Like my last posting this blog
covers several days.
Monday the 4th
This was our first full day
on the ship. It was a sea day and
cool. The sea was choppy but not rough. We slept in and instead of ordering our
breakfast in the room we decided to go to the Mexican Buffet. The food tasted good but wasn’t hot. They had crispy beef tacos that were actually
cold, straight out of the refrigerator.
It was formal night so we
dressed up. We went to the Elite Lounge
for the last 15 minutes or so of the Captain’s Circle, Platinum, Elite and
Suite passenger Hors D’oeuvres party. It
wasn’t well attended and we passed on the hors d’oeuvres, the main item was
Steak Tar Tar.
We had to wait ½ hour to be
seated for dinner in the Island Dining Room on deck 5. We sat with a couple from Detroit and a
mother and daughter from Texas.
After dinner we went to a
production show, Piano Man, in the Princess theater. Bed time was early because we had booked a
tour that started on shore the next day at 7:30 AM.
Tuesday the 5th
We were in port at Cozumel,
Mexico. We had a tour booked and went
ashore at 7:30 AM. We didn’t have time
for coffee. Due to rough seas the
catamaran portion of the tour was canceled.
We took a bus tour around the island.
Cozumel is 32 miles by 8 miles and has a population of about
90,000. The island is mostly low and
flat; the tropical vegetation doesn’t grow much over 20 feet tall. 
We stopped at a Mayan
village, El Cedral. There was an ancient
Mayan Temple alongside a Catholic Church built in the 1700’s. There was shopping and a tour of a Tequila
factory. 
Our next stop was a beach
side attraction that had a refreshment stand and a great view of some arches
formed by sea erosion. There was an
Earth Cache that had to do with arches.
I wasn’t able to get to the right coordinates to get the information
required to claim the cache.
Our next stop was in a
downtown area at a Museum that had a restaurant. Gerri and I had fish tacos for lunch there. Where our ship was docked there were 3 other
cruise shops, from the restaurant we could see another two cruise ships
docked.
We had been to Cozumel one
other time when I was on the board of the Clark County Credit Union. We were at a conference in Cancun and took a
tour to Cozumel that included snorkeling.
Nothing looked familiar, I’m sure the popularity of the Island has increased
as has the number of hotel and resorts.
Before boarding the ship, I was able to find one cache in the terminal
area.
Back at the ship we rested
for a while before going to the elite lounge for hors d’oeuvres. The Elite Lounge wasn’t very busy. On some cruises these are well attended
events held for Platinum, Elite and Suite passengers. We were also here for a little while on
Monday night and it wasn’t crowded then either.
Tonight the main item of hors d’oeuvres was smoked salmon on toast tips,
they also had the customary cheeses and vegetable available.
We went to the Island Dining
Room again, there was a ½ hour wait tonight too. So far I don’t care for the anytime dining. Tonight we sat with two couples from Texas,
Austin and San Angelo.
After dinner we went to the
Princess Theater. The comedian Steve
Moris did about an hour show. We had
seen him at the welcome aboard show on Sunday.
We don’t have to go to bed as
early tonight. Our tour at our next port
doesn’t meet until 9:15.
Wednesday the 6th
We arrived in Roatan as the
sun was coming up. Our tour was set for 9:30
and it looked like a long walk to the terminal.
Our tour was booked at the last minute for a town tour and glass bottom
boat ride. Our ship had docked at a
fairly new dock and terminal. It would
accommodate two ships but ours was the only one there. We were told that it was part of a $65
million complex built by Carnival which owns Princess. The bay where we docked is called Mahogany
Bay and consisted of the docks, private swimming area, a chair lift type sky-way to various locations around the bay including a private beach, shopping, Zip
Line and a lagoon for kayaking. There
were probably other things to see and do, but we had our tour to go on.
The tour took us through the
main downtown area and past the other cruise ship terminal owned by Royal
Caribbean. As we passed the older ship
terminal there were two ships docked there and two at anchor. The streets were very narrow and the traffic
was heavy. It was about a 45-minute ride
to the dock where we boarded the glass bottom boat. Our guide, who spoke with a slightly Texas
accent we thought because their number one music to listen to is Country and Western. She told us she had never been to the USA,
she got a big laugh with that comment. She gave us a lot of information on the
history of Roatan. Roatan was once ruled
by the British and since the 1980’s has been under the jurisdiction of
Honduras.
Once aboard the glass bottom
boat we traveled along the reef. A
marine biologist narrated this part of the tour, pointing out the various types
of coral and fish. We did see one sea turtle. The views were
spectacular, but didn’t come out very well in pictures.
After the boat ride it was on
to an area called the West End where we attended a performance by a group from
one of the main ethnic groups of the island.
I don’t recall all the information but the group was descended from
former slaves who fought with the British against the Spanish and lost. They then fled to Roatan which is about 30
miles off the coast of Honduras. Negotiations
for the transfer from British sovereignty to Honduran took over 100 years.
We had time for shopping and
looking around. Gerri bought several
small items from the street vendors before we headed back to the ship. There was a cache in the shopping area near
the dock that we managed to find before boarding the ship.
We relaxed before going to the
Skywalker for the Platinum Elite and Suite hors d’oeuvres. Tonight the featured
Item was goat cheese with rosemary.
Again the affair was lightly attended.
We had made a dining
reservation for 7:30. We were seated with three other couples and had a good
meal with pleasant conversation. Mostly
about where we were from and what we did or had done for a living.
Since we had an early tour
again tomorrow in Belize we were in bed early.
Thursday the 7th
We were up early and went
without coffee again this morning. Our
tour was to meet in the Princess theater at 7:15. We were anchored and had to
go ashore in tenders. It was five miles
by boat to Belize City. Fortunately, we
were in local boats as opposed to the ships tenders, they we more comfortable
and faster. I wanted to take a picture
of the ship as we departed but realized I had forgotten my phone. Gerri did have her camera so we got a couple
of pictures. The trouble was I use my
camera for geocaching and would have to return to the ship and come ashore
again to try to log a geocache in Belize.
As with the previous tours
this one started with a bus ride through town with narration about history,
economy and interesting sites. We
boarded our airboats at a facility at the edge of a large swamp and were taken
through the lakes, lagoons and mangrove groves that made up the area. This particular swamp covered about 500 acres
and we saw a wide range of birds a d a few small alligators. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the
wildlife and plants; he was also very entertaining. Besides the wildlife sightings we had a
thrilling ride through the swamp on the air boat. If you have never ridden an air boat, I
recommend it, it is quite a rush to skim across the water with a huge engine
roaring in your ears. |
| Two small crocadiles |
 |
| A slightly larger crocadile |
We returned to the cruise
ship terminal in the bus and boarded the boat back to the ship. Shortly after leaving the dock I felt
something hard in one of the cargo pockets of my shorts. It was my cell phone, too late to go back to
the dock. Back at the ship we had lunch
in the International Café. Gerri went to
the pool area and I returned to tenders and went back ashore to find a
geocache. After lunch Gerri went to the
pool area and I returned ashore to hunt a geocache.
The first and closest cache I
looked for was missing. I walked to the
second one, taking the long way and a couple of dead ends before arriving at
the cache’s location which was at another entrance to the cruise ship terminal. I started looking around and saw a couple
doing the same. They were caches too but
had come on one of the 4 other ships in port. We located the cache quickly and
talked for a while. They too had been
unable to find the other cache I had looked for. On the way back to the dock I checked the
area of the first cache again with no luck, I had to log a DNF.
We
cleaned up and went to the Skywalker for hors d’oeuvres. It was a little busier and tonight’s feature
was salsa and chips. The had both pico
de gallo and guacamole. We opted not to go to dinner in the dining room. Gerri picked up some items from the buffet
and I had pizza on deck 15.
We went and saw another
comedian in the Princess Theater and the stopped by the Crooner’s Lounge to
listen to the singer/piano player.
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