The Planning Stages...

Cruise ships have yet to resume and that meant another land vacation for us. I have no problem with that because there have been so many destinations that we have visited by cruise ship and knew that we'd love to come back and stay awhile on the island. Cozumel has definitely been one of those places. We have been here a total of 11 times and what more would there be to do there? Well let me tell you...there's plenty more places to go and things to do. 

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Our last visit to Cozumel, we took a jeep tour to the "wild side" and experienced places we didn't know existed and that's when we knew for sure we wanted to return for a land vacation and explore some more. 

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So the planning started...

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A certain house had been on my radar for a few years now. It was unique and had walls of glass. But, this time when I went to go book, it was not available for the dates we wanted. I was so bummed. But, there were plenty more options. We ended up finding a house that looked "dreamy" and had some of the features that we were looking for: In San Miguel (so close to everything), had a private pool, was a private single home, looked newer, separate bedrooms, and a lot of added features, which was just icing on the cake. I started messaging the owner (or the lady that took care of the home and listing) and there was a very quick response each time. She was very friendly and answered any questions I had about the home or location. I knew this was probably going to be the place I would book.

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Now everyone knows I'm a SUPER BIG planner! I will get on google earth and pull myself down into the streets and "walk" the streets to see what it's like. Well, I had the area it was located in but while walking the streets, I just couldn't find the actual house. I was stumped. So, I messaged her asking for an address. Still, I couldn't locate any house on the street that looked like what was in the pictures. (We were located on 50 Avenida and there were 2 of them). So, being the helpful person she was, she let me know to go down the street and look for the vacant lot with the green fence. That was my place! It was brand new and hasn't even been updated on google earth! Yep! That's my place!

Also being the planner I am, I looked up the name of the place "Triskel Tortuga" and lucky me, I found it listed on Trip Advisor as well....only cheaper! During my conversation with the owner, I let her know I was booking, and once I booked, I let her know she could find my booking on TA to please accept and she did. We were all set and was super excited.

Up next was to book our flights. Since we fly with Southwest for free, that was a no brainer. However, I have no idea when this started, but they are now flying directly to Cozumel. I was so excited to find this because when I had checked before, we were going to have to fly to Cancun, take the bus to the ferry in Playa Del Carmen, ferry the 1-2+ hours over to Cozumel and then proceed. Now we didn't have to. We were headed straight to Cozumel! WOO HOO

Now the fun really starts....finding things to do in Cozumel to keep my active family....active and excited to be here. 

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I started researching all of the beaches we hadn't been to and making a list. I knew that I wanted to try out some places that I had seen other cruisers mention here and there and see if I liked them...not to mention adding some new places to my Cozumel board for cruisers that haven't been there and wanting to know what they were like. 

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Some of the places on my radar were:

*Buccanos

*Playa Azul

*Playa Corona

*Sky Reef

*Playa Uvas

*Sunset Beach Club

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I also wanted to go back to Chankanaab since I know it had changed a lot since we were there twice years ago. 

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Other things we were interested in doing were:

*Pearl Farm (never heard about this place before)

*Buggy to Jade Caverns

*SeaTrek

*Snuba

*Parasailing

*and of course scuba diving as always

My Spreadsheet

Now we were only going to be there from April 2-11th, so I had more on my list than days we were going to be there. Oh the decisions!!!!

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I ended up booking the snuba for Chankanaab, knowing this would cross off something we wanted to try while getting to go to a place I wanted to return to....and we also booked the SeaTrek (we have so much fun doing these) at Jeanie's (Chankanaab also offers this but we figured we'd go somewhere different since we were doing the Snuba there). 

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I also contacted the Pearl Farm and we went back and forth about dates (there was supposed to be high winds the weekend we were to arrive) and the day before leaving, we had decided on that following Friday. However, I didn't get the PayPal deposit request in time. 

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I didn't get around to checking into or booking the excursion to Jade Caverns.

Discover Scuba: We have been doing a discover scuba every time we vacation and we had never dove in Cozumel. So, this was going to be exciting for us. I have always heard that Cozumel has some beautiful reefs to dive and we had seen some when snorkeling on a tour before. 

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I started asking for an instructor on the Cozumel 4 You page and was bombarded with suggestions from people they have used and solicited from some of the instructors on there as well. I found one instructor that took the time out to talk to me and answer all of my questions and the dive he presented to me sounded wonderful (2 boat dives to reefs). So, I put a deposit down and I couldn't wait. 

It was time to let the fun begin........but...

Complications...

t wouldn't be a Mitsugirly review without some type of complications right?

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So I have a tooth that had a cap come off and took the tooth under it with it and chipped the one beside it. It happened months ago and I haven't had any issues with it. But of course I'm going on vacation, so something has to happen right?

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A week before leaving for Cozumel, it started hurting and by hurting I mean HURTING! I made an appointment with the dentist and of course he said it would have to be removed along with another tooth. Oh just great...I'm going to be going on vacation all holey and everything. But, with this pain...take that thing out ASAP! Just make it stop!

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I ended up having 2 teeth removed 4 days before vacation and here lies the problem...he informs me that I would NOT be doing any scuba diving this vacation. Wait, what??? Noooooooo! He said there was too much of a risk for dry socket and that was something I most definitely did not want to get. He told me it takes a good 3 months for it to heal completely so no diving! Then he threw in the "well, I mean you could dive and it's going to hurt like hell, but that's your decision if you can stand the pain and pressure and then possibility of dry socket and feeling like your life is over". Thanks doc...appreciate the description! However, I did read up on it online and it was saying around 7 days and you're good to go. Hmmmm

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I was so bummed and I messaged the instructor to let him know that

I wasn't going to be able to dive after all with my emergency tooth extraction. ​

Second guessing my decision to go to Cozumel...

Now I read a lot on the Cozumel 4 You fb page and the few weeks prior to leaving for Cozumel, there were a lot of negative reports coming from people who have visited lately. So negative that I almost cancelled for our safety.

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Several people were coming back from Cozumel (or just arriving) and reporting that Customs were pulling them out of line and bringing them into a "back room" and searching their items and saying they were illegal. One of the items that stood out to me was Melatonin. Now I need my Melatonin to sleep. I have had sleep issues since I started being a day nurse (I worked nights for many years and I'm a "night" person even when I don't work and can stay up until 2-3am with no problems. This person reported they were told that Melatonin was illegal in Cozumel (even though you can buy it there at any pharmacy/store and the residents of Cozumel saying it wasn't a listed "naughty" item) and that if they didn't pay them cash, they were going to jail. No family members were aloud in the "back room" and they scare you to death thinking you are going to be thrown in some Mexican jail to rot. You pay them cash, they let you go but only after being back there for 2-4 hours being interrogated and threatened. 

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Others have reported similar cases of being brought to the back room and not being released until they paid them money. Others have said when they received their luggage, items were missing (and the items listed were super weird items that made you think...."but why????"). Like what is going on here????

Then there were reports of being on the island and the police pulling over visitors for no reason (making up reasons like they were speeding when they knew they were not) and asking them how much money they have on them and if they paid that, they would let them go. Otherwise, they were going to the police station and being arrested. Many visitors stated it's always pertinent to carry two different wallets (or area's to keep your money). One for yourself and what is needed for that day and another with very little cash in it incase you are pulled over with a bogus charge and you can pay them off. Now this is scary!! Not something I wanted to endure!

I tell you, I was scared and I almost decided to just cancel my entire vacation and forfeit all of my money I had put out on the house we rented and excursions we had booked and just go to Aruba again. 

But....obviously I didn't because here I am doing a review on Cozumel. 

On with the review...

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