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Freestyle Daily day 5:

Decided to play a game of bowling to burn through some of our OBC that we’ve barely touched. But we broke the machine part way through the game and now have to attempt to get our money back as customer service said to wait until after 5 when they can fix the game. Filled up a gold perks half price bag of laundry today. Bag seems bigger than previous cruises as we easily fit 6 days of clothes in it. A standard sized backpack for reference. Some pictures of Roatan from the ship.

Some random Roatan pictures. Harmony of the Seas greeted us here and the Enchantment of the Seas followed us later from Cozumel. View from the rum place. This is a sloth. This is a capuchin monkey. Some birds. Not actually a part of the tour. I went in the water.

Breakfast at Taste. Most of a bakery selection plate. Ham and cheese omelette with bacon and toast on the side.

Not having much success with uploading photos right now, so day 4 Freestyle Dailies will have to wait. I’ll do a quick text summary and hopefully add pictures later. Played some basketball last night before bed. Not too busy, but busier than I’d expect as there were very strong winds and a bit of rain. Set my clock back an hour during supper so I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Set to dock at 8 this morning but got the all clear to get off the ship at 7:45. We went to O’Sheehan’s for breakfast but there was a 30-45 minute wait, so we went to Taste instead and got seated immediately. Had our excursion booked direct with Daniel Johnson Monkey and Sloth Hangout. Found them right outside the port and we had our own personal driver for the day with just the three of us. Joseph was great, by the way. Started with an island tour stopping at the rum place, the chocolate place, the recycled arts and craft place and another random gift shop. About an hour and a half for that part. Then we got to Daniel Johnson’s and found all the other cruise ship people so there was a line but it went fairly quick. Saw the sloths, and monkeys, and the other monkeys, and some birds, and some cats that weren’t officially part of the tour. Then we went on a 5 minute boat ride over to their island beach. We could have spent two or three hours there if we had wanted but left after about 30 minutes. It was too hot out for the beach. Then Joseph drive us back to the port and dropped us off and we were back on the ship with plenty of time to spare around 1:30. A very nice excursion for only $40 per person and would highly recommend it to anyone. Now trying to get cooled off.

After lunch went back to our room just to cool off. It was hot out there today. All aboard was 4:30 with sail away at 5 so we headed to the Waterfront to watch any pier runners and sail away. I guess when you’re wearing dress whites rules aren’t that important. 4:45 and the pier was packed with people leisurely strolling back to the ship. Seems safe to assume it was an NCL excursion that ran late. Got tired of waiting for the ship to leave so we headed to Taste for supper at 5:15. No wait. Caesar salad Rigatoni primavera with pesto. Forgot to take a picture of the desert menu but I got the sugar free vanilla cheesecake and fruit plate. A vegetarian entree and sugar free desert at the same meal? I must have got heat stroke or something today.

Finished up at Chankanaab with my wife wanting to get a picture from her manatee swim. They let you know that it’s $40 for one picture or $80 for all your pictures but they don’t tell until well after you pay for it that they don’t give you any physical pictures for that price. It just gives you access to download it at home. Bunch of taxis just sitting outside the park so we were back on board the ship just after 12. Even with the expensive “picture” it was still much cheaper than the NCL official excursion. We were in Cozumel. This sign says so. The two ships next pier over. The Princess whatever and the whatever of the Seas. Realized that we never saw much of the ship in New Orleans or when getting off the ship so this was actually the first chance we had to see the full ship. Lunch in the buffet overlooking the port.

MSC is currently at the dock you circled in green. Enchantment of the Seas is on the land side of the dock you circled in red. Princess is beside it. We’re next at the left-most dock you didn’t circle and Carnival is last. Our taxi driver said there’ll be 8 ships in port tomorrow including the Icon of the Seas.

But I don’t like the water. Or the hot. Or people. Or alcohol. Wait…..why do I like cruising?

Made it to the taxi stop before the crowd got there so we got one immediately upon getting there. 5 minute drive to Chankanaab Park and in the park shortly after 9. Had the park pretty much to ourselves for an hour before all those cruise ship tourists showed up. My wife is currently in the water with a manatee and I’m taking advantage of reliable wifi.

8am comes even faster when you forget to put your clock ahead an hour before going to bed. Set the alarm early enough that it didn’t really matter. Buffet for breakfast. Not overly crowded but that was one crunchy pancake. Breakfast with a view. Pulling into port with the Carnival Magic. MSC Divina at the other port. The Enchantment of the Seas beat us here. A crowded port gets more crowded when two ships got here on top of each other.

I don’t think I mentioned it but our email came last night to let us know that we wouldn’t be getting a cabin upgrade. Just as none of our Latitudes stuff was waiting for us when we got into our cabin yesterday, our shareholder OBC wasn’t on our account either. Also just like how the Latitudes stuff showed up in our cabin today, our $100 OBC showed up today as well. I know. We should have stormed down to customer service at 4pm yesterday and cause a fuss complaining about how we didn’t have all these things. Then complain that there was a line and we had to wait and declare this to be the worst cruise ever. Then I’d be acting like a proper internet review writer. Walked the nearly empty Waterfront after supper and now in for the night pretty early. Cozumel at 8am tomorrow will come fast.

O’Sheehan’s for supper. Was about a 5 minute wait. Caeser Salad. Pretzel bites. Nachos. Raspberry Swirl brownie cheesecake.

Spent some time walking the waterfront this afternoon before finding a quiet spot outside Cagney/Moderno/Prime Meridian an hour before they opened. I assume no live/semi-live is official until it has this picture. Our quiet place. Found a duck.

Sorry for sideways pictures but that’s how they showed up and I’m trying to post quick while the internet is cooperating. Freestyle Daily day 3:

It works no problem at all when posting all text like this. When trying to upload photos once or twice it’s been fast but most of the time it struggles with a 3MB image.

Didn’t take pictures but did a quick walk through. Looks like most tables were $10 minimum except Mississippi Stud at $5 and roulette at $2. Maximums were either $1000 or $2500.

I’ll see what I can do. No more speciality dining. I’ll take what’s included but no desire to pay for more. We’re always satisfied with the included offerings. No issues with any of the food yet this cruise.

We’re going to try the American Diner for lunch but it was a 25 minute wait, so we changed our mind and went to Taste instead. Not very busy there at all. Loaded baked potato. Tortilla bowl. Cheesecake.

Internet seems to be better at the moment so I’ll try some quick mass posting. Oddly our excursion tickets and Latitudes reward perks weren’t in our room yesterday, but they arrived today. Breakfast was at O’Sheehan’s this morning. Busy but not too bad. Fruit plate. English breakfast. Seas aren’t too rough but you can feel it rocking every now and then. Top couple decks are closed due to the wind. Came back to our room after breakfast and ended up dozing off for a bit. I think the three days on the road has worn us out.

Freestyle Daily day 2:

Freestyle Daily day 1.

We were on the Waterfront outside promenade on deck 8.

Went to Moderno last night. Not many people there, so it was nice. Meat menu. I took meat pictures, but one piece of meat on the plate at a time just doesn’t look impressive. A proper trip to the salad bar at a Brazilian steakhouse. Tres Leches cake for desert and the chocolate ice cream our waiter offered to go downstairs and get special for my wife. A cruise hero already. Stopped to get our gold pin. Since we got bonus points on two of our previous cruises were already gold after only three. Some buffet art.