Roatan, Honduras - monkeys, snorkeling and beach

We had some pretty gloomy weather the morning the ship docked in Roatan. All throughout the day we had intermittent rain showers and some spotty sunshine... nevertheless, we were looking forward to the day. The plan for the day was to explore Roatan with a guide from Victor Bodden tours.

Ship docked at Mahogany Bay in Roatan, Honduras

We were able to get off the ship pretty quickly since there was no tendering involved at this port. One of the first things we noticed was the heat and humidity... we walked for around 10 minutes before we reached the meeting location where our guide was already waiting for us.

Our first stop was a visit to Victor Bodden's property to see monkeys, birds, and other animals. It felt a little like a giant petting zoo where we were able to feed and pet most of the animals.. there were even a few that we could hold if we wanted to. This may have been one of my favorite excursions had it not been for the spider monkeys with overactive bladders! The little bugger climbed onto my arm and not even five seconds had passed when I suddenly felt a warm trickle of urine all over my arm... talk about gross! After that experience, I wasn't too interested in holding any of the other monkeys... thank goodness for hand sanitizer!

Spider Monkey

the monkeys loved drinking grape soda, which probably explains the reason for their overactive bladders

spider monkey drinking grape soda

the culprit just moments before he peed on me

beautiful parrot

Ben feeding the parrot

I liked this one more than the monkey

Following our visit to see the monkeys and birds, our guide Tex took us to a spot on the beach where we could look in on a dolphin excursion from a nearby wooden pier. Ordinarily, we would love seeing dolphins but we had just recently watched "The Cove," the documentary about the dolphin slaughter and capturing in Taiji, Japan so I couldn't help but feel really bad for the captive dolphins...

Dolphin Excursion in Roatan

Ben and Jeff

beautiful part of Roatan, Honduras

From there it was on to West Bay Beach to see if we could snag a day pass at the Mayan Princess and if not, find a place to rent a beach chair. Tex drove on the sand along the beach for about half a mile before turning back onto a main road. I had read that it was pretty difficult to get a day pass at one of the resorts along West Bay Beach if arriving later in the afternoon (which we were trying to do) but we decided to take a chance and see if there was still room. Fortunately for us, there were a couple of cruise ships leaving earlier than us and some of the visitors were actually on their way out when we arrived. We were told there may not be any beach chairs left but that there were still a couple of pool chairs available. When we got to the beach, we realized that there were plenty of beach chairs.

Ben was really excited to go off snorkeling again... I was less enthusiastic about it but always think it's better to have at least one person keeping an eye out for the other person while snorkeling. The beach itself was very crowded and filled with vendors trying to sell crafts, tshirts, jewelry, and water sport rentals. I suppose that if we had gone on a sunnier day, the water would have looked clearer but on the day we went, it was slightly cloudy.

Mayan Princess - really nice pool and right on the beach with easy access to beach snorkeling

 

another shot of Mayan Princess

West Bay Beach - there's Ben running off to go snorkeling

Ben snorkeling - this was moments before I panicked as a school of fish swam towards me

Mayan Princess security on the beach

 After a couple of hours at West Bay Beach, we decided to leave 30 minutes earlier than we had planned. Fortunately, Tex was already waiting for us in the parking lot. It was nearing time to be back on the ship and it looked like rain was on its way so we decided to head back to Mahogany Bay, where the ship was docked. Once inside the Mahogany Bay gates, everything screamed "cruise tourist"... the place was lined with souvenir shops, touristy photo-op areas (see below) and a Fat Tuesday, which was a Spring Break-ish type place ridden with sloppy, drunken cruisers.

Ben actually owned a pair of orange crocs at one point

Why are we holding a fake lobster, you ask? I have no idea but we are on vacation and we are tourists so we willingly do things like this

view of Mahogany Bay from our room at the end of the day

We really enjoyed our time in Roatan, Honduras. Hiring a private guide was a good choice since we felt that we got to see a significant part of the island and did not need to worry about searching for a cab at each stop.

Next up: Belize and Xunantunich Ruins!

Grand Cayman - stingrays, beach, and lots of waiting in the sun

Grand Cayman was our first port day... this was a tendered port, which means that the ship cannot dock at the island and instead uses small tender boats to transport cruise passengers back and forth between the ship and island. We had a shore excursion planned to visit the Stingray Sandbar, Coral Gardens, and Rum Point Beach through Nativeway Water Sports.

We took one of the earliest tenders to the island not wanting to risk running late for the excursion and arrived at the tour meeting location over an hour early. There wasn't much to do in the port area so we basically wandered for a bit waiting for the rest of the people in our tour group to arrive.

There were a few members of the group who were running late and Nativeway decided to wait for them so we left about 10 minutes late. There was some confusion and disorganization at the beginning since they merged two groups of people together onto the mini bus but everything was much better once we arrived at the pier and were met by our guide for the day. From there we took a 20 minute boat ride out to Stingray "City".

Heading out to Stingray City by boat

Stingray City

Ben was much more enthusiastic about holding the stingray than I was - I was pretty freaked out..

They feel just like a squishy portobello mushroom!

Stingray looking for food

After spending around 20 minutes at the stingray sandbar, we headed for our second stop for snorkeling. I like swimming but am not a big fan of snorkeling because of my odd fish phobia... Ben on the other hand does not like to swim but loves to snorkel. Because of this, we always wind up going snorkeling numerous times on any vacation where snorkeling is possible. Any time we go snorkeling, I always ask Ben to get in the water first to tell me if it is the type of snorkeling I can handle... I like coral but don't like lots of fish... lots of fish = major panic

Ben snorkeling in Coral Gardens

 After the 20 minute snorkeling stop, we headed off to Rum Point Beach, the final stop of the day. We had a very good lunch, probably the best excursion food we've had and then spent some time wandering around the beach and sitting by the water.

Rum Point Beach

Colorful tables at Rum Point Beach

We spent a couple of hours here and then headed back with the rest of our group for the cruise port. This excursion was our favorite of the week.

Once we arrived back at the port, we saw a massive line of people waiting to board the tenders to head back to the ship. Having done quite a bit of research prior to the cruise, I knew that we would have to wait upwards to an hour to get back to the ship but I was not prepared for how hot and uncomfortable it would be standing out in the scorching sun. There were unfortunately only two tenders running and hundreds and hundreds of people trying to get back to the ship. We waited over an hour before we were finally able to make it onto a tender boat... when the tender reached the cruise ship, there was once again a very long wait as there were over 300 people on the tender all trying to get off the tender and through the security checkpoint on the ship.

By the time we arrived back to our room, we were both exhausted... it had been a really long day. One of my favorite things to do every day we returned from a port was to pull open the curtains to our balcony to look outside. On that particular day, we were greeted with this:

Disney Magic

Disney Magic - nice looking ship!

Grand Cayman from our balcony

 Aside from the excruciatingly long wait to get back onto the ship, it was a really great day. Next up: Roatan!

We're going on a trip!

Ben and I decided back in January that we wanted to escape the harsh winter by taking a vacation somewhere warm. The original plan was to go while it was still cold in NJ but after figuring out work schedules and researching vacation possibilities, we settled on a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise departing May 1. Our travel friends were also looking to get away and decided to come along with us.

We figured it would still be pretty cold in NJ and a cruise to the Caribbean would be a nice change in scenery... little did we know that the week prior to our cruise, it was actually just as hot in NJ as it was in Miami! Gotta love that unpredictable NJ weather...

May 1st finally arrived and we left our house at 3:30am for our friends' place. From there we loaded our luggage and headed to the airport. Our flight departed at 6:15am and two and a half hours later, we arrived in sunny Miami. We decided to eat breakfast at the airport, not wanting to haul our luggage around with us. From there, we took a cab to the port of Miami where we checked in and waited for the announcement that we'd be allowed to board the ship. Running on less than 2 hours of sleep (difficult even for my husband, the "machine"), it was difficult to stay awake. I squeezed in about an hour or so of uncomfortable, upright napping while waiting to board the ship. Note that there are no pictures so far since I was barely functioning in my sleep-deprived trance.

When we were finally allowed to board, we made a mad dash for the buffet. We weren't even hungry, but we were on a cruise and we already paid for the food, so we were going to eat! The lines weren't too bad since we were on the ship relatively early. We then started to play Bohnanza (also referred to as the Bean Game... why it is called Bohnanza, we still have no idea)... this was the first of many hours we would spend playing this game. We were so engrossed in the game that we didn't even realize that our rooms were ready.

At around 3pm, we went to drop our stuff off in our rooms. Ben and I booked our first balcony on this trip. The first time I cruised as an adult, I stayed in an interior. I realized I hated sleeping in what felt like a closet and because of this, decided that I did not like cruising. The second time I cruised, I stayed in an oceanview cabin, had a much better time and decided I would never go back to an interior. This time was the third time and after staying in a balcony room, I don't think I can ever go without one again... uh oh. Some people say that they don't spend enough time in the cabin to care what type of room it is but I might be one in the minority who feels that the cabin makes a really big difference in the whole vacation.

Here it is! We booked a balcony guarantee and were assigned a cabin on the lido deck which turned out to be extremely convenient. We were on the same deck as the buffet!... not that we really needed to be so close to it...


Carnival Whale Tail

The worst part of the day was the lifeboat drill. I really just wanted to take a nap and instead of napping, found myself packed like a sardine with thousands of cruisers watching a 1 minute demonstration on how to put on a life vest and listening to a 5 minute announcement over the PA system on why the demonstration was necessary. We then waited an additional 15 minutes for the other side of the ship to clear out before we were finally dismissed.

Watching the sailaway from Miami was one of my favorite parts of the cruise. Ben and I started out on the lido deck. It was a little too crowded and loud. The music wasn't so bad until Ben pointed out that the keyboard player in the calypso band was only playing two chords in every one of his songs... we decided to watch the sailaway from our balcony. Same view, no noise, much better!

waterfront mansions and yachts in Miami

approaching South Beach

South Beach

We had an earlier dinner that night. The food was pretty good throughout the cruise... we found that their fish courses were usually very good and their beef dishes just okay.

Here we are on the first night at dinner.

Three of us ordered the lasagna as a main entree. It was one of the best lasagnas I have ever eaten, although still no match for the amazing lasagna we had in Florence last year. 

Creme Brulee - looks good but Ben said it was too sweet and consistency was too liquidy

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake - I think I had this every night of the cruise except for one night

After dinner we had time to roam around a little and we decided to watch their welcome show. The welcome show was basically an introduction to the cruise director, entertainment staff, dancers, musicians and comedians. The dance and musical number was super campy and outright bizarre... it was like Dancing with the Stars meets Chippendale dancers on crack... seriously.

The rest of the show was much better. They played an onstage game involving audience participation and then the comedians came out to give a short preview of what their shows would be like later on in the cruise.

The original plan was to go to sleep early that night but after walking by the Lido Deck and seeing that Despicable Me was playing on the big screen, I had to pass on the early bedtime.

Despicable Me playing on the Lido Deck at night

We're on a trip! - Sea Day

Getting up the first morning was definitely really tough. I am not sure if it was from the lack of sleep the day before, drowsiness from taking Bonine at night or a combination of both, but waking up to go eat breakfast was a challenge for both of us. The plan for the day was to eat, tan, play, eat, play and sleep. I managed to do exactly that but Ben managed to squeeze gym in there as well.

By 9am, the chair hogs were already out. All of the poolside chairs were occupied by assorted towels, magazines, and flip flops. By the time we finished eating breakfast around 10am, we could not find any chairs on the lido deck and had to go up three decks to find some. This was probably a good thing though as the lido deck was extremely crowded and the keyboardist in the calypso band was at it again... playing the same two chords from the day before.

getting some sun

water slide

view of lido deck from top deck

they had super comfy chairs here but there was no more room by the time we showed up

 After a couple of hours out in the sun, it was time to eat again! (disgusting, I know) There were lines, lines, lines everywhere. I got in line for the Mongolian wok station because it looked shorter but waited a good 15-20 minutes since they make each dish to order. In spite of the wait, it became my favorite thing to eat at lunch and was well worth the wait.

Stirfry from Mongolian wok station - yum!

 Here are some pictures I snapped around the ship in the afternoon:

Valor atrium

Looking up at the water slide from enclosed portion of lido deck

Back of Rosie's Restaurant / Lido Buffet

 We spent the afternoon playing the Bean Game and then I went off to the room to read and nap while Ben went to the gym. That evening was formal night but we decided to have a late dinner since we had spent much of the day eating and sitting around. Dinner was followed by a comedy show - throughout the whole week, all with the exception of one were hilarious.

Strawberry soup - very good!

Lobster and shrimp - also very good

Prime rib - decent

We had managed to dodge the Carnival photographers the whole evening and looked for places to take our own pictures

Uh oh... someone discovered an unattended Carnival photography station...

the comedy shows would start to fill up 30 minutes before the shows started

Carnival comedy club

Ben loves pina coladas... only of vacation though, of course ;-)

That's it for the day! Next up: Grand Cayman - fun and not-so-fun in the sun