Cozumel- Day Two!

I woke up this fine Friday morning with a pretty cruise ship in front of the resort. Many cruise lines dock at Cozumel to allow guests to explore the island, snorkel in the reefs, and shop. Since Cozumel's downtown caters to so many visitors, most places accept US dollars and English is easy to come by.

We started off with a delicious breakfast buffet with the group. You gotta love an omelet bar and Mexican options for breakfast! I do believe I had shredded pork in a nice warm tortilla, and I especially enjoyed the french toast. There was plenty of fresh fruit and juices, cereals, and even cheesy potatoes.

We headed to the admin offices of the resort and met with Enrique Garcia from Royal Holiday's corporate office. He was very open to explaining who RH is and to answering any questions we may have. It was interesting to hear how their vacation club of 80,000 members work and about all of their locations. Great questions were asked about how the resort effects the island's ecosystem, how much of the island survives on tourism, etc. Hurricane Wilma in 2005 devastated the island and Park Royal was built since then. You will notice that all of the vegetation is low to the ground on the island- all trees were destroyed and everything is growing from the ground up. And then there was the swine flu, which caused the island's economy to plummet. There used to be 5-6 cruise ships a day that would dock and for the height of the outbreak there were none. They are finally getting back to 1-2 a day or so. I will also include more resort facts with my review later :)

After the chat, we were driven to a boat to go snorkeling! The water was such a magnificent shade of blue and the sun was shining for the most part. I have never been snorkeling before because of my ridiculous fear of water (mostly having my face under water!) But I was willing to give it a try...

So everyone was jumping off the boat about 100 yards from the shore (i am horrible with distance if any of the bloggers want to chime in and correct me!). I had a life jacket on, but started to panic at the thought of how i was going to jump into the water trying to plug my nose while holding my mask. We were also wearing flippers which make your legs head for the surface, so I just felt out of control. So I made it into the water, Brian helped me with my mask, and Ramone (one of the 2 men running this excursion) was leading me through the water with a life ring. To say I was panicking would be an understatement. He kept telling me to look underwater to see....and there was the reef, some fish below me, and then Brian decides to point out the barricuda directly below us! To be honest, I was already done at that point!!!!

So the boat captain was throwing bread into the water to entice the fish to come closer. And they did. And then Ramone decided to swim right through the massive mass of fish.... so yes, I was screaming at this point through my snorkel tube. I was trying to grab Brian's hand, but instead grabbed a hold of a big fish. I think i grabbed it 4 times, which leads me to believe it enjoyed being petted by this point. I was FREAKING out. I was done. I don't do water AND I don't do creatures, so I don't know why I thought this was going to be a good idea!

They took me back to the boat, and I finally stopped hyperventilating after a few minutes. Brian later told me that the barracuda came up by us to eat as well--he only noticed because the other fish cleared out in a hurry. sweet. But I did enjoy hanging out on the boat and chatting while the others snorkeled to the drop off and things like that. I tell you what, my new blogger friends are seriously intelligent. We had some amazing conversations about countries, cultures, history. I was in heaven and was convicted that my daily reading needed to go beyond tmz.com on a daily basis. hahahaha.

We headed back to the resort, took a nap, and then had the most special night. Brian and I had decided to renew our vows while in Cozumel. We felt this trip at this time was such a blessing. Like all marriages, we had to work through some stuff over the last few weeks and God really opened our eyes to a lot about each other and ourselves. That week we also left our church home, newhope, out of obedience to God. But it is never easy leaving our family of 7 years, no matter what the reason. Emotions have been all over the place for the few weeks, and we just needed a break from it all. So I asked the resort if there was a special place on the beach they had where we could do this, and I had no idea what they were about to do for us!

Sean is an ordained minister :) so he offered to do whatever we needed. We just wanted something simple, a couple Scriptures read and then we wrote new vows to each other. Rosalind became our wedding planner and helped make some details come to life-I think she was more excited than I was! hahaha. So we all decided to have Rosalind read for us.

From the lobby, we walked to the beach and was welcomed once we hit the sand by a candlelit path down to the shore filled with flower petals! There were nine formal white chairs and a table with flowers set up for the ceremony, a colored spotlight for after the sun set, some easy listening jazz/rumba type music in the background (which i will talk about in a sec), and then a formal table set for 2! Little did we realize that they had closed off the beach area just for us and even had "bouncers" directing people to go somewhere else!!!



At sunset, we began. Scripture was read and our vows were spoken. It was simple, beautiful, and heartfelt. I can't speak for how Brian was feeling, but I was just so content in that moment, so thrilled to just be with him there. I don't know how it's possible, but I fall in love with him more and more each day. I know God has some big plans for us, and I am grateful He has brought our marriage to the forefront of what should be our foundation as we forge ahead.




It was a beautiful evening...the weather was perfect....the breeze was blowing. Rafael was our server for the evening. We had a 5 course dinner: antipasto with grilled veggies, cheese, and meats; tomato soup with garlic crouton; beef ravioli with fresh parmesan; shrimp scampi with mushroom risotto; and to die for chocolate canolis with vanilla creme. I personally do not like canolis but this was the BOMB (thanks to the chocolate!).





Our entertainment for the evening was a cd playing in the background of smooth jazz/rumba type music. We noticed they did renditions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, "YMCA", "Matherial Girl" (their version of Material Girl), and even Green Day tune. From what the ceremony attenders told us, we renewed our vows to a version of Radiohead's "Creep" in the background. AWESOME! I must admit, I loved the music!

So there you have it. Fabulous Day 2!