Today was our second of three ports throughout this western Caribbean cruise: Costa Maya, Mexico.
Like yesterday, I bought an tour via Carnival for Costa Maya to Zona Arqueológica de Chacchoben, or the Chacchoben Archaeological Area.
Our very comfy, air-conditioned tour bus departed the port round 8:30 am for the roughly hour-long drive to the park, which is a tropical rainforest crammed with Mayan ruins. During the drive, our very pleasant, informative tour information advised us a bit concerning the space and the Mayans and their tradition.
Once at Chacchoben park, everybody on our tour moved collectively as a bunch, strolling via the park as our identical tour information from the bus talked us via what we had been seeing and the historical past of the Mayans.
The Mayan pyramids and really spectacular, particularly contemplating the truth that not solely had been they constructed by hand, however the rocks had been additionally taken from a close-by quarry and moved to the development website through handbook labor as nicely… these rocks aren’t small!
Because of individuals’s disrespect of the ruins previously, guests to the park should not allowed to climb on many of the pyramids. However, there may be one destroy the place it’s allowed: the Gran Basamento Temple. It’s neat to cease and take into consideration the place you’re strolling and what these websites had been used for hundreds of years in the past.
The tour doesn’t embrace a meal, however by the car parking zone of the park is the chance to purchase souvenirs and packaged snacks, plus some dishes like contemporary chips and guacamole.
If you’re inquisitive about what this precise tour is, it’s referred to as Chacchoben Mayan Ruins on Carnival’s web site. The length is about 4-4.5 hours and it presently prices $90 per individual. For somebody who had by no means visited any Mayan ruins earlier than, I’d say the tour was nicely well worth the cash. Our information was very informative as he took us via the park and was well-versed when individuals requested extra questions. The park was lovely and really lush, and the ruins had been spectacular to see in actual life.
Back on the ship, our first precedence was discovering a late lunch, so we headed to Guy’s Burger Joint. I truly haven’t had a Guy’s burger in years so it was good to revisit my favourite — The Ringer. It tasted like I remembered! We additionally obtained some tater tots with buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing at Street Eats. I’m not all the time an enormous tater tot individual however the hen wing-type flavors had been SO good.
After lunch, I took a VERY lengthy nap. Like hours. I didn’t sleep very nicely final evening and had an early morning to prepare previous to getting off the ship round 8 am for the tour. Plus, I wished to be nicely rested for a really particular and sudden eating expertise… The Chef’s Table!
I don’t know the way it’s on different Carnival ships, however right here on Celebration Chef’s Table, individuals meet on the JavaBlue Café previous to being led to the primary a part of the expertise within the Carnival Kitchen area — in order that’s what we did at 6:15 pm.
I consider there have been a dozen individuals of us for tonight’s Chef’s Table, with the expertise in a position to accommodate as much as 14 friends. We had been led into the Carnival Kitchen, which is the place the ship hosts cooking lessons. There, we had champagne and 4 totally different mild bites created by the ship’s prime cooks.
After a fast demonstration on how you can make Carnival’s well-known heat chocolate melting cake (it’s so easy!) we had been led via the ship’s important galley to the Chef’s Table eating room (which is definitely within the galley and has home windows overlooking all of the motion) the place all of us sat at one lengthy desk collectively.
The expertise started with heat wine bread and honey butter and solely obtained higher from there. The meal consisted of eight programs which had been defined by the chef simply earlier than digging in. It additionally included purple and white wine, plus some ice wine on the finish. Partway via the expertise, the ship’s sleight-of-hand magician got here in to carry out some tips for us — and so they had been superb. He additionally saved us laughing along with his fast wit and jokes, and it was an amazing break from the entire consuming we had been doing.
Overall, The Chef’s Table was such an exquisite expertise! I actually didn’t anticipate to take pleasure in every course as a lot as I did. Of course some dishes I favored greater than others, however there was nothing we had that I genuinely disliked. The flavors had been artistic, the presentation was artistic, the chef and servers had been superb, and we had a good time.
I’m going to do a whole separate article on The Chef’s Table, together with my particular expertise and ideas, the menu (which is a brand new Chef’s Table menu created only for this ship), and what’s included — so maintain a watch out for that within the coming weeks if you need extra particulars.
After dinner ended round 8:30-8:45, we headed straight for Celebration Central (the atrium) to snag seats for the 9:30 pm displaying of The Most Magnificent Circus present, which included singing, dancing, and acrobatics. As I discussed yesterday, this present is extremely in style, and the vast majority of the seating was already filling up.
I’m actually impressed by the LED screens that make up the backdrop for a lot of of those exhibits on Carnival Celebration. They are hyper-crisp and completed very well to match what’s taking place with the performers. The present was sparkly, colourful, and theatrical, with spectacular acrobatics, that are amongst my favourite kinds of performances on cruises. I’d say I in all probability anticipated to be a bit extra impressed by the present generally, however I’m actually glad I went and nonetheless suppose it’s utterly price your time if you happen to love acrobatics.
Despite my very lengthy afternoon nap, I used to be prepared for mattress as soon as the present was over so I headed again to the cabin. Tomorrow is our ultimate port of the cruise — Mahogany Bay, Roatán — which suggests I get to test off a brand new nation: Honduras!