The end of a wonderful holiday……Cozumel and Philadelphia

The last port on our Cruise itinerary was Cozumel. Cozumel, a mostly undeveloped Mexican island in the Caribbean Sea, is a popular cruise ship port of call famed for its scuba diving. Cruise ships often visit the island. A few can dock virtually downtown. A larger pair of piers lie about two miles south of downtown San Miguel, and primarily serves Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ships. If many ships arrive the same day (occasionally in “high season”), some may moor offshore and tender passengers to docks virtually downtown.

It was probably the most touristy of all the islands we visited and definitely the busiest, but we still the loved the hustle, bustle and vibrancy the island had to offer.

Lots of shops, bars, stalls and photo opportunities to had, all made that little bit harder by the beating midday sun and extreme heat! Due to it being so busy we didn’t stay too long on the island as the children were keen to get back to the ships pool, and take advantage of the ship being quieter whist everyone is ashore. 

All the bars had WiFi and the shops had air conditioning, it was a shoppers paradise just maybe not our cup of tea! The main mission of everyone is to buy Tequila or anything to do with Day of the dead, its a haven for tourists and for locals to make as much as possible while the ships are in!

I’ve probably not spoken enough about Princess Cruises, my all time favourite cruise line and the very first cruise line I travelled on. Yes i think waiters and staff are stretched more than they used to be and we could see a difference in food quality, portion sizes etc in the dining rooms of an evening. The attention from your main waiter isn’t what it used to be, we didn’t get to know one waiter in a weeks cruise! But would we still travel Princess and still recommend them, absolutely.

As our cruise came to and end in Fort Lauderdale, the next part of our holiday was to start, the city break part! Influenced by my wife, we decided on a 2 night stay in Philadelphia, out flight was going via here anyway so thought we would make a stop of it , also my wife absolutely loves the Rocky films and visiting here was on her bucket list!

When we arrived the weather for the first time in 2 weeks wasn’t on our side, but it made no difference to our plans. Our hotel was the Home2Suites, by Hilton and directly opposite the famous Reading terminal. The market is one of America’s largest and oldest public markets, housed since 1893 in a National Historic Landmark building, the Market offers an incredible selection of locally grown & exotic produce, locally sourced meats and poultry, plus the finest seafood, cheeses, baked goods, and confections. You’ll find everything you need to create a memorable meal, from cookbooks, to table linens, to kitchenware, to fresh cut flowers, and more. Plus the widest variety of restaurants under one roof. The market became our sole location for meals as it pleased all 4 of us, it was just brilliant and of course, yes we did have a Philly cheese steak sandwich!

We did the traditional hop on hop off bus on the first day, taking us the famous Rocky statue located now at the base of the famous steps of Philadelphia Art museum. The 72 stone steps before the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have become known as the “Rocky Steps” as a result of the scene from the film Rocky. Tourists often mimic Rocky’s famous climb, we did, my sons loved it along with many other tourists and my wife was over the moon to finally be here! A huge highlight of our trip was a whole day spent at Philadelphia Zoo, truly the most beautiful zoo we have ever been to!

We saw every animal possible, the zoo was spacious and immaculate, i know there so many mixed opinions of zoos around the world, but for me, my children, learnt and saw so much on this day and looking at the animals they did have they all were in wonderful condition. It was about a 10 minute taxi ride from the city centre and approx $15 in a taxi, it really just finished of the best two weeks for all of us! The only issue we have is where do we go next year and how do we top this?

If you have Any questions or want to know anymore information just email me on [email protected] or call me on 0800 408 6107.

Haydn


About Me

Hello everyone, My name is Haydn , I live in Caerphilly South Wales with my wife and 2 young sons. I have been in the Travel Industry for just over 23 years now, specializing in cruising for the last 13 years. I have been on a variety of Cruise ships,…

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