Cruise report Part 2

The cruise that we took was a 7 night trip, we left Galveston on Sunday afternoon and spent Monday and Tuesday sailing to our first port.  Here is a map of our itinerary that shows how far we sailed:

Having done numerous cruises, the CFO and I quickly settled into the “at sea day routine” that we have perfected after several cruises: 

Wake up, throw on pool clothes

Go to the main dining room for Breakfast

Go to the photo studio and review the photos of us that were taken the night before

Spend the rest of the morning on the pool deck

Go to the main dining room for Lunch

Spend the afternoon on the pool deck

Nap in room

Snack time

More lounging

Get ready for dinner

Dinner

Late show at the theater

Go to bed

As you can see, it’s a tough life.  We prefer to have breakfast and lunch in the main dining room because the food is better (than the buffet) and we enjoy the fact that they seat random groups of people together at 10 person tables.  You never know who you will end up sitting with, but it is easy to break the ice by asking: “Do you cruise often?”  

Everyone found it amusing that I ordered French Toast for breakfast every day, but cruising is the only time I have it.  The CFO isn't a big fan of it, so I don’t make it at home.  I did alternate my side dish between bacon and sausage each day for some variety. 

While we were doing our thing on the cruising days, my mom and dad kept themselves entertained with some of the other activities that were offered on board like trivia contests, Sudoku contests, bingo and gambling in the casino (I think that was dad’s favorite place).  We typically met up with them for meals and then went our own ways in between meals.

On Wednesday morning, our ship pulled into the port of Roatan, Honduras, which is on an island off the coast of Honduras.  We disembarked from the ship and boarded a bus to head out to Pirate Beach.  The 20 minute drive to the beach was kind of depressing, as we could see how poor the living conditions were for the area residents.  It was an odd juxtaposition of disheveled shacks and a beautiful view of crystal clear ocean water.  If it weren't for the ship loads of tourists who spend money on the island, I can’t imagine how those people would survive.  As the bus driver checked in with the guard at the gate of the resort area, the CFO quickly noticed that the security guard was armed.   We wondered if that was a good or bad sign.

We got off the bus and were greeted with a cup of a punch and a beach full of nice padded lounge chairs laid out under the shade of palm trees.  We spent the morning lounging around and floating in the water while a variety of fish swim by.  There weren't a lot of people at the beach, so it was really relaxing.  After spending the morning on the beach, we headed back to the port to do a little souvenir shopping and then went back onto the ship for lunch.  Why pay for lunch on the island when food on the ship is “included?”  We departed the port around 5 pm and headed towards our next port.

We woke up the following morning as the ship pulled up to Belize City, Belize.  There is a major reef around the city, so the cruise ships have to anchor out in the deeper water and a group of tender boats shuttle passengers to shore.  After a 20 minute boat ride to shore, we quickly located the tour representative and were escorted to their waiting van.  The four of us were joined in the van by two other couples and we enjoyed a scenic 1.5 hour ride into the middle of nowhere.  Once at our destination, we were all given helmets with headlights and life jackets and then we were lead on a 30-45 minute hike through the jungle.

The guy who led our tour, who went by “the Snakeman,” was an entertaining local who was constantly pointing out plants and describing their medicinal properties.  According to him, there was a cure for everything in the jungle, even HIV.  I took it all in with a grain of salt, not sure how accurate all his stories were.  

At the end of the hike, we were each given an inflatable tube and were lead down to the river.  After everyone in the group was floating on their tube, the guide tied all the tubes together and downstream we went.  The river had a very gentle current, no white water in sight.  Because of the slow moving current, the guide wasn't in a tube; he swam/walked the entire trip, pulling our group of 8 down river while telling more stories about the surrounding areas.  He had to be in pretty good shape to do that and we were shocked to hear that, during their busy season, he would lead 3 tours down the river each day.  Crazy!

The cool thing about this river is the fact that it flows through huge limestone caves.  That's right, we went "cave tubing." At several points along the route, after the river turned a corner inside the cave, we would all turn off our lights and were surrounded by darkness.  It was pretty cool and this was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  The CFO isn't the most adventurous person around, but she handled the trip well.  I was disappointed that we didn't see more bats; however she was relieved that we didn't see many.  I think mom enjoyed the trip too, however, dad didn't seem too impressed... 

(Since we were going to be in the water, we didn't bring a camera with us,.I borrowed these images from the web to give you an idea of what we did)

After the float down the river we were taken back to the tour company’s headquarters, where we were given a meal of chicken and beans & rice.  However, we didn't really get to enjoy it because we had to hurry back to the ship so we didn't miss the last tender back to the ship. All cruise lines offer excursions that you can book through them, but they can sometimes be expensive.  This tour was a good example of that as we booked this trip through an independent provider and paid less than half of what RC would have charged us.  Plus, our guide took us through an extra cave upstream of the main cave that everyone goes through and they fed us lunch.  So we definitely got more for our money… but there is one problem of going independent:  If you are late, the ship might leave without you.  When you go on an excursion through the cruise line, they guarantee that the ship will wait for you if there is a mechanical issue and your excursion is delayed.  If you are out on your own and you miss the last tender back to the ship, you are out of luck.

This made my dad extremely nervous as the drive and hike to river, plus the float through the caves took longer than what was estimated.  However, the CFO and I knew from past experience that, as long as you were on the tender pier by the advertised time of the last tender, the ship won’t leave without you.  We tried to get him to relax about it, but he was very concerned that the ship was going to leave us.  We arrived at the tender pier about 45 minutes before the scheduled last tender and were quickly taken back to the ship.  We were sitting at the ship's promenade cafe eating a snack when the captain announced on the PA system that although it was time to depart, they were still waiting for 600 guests to be tendered back to the ship.  We were actually “early” compared to those people and the ship actually left about 15-20 minutes later than scheduled.  All that worrying for nothing.