We set our alarm early for day 3 to get ready, eat breakfast, and get off the ship as soon as possible. We had the Amazing Cozumel Race purchased directly with the company. This meant we needed to find our own transportation to the starting line in downtown Cozumel. We previously had this booked through Royal Caribbean but they canceled it on us. We found out through the race company that the cruise lines are not convinced that passengers will be safe from Covid or other things to put them back in their system. But by what we had to do during the race, I see no reason this is something that needs to be of concern.
After breakfast and a good dose of sunscreen, we left the ship and grabbed a taxi to our race start location, Mercado Municipal. It is located about 4 blocks off the main road along downtown. The touristy part of Cozumel only exists for about 2 bocks from the coast. When we arrived at the location, it was still pretty much a ghost town since it was early for the locals. We had some time to kill so we walked back up to the plaza near the coast and grabbed a seat to relax and enjoy the weather. 
About a half hour before our start time we walked back to the Mercado Municipal. We were the first team to show up but the market was active and the race coordinator was there waiting for us. She gave us our packet of supplies which included a map with all potential points of interest, Mayan number translator, a marker, and also a cell phone for emergencies. There ended up being a total of four teams that were there to run the race consisting of two other four person teams and then a two person team. After a gathering of all four teams and explaining how things work, we were set off on the race!
It took us a little to get the first clue to get going but after that we were off and running through downtown. I don’t want to give away any of the clue details so I can’t describe everything we had to do. However, they did make it more of find a location and details at that location instead of the more interacting with the locals that I think they did in the past. We did have an all-team ~15min break about halfway through the race to relax.
After the break, we all were given puzzles to solve to find our next location. We made quick work of the clues and were off and running. We were moving a little quicker now and getting into our grove. I thought the second half was more fun since we seemed to cover more area. Also it included getting a henna tattoo for one of the clues. We were breaking a bit of a sweat since we were running from stop to stop which was giving us an advantage over other teams. Luckily we never needed the “help phone” or were corrected by the race staff. The race staff (3 people we knew of) always kept an eye on where each team was to make sure everyone was making progress and not going too far off course. Our race didn’t include the challenge of going on a boat out off the coast to dive down to get a clue. They said the cruise lines didn’t find that as a “safe” aspect to the excursion so they had removed it recently. The race coordinator really appeared frustrated/disappointed with the cruise lines lack of trust in their excursion. Again, it all seemed safe and no different than someone shopping on their own downtown.
We were surprised when we came to a stop and found out it was the finish line. As far as we could tell we were the first team there. We had been running to each stop and had not seen another team in a while. As teams arrived, they were directed to take a seat in the restaurant and were given tickets to use for drinks. Then for the ceremony they announced 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place to receive medals. Kind of stinks for the one team that didn’t receive anything. Apparently before Covid, there were usually 10+ teams. Without the cruise lines listing them as potential excursions, their attendance dropped dramatically.
We had known we were the first back but didn’t know if there was anything else that determined if a team won. We thought we completed all the correct tasks and were hoping that was enough. Then they announced the winning team…our team, team Birthday Cake (our chosen name and one we have used throughout the cruise due to Hannah turning 16 on the cruise). As a bonus, they sang happy birthday to Hannah and gave her a “cake” (a Hostess cake).
We had planned on walking back to the ship from downtown to take in more of the port, but it was almost 2:30pm and we still hadn’t eaten lunch. The ship’s Windjammer buffet was going to close at 3pm so we opted to take a taxi back. After a quick lunch we squeezed in some trivia before it was almost time to get ready for dinner. There was a teen 3-point competition right before our 5:15pm dinner time so Hannah participated in that and showed up at dinner a little later.
After dinner we grabbed a little caffeinated pick-me-up to make sure we could stay awake for the broadway performance of Mamma Mia.
Tomorrow we arrive in Honduras for our next excursion.