port, so it was a short drive to get there.
They offer different attractions including a dolphins area, an infinite pool and exhibits. The cooking class is located upstairs inside the Dolphinaris, but sponsored by Tabasco. It might sound like a strange place to be having a cooking class, but I loved the location.
Those of us taking the cooking class were lead upstairs to a beautiful balcony area. We watched dolphins swim around while waiting for class to begin.
Tabasco Cooking and Tasting Class
Our class consisted of 8 students including Donna and myself. I really liked that it was a small class and everyone was polite and friendly with each other. After everyone picked their stations and we adorned our heads with paper chef hats, our instructor Chef Carlos began the class with preparing a round of drinks.
The class was taught in 3 sections: appetizers, main and dessert. After we completed each dish, a server would pick up our plates and put them to the side to keep until we completed all 3 dishes. After class they served our dishes to us on the balcony for lunch.
Chef Carlos taught us how to make shrimp ceviche, stuffed poblano peppers and flambe fruit tacos. He was knowledgeable, funny and just adorable! He was good at explaining why we did each step as we did it.
There’s a photographer who takes pictures while you’re cooking and the photos are for sale afterwards for $38. Donna and I decided to buy the package. They said they would email us the recipes but we haven’t received anything yet. I’ll update if that changes.
Our menu consisted of Shrimp Ceviche appetizers, Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Sausage, and for dessert Flambe Fruit Taco with Strawberry Tequila Sauce and Chocolate Drizzle.
Now I’ll have to try making ceviche at home! And I bet Donna will be recreating the fruit tacos.
Yes, Chef Donna and Chef Patti are proud of our creations and mastering the class!
We finished cooking and headed out to the bar on the balcony for Chef Carlos to teach us how to make a proper Margarita. And Chef was not shy with the tequila! But he also made Donna a non-alcoholic one. We then sat down at one of the tables that overlooked the dolphins that were swimming around, and we enjoyed the lunch we had cooked.
After lunch we hung out on the balcony until it was time to head back to port. I met Chef Luis and like Chef Carlos, he was also very polite and entertaining.
Before leaving Dolphinaris we visited a small gift shop area at the front desk, but it didn’t offer much and some items were dusty. It was the only disappointment I had with the visit.
The Tabasco Cooking and Tasting class is a newer excursion and one that you might, at first glance, not consider taking. But it comes with a wonderful staff and an amazing view. I can’t think of any other place where you can watch dolphins swim while having a delicious lunch. I highly recommend it next time you’re in Cozumel.
Back to Port Cozumel
The last time we cruised to Cozumel, (Sept 2019) Donna and I spent our day walking around the port area shopping instead of doing any excursions. So this time we skipped the shopping and enjoyed taking pictures as we leisurely made our way back to the ship.
The sun is setting, it’s time to say goodbye to Cozumel.
Cruising back to Miami
Final time on ship
After dinner I stopped by the Alchemy Bar for a drink because I realized I had never had a drink from there, lol. The bartender created me some kind of rum and mango concoction and it was delicious.
While on the cruise Donna and I went to the Comedy shows in the Plaza Aft Lounge 3 times. We also watched the broadway shows and the audience participation games in the Fantasia Theatre that I mentioned in Part 1. But I can’t remember which night we did what, lol.
On the last night we went up to the Lido deck to check out the dance party and to take some night time pictures.
We were out on open water and it was very windy and chilly on the upper deck, but I love this picture with everything lit up.
Fantasy Dining Room
After we returned to the ship we headed to the dining room for dinner. If you’ve read part 1, you know we didn’t think our wait team seemed as happy as ones we have had in the past. If you’ve read about my other cruises, you would have seen much praise to our teams. But I was really disappointed this time. On the last night I asked the hostess why there was no singing or dancing or spinning napkins around like the dining rooms did on other cruises. The hostess said they had done it each night so I must have missed it. I guess on this ship it’s only done once per night? But how could we miss it each of the 4 nights?
We also visited the dining room for the Seaday brunch. The food was good but this time it seemed hard to get someone’s attention for coffee refills. Now I do understand that I can be a bit impatient when it comes to my first morning coffee, but this was brunch.
Over all, compared to the Ecstasy’s staff on my cruises in 2018 and 2019 and the Miracle’s outstanding staff in 2019, Sensation was the least enthusiastic by far.
Final Thoughts
I’m not a morning person so I didn’t mind arriving in Cozumel until after 1pm. We had plenty of time for our excursion and since the ship didn’t leave port until 8pm, we could have hung out in the port area at one of the bars or went shopping if we had wanted to.
Cozumel is the only Caribbean port I have visited once before, and between the great weather and trip to Dolphinaris, this time was far better than the last.
The whole cruise, including our day in Key West Florida, was an enjoyable 4 day Carnival Cruise!
