This is about everything except diving
The Travel
Left Fairbanks at 1:30 am, arrived Seattle 6:00 am. Departed Seattle 9:10 am arrived Cancun 4:30 pm. All flights on time. Less then stellar first class between Seattle and Cancun: dirty plane and crappy food. Better then the back of the bus though. Immigration was quick; bags came out fast, and got the green light. Made it to the bus departure point with 15 minutes to spare, and caught the bus to Playa (90 pesos each).
Traffic was light, and made Playa with minutes to spare to catch the 7:00 pm ferry to Cozumel. Here's a hint for anyone who is running tight on making the ferry: Hire a tricycle guy at the bus terminal. He will haul your gear down to the pier for a dollar a bag, he will make sure you buy your ticket (140 pesos each) at the right ticket counter, and he will take you and your bags directly to the luggage loading area past a line of about 150 people waiting to board the ferry. I'm not sure what the arrangement is that they have with the ticket people, but it works every time for us. Well worth the bucks.
The ferry ride to Cozumel that night was a real wild ride, the ferry was rolling and pitching like mad, people sliding and flying around. As it was the beginning of Carnival, there was a full ferry, and a pretty good band playing inside on the lower deck. We had just had a particularly bad roll when Jeanne turned to me and asked, "Wasn't there a band playing on the Titanic?" We yukked about that for a week, all good stuff!!!
We made it to Cozumel around 8:00 pm, got our bags, and grabbed a cab to the hotel.
The return trip went smoothly, ferry to Playa, private car this time to Cancun. We arrived about 30 mins before the ticket counter opened, so we were first in line. Got rid of our checked bags, and stocked up on duty-free rum, grabbed some lunch and headed to the gate. The fight left on time, and first-class was much better on the return then the way down. We arrived in Seattle on time. Immigration and Customs went well (not like the Cluster F we experienced returning after Christmas). We elected to overnight in Seattle, based on our Christmas experience, but probably would have made the connection OK. We had made it at Christmas too, but had we not been 20 mins early we would not have made it. We stayed at the Hampton Inn near the South Center Mall, and were happy with the room and value. They had a decent breakfast, and free shuttle over to the Mall and to and from Sea-Tac. We would definitely use them again. Our flight to Fairbanks left a little late, and we waited almost 45mins for our bags to show up at the two gate Fairbanks airport. I'm not sure what takes so long, but I'm sure they must carry the bags to the carousel one bag at a time.
Arriving back in Fairbanks in the winter is always depressing, and this time was no exception. They had 30 of snow in the 4 days before our arrival, so that was a bit different then Cozumel. It wasn't quite as bad as Christmas, when we left Cozumel at 83F and arrived 16hrs later in Fairbanks at -47F. We definitely need to find a new place to live.
Accommodations
We have stayed at Las Anclas 5 of the 6 times we have been in Cozumel. We like it for the value, service, location, and the fact that we have friends that show up there every year about the same time we do. We never plan to be there the same time; it's just that we always seem to be there at the same time. Always great to catch up on the last year, relax in the garden over drinks, and do some diving with people you know. The first night we arrived a little after 8:00pm, checked in, did a bit of unpacking, then Jeanne walked down to El Foco for some pork chop tacos to go, and a couple of mojitos to go from "The Mojito Bar" next door. Great tacos and the best mojitos on the island. One of the highlights of each years' trip for us is staying downtown. It's great being able to walk out the gate of our hotel and choose from 20 or 30 restaurants within a 5 or 10 minute walk. If you had to dine out in Fairbanks you would understand.
We got up the next morning and cabbed our gear down to Blue Angel. We had planned to do a shore dive that day and begin boat diving the next day, but decided to put it off a day, as we were still feeling strung out from the trip down. We stored our gear in a locker, scheduled our dives for the next 2 weeks, and walked back to town with our roller bags in tow. When we got to Mega, we rolled on inside, stocked up for the two weeks, packed it in the rollers, and rolled on "home". We spent the rest of the afternoon Bs'ing with the other folks and cooling off with a couple of tall Havana Club Anejos and pineapple juice. Life is always good in the garden at Las Anclas.
The Dining
We ate out every night, and our only regret is not having more nights. We enjoy the food immensely, and like trying a couple of new places each time. We usually mix it up with an expensive spot one night and a cheaper spot the next. We ate at and would recommend the following: Kinta (THE BEST), La Cocay, Sorrisi, La Chef, La Bistro, Sabores, Las Otates, Parrilla Mission, El Foco, Casa Denis, The Mojito Bar, and the Pizza Hut on 3rd (we got back after a night dive, and just wanted to veg out, and I must say, It was THE BEST Pizza Hut pizza I have ever had). We ate at, but I would not recommend: The French Quarter. We had some take out ribs one night that another guest brought back that were great, so we went down as a group to eat later on in the week, and the ribs were the only good part, the rest on the meal, the service, the drinks, the bills was a disaster. But with only one "not so good" meal out of 14 nights, it is exactly the opposite ratio of our Fairbanks dining experiences, so for us it is heaven. We also attended a wedding at the Presidente during our stay, and the food they had for the wedding buffet was most excellent. Our friends from the island say they go down for Sunday brunch and it is very good, and they agreed the food at the buffet that night was good. While not my cup of tea for a place to stay, I will vouch for the food and the grounds.
I figure we averaged around $50.00us a day for the 2 of us to eat. I'm sure we could have eaten for $20.00us and done just fine, but compared to where we are from $50 for two is a steal for what we had to eat. Like I said before, for us it is all about good food, good service and good people.
Other Activities and Misc.
We had never been to Cozumel during Carnival, so this trip for us was a treat. We enjoyed a couple of parades, caught a few strings of beads, went to the Square and ate off the food vendors a couple of times, and did a bit of dancing one night. All in all we enjoyed the experience and were surprised to see so many people out and about. Even with as many people who come to the Square on a typical Sunday night, we were not prepared for the amount of people. It didn't bother us in the least, just surprising. It's nice to see people out enjoying themselves. Contrary to a post in another thread, we did not have any problem traveling around during the day while Carnival was on.
We changed up a bit this time, and didn't rent a car for the whole trip like we usually due, electing just to walk or cab it if need be. It worked out just fine, probably saved us some money and was low on the hassle scale for us. We did rent a car for the last day from Isis (good car, good price, no BS, locally owned, and the sweetest, nicest lady you will ever meet) for a trip over to the East side to lay on the beach a bit, and to check out the dive shop back around 90th in case we need future repairs or parts. The shop was real nice, was clean and well organized, the person we spoke with pleasant, and the prices on gear better then the shops downtown. Good to know for future trips.
We paid for everything on a day to day basis with pesos from an ATM. We figure we got our most bang for the buck that way, especially in restaurants that still had menus printed from the 10 pesos/dollar days. We would withdraw the max amount of pesos our card allowed, and only paid a small ATM fee (most was $3.27us on a 4,000 peso withdrawal).Takes a while to burn through 4,000 pesos. We always come home with about a 1,000 peso reserve for the next time so we don't have to worry about currency when we arrive.
The Travel
Left Fairbanks at 1:30 am, arrived Seattle 6:00 am. Departed Seattle 9:10 am arrived Cancun 4:30 pm. All flights on time. Less then stellar first class between Seattle and Cancun: dirty plane and crappy food. Better then the back of the bus though. Immigration was quick; bags came out fast, and got the green light. Made it to the bus departure point with 15 minutes to spare, and caught the bus to Playa (90 pesos each).
Traffic was light, and made Playa with minutes to spare to catch the 7:00 pm ferry to Cozumel. Here's a hint for anyone who is running tight on making the ferry: Hire a tricycle guy at the bus terminal. He will haul your gear down to the pier for a dollar a bag, he will make sure you buy your ticket (140 pesos each) at the right ticket counter, and he will take you and your bags directly to the luggage loading area past a line of about 150 people waiting to board the ferry. I'm not sure what the arrangement is that they have with the ticket people, but it works every time for us. Well worth the bucks.
The ferry ride to Cozumel that night was a real wild ride, the ferry was rolling and pitching like mad, people sliding and flying around. As it was the beginning of Carnival, there was a full ferry, and a pretty good band playing inside on the lower deck. We had just had a particularly bad roll when Jeanne turned to me and asked, "Wasn't there a band playing on the Titanic?" We yukked about that for a week, all good stuff!!!
We made it to Cozumel around 8:00 pm, got our bags, and grabbed a cab to the hotel.
The return trip went smoothly, ferry to Playa, private car this time to Cancun. We arrived about 30 mins before the ticket counter opened, so we were first in line. Got rid of our checked bags, and stocked up on duty-free rum, grabbed some lunch and headed to the gate. The fight left on time, and first-class was much better on the return then the way down. We arrived in Seattle on time. Immigration and Customs went well (not like the Cluster F we experienced returning after Christmas). We elected to overnight in Seattle, based on our Christmas experience, but probably would have made the connection OK. We had made it at Christmas too, but had we not been 20 mins early we would not have made it. We stayed at the Hampton Inn near the South Center Mall, and were happy with the room and value. They had a decent breakfast, and free shuttle over to the Mall and to and from Sea-Tac. We would definitely use them again. Our flight to Fairbanks left a little late, and we waited almost 45mins for our bags to show up at the two gate Fairbanks airport. I'm not sure what takes so long, but I'm sure they must carry the bags to the carousel one bag at a time.
Arriving back in Fairbanks in the winter is always depressing, and this time was no exception. They had 30 of snow in the 4 days before our arrival, so that was a bit different then Cozumel. It wasn't quite as bad as Christmas, when we left Cozumel at 83F and arrived 16hrs later in Fairbanks at -47F. We definitely need to find a new place to live.
Accommodations
We have stayed at Las Anclas 5 of the 6 times we have been in Cozumel. We like it for the value, service, location, and the fact that we have friends that show up there every year about the same time we do. We never plan to be there the same time; it's just that we always seem to be there at the same time. Always great to catch up on the last year, relax in the garden over drinks, and do some diving with people you know. The first night we arrived a little after 8:00pm, checked in, did a bit of unpacking, then Jeanne walked down to El Foco for some pork chop tacos to go, and a couple of mojitos to go from "The Mojito Bar" next door. Great tacos and the best mojitos on the island. One of the highlights of each years' trip for us is staying downtown. It's great being able to walk out the gate of our hotel and choose from 20 or 30 restaurants within a 5 or 10 minute walk. If you had to dine out in Fairbanks you would understand.
We got up the next morning and cabbed our gear down to Blue Angel. We had planned to do a shore dive that day and begin boat diving the next day, but decided to put it off a day, as we were still feeling strung out from the trip down. We stored our gear in a locker, scheduled our dives for the next 2 weeks, and walked back to town with our roller bags in tow. When we got to Mega, we rolled on inside, stocked up for the two weeks, packed it in the rollers, and rolled on "home". We spent the rest of the afternoon Bs'ing with the other folks and cooling off with a couple of tall Havana Club Anejos and pineapple juice. Life is always good in the garden at Las Anclas.
The Dining
We ate out every night, and our only regret is not having more nights. We enjoy the food immensely, and like trying a couple of new places each time. We usually mix it up with an expensive spot one night and a cheaper spot the next. We ate at and would recommend the following: Kinta (THE BEST), La Cocay, Sorrisi, La Chef, La Bistro, Sabores, Las Otates, Parrilla Mission, El Foco, Casa Denis, The Mojito Bar, and the Pizza Hut on 3rd (we got back after a night dive, and just wanted to veg out, and I must say, It was THE BEST Pizza Hut pizza I have ever had). We ate at, but I would not recommend: The French Quarter. We had some take out ribs one night that another guest brought back that were great, so we went down as a group to eat later on in the week, and the ribs were the only good part, the rest on the meal, the service, the drinks, the bills was a disaster. But with only one "not so good" meal out of 14 nights, it is exactly the opposite ratio of our Fairbanks dining experiences, so for us it is heaven. We also attended a wedding at the Presidente during our stay, and the food they had for the wedding buffet was most excellent. Our friends from the island say they go down for Sunday brunch and it is very good, and they agreed the food at the buffet that night was good. While not my cup of tea for a place to stay, I will vouch for the food and the grounds.
I figure we averaged around $50.00us a day for the 2 of us to eat. I'm sure we could have eaten for $20.00us and done just fine, but compared to where we are from $50 for two is a steal for what we had to eat. Like I said before, for us it is all about good food, good service and good people.
Other Activities and Misc.
We had never been to Cozumel during Carnival, so this trip for us was a treat. We enjoyed a couple of parades, caught a few strings of beads, went to the Square and ate off the food vendors a couple of times, and did a bit of dancing one night. All in all we enjoyed the experience and were surprised to see so many people out and about. Even with as many people who come to the Square on a typical Sunday night, we were not prepared for the amount of people. It didn't bother us in the least, just surprising. It's nice to see people out enjoying themselves. Contrary to a post in another thread, we did not have any problem traveling around during the day while Carnival was on.
We changed up a bit this time, and didn't rent a car for the whole trip like we usually due, electing just to walk or cab it if need be. It worked out just fine, probably saved us some money and was low on the hassle scale for us. We did rent a car for the last day from Isis (good car, good price, no BS, locally owned, and the sweetest, nicest lady you will ever meet) for a trip over to the East side to lay on the beach a bit, and to check out the dive shop back around 90th in case we need future repairs or parts. The shop was real nice, was clean and well organized, the person we spoke with pleasant, and the prices on gear better then the shops downtown. Good to know for future trips.
We paid for everything on a day to day basis with pesos from an ATM. We figure we got our most bang for the buck that way, especially in restaurants that still had menus printed from the 10 pesos/dollar days. We would withdraw the max amount of pesos our card allowed, and only paid a small ATM fee (most was $3.27us on a 4,000 peso withdrawal).Takes a while to burn through 4,000 pesos. We always come home with about a 1,000 peso reserve for the next time so we don't have to worry about currency when we arrive.
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Love the guitarfish, I have never seen one. Water temps 75-78, brrrr, good thing I have a 5mm suit and hood to bring next week. 
