Carnival Dream 11/13/10-11/20/10

[BettyPC]

Great Review - thanks for sharing with those of us who are forced to be land locked for a while longer!

[scorp111]

Love the review... we are doing this cruise on the Dream in ....oh....say 92 hours :)

[bzygrama]

My first cruise will be on the Dream January 22, so excited. Enjoying your review !

Mary

[dancergrl608]

Tuesday November 16, 2010 "Belize"

Today was an early day for us because we were scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am. So we got up early enough to go and grab some breakfast on the Lido deck and we then headed down to the Encore Theater around 8:15 to get our tender ticket. We went to this location because we had an excursion booked through the ship, others who didn't have a ship excursion went to the Burgundy Lounge. By roughly 8:30 we were being lined up according to excursions to head down to the tenders. This was my first experience with the tender ride because I had only been to the Eastern Caribbean. The waters weren't rough today and I enjoyed the ride over. The waters the night before our arrival in Belize were just a little rocky but nothing compared to the first night on the ship.

 

We then arrived at the port area and headed for our excursion sign. From there we were separated into two different buses and luckily we were on the bus that wasn't full. We only had 15-16 people on our bus. Once everyone was loaded up we headed out of the city for our hour and half bus ride into the middle of the jungle. During this ride we were able to see much of Belize and the way they live. The ride was not so smooth especially once we turned off of the paved road and onto a dirt road.

 

 

The picture below is probably one of my favorite pictures I took while in Belize. As we were riding on to our excursion, the tour guide told us about the mountains in the distance. He said they are called "The Sleeping Giant". It took most of the people in our group a couple of looks to figure it out but if you look at it in the right way then you can see what the people in Belize call "The Sleeping Giant".

[dancergrl608]

Now for those of you who are wondering what excursion we did take, it was The Lost World Canopy Tour through Carnival. Just like the Beach Buggies excursion we took in Cozumel, I would highly recommend the excursion we did in Belize. The company that Carnival used was called Back-A-Bush Adventures. Along our ride to the site, the guide told us about his country and some of the history behind it. Once we finally arrived to our site, we got out of the bus and headed across a little platform to meet the team of workers. There were roughly 12-14 people there to help suit us up in our gear.

This is part of the group that went on the cruise with us. They were the only ones out of our group of 17 who were brave enough to try the ziplines.

Once we were in our gear, we hiked on up the hill some more. There were large stepping stones and handrails throughout this walk. There was no rush to get to the top, the guides just took their time leading us to our next destination. Once we reached the area the people who were on the first bus was already up there waiting on us. We then got a small briefing about what we needed to do while on the course. Then we lined up and got ready to start the ziplining.

These are the steps leading up to the first line.

 

 

The course we were on consisted of three ziplines, one rapel, two ziplines, and one rapel. The views while on the ziplines were amazing. The lines were of different lengths throughout the course. During the briefing before you start they tell you what to do incase you don't make it completely across the line. It's a good thing they tell you this because I didn't make it across two of them, I stopped short of the platform. So once I stopped I had to turn my body around to face backwards and use my arms to pull myself back until I reached the platform. I though the rapels were the scariest part of the whole excursion but they weren't long rapels and the guides had control of you the whole time, you just had to hold on.

Now before we booked this excursion my grandparents talked about how they would love to do this but didn't think they were capable of doing so. I can tell you that after doing this there is no doubt in my mind that they could have done it. There was a 68 year old grandma who was doing this excursion along with her husband.

 

Also my boyfriend's mom has MS and has problems with balance and stability but her and her husband went ahead and booked the excursion anyway. The whole entire time until we got there she was worried she couldn't do any of it and would have to sit and wait for us. The crew members took such wonderful care of her throughout the excursion. When we first got suited up she told them about her balance and grip problems, so they put an extra strap across her shoulders to ensure that if she did lose grip she wouldn't fall backwards. Then as we were walking up the hill, there was a guide with her the whole time to make sure she didn't fall or have problems.

 

Throughout the whole thing each crew member we would come across would ask to make sure she was doing alright. Once the final rapel was finished there was a crew member there to walk her back to the start/finish area. They helped her take off her gear and even went and got her bottle of water for her. The staff on this tour was amazing.

 

Once the ziplines were over with we headed back down the road on the bus a couple of miles to a stop where we viewed pictures that had been taken during the excursion. We had the option of purchasing them, which we went ahead and did. Our pictures were put on a CD and we got a total of 16 for $25.

[dancergrl608]

We make the same drive back to the city and that we took when we left. Once we arrived back at the port area we looked around at the shops for just a bit to purchase a shirt each then we headed to the tenders to go back to the ship at around 3:30.

 

 

Once back on board we went to the Lido deck for a burger and some fries because we were very hungry after our excursion. After that we just went back to our room to shower and enjoy our balcony until dinner. We didn't leave anyone in Belize and we actually started leaving befor we were scheduled to. Now tonight in the dining room, it was finally time for the waitstaff to perform. So when the time came our waiters got us up and told us to follow along as we danced to "Jai Ho".

 

After all the fun of dancing with the waiters, we headed down early to the Encore Theater because night was the show "Dancin In the Streets". Out of all the shows this one was my favorite. I am a dancer so any dancing shows I like but this show definately exceeded my expectations. I had read about how amazing it was and people had told me but nothing compares to the live show. There was never a moment that didn't interest me and I couldn't have stayed for the late show to watch it again but my boyfriend wanted to go check out the laser show which was "Pink Floyd/Rush" So I would recommend that even if you don't watch any other show on the whole entire cruise, go and watch "Dancin In the Streeets".

 

After all the shows we headed back to our room for the night because we were exhausted from our excursion. When we entered our room we had this towel animal waiting for us.

 

Up Next 11-17-10 "Roatan, Honduras"

[BabyJacks17]

I hope you come back to finish you review! I love the fact that you've done two different excursions that I've personally yet to read about in a review - appreciate all the details, hope you come back to finish! :)

[@joetolley]

Funny how we took the Western Dream trip right before yours, yet it seems so different through your eyes (lens). Going through withdrawal here....

[giannasage]

I would love to hear the rest of your review.

[kiraryker]

Yes, please come back! We will be doing the same cruise in January!

[deb63]

I was here doing searches on the dunebuggy tours - and your review came up.

 

Do you recall if the dunebuggys had seatbelts in the back seat?

 

This is on the top of our wish list for our time in Cozumel - but I was concerned about the kids being in the back. Your review does make it look like a wonderful time!

[ljt064]

Awesome info....leaving in 8 days!!! Thanks for the good info.

[RB2007]

Hello, we were on the cruise with you and can't wait to read the rest of your review. I'm really missing our cruise today.