Sept 14th Dream Cruise Photo Review!

Thanks for the info on Victor Bodden tours, we're also booked with him. If you don't mind me asking, about how long was your tour? We're trying to decide on what to see based on the website. Also, did you tip him in cash or will they take the tip off the credit card? (thanks for the credit card info too!)

Good question! The tour we booked was called "Best of Roatan Private Tour" and would last as long as we wanted. We could arrive when we want, and be dropped off when we wanted. We got off the ship right away, and we got back about an hour and a half before the ship left.

Tipping was done in cash... the credit card machine was at Victor's place... so we tipped cash when Kenny dropped us off.

If you don't have the Monkey Business stuff planned, you should do it!!

Sounds like you had a nice tour. Hopefully you will find the pictures you want to add. Your son was all smiles with the Monkeys, too cute.

I'm really enjoying your review. I was on the Dream this August. :)

 

FOOTBALL!!!! Honestly, I didn't watch much of it, as we went to the show in the theatre and did some more shopping, but it was pretty neat. You'll notice the big black 1 in the screen, that was a dead section of the screen, though they did eventually fix it.

 

After a great evening, and a fun show, we headed to bed to rest before our big day in Cozumel!

That "1" section on the screen was there on my cruise on the Dream Aug 24-31. Glad to hear they finally got it fixed

Dang, I was hoping to get back in time to edit, but it didn't happen... so, here are the pics in a seperate thread.

Lunch Spot:

View from up high:

Our Boat looking soooo tiny:

Shipwreck:

Kenny!

Great Roatan Map by the Passport Stamp Area

Passport Stamps could be had at the visitor information center in the above picture

Goofy Time With Bryan Just before he passed out in the carrier:

Walk from the ship to the shops. I've heard this was a long/bad walk, but it really isn't at all:

Posing with the whole group:

Trying to be Artsy:

Just a few more:

Closer look at Cove Balconies for you cove folks:

Shipwreck from our room window:

Great pictures. Thanks for posting the one with the cove balcony's. I will be cruising in my first one next month.

Great pictures. Thanks for posting the one with the cove balcony's. I will be cruising in my first one next month.

I think I've got some more, I'll check

Cove Balcony Pics:

I've done this itinerary and we, too, LOVED Roatan and want to go back. We're doing the Dream for the first time in January in a cove balcony, so thanks for the pics! :)

After getting back on the ship, the wife had an appointment at the Spa, and the rest of us decided to take a spin on the water slides. I took video of this, and I'll post all the videos later after editing and such. The slides are great fun!

Not too much later, it was dinner time, I did manage to get a couple of desert pics from this dinner

Pumpkin Pie:

Apple Pie:

And a little boy wanted some Brownies (thought he didn't eat much of them):

Back at the room, we were greeted with a new Towel Animal!

Bryan went to Camp Carnival, and we went to the show, and then all hit the room for sleep!

Roatan was amazing!

And so we come to Wednesday, a day my Wife was very much looking forward to. BELIZE!!

10 years ago, on our honeymoon, we came to Belize. We took a carnival based excursion to Goff's Caye, and despite TERRIBLE weather and us both getting sea sick, we enjoyed ourselves... SO.. we decided to go back.

Carnival no longer offers this excursion, but we were able to book a trip to the Caye through Island Marketing.

Since we had FTTF, we had priority tender, so as soon as we were ready, we headed down to the lounge where they were meeting. We were on a tender within 20 minutes:

A short 20 minute ride and we were on shore. As there was at each port, there is a little cruise terminal setup with shops and a bar, and stuff. We walked around a bit, we checked in with Island Marketing, and eventually made our way to Diamonds International to do a little watch shopping while we waiting for our tour to start.

A short while later, we were on a motor boat headed out to Paradise!

We passed by the Dream on our way out to Goff's Caye:

Bryan was sporting his own stylish life vest:

Shortly before getting to the island, we noticed a dolphin swimming with us and had to stop and watch it. I swear I got pictures, but I can't find one!

Oh well, after the 30ish minute ride, we arrived, and it was just like I remember it!:

After getting settled, the Wife and Son headed to the beach, and the rest of us went on the snorkeling tour. I've got video of that as well!

It was a great snorkeling tour, and just as everyone was getting back on the boat to head back to the island for the "beach time", the guide I was closest to gathered a group to swim back to the island instead of go back via boat.

I decided to stay, not knowing it was the long way around the island.. and the other side was a HUGE current... I was exhausted!

Back on Goff's Caye, we settled down for lunch of grilled lobster for the adults, and a hot dog in a tortilla for the little one.. it was all VERY yummy!

The food was not included, however Rum Punch was, and it was quite potent!

Continuing our time on the island...

Its a TINY place, with a small bathroom, and a small pavilion where they cook food and a local sells some jewlery and other hand crafted items.

We had about an hour or so left, so we hit the beach and started playing!

Eventually, it was time to go, and we had to wave good by to the little slice of Paradise!

More to come!

My family and I ate at that burrito place in Roaton also. Wonder if it's owned by a relative of Victor's?

You a Normal, IL native?

My family and I ate at that burrito place in Roaton also. Wonder if it's owned by a relative of Victor's?

 

You a Normal, IL native?

Lived in Normal since 1996, actually just moved a little west of there last december

Thanks for more pics of the coves. Your little island does look like paradise!

So, I think do I this backwards... I take a break from forums on the weekend.... haha.. anywho, back to the review!

 

 

After we left Dolphinaris, we didn't have anything else planned, so we decided to do some shopping at the cruise port and make our way leisurely back to the ship. All the stores in the cruise port are what you'd expect. Local "crafts", t-shirts, dresses, hats, etc with the normal Del Sol, Pirannah Joe's and all the such. There is a little beach space with a great view of the ship, so I had to stop and take a picture:

 

 

We wandered around a bit longer and ended up buying a couple of shirts, and a couple of towel sets from Cariloha. We WOULD have gotten sheets, but we are planning on replacing our bed and moving to a king soon, so that would have been wasted money.

 

If you haven't been introduced to Cariloha, I'd recommend checking it out. Their products are made from Bamboo fabric and INCREDIBLY soft! We LOVE the towels! Its a little pricey, but we love it!

 

During all this walking, the little one CRASHED OUT!! He was a tired little boy:

 

We finally headed back to the ship, and stopped for more pictures:

 

This one isn't perfect, but its a good view of the port:

Love his Amber Teething Necklace!!

So, I left you with our view as we pulled away from Goff's Caye.

The 30ish minute ride back to Belize City was uneventful, and Bryan was WORE OUT!

We got off the boat, heard the usual blurb about tipping, but even more than that, the Guides SPECIFICALLY asked us to submit a review on TripAdvisor and Cruise Critic! They are quite aware of the online community.

Island Marketing did a great job with the entire excursion. I would HIGHLY recommend this company if you want to visit Goff's Caye, and they offered trips to other places as well!

We had a little bit of time, left, and I REALLY wanted a Belkin Beer. I had heard about it, and I am a bit of a beer aficionado (wife would say snob). The Wet Lizard right there at the pier was selling Belkins 2 for $5. I ordered a light lager, and a dark lager. After a HOT day on an island, they were GREAT! I also asked if I could keep the bottle (they poured them in a glass), and they said it would be an extra dollar... no problem!! Bottle Secured (for a friend's collection).

After grabbing our beers, we headed back to Diamonds International to look at watches. I fell in love with one and it hopped onto my wrist! While completing the sale, the sales staff noticed I had finished my beer and shortly thereafter a fresh bottle of Belkin was placed in my hand!! GOOD SERVICE!!

Our time in Belize was done, so we headed back to the ship via the tender, and we actually ended up on the LAST tender back. Bryan was awake at this point, but still very tried and content to snuggle!

Here is the Dream waiting to greet us back "home"

IT really is a BIG ship!

And soon we were back in our staterooms changing and showering for the evening's activities!

So, getting back to our rooms, we started to realize that I had gotten a TERRIBLE sunburn! Showing hurt, changing hurt, everything hurt, but we had dinner to go to!

Honestly, I didn't make it long at dinner, but I did snap a pic of some delicious enchiladas:

Even before dinner was done, I wasn't feeling well at all... my back hurt from the sunburn, and I had completely lost my apetite. Our nurse friend who was with us said I was probably experiencing a minor "sun stroke", or basic over exposure! I have to remember to drink LOTS of water when out in the sun.

I headed back before desert to get some rest and layed down. I got a couple of hours of sleep and woke to the wife bringing me some Tiramisu from the dining room (my fav). I got up and we hung out a little around the ship while Bryan played at Camp Carnival.

The Moon tried to peek out this evening, and this was the best picture I could get of it:

Still not feeling well, and in pain, we actually hit the bed pretty early this evening.

The next morning... Costa Maya!

Not only was it Costa Maya day, but it was international Talk Like a Pirate Day.. and the Cruise Director got into it!! The atrium was also decorated... sorry for the blurry pic:

We ran down to get breakfast before heading on shore. We were scheduled to go visit Almplena Eco Beach Resort for a day of sun and beach time, but didn't have a schedule. The arrival in Costa Maya was 7am, but we did decide to push back getting off till 8am...

I'm glad we did, because by the time 8am rolled around, we were hearing announcements about the delay in docking. The seas were quite rough and the Captain was having trouble getting us docked.... IT took over 3 hours (some before the 7am schedule) for him to get us tied up and docked. Because of this they extended our time by one hour.

We made our way down to the gangway and really got a taste of how bad it was... the plank was moving back and forth 2-3 feet as the ship rocked and rolled! I've got a crazy video of it, I'll share later. Here is a pic to give you an idea:

We got off the ship and headed through the cruise port and all its shops, headed to our instructed taxi stand. I will say, this was quite a walk, and not well marked, but we made it, got a taxi, and headed tword Almplena. About 10 minutes into the 20 minute drive, our driver (who spoke no english) stopped to talk to another driver going the other way with a full load of people. The other driver spoke english, and told us that the road was flooded and we would not be able to get there.

Our driver took us back to the port, quite dissapointed. We paid him and headed back onto the ship to regroup. We dropped Bryan off at Camp Carnival as they were providing lunch that day, and I headed down to the Fun Zone to log on and email Almplena.

We then decided to go back out and do some shopping.

I was still pretty tired, and quite sunburnt, so I'll say I wasn't enthusiastic about shopping, but I went along. I would have been content to lounge in the huge pool and stay cool. While shopping in a jewlery store, I noticed the sky starting to get VERY dark. I warned the group, and they barely acknowledged me.... and I wish they did.

Finally it got dark enough they noticed, and we took off for the ship, just after the checkpoint on the pier (with about a 3-400 yard walk still) the skies OPENED UP!! It rained hard enough to be painful and we ran along the pier just in time to wait in line... ugh. We finally got back on board, headed up to change clothes and ran down to grab lunch in the dining room. Oh well, a bit of a disappointing day on shore, but at least we had a GORGEOUS ship to spend time on!

At lunch we had a great view of the port as the sun came out (DOH!):

I learned later via email that Almplena Eco Resort refunded our deposits, but indicated that they tried to work with the taxi company to get us there. Aparently, mini vans and trucks had no problem getting around the ONE bad spot, and she even offered to pick up travelers at the flooded section in her truck, but the taxi company didn't want to play nice.

I guess I'll just have to go back to Costa Maya and visit in nicer weather!

Love his Amber Teething Necklace!!

Good eyes there!! We LOVE the amber as well, its a miracle product! We are a bit of a crunchy family. CSAs, Baltic Amber, Cloth Diapers, Baby Wearing, Baby Led Weaning, etc... ahah

I love that picture of your wife being pulled by the Dolphin in Cozumel....she looks like she is terrified....lol

I had to laugh at your comment about corruption in Illinois politics. Illinois government officials are a joke

Continuing with the review!!

After a late lunch, we picked up Bryan and headed back to the room for a nap. This was the 2nd Formal Night, but we opted to dress down a bit. Collared shirts and a dress, but much less formal. We got all dressed and headed to an uneventful dinner. I was feeling much better after drinking a TON of water and getting rest.

There was a football game on the lido after dinner, so Bryan went back to Camp Carnival and we headed to do some more shopping (cheap watch sets and other stuff). I ran back to the room, and got the first glance at our "Towel Animal" for the day:

One of our friends and I then headed out on deck, secured some Beers and free Popcorn, and settled in to watch some football:

As you can see, they got the screen fixed. This is a great way to watch the game!

At half time, I decided to call it quits, we went and got Bryan and headed back to our room to get some sleep!

The next day would be our last Day.. a "Fun Day at Sea" and we had a big plan for the morning!!

Since our time was up, and our tour was over (well, we wanted to get some shopping in), we had Kenny take us back. Unlike pick-up, he was allowed to drop us off at the taxi stand, which did save us the walk a 2nd time.

 

We tipped Kenny generously and stopped for a photo with him, and we thanked him for his time!

<Saving this spot for a photo when I finally find it>

 

Then into the cruise port for a little shopping. Bryan was WIPED OUT again at this point, so into the carrier he went and QUICKLY asleep!

 

We eventually ended up at the Tanzanite International Store, and my wife's inner need for jewlery became too much... it is pretty though!

 

Then it was time to head back to the ship, stopping to take a picture infront of the Roatan sign

<insert picture when I find it!>

 

And one more posing with the boat:

 

Roatan ranks up there in the top places we've been, and is on the top of the list of places to return to!!!

We had Kenny as our guide in Roatan too. He was great! We also did Dolphinaris and had a blast! I am loving your review. Thank you!

Fabulous review and pics! We are looking into booking the Dream so your review is very helpful!