I'm DREAMing of a Caribbean Christmas- Stacey's Holiday Cruise Review 12/10/1...

[sunbird21]

Day 5

 

 

 

 

The next morning was similar to the last. Up early, out on balcony. My mom woke up early as well, and asked if I wanted to do room service on the balcony for breakfast. I agreed, and attempted to use the onscreen menu to order, but the controller was a bit slow, so I gave up and went to the old fashioned phone method, LOL.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile my mom was pleased that the TV greeted us with both of our names on the screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I placed the order, and we received our food about 20 minutes later. I quickly realized that the baby table on the balcony wasn’t going to cut it, so with some improvising, I dragged the end table from my bed onto the balcony between the two regular chairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to take the tray out.

 

 

 

 

 

Note to others-these trays are heavy. The balcony door is narrow. The door is heavy and continuously tried to close on you. Also, there is a step that you have to stretch over to get out of the room.

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow, I managed, but the recipe was there was disaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end table worked out perfectly for the tray, and my mom used the baby table to set some of her stuff on.

 

 

 

In the meantime, here is the additional room service menu...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

Once we were done, she helped me do the acrobatic move-the-tray-inside and out in the hall thing (the cabin doors are heavy,too). Then we straightened up in the cabin and returned to the serenity deck. This time, it was a little more empty and we managed to get loungers on the starboard side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All was well for about an hour, until a cloud came over…and then opened up with a few sprinkles.

 

 

 

 

Since we were at the front of the ship, you could clearly see a large expanse of blue ahead of the dark cloud, so logic would suggest that the rain was temporary. However, logic seemed to fail 90% of the people on the deck(and I’m sure on the main decks below), and people gathered their supplies and ran inside as though a hurricane were imminent, my mother included. I tried to tell her that it would be gone in a minute, but she shook her head and scampered off with the crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I covered myself with my towel and waited the 3 minutes it took to stop raining.

 

 

 

 

 

On the bright side, as the sun returned, the deck was practically empty.

 

 

 

 

 

I text my mom on WhatsApp, one of the apps you can use on the social media package($5/day or $25 per cruise-gives you access to WhatsApp,Facebook,Twitter,Snapchat, and Instagram). I informed her of the sun’s presence, but she declined, preferring to stay on our balcony until Days came on. I remained on Serenity, relaxing in the sun. I debated trying out one of the waterslides, but 1400 kids + sea day= way long line. I was perfectly content on Serenity for the next couple of hours. Reading and chatting with friends online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before 12, I ventured down to the buffet and found the tiramisu cheesecake, so I grabbed a couple slices and head downstairs. We snacked on it while watching the show-it was quite good!

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we went to the lanai bbq again, and ended up watching some of the movie trivia inside for a bit. We wandered through the shops and picture gallery for a bit before going back up to Serenity, where we got our first drink of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

Just before 3pm, we went back into the Scarlet dining room for tea time, which I had forgotten about yesterday. It was a nice setup, and as quick as I recalled. They come around with the tea first, then different sandwich options-cucumber and salmon.

 

 

 

 

Then the pastry cart comes around-we got a few scones but they also had a coconut cake and some lime thing.

 

 

 

 

We went back outside, this time settling on the Verandah deck for a change in pace and watched some of the pool shenanigans for awhile.Then my mom decided to go back to our balcony for awhile(her patience level for kids was a little low), so I went up to Serenity and settled on a clamshell.

 

 

 

I did venture down to explore the RedFrog pub....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was relaxing for a while when I got a text from one of the roll call members, saying that they were going to play Cards Against Humanity in the library in a few minutes. I accepted and went downstairs to and found a couple of couples in the overflow library room(across the hall from the library). I had never played the game before, and it was pretty hysterical. A few others joined in along the way, and we played for a little over an hour, before I excused myself for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I met up with my mom, who had had her own adventure by getting locked out of the cabin by putting something outside the door and it slammed shut behind her. Luckily she found a steward to let her in. BTW, it was Day 3, and we hadn’t actually seen our steward since the first evening, which wasn’t a big deal, but I was used to at least passing by them in the hall and greeting them throughout the day. Aubrey was practically invisible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got ready and headed back to the dining room. This evening, we had a very quick server, and sped through dinner-so quickly that I don’t even recall what we had!

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we watched the female singer in the Atrium for a bit, before heading to the Burgundy Lounge for the adult comedy show.It was Derrick Easton again, and he was hysterical, although for me, some of the “adult” jokes got a little tasteless towards the end. All in all, it was entertaining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the cabin and watched TV for a bit before crashing for the night-it was going to be an early day tomorrow!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[starfish the second]

subscribing :)

[sunbird21]

Mickey99 Hi!!! Welcome back and thanks for crossing over to the other side LOL. I am definitely going over to read your review now!!

 

Oh brother...tendering in Belize...SMH...Were you there on Christmas Eve? I know you guys were at some of the places the same days, and I saw an NCL boat further out than us. Anyway, it was a nightmare....more detail to come. If you were there the same day, you have my sympathy, especially if you were that ship docked further out.

 

Jerseygirl3, LOL nice to meet a fellow anti-flyer. I usually need a decent dose of Xanax which gives me the same level of tolerance you describe. I actually discovered it in a similar way-I was flying with an ex and freaking out, and someone else offered it to him and he pretty much shoved it in my mouth, and ever since I have had a prescription. I'm sure that international first class would be WONDERFUL if my budget would allow! The closest I came was a semi-empty 747 to Sydney where I had a row of 3 to myself, which was heaven for that flight. I do agree the decent wine pours in 1st may have been enough, had it not been for that cart switch mishap...

 

Carnival usually grabs me with the price, especially for balconies, and the service level is usually very good, though this cruise took a dip in that department. I'd like to try Celebrity or Royal one day though, but would probably have a hard time giving that up!!

 

 

cruising*tigger Thanks!! I'm glad you enjoy my humor LOL. I tend to be pretty polite in person, so the snark allows me to vent on certain things. Plus, I try to keep the review lively:)

 

 

starfish the second Thank you!!! I hope you continue to enjoy, and I love the name!

[peachesncream4u]

Loving your review so far. I'm hoping your room steward gets better. I would also be upset if my soda was confiscated, but at least you still had the wine. I cannot wait to read the rest.

[sunbird21]

Loving your review so far. I'm hoping your room steward gets better. I would also be upset if my soda was confiscated, but at least you still had the wine. I cannot wait to read the rest.

 

Thank you!!! As for the steward...stay tuned. I kept hoping,too.

 

I also just realized as I was looking through my pics that we didn't get a towel animal or service that second sea day AT ALL. Forgot to add that!

 

Believe me, I was grateful that I had grabbed the wine out of the carryon at the last minute, or I'm sure those would've been taken, too.

[sunbird21]

Wow!! I got way more written than I thought I would today. I think I'll call it a night for now, and hope to get some of the ports posted by tomorrow. Luckily for whomever is reading, I had a 3 day weekend, so trying to get a lot done, as the workweek will likely not allow me to update as much.

 

Thank you again for everyone reading, and the comments and feedback!! It's very encouraging-while I like to write, it's even better to know that people are reading!

 

Happy Day after New Years

Stacey

[parttimr]

Enjoying the review

[jerseygirl3]

When you mentioned early in your review that your cabin steward offered either morning or evening service (not both), do you mean that they replace your towels and clean your room only once a day?

[angiem0217]

We will be on the dream in March for the first time. Enjoying your review and looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip

[Raxter54]

Enjoying the review so far. We sail on the Dream in 29 days (come on Jan 31!!!!) , so I may have some questions for you as the review goes along :D

[SenatorsFan]

Stacey, you're off to a great start, not too snarky at all! :D I'll be following along as my eldest son and his girlfriend were on your cruise, so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for a glimpse of them. It was her first cruise and his fifth and they both had a good time. :)

Heather

[2 cruzen]

I woke myself up, went outside on our huge balcony for a few minutes. Then there was a knock at the door, and it was our cabin steward, Aubrey, who introduced himself and asked if we wanted either morning or evening service. No option for both. I said that we wanted morning, but asked if we could still get the towel animals, jokingly( I do love me some towel animals). He agreed

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Wow...hate to sound entitled, but now you can only have your room serviced once? I like the room cleaned early, but I also enjoy the turn down service. Yikes! I don't get spoiled much, but once a year for a week, I like to be!

[sunbird21]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

DAY 6

 

 

 

We woke up early again after a somewhat restless night- the ship had been rocking a bit on/off the last couple of nights.

 

 

 

I attributed it to being in the aft at first, but the previous night had been rolling quite a bit and I read a few comments from other roll call peeps regarding the rocking, and they were in various sections of the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

One other factor that was sleep disturbing-it was ice cold in our room, despite setting the thermostat up. We didn’t call guest services as of yet-we may have tried to ask our steward if we ever saw him again- but we were hoping that it would either A) settle out now that we were further south or B) not feel as cold since we were further south.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At any rate, we woke up around around 6:45, and we were already docked, portside (yay!!) at Mahogany Bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I called for room service again, since it was simple enough the day before, but I also ran upstairs to collect a few quick items from the buffet as well. Room service will bring a hot pot of coffee, and a can of Coke(of course they charged for it@@), and basic pastries, like croissants, toast or whatever muffin they fell like doling out. I hadn’t cared for their selection the day before, and they don’t really give you a description of what they have, so I was fine checking out the buffet for more variety.

 

 

 

 

 

We ate quickly and got ready, as we (I) wanted to get off the ship and to our destination for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backtracking again…when I came across this cruise, as I mentioned upthread, I liked the idea of Honduras, as I had read a review that included Little French Key that was very convincing. I’m sure a lot of people have read/heard about Little French Key (Mitsugirly’s reviews are popular and she does a great job selling it!)-but for those few still in the dark, here’s the basic:

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a privately owned island with a mini zoo, a couple of bars/restaurant and absolutely some of the most gorgeous scenery/water ever. It’s a private excursion, not sponsored by and cruise line.

 

 

 

 

 

They have various packages ranging from just transportation to the island to mega packages including every excursion/food/alcohol coverage that you can think of.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

OK, back to review…

 

 

 

 

 

The directions and timing for the reservation were a little vague on the confirmation email-no deposit was required, but there was no set time, the email just said “When the ship gets into port, walk down to this spot and look for guys in yellow shirts saying Frenchy’s.” The directions to the spot were somewhat ok- we had to walk outside the main shopping area at port and walk down up a hill, but the lack of specific time was really throwing my mom off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, we decided to hust head off the ship as soon as we could and head to the meeting spot and hope for the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took the aft elevator to deck one and walked across-much quicker than walking forward and trying to access deck 0 from one of the busier parts of the ship. Sure enough, we saw a sign at the midship elevators directing us down, and at the bottom of the staircase was the soda/water stand before the disembarkation line( which was nonexistent). So with a swipe of our S&S cards, and a quick obligatory photo on the ramp, we began the LONG walk.

 

 

 

 

 

First, one winds their way down the sidewalk in front of the ship, avoiding various other photographers.

 

 

Then, you go through the terminal building, where of course they have a large store filled with the same crap, er, merchandise that is in the shops on board. If you can make it through here without having the other person with you stop and scan the cra-merchandise as though it were new, you have a slightly uphill walk on the other side (where you pass by the Mahogany Bay sign that everyone has a picture in front of) to the port shopping area.

 

 

 

 

 

After crossing through here, follow underneath the main archway where they have a large map of Honduras on the wall, and you end up in a parking lot with a lot of taxi operators.

 

 

 

It was here that I was slightly confused as to where to go- was the first hill considered uphill or was it elsewhere? There was a road beyond the parking lot, but I had no idea which way to go. I found some security guys walking around, so I ventured up to one and asked if he knew where the LFK operators were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He directed me to “follow those people, they are going there, too” to the left of the parking lot, so we did. We walked through the parking lot and up a lengthy staircase (with my mother glaring at me the entire time) that led to the road.

 

 

 

 

 

There, we took another left and followed the group down the road. I am bad a distances, but I would guess the walk is about ¼ mile…anyone can dispute this if they know otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

As we made our way down the road, another group of tour guides appeared and started hopping along side us, waving posters advertising various excursions and tours. We shook our heads and kept walking, eyes peeled for the Frenchy’s shirts.

 

 

 

 

One hyper little guy got right in my bubble and kept peppering me with questions, asking where we were going, who we were looking for.

 

 

 

 

 

I kept repeating “I have arrangements made, thank you very much.”

 

 

 

“Oh, but I’m just trying to help you ladies out. See , there’s no one else past this point, so I don’t know who you are looking for. I don’t want you to get lost,” he insisted.

 

 

 

 

 

I continued to firmly shake my head, while my mom started to get that “are you SURE you know where you are going?” look.

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to shake the guy finally by giving him the hand, and he backed off.

 

 

 

 

 

Not kidding you, within the next 10 steps, we saw our Frenchy’s guy. I threw my mother a look, saying “I told you so.”

 

 

 

 

 

The Frenchy’s guy, who turned out to be Dave, gathered us under a tree and told us the van would be there momentarily. Sure enough, a typical island shuttle van showed up, and we climbed in with the other group who had been ahead of us.

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully the shuttle had A/C, and we started talking with the family-a couple and their teenage son- as we headed out to the island. After about 10 minutes, our driver pulled the van over and told us, “They just called me to go back and get some more people…you guys are ok with that,right?” he was already swinging the van into a U-turn as he spoke.

 

 

 

Well, you’re not really giving us much of a choice there, bud, are you?

 

 

 

So we headed back to the parking lot where we started , collected six more people into some pretty tight quarters. The driver boasted that the van could actually hold two more, to which the guy from the family replied, “Are you going to go back to get two more if they call?”

 

 

 

Heehee. I smell a fellow snarker.

 

 

 

The driver just gave an uncomfortable laugh, but headed on the road, again. (Thankfully, he did not return to the parking lot again).

 

 

 

About 20 minutes after that, we reached Frenchy’s restaurant.

 

 

 

 

We walked down to the waterfront bar area, where they collected our payment and gave us wristbands/drink tickets. We had the $88pp package, which is the most common, I think-it includes a buffet, two drinks, admission to island, and island tour.

 

 

 

 

Two other shuttles had arrived, so almost as soon as we paid, we were loaded onto a small boat and headed directly across the water to Little French Key.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

We pulled up to the dock and it was like sensory overload, immediately. It was amazing!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The zoo area was right at the entrance, so we (and everyone) walked around to the various cages, looking at monkeys, birds, goats,etc. until one of the guides started yelling for everyone to gather by him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He then led us past the cages, where we saw a sleeping lion, and onto the beach. He was rattling off information so fast that it was hard to keep up, but he pointed out the bathrooms, changing rooms, massage area before leading us further down to a bar/restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He continued on to an area with a lot of foliage before leading across a small bridge to this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was definitely the busiest section of the island-they had the two story bar that you could jump off the plank, another floating bar in the middle, a gift shop, a swim up and sit on swings in the water bar, and another bar across from the gift shop. In front of that area and the gift shop were these wooden loungers that went in the water. There was also a small amount of dock space filled with loungers.

 

 

 

He pointed to a beachy area across the water with some inflatable water toys, telling us that that was Big French Key, and that we were not allowed over there.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

With that, the “tour” was complete, so we quickly talked about where to settle for the day. We vetoed that central area as you could immediately see it was going to be crowded, but I planned to check it out later.

 

 

 

 

 

We walked back past the middle beach area(near the first bar/restaurant) to a little section past the hammocks. It was pretty empty at that time, and the beach and water seemed very picturesque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We settled in, and I spotted some friends just a few feet away.

 

 

 

 

 

I knew that they had horseback riding here, but was surprised to only see 3 horses. The first guy was a little antsy, but the other two were very sweet and allowed me to pet them.

 

 

 

One even asked for a picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We relaxed on this area for awhile, and noticed the guides leading the horses down the beach directly in front of us into the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK-so this may be why the area was emptier.

 

 

 

 

 

Back on my second cruise, way before I had even heard of cruise critic, when I was one of those scared-into-buying-ship-excursions novices, my niece and I did the beach horseback tour in Jamaica. It was fun on the trail ride, and seemed to be nice as we glided into the water, until the horses decided to make the experience extra special by making sure they shared with us the contents of their breakfast. As the remnants of their digested food swirled around the water, we spent the remainder of the ride with our legs pretzled behind us onto their backs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These visions reappeared in my mind as I saw the guides lead two tweens on horseback gently into the water. I asked my mom if she wanted to relocate, but she declined, saying that we could just walk over to other areas to swim. I figured this would be ok-the areas weren’t THAT far apart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I watched the riders in the water-the guide led them past the rocky divider on the side over to the left , back to the right, and repeated about 10 times before coming back out of the water.

 

 

 

 

Seemed like an AWESOME deal for the low price of at least $50, right?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

After a while, the heat was ramping up, so I was about to go in search of some drinks when we saw a server at the next palapa over. There was a larger group there, about 6 or 7 people.

 

 

 

 

When she appeared to be done with them, I waved at her and asked where to get the buffet food/drinks. She came over and said that she could get them, and that we could use the tickets with her, but she was getting the other family first. Of course, that was reasonable-I just wanted to know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She returned a few minutes later and gave about half of the group drinks. Then she pulled out her pad and took some more orders and left. Then she came back with some plates of food. Then she took more orders from them and left. Then she came back with some drinks. When she pulled out her pad AGAIN to take orders, I signaled to her. She took their order and walked over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I asked which bar had the buffet food. She rolled her eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

“I told you, I will get you when I’m done with them,” she said.

 

 

 

 

 

“I know, but it seems like you are busy,(thinking to myself: or incapable of taking everyone’s order at once) so I can get our stuff myself,” I responded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She rolled her eyes again, and opened her pad, asking what we wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We asked what was in the buffet (asking again WHERE it was, so that we could see the food and choose it ourselves) and she said, “I’ll just bring you a plate with everything” and sauntered off.

 

 

 

 

Well, that was that for the food, I guess. I got up and went over to the middle bar to get us each a glass of pop, since we really didn’t want alcohol at that point in the sun. The bartender poured a glass of Coke from an open (as in, top off) 2-liter bottle sitting on the counter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sure enough, it was disgustingly flat, but I decided to choose my battles at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

We choked down the flat pop and continued to read and relax until the food came. We took it over to a palapa and investigated. There was a piece of lobster, yellow chicken, steak, some beans and rice, plantain chips, and a few other sides that I cannot recall. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the wonderful meal-I was probably trying to block it out of my mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mom is pretty much a meat and potatoes type person.I venture out more than that( Chinese and sushi are my biggest no-nos). I don’t like much seafood, but I do like lobster, so I was hopeful that that and the meat would work out. Unfortunately, the lobster and steak were cooked within an inch of their lives. The chicken was just disgusting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We more or less snacked on the plantain chips.

 

 

 

 

 

The bright side was that we were definitely ready for alcohol after the less than stellar meal and soft drinks.

 

 

 

 

 

My mom got a gin and tonic, and I tried the Monkey Lala, which has received many rave reviews. I figured if I didn’t like it, it was free, so no big.

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully, my experiences improved-it was AB-SO-LUTE-LY delicious!!!!

 

 

 

I gulped it down-mainly because it was cold and tasted like a milkshake…you really couldn’t taste much alcohol. I later learned that the drink has four shots in each drink.

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to get a 30 minute massage-it’s one of my splurges. My mom took her gin and tonic back to the lounger and settled in the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The massage was quite relaxing, although I had to go to the gift shop to pay afterwards. Once I did, the water looked way too inviting, so I set my phone and shoes down(within sight) and climbed down the ladder in front of the gift shop.

 

 

 

 

 

A woman sitting on the bench warned me to step slowly-the bottom two rungs were covered in seaweed. I thanked her and did so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

Once in the water, I swam around for a few minutes, then climbed onto the bench to try it out. I got out, and saw that there was an upper sundeck above the gift shop(next to the swim up bar) so I walked up here and took a few photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With that, I returned to our area, where my mom was starting to look pretty fried. She walked over to the middle beach area, got in the water while I dried off and then said she was ready to go.

 

 

 

 

 

While she went to change, I had to get just ONE more Monkey Lala for the road-or sea.

 

 

 

 

 

I walked to the bar near us, but was told that the only bar taking cards was the one in the busy area, so I ventured back. I ran into a few of the roll call peeps that I had played cards with the day before, so we chatted for a few while I got my drink. A guy next to them was really trying to get us all into a debate saying that the time was inaccurate and it was really an hour later. I knew I had confirmed with the guest services operator that morning that the island and ship were on the same time, and verified the time against my phone, so I wasn’t buying it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With my second drink procured, I met back up with my mom and we headed back to the dock.

 

 

 

 

 

I did grab this photo op first, though.

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily, there was a boat filling with people to head back just as we reached the dock, so we were on our way pretty quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

Once we returned to Frenchy’s, the drivers started separating us into groups based on ships. I had though there was only one port, but then again, I didn’t recall seeing any other ships this morning, so probably not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One group of people on the NCL Jade laughed and joked about “staying away from those Carnival people,” so we had a good discussion comparing cruises before we were shepherded into separate vans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

20 minutes later, we were back at the port village. Unlike before, the driver drove us all the way up to the first taxi bank, right behind all of the shops. That was nice!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

It was about 2pm at that time, so we had 2.5 hrs until we had to be back on the ship-plenty of time. Unlike my companions on my last cruise, my mom didn’t believe in playing chicken with the ship, so we planned to be back well before 4:30pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure how I ended up with this pic, but thought it was pretty funny looking:

 

 

 

 

 

We wandered in and out of the shops for awhile, making our way down.

 

 

 

 

We stopped at Fat Tuesdays, debating on getting a snack as were were pretty hungry.

 

 

 

 

 

However, as soon as we sat down, we ended up getting drinks to go, as we figured we might as well just get free food on the ship at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

I was delighted to see that they also had the Monkey Lala here- I had thought it was an LFK only drink!

 

 

 

 

Drinks in hand, we returned to the ship with minimal lines and make it back to our cabin quickly. It was there that we discovered that FINALLY Aubrey made an appearance and cleaned the room!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

We ran upstairs to the buffet-sadly, I don’t recall what we ate, I think we were just blind hungry at that point- and went back down to our balcony to watch for the pier runners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever since I’ve been in a balcony, this is one of my favorite activities. It seemed to be for a lot of people, as 4:30 drew closer, you could see heads popping out everywhere along the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Right about 4:20, you could see these guys walking over to untie the ropes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4:30 came with several small groups strolling slowly to the boat. 4:40 came with a few more. So did 4:50.

 

 

 

 

 

People were still straggling on at 5:10, and oddly enough, you could hear people screaming “Come ON!!!” from their balconies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally around 5:30 the guys undid the ropes and waved to us, yelling “Merry Christmas!”

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone else on their balconies was shouting down the same and clapping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We watched the sailaway, and were able to spot the “public” beach and the skyride as we left the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we sat there during the sailaway, once again trying to figure out our plans for Belize the NEXT DAY, my mom commented that she wanted nothing to do with a prepaid buffet again.

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, our location in Cozumel had one, but it also had a regular menu. However, the Starfish Island only seemed to have a buffet, so between that, and being fried, we decided to skip it. Instead, we planned to just do the trolley tour and explore the port area, and perhaps return to the ship early and enjoy it being mostly empty(hopefully).

 

 

 

 

 

 

As time wore on, and we made no effort to get ready for dinner, we decided to just go back to the buffet that night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was the first time I ate dinner there, and it was ok, but I prefer the dining room. It worked for this night though-until I later discovered that I missed bitter and blanc in the dining room! I had actually looked up the menus on the TV that afternoon, and they didn’t have it listed, so I figured it was a different night. I later found out the next day that the menus aren’t changed over on screen in a timely fashion, so don’t even bother going by it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mom’s phone randomly began to ring while we were upstairs. We were startled, as I had turned the cellular data and roaming off in the settings. We couldn’t figure it out-it wasn’t WhatsApp or Facebook. Oh well-she answered and took the risk of taking the call from her sister in law. I chatted with some people on Facebook for awhile as we sat on the somewhat empty aft pool deck.

 

 

 

 

 

After her call, we walked around the Lido deck at night, and saw Jurassic World was on the big screen, so we sat down and watched. I had planned to stay and watch the Martian, but I was exhausted, as was she, so we headed to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In our cabin, Aubrey was 2 for 2( maybe he needed a few days to warm up?) and we actually had turndown service…and this creature…which I still don’t know what it is, after multiple FB posts inquiring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The majority says either Jar Jar Binks or cobra(despite the appendages that cobras usually don’t have).

 

 

 

Any further guesses welcome!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunbird21]

Enjoying the review

 

 

 

Thank you!!!!

[IslandBound79]

Love this review!!! We are going on this cruise in March so I'm in total obsession mode right now! We are in a toss up for doing LFK $88 each in Roatan or just reserving clam shells in Mahogany Bay $21 each.... Did you hear any comments on the "public beach" in Mahogany Bay?