New Orleans Mardi Gras & Mexico Cruise
on the Celebrity Reflection
2/21/20 to 3/2/20

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Page 1 – Embarkation, Ship, Cabin, Dining, Activities, Entertainment
Page 2 – Ports of Call: New Orleans, LA Days 1 & 2
Page 3 - Ports of Call: New Orleans, LA Day 3; Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico

Ports (Continued)

New Orleans – Day 3

It looked like the rain was gone and Fat Tuesday was going to be a pretty day. I walked out onto my balcony and saw that the Reflection was getting filled up with fuel for our return trip to Port Everglades.

The first parade of the day was a predominantly African American krewe called Zulu. They are known for throwing painted coconuts in addition to other traditional throws. I didn’t get to see any of those, but I can see where a heavy object like that could cause a bad injury if a person isn't paying attention. I walked up to St. Charles St. where I had watched the previous night’s parades; but it was solid people and no place to even stand. So I walked in the direction of where the parade would be starting to see if there might be a less crowded area. I ended up at Lee Circle, which was kind of a good place, since I could see what was coming before it arrived around the circle.

The parade was to have started at 8:00 AM and I arrived at the circle at 8:45 AM. It was still crowded, but I did find a place to stand next to an area where some women had marked off a section of the sidewalk encompassing four guard fences. They had set up tables with all kinds of food including chicken, ribs, crawfish, macaroni & cheese, beans, potato salad and several other items. When I walked up to one side of the area thinking that I could stand there, one of the women told me that it was there area of the sidewalk. They had been there since 1:00 AM and had a large group of family and friends coming. I was surprised that they were able to make such a large piece of the sidewalk their area; but even more surprised that the crowd respected their wishes. This is how it is done for Mardi Gras.

I must say that during the three days at Mardi Gras, I never saw any fights or even any meanness. Everyone was very happy, friendly and respectful of others. It might have been different in the French Quarter; but the parades where most people and families go, it was a very special atmosphere.

The one difference for this parade was that I didn’t have any place to sit down. I knew that it would limit how long that I could be in one place watching the parades. If I had been able to walk around it would have been better than just standing still. But if I had moved, my spot would have been quickly filled by others wanting to get close to the parade that hadn’t even started yet. Finally, around 9:15 AM it began.

First a Marine band witht the colors marched by. Then a large group of people in brightly colored outfits came into view. A woman in a huge blond wig with a camera crew was talking with some of the leaders of the parade. She was obviously a local TV reporter. In addition to talking with the krewe members she was talking with the crowd too.

Some New Orleans Saints football players were also in the parade walking along talking with the crowd. The Zulus are known for wearing black face and grass skirts when parading. The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club which began in 1909 was inspired to by a musical comedy in New Orleans that used these in one of their skits. The tradition has continued for over 100 years.

Then came an unusual assortment of costumed folks that only photos can describe. It was a hoot and the crowd loved everything.

The floats weren’t as fancy as in some of the previous parades; but excitement and enthusiasm couldn’t have been higher. The Zulu's seemed like a very fun krewe to be a part of.

Finally, at about 10:30 AM, I had to move. My back was bothering me from standing in one place for so long. I figured that I could come back later when the Rex parade arrived. I walked down to Julia street, which is the street that the cruise terminal is on. People were packed in at the intersection watching the parade. There were just so many people along the parade route. I now understood what Michael meant when he said that Monday night wasn't that crowded.

I walked back to the ship to rest for a bit. After about an hour I ran into Jim. He was heading to the parade, so I assumed that the Zulu parade had to be over and perhaps Rex had started. When we got back to the intersection that I had come from where there were so many people, there were now even more. And the Zulu parade was still passing by. We got a kick out of one family that had put their kids up on a platform they had made with a ladder. It was probably the best seats in the house. Their young daughter was thoroughly enjoying herself.

We also got a laugh when we saw a port-a-potty mounted onto the back of a pickup truck. We assumed that this fellow enjoyed his beer and he was going to be there all day long. I originally thought that it might be a joke until we saw the truck owner go in the facility to take care of business.

At this point, I decided that I had enjoyed as much Mardi Gras as my old body could stand. I am sure that the Rex parade would be a good one; but I just couldn’t see fighting the crowd to see it. Also, it seemed like a great time for a much needed nap.

Jim and I had originally decided the previous day, when he couldn’t get gumbo, to have lunch at Mulates Restaurant on Mardi Gras Day. He discovered that the restaurant didn’t open until 4:00 PM due to the parades. So, we met there at 4:00 PM for a pre-dinner appetizer. Since I had enjoyed the gumbo the previous day, I ordered a cup of jambalaya. Oh my, how I wish that I had gotten a bowl; but glad I didn’t, since it would have spoiled dinner. It was so good! I have been craving some ever since I got home.

Jim also thoroughly enjoyed his gumbo. We wouldn’t be leaving New Orleans until 10:00 PM, but the New Orleans part of the cruise was ending. It was kind of sad, since I had enjoyed Mardi Gras and New Orleans so much. I definitely want to come back again. Maybe on this same cruise another year.

As we were leaving port, I got some nice night photos of the bridge and the city.

George Town, Grand Cayman

This would be my fifth visit to Grand Cayman, with my last visit in 2014. The main attraction in Grand Cayman is beautiful Seven Mile Beach and awesome scuba diving. Since I live in South Florida, lying around on a beach isn’t a high priority excursion for me. I have dived in Grand Cayman in the past, but haven't dived in a while, so I wasn't interested in it either. I have done some wonderful excursions on Grand Cayman but was not interested in doing them again. A person on our Cruise Critic roll call had found a tour to a place called Crystal Caves. She was looking for others to join her. I had never heard of this place nor even knew that Grand Cayman had any caves. It had only opened to the public in 2016. I did some research and found that it looked like a great cave to visit, so 8 from our group signed up along with the couple that found it and another woman, so there would be eleven of us. Since I had the biggest number of people going, I did the booking and took responsibility for the tour. Before we left for the cruise, the woman who had booked cancelled because she was worried about there being too much walking. A couple days before the tour, the couple that had found the tour had to cancel, because her husband had hurt his back. So, it was just the 8 of us going, which was fine. It would give us more room in the van.

George Town is a tender port, which can be a problem if there are certain weather conditions that prevent the use of tenders. The good thing about Grand Cayman is that they use the large modern tender boats rather than the ship’s lifeboats to tender.

When I got out to take photos of George Town, I immediately realized that there was something wrong. We weren’t in George Town! Where we were looked like a nice place, but not where we were supposed to be.

The Cruise Director announced that we had to change our location due to strong winds to a place called the Spotts Beach Terminal. We were apparently very lucky that the area we were in was calm enough to anchor at. The tender dock wasn’t that far away, only about a five-minute ride. I was thrilled that I would finally be able to get a nice photo of the Reflection for the front page of the review from the upper deck of the tender.

The tour company's meeting instruction letter said that if there was bad weather and we had to anchor at Spotts Beach, they would pick us up there. I was so glad that they knew it was a possibility and told us what to do. The tour company that we were using was Discount Excursions (https://www.discountexcursions.com/tour/grand-cayman-crystal-caves-sightseeingtour-1/). The cost was just $79 per person for the 3-hour tour. The ship did not offer an excursion to the caves, so I was really glad that we were able to go. Spotts Beach is about 20 minutes closer to the caves than George Town, so our driver, George, had to find a way to fill up the extra time before we got to the cave at the assigned time. He first took us by what he called a castle. It was the Pedro St. James National Historic Site. It is a restored 18th-century plantation house known as Pedro's Castle. It didn't look much like a castle to me. It is considered the “Birthplace of Democracy in the Cayman Islands”, because this is where the islanders decided to form the nation’s first elected parliament in 1831. We didn’t have time to visit the interior and George didn’t stop long for us to take exterior pics either.

He then took us around the east side of the island on a coastal drive to kill time. It was nice drive and we got to see areas we otherwise would not have seen. We were ready to get to the caves though.

When we arrived at the cave site, we had to get out of the van we were in and wait for another van and guide to take us to where the cave trail began. A light rain shower came through, but quickly ended. We were very fortunate to get a great guide named Syd. He smiled and told great stories, but I couldn’t get him to smile for a photo.

After we exited the van, we walked on a gravel path to an area called the Tree House. It was quite a nice setup with tables and a small shop. Syd had told us that the owners of the property are going to be adding other attractions to the property that will make this a much more popular tourist destination. This area was built to accommodate more people and probably a small restaurant and bar. The main thing that Syd told us to do while here was to spray on some of the free insect repellent they offered. Most people took him up on it. It was appreciated.

We then headed down the short path to the first of the three caves, the Roots Cave. It is named this, since the banyan tree roots come down into the cave in some areas of it. It was pretty right from the start. I had brought my Canon DSLR, but most of the photos used were from my iPhone 11 Pro Max. The low light features of the iPhone camera are truly amazing, and I am always amazed at what beautiful photos it takes in very low light. Most of the Mardi Gras pics were taken with it also. It brought out the beauty of these beautiful caves with so many lovely formations.

I was most impressed at what a nice and easy trail there was through the cave. It was very flat and wide enough to easily walk around, although you did have to watch your head in some spots. It was unusual in that the caves weren’t cool, like other caves I had visited. They weren’t hot, but I am not sure how warm and humid they would be in the summer.

After leaving the Roots Cave, we headed to the main attraction, The Lake Cave. There are three caves that they tour, but we were not going to the smallest one, which was fine with us. The photos I had seen of the Lake Cave made this excursion look like a “must do” for me.

As we walked in, we could tell that this was different from the first one. Unlike the Roots Cave, this one had to be dug out for viewing. It was filled up with mud and rocks that took seven years of digging to complete. Syd demonstrated how they had to lay down and scoop it out until they could partially stand up to do the work. It didn’t look like a fun job. It was very obvious as we walked along the path that much had to be dug out.

Syd then told us a story about a boulder that looked like a skull that the workers had found. Someone put sunglasses on the skull looking rock and gave it the name of Ralph. It has become a popular photo opp.

We continued walking through the beautiful caves looking at so many different formations. Everywhere we went in this cave, I appreciated the efforts of those that dug it out.

At one point, Syd stopped and used my iPhone’s flashlight to show why they are called the Crystal Caves. We could see the sparkles in the rocks. It is hard to see in the photo, but a later video shows it very nicely.

We then passed by an area that opened to the outside. Syd said that it is the bat cave, and that we would come back to it, since that is where we exit the cave.

We then walked through a purple tunnel to continue the walk throught the lovely cave.

After walking further along the path, he asked if he could use my iPhone camera. I gave it to him, and he made the below film showing the crystals in the rocks much better than with the photo.

We then came to the highlight of the tour, the lake. It was a gorgeous sight. There wasn’t much room to maneuver around to get photos without people in them, since everyone wanted a photo with the lake. I took one for Jim and Kathleen.

Syd showed us what the lake looked like with the lake itself being illuminated, where you could see the bottom of the lake. He then turned off those lights where you could see the reflection of the stalactites in the water. Both views were gorgeous.

We continued our walk back with Syd pointing out different formations.

We then got to the bat cave where we would be leaving from. Everyone wanted to get photos of the bats on the ceiling. The bats didn’t cover the entire ceiling. They were concentrated in small cavities. Kind of interesting to see.

We had thoroughly enjoyed the caves and were so glad to have found the tour. It is unfortunate that the ship excursions didn’t visit it, so that more people could see this outstanding tourist attraction; but I don’t believe that the caves can support busloads of tourists. I just considered myself lucky to have been able to see them.

It only took about 20 minutes to get back to the tender dock. Since we weren’t in town, there wasn’t much to do other than walk around some of the local vendor tables that had been set up after we arrived. The ship did provide free shuttles into George Town, but since it was after noon and the last shuttle was at 2:30 PM, it wasn’t worth going into town. Cruise Director Rich told us during that evening’s show that we were most lucky that the Captain was able to get us in to Spotts Beach Terminal, since they can’t always do it in windy weather. He also said that it had cost Celebrity $30,000 to provide the shuttle busses into town. Of course, missing the stop in Grand Cayman would have cost Celebrity even more, since they would have had to refund a lot of excursion revenue.

Cozumel, Mexico

I have previously been to Cozumel five times on cruises and spent two separate weeks there on dive trips, so there wasn’t much that I needed to do when visiting there. When I first started cruising 22 years ago, I was amazed when older folks that were at our evening dinner table would tell us that they weren’t getting off the ship since they had been to a port too many times. I couldn’t understand how someone could do that. After 55 cruises, I have a better idea; but I still like to get off the ship and experience at least a little of the local color.

As we approached Cozumel, we passed by two cruise ships at the Punta Langosta Terminal, the closest one to the main town of San Miguel. One was the Disney Wonder.

We then came to the International Terminal where we would be docking. The Enchantment of the Seas had already arrived. Close by was the Puerta Maya Terminal, where one Carnival ship was docked and another was getting in position to back in. With six ships in port for the day, San Miguel would be crowded.

Being at the International Terminal has its benefits, since there are lots of stores, bars and restaurants there. Bubba Gump, Senior Frogs and Margaritaville are right on the water. We still had the high winds that we had experienced in Grand Cayman. The waves were slamming against the walls.

Three of the couples I was traveling with had booked a snorkel trip where you just walked into the water at a good location. I was not interested in snorkeling, so I had no plans other than looking around the shops and finding a Mexican restaurant. There were no true Mexican Restaurants at the International Terminal. I love Mexican food. But I also knew that Mexican food in Mexico is different from my favorite types TexMex and Southwest Mex. Walking off the ship, I was thrilled to see the beautiful water. The angle of view makes such a difference. From the ship, the reflection took away from the beautiful color; but from this angle, perfection!

As I was walking around the shopping area, I ran into my friends heading to their snorkel adventure. Since I had nothing better to do, I walked with them to hopefully be able to watch them and take some photos for them. It was nice to be able to walk along the shoreline. I also took a photo of one of the many multi-colored Cozumel signs.

When we arrived at the restaurant/bar where the tour was to be, it looked like a nice place to snorkel with the steps going down into the water. But with the strong winds, the crashing incoming waves didn’t make it look like the safest place to snorkel.

The tour vendor told them that the tour had been cancelled due to the weather. He asked if they would like to come back in a couple hours when he thought it would be better. They passed on it. It was the right choice, since it never got better while we were in port. Instead we decided that it was great place to have a Mexican beer. Before leaving I had to take a photo of a sign that I got a laugh out of. It is probably too true at many places of employment.

We headed back to the ship, so I did a little more looking around the shopping area. I then used my Yelp app to look for a decent Mexican restaurant. The main town was only 3 miles away, but I didn’t want to hassle with getting a cab; so, I was looking for something close by. The most popular one was a place called Pancho’s Backyard. It was in the Puerta Maya shopping center where the two Carnival ships had docked close by. It was a short walk to the shopping center.

The restaurant’s exterior looked nice as did the interior.

I was surprised that there weren’t that many meal items to choose from on the menu. It looked like they were more interested in selling drinks and appetizers. I ordered their guacamole, chips and pico de gallo appetizer to start. It was very good.

For the main course I chose a chicken enchilada with green sauce. Now this choice was not a good one. It didn’t taste bad; but it didn’t taste like an enchilada. It was bland and wasn’t the least bit spicy. It basically didn’t taste like Mexican food; but being in Mexico it was Mexican food. Sadly, I have to say that I enjoyed the Mexican food on the ship more than at Pancho’s Backyard.

After lunch I walked around the Puerta Maya area. It was set up quite nicely and I enjoyed looking at the water and looking down toward the Reflection at the International Terminal.

When I got back to the dock, I took some last photos of the pretty views. As expected, the wind was still very strong.

I always like to take photos of the dock with two large ships on either side. It is just impressive to me.

Back on the ship, I walked out onto my balcony. I had noticed earlier how the Enchantment of the Seas looked like it needed some TLC. Now that I got a better look at it, I was quite surprised at how much rust was on the ship and that Royal Caribbean had let it get in such bad shape.

Disembarkation

It is always nice to have a sea day before having to disembark the ship. That way you have some time to relax and pack. We were able to wait in the Tuscan Grill on deck 5 for our disembarkation numbers to be called, since most in our group were at an Elite or higher loyalty level with Celebrity. With us leaving the ship on deck 5, it made it really easy to just walk down the hall and off the ship to the terminal. There was no line to get off the ship, which was surprising and most enjoyable. The new Port Everglades terminal 25 is a very efficient one. We were quickly able to find our luggage, speed through immigration and walk to the parking lot. It made for a nice end to a most enjoyable cruise.

Summary

Even though this cruise went to ports that I had previously visited, it was so nice to be able to have new experiences in those ports. Being able to be in New Orleans during Mardi Gras was so much more enjoyable than I had expected. I would consider doing this same cruise again. It was also so nice to be able to spend quality time with friends, some of whom I don't get to see as often as I wish I could.

We were most fortunate to have been able to take this cruise, since less than two weeks after we disembarked, most cruises were cancelled due to the Coronavirus issues.

New Orleans Mardi Gras & Mexico Cruise on the Celebrity Reflection 2/21/20 to 3/2/20