I Belize in MAGIC! MITSUGIRLY revisits the Western Route. My Novel.

[RW20]

I am loving the review. I am going on this cruise in February on the Magic. We even have the Rendezvous Caye booked! Great to hear you enjoyed it so much.

 

I think in Cozumel we will either do Mr Sanchos or Playa Mia. I saw your review when you were at Playa Mia and it looked good.

 

Can't wait for your next post!

[ABQrobin]

Geez, I meant the TG-5. Don't know why I said HG.

Yes, all cameras need a housing to go deeper than 50-60', even yours. The buttons and seal are not good down at a deeper pressure. You will get a leak, or buttons will freeze and not push in at all. Olympus makes housings for all of their good cameras, like the TG series. If you plan to dive deeper than 50' I would suggest you get one. They have them on most camera sales websites and Amazon, etc.

[Brad1972]

Geez, I meant the TG-5. Don't know why I said HG.

Yes, all cameras need a housing to go deeper than 50-60', even yours. The buttons and seal are not good down at a deeper pressure. You will get a leak, or buttons will freeze and not push in at all. Olympus makes housings for all of their good cameras, like the TG series. If you plan to dive deeper than 50' I would suggest you get one. They have them on most camera sales websites and Amazon, etc.

 

I just looked on Amazon at the housing for the Olympus TG cameras that allows it go to depths of 150 feet. OUCH!!! pricey housings arnt they? Almost $400 for a housing?? The camera itself cost that much. LOL.

[mitsugirly]

Hello Mitsugirly! Loving your review as always. I count on you and Jamman54 and other great cruise reviewers to keep me occupied and cruise dreaming, until I can cruise again. Not likely that I will ever snorkel, but still wish I had started that earlier on, and think that it might have cured my fear of "what lurks below the waves"!. I do love the ocean though, and love to see your photos and Sakari's. I have known from the beginning when you showed her drawings that she is gifted. So glad that she is going to tweak her talent/s . I applaud also her accomplishment with the diving:)

 

Thanks so much for posting another wonderful review.

 

Hiya and glad you found my review.

 

 

Eh, it's never too late to snorkel my friend. ;)

 

Thanks for the kind words about Sakari. I appreciate it.

 

 

I am loving the review. I am going on this cruise in February on the Magic. We even have the Rendezvous Caye booked! Great to hear you enjoyed it so much.

 

I think in Cozumel we will either do Mr Sanchos or Playa Mia. I saw your review when you were at Playa Mia and it looked good.

 

Can't wait for your next post!

 

I hope you have a wonderful experience, like we did, at Rendezvous Caye. I thought it was just amazing.

 

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

 

Geez, I meant the TG-5. Don't know why I said HG.

Yes, all cameras need a housing to go deeper than 50-60', even yours. The buttons and seal are not good down at a deeper pressure. You will get a leak, or buttons will freeze and not push in at all. Olympus makes housings for all of their good cameras, like the TG series. If you plan to dive deeper than 50' I would suggest you get one. They have them on most camera sales websites and Amazon, etc.

 

LOL, I seriously thought there was another type out there and I was about to start looking it up.

 

 

You know me...diving deeper will probably not happen for me...at least for a long time if at all. I'm perfectly happy with where I am at the moment. ;p Baby steps. hehe

[mitsugirly]

Oh gosh...so where did I leave off? I have had a busy day. It was super warm and sunny outside today so Sakari insisted that we put the Christmas lights up outside.

 

I believe we had ordered food.

 

I got the chicken wrap, hubby got a calzone, and Sakari chicken strips and we all had pop. Our bill was around $38. They charged $2.50 for a bottle of pop.

 

As you can see, the hubbys calzone/pizza was a little "over-done"

 

 

 

My chicken wrap was ok. It was supposed to have some type of ranch dressing but it tasted more like BBQ sauce. I did ask the waiter what type of sauce was on it and he replied "ranch". Maybe it was because it was "smoked" or something? I'm not real fond of bbq sauce, but I managed and like I said, it was ok.

 

 

 

Although it wasn't raining anymore, it was still a nasty day with not much to do there after eating. The water/ocean was just too icky to swim or snorkel and well, let's be honest, that's the reason I was there.

 

We had originally told our driver to pick us up at 4pm, however, we discovered that he had been there for awhile so we decided to go ahead and pack up and leave.

 

 

 

The hubby helped Billy walk...or should I say just about carried him and we piled in the van and pulled out around 3:45pm.

 

Remember how slow our driver was getting us there? When we had arrived, the dive staff made a comment about the time and I told him it took over an hour to get there and how slow our driver was. He had said he would mention it to him and I'm pretty sure he must have because this time around he wasn't dodging any pot holes, speed bumps were like a dare to him, and traffic...psshhh, they best get out of his way. We created a monster.

 

And....rain again on the way back. Every place we looked the ocean was nothing but a brown muddy murky looking mess.

 

 

 

 

We drove right past Flowers Bay, which is where we went diving at. I didn't even realize it until we passed it.

 

[mitsugirly]

The driver was still driving like a mad man and I guess this is called Karma because we did everything we could to keep Billy in his seat with only a couple face plants into the chair in front of him and only once did we have to pick him up off the floor.

 

 

We were going a different route this time around and went right into town in Coxenhole and past NCL's port. It was very busy and that did slow us down for awhile.

 

We made it back to Mahogany Bay.

 

 

Thank goodness they are always aloud to pull all the way back into the port when they drop you off. I don't know how we would have managed to get Billy up and over that hill.

 

 

With it being such a nasty day out, we knew we didn't want to even go over to the beach for a little while. Not to mention Billy was still using the hubby as his personal crutch, although doing a little better with his ability to actually move his legs under his own will power now.

 

Us girls decided to do a little shopping. I was on a mission to find my scuba diver refrigerator magnet that I always collect when we dive in a port. I was very sad that they did not have one here. Boo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

And even in a big cruise port like this...you STILL can't put toilet paper in the toilets!!

 

 

 

 

Kam insisted on pulling the rolling luggage around everywhere we went from the airport, hotel, ship, and in port. At one point, I'm pretty sure it weighed more than she did but she tackled it better than what her daddy could at this point. Notice the hand on hip and to the side pose...this is HER pose!

 

 

We decided to head on back to the ship. I couldn't find what I was looking for anyhow and I just wanted a nice hot shower and dry clothes at this point. We walked toward the ship, but needed to stop and let Billy rest for a moment. We would play it off as if we were just listening to the music.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that's the kind of snowman I want!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

After getting back on I ran for the hot shower....ahhh. Finally!

 

When we were all ready, we took Sakari to go eat with the other munchkins on the ship and we decided to eat in the MDR tonight. I'm trying to eat a little more there instead of the buffet all the time. I guess it just depends on my mood and if I want to dress up or not.

 

 

On the menu tonight....

 

 

We ordered our meals....and waited....and waited...and.....

 

 

...it took them 39 minutes just to bring our salads out AND they forgot the dressing. Yes, you read that right...39 minutes AFTER ordering it! This does not include the time we had been just sitting there waiting to order and get our drinks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

After flagging down our waiter...or someones waiter, I'm not sure, they brought back our dressing and we could finally get a little something in our bellies.

 

The bread would come a half hour later...but no butter. Seriously? Once again I flagged down one of the waiters and I know for sure it wasn't ours. I really didn't care at that point.

 

Now I must mention that we pick any time dining for several reasons. One is that we never know when we are going to be hungry. I don't want to be forced to be hungry at a certain time every time. The other reason is, I really don't care to sit with strangers and our dinner time is a "family" time to me and we like to talk between ourselves and so on. I'm not saying we wouldn't eat with someone if I met someone onboard then we'd love to go have dinner with them. But to just sit down at a table full of people...no thanks. I remember those days back in the 80's and 90's when it was like that and we had some bad experiences with the table mates.

 

So normally we have Sakari with us when eating at the MDR. We usually get a booth or a table for 4. Well, since we had decided to drop her off with the kids to eat, this left us vulnerable for one of those tables for two but 2" from the tables on each side of you with other people there. You might as well be sitting at their table. The people to our left were engaged in a deep friendly conversation with the table beside them and the people to the right were...um...not sociable and turned their noses up to everything from the food, desert, wine, our attempt at friendly chit chat and so on. We did butt in on the conversation to the left a few times and after their talking buddies left, they started talking to us. Very nice and friendly couple...but...they were at the end of their meal so they weren't there much longer. The specialty drink guy came around offering, for a price of course, their drink of the night. Well, since the couple was not very friendly, even after our attempts to smile and say hello, the hubby just couldn't resist a snide remark when they thought about buying the drink. His comment "You should get one. You know you want one. It might loosen you up a little and talk." Oops. Did he just imply that they were unsociable? Yes, yes he did. Did they get the hint? Who knows, they still didn't smile or talk the rest of the time they were there. I learned my lesson...always take Sakari with us to the MDR and we will not have to be seated at a table for two between a row of tables only a few inches apart.

 

So finally our main dish came out. I don't even know how long it took before it came but I do know that it was YUMMY TO THE TUMMY!! So I ordered the ribs. I really don't care for red meat, but I do like ribs.

 

 

Now I'm not sure what type of ribs these are, but it tasted exactly like eating a roast. There was nothing about it that tasted like ribs. I wasn't complaining though because it was GREAT! The mashed potatoes was good, and the green beans...I have no clue what they put in them or how they cooked them but they were AWESOME! Not like your normal green beans.

 

 

I was highly satisfied with this meal.

 

Time for desert now.

 

 

I just knew I had to have the cheesecake of course. I like plain cheesecake, so no strawberry topping for me.

 

 

 

I also ordered this buttered popcorn something or other. It sounded so good but after it arrived, it really didn't appeal to me. Hey, at least I can say I tried it.

 

 

 

[Beachiekeen]

Those are short ribs and very delicious!

 

I am so sorry to hear about your son-in-law. I hope he is ok, that is truly terrible!

[mitsugirly]

After finishing our VERY LONG dinner, we headed to the casino for 2 hours and donated some money.

 

We picked up Sakari from the kids club and she immediately needed her ice cream fix. She had made me a bracelet and we discovered that 2 of her kids club counselors were actually from Ohio. How cool. That meant that this entire cruise there would be counselors that could actually pronounce Sakari's name. Oh the excitement. Usually she is called "Zacari" as in Zach. She answers to it. She knows it's her. The only time it's an issue is if there is really a Zachary in her class and I think that has only happened once.

 

We headed to Pixels to check out our pictures from the day and had them deposit them into our folder for the future.

 

I knew that they were having the 80's deck party tonight. I couldn't wait. I LOVE the 80's music and so does Kendra. Sakari was complaining that she was tired and didn't want to go to the party. I begged, she refused. I begged some more and put more enthusiasm in my voice about how fun it was going to be, she refused. I begged one last time with a pouty crybaby face...she still refused. Then it was her turn to beg... "Please let me go back to the room and go to bed. I'm tired. I promise I will go straight to the room and not answer the door and just watch t.v. and draw until I fall asleep." Sigh. I never let her out of my sight but she has been going a little more this cruise: getting ice cream or food and coming back and so on. But all the way to the room? Like 2 flights down? On the elevator? "Whadda ya think daddy?"

 

We agreed. I handed her the room key card and watched her walk across the deck, to the elevator and get on the elevator. I stared at daddy and he stared at me and said "you wanna go after her or what?" I decided to let her be a big girl. She's growing up. She's a very good kid and I know that she would not do anything out of line and do exactly what she said she was going to do.

 

The party started. I started texting Kendra...where are you??? It's time to get our party on!! She said she was tired and had been sleeping. And Billy? She said he hadn't woke up yet. WHAT?!? My first response was "Is he even breathing???". I guess he was. She kept saying how we were going to be in port tomorrow at 7am and had to get up early. She wasn't sure that she wanted to come dancing because it was so late. Wait, who's the old person here? If I can do it you can do it! Well, I did it and she didn't! Loser!

 

So the music started playing and I started wiggling in my seat. Then when the staff came out and started throwing the huge styrofoam glow sticks that rotate lights back and forth and streamers went off and glow necklaces and glow bracelets....everyone ran to the deck and the party had officially started!

 

Then within about 5 minutes after they threw out the first batch of glow stuff...I felt someone tugging at me. Guess who?

 

 

 

She said she went to the room, turned the t.v on and boom...she seen me and daddy on the t.v. dancing and she seen them throw out the lights and streamers and she ran back because she didn't know it was "THAT" type of party. LOL

 

 

 

 

We danced the night away. It was a a lot of fun. It started at 10:30pm as the 80's party and then turned into a glow party at 11pm and ended at 12 midnight.

 

THEN we could all finally go back to the room and get ready to head to bed for a few hours.

 

But first a weird drawing from Sakari.

 

 

 

....and....goodnight!

[mitsugirly]

FINAL THOUGHTS ON BANANARAMA AND SCUBA

 

While the kids didn't have the experience that I had hoped for or they had hoped for, at least they did get to scuba and see the beautiful reef, fish and a porcupine puffer.

 

Our scuba...well I'm sure you can tell it was amazing! From the fish, to the coral, to me overcoming the fear of the wall.

 

Some of the things I liked:

*I liked that we had 2 instructors with us.

*I liked the place they took us to.

*I liked that Andrea was always pointing out things to see.

*We didn't have to carry our equipment at all.

*They had excellent communication from the very first time I emailed them all the way up until a week before us arriving and even allowed us to add Kam for free.

*The guy at the dive shop was very comforting in talking to me with our change of plans and dive sites.

*They would have allowed us to stay under longer if we wanted, so it was a pretty long dive for the money.

*They brought snacks for after the dive (even though the kids ate it all).

 

Some of the things that I didn't like:

*There was no flag at the top to say we were down there and with the hubby staying higher up than most of us most of the time, that could be dangerous.

*They went over the skills and instructions after getting to the dive spot and while on the boat causing Kendra to sit there too long and get sick.

*Billy was the non-diver and paid $30 (which $20 was for the round trip ride) and he didn't get anything extra like promised. No free drink or anything.

*I'm not sure what type of shady people they have at the bar/restaurant area, but I'm almost positive someone drugged him in a matter of minutes. The thought of this happening while we were gone and him having Kam just frightens me.

 

If we ever come back to dive Roatan again, I would probably use them again. They were very knowledgeable and professional and we enjoyed our experience. It's probably one of the best dives we've had to date. I still want to experience diving West Bay. Maybe next time we come using NCL (since it's closer) we'll try again. I honestly wouldn't mind diving the same spot again in the future.

 

Highly recommend this place and shop.

[mitsugirly]

Those are short ribs and very delicious!

 

I am so sorry to hear about your son-in-law. I hope he is ok, that is truly terrible!

 

They were very good! I guess I had never heard of them before. It still tasted like a roast though. lol

 

He's fine now and recovered by the next day. I have no idea what they gave him.

 

 

Loved this latest installment.

 

Thank you.

[MNcruisingcouple]

West Bay in Roatan is such wonderful snorkeling when the weather is good. It's my husband's most favorite spot. Glad your dive was great since it wasn't a good snorkeling day. Hopefully you can return and experience the beautiful beach. We've always went there from the Coxen Hole cruise port.

Love your reviews!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[mitsugirly]

COSTA MAYA: 7-2PM

 

We knew that during the entire cruise it had been calling for sunshine in Costa Maya and we were looking forward to a nice sunny port day finally. I just hated that Carnival only stays here until 2pm. I have never really understood why Carnival does this. I mean they are no different than NCL and have the same distance to "drive back" to the port so what gives??? It's such a waste. I love this port.

 

 

 

 

Arriving at 7am meant we would be getting up early if we wanted to make the most of the day here. However, we really didn't have anything planned. We (Kendra and I) looked for something interesting to do here and I attempted to find a new place to visit, but wasn't getting the response I was looking for. Someone had mentioned a fairly new place called Shipwreck'd and I was going to check them out. My only concern was the water (looked like most of the other beach clubs with murky brown water and lots of seaweed) and that I had read their snorkeling was a little ways out. I emailed them with no answer. I finally messaged them on the social media site. I finally received a generic answer, which really didn't answer my questions. After messaging them back and telling them who I was and about my reviews (and the possibility of bringing more cruisers there for business with a review because I haven't seen anyone here yet or a review) they messaged me back with...............another generic response. Well, I like someone that answers my questions with a personal response. Let me know that you read it! Let me know you want my business! Show your potential customers you care! I didn't get that.

 

So...back to Blue Kay we would go. Blue Kay was pretty much unknown to the cruisers when we first went there and although it is located on the Malecon, it is so different than the other little beach clubs around there. It feels more secluded, it's a huge beach, the snorkeling is actually pretty good and in fairly shallow water, the water isn't murky brown even though there is sea grass in the area here and there. The service was friendly and the food was good. We just really enjoyed our day there last time that I knew I wanted to return again.

 

I set the alarm for 6am and went outside to check things out. It was still dark. It's always weird when this happens and I feel like I should still be in bed!

 

 

I remember last time we were here with Carnival and it was 7am, we actually got off the ship and it was still dark out. It was very weird to do this and honestly I don't like it much.

 

 

 

We all headed to the buffet for breakfast and I got my usual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We were just a few days away from returning home and for some reason I decided to check the weather back home. I guess I wanted to remind myself that even though we had rain and "some" crappy weather on the cruise, it was still better than being home.

 

 

It started to lighten up a bit.

 

 

Once again, Kendra told us to meet her in the casino. When we arrived, I didn't see her. Is this going to be another mixed up day? Could she be waiting on deck 6 again? Nope, she was just being her normal slow self.

 

She told me that I needed to see the pool deck and we slipped off without everyone else noticing. There were towel animals on every chair and around the pool. I love when Carnival does this. I guess the chair hogs are out in full force this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Kendra has found a new love:

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, there was no announcement that the ship has cleared and we were able to get off.

 

Hmmm, something looks different ?????

 

 

There's a lot of brown...why do I not remember it looking like this in the past?

 

 

My notes say we got off the ship at 9am. Did we really wait that long to get off? I'm not really sure.

 

We were able to get our port pictures done-in the daylight, so I guess that's a good thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Coming down the port dock, it was still looking really weird to me. My husband actually said "are you sure we have been here before?" He just didn't remember any of it and then ask "Are we at a different port in Costa Maya?" There are no other ports in Costa Maya I assured him.

 

 

Yea, I'm thinking things have changed since we were here last. None of this is familiar to us.

 

 

None of this was here last time.

 

 

There's the people dressed up that Kendra likes to get her pictures taken with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

We waited our turn and decided all to get in the pictures together. They take your camera and take pictures for you with it and you just tip them.

 

 

 

 

I had no idea Sakari did this...

 

 

 

 

I really like what they have done with the place. It looks so different.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

You are going to get comparisons from here on out because the change in this port just blew me away! I could not believe the difference since we were here last in 2013.

 

This used to be the entrance. None of the props, bar and so on was here last time. The color scheme was different too. Before it was like stucco at the entrance and now it's like metal.

 

Before:

 

 

Now:

 

 

The "streets" looked a little fuller than it did before and more lush.

 

 

Last time we were here, everything was so colorful from bright yellows to reds to blue and pink. Now everything was more rustic looking.

 

Here is what the tower used to look like:

 

 

Now it looks like this:

 

 

What a big difference!

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Eeevvveryyy thing had changed. It didn't even look like the same port anymore. When did they do this renovation? Why did they do it? Did a hurricane destroy it or something? I would never get a straight answer from anyone. When I asked people there, the taxi driver and even the people at Blue Kay, they told me 2007. LOL...not. I wasn't even cruising in 2007 and the last time I was there was 2014 and it looked way different. I have pictures to prove it...trust me. Then at one point someone said they redid it around 2012. Nope, try again. I DID NOT look like this the last time I was here in 2014. How can the people that live there not know when the change occurred?

 

It was absolutely gorgeous. The only way to describe it is that it reminded me of something you would see at a place like Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. I felt like I was walking onto a movie scene and some dinosaurs were going to come out at any given moment.

 

 

 

Then there were these wooden swinging type bridges everywhere. What they heck was that? Where did it go? What was it for? It looked like we were in the jungle. Where are the raptors?

 

 

I noticed they kept the alligator head and used it a different way as a prop.

 

 

We always get a picture of the alligator head eating Sakari.

 

 

They have added a fish spa. Oh how I really want to do that. I have only seen one in Cozumel at Mr Sanchos before. But there just wasn't enough time today.

 

 

More buildings that looked like cages above. I wonder what is in there.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Circling around to the pool area. Even it had changed. They now had some type of waterfall in the pool.

 

 

 

 

The building used to be red. There was no water fall.

 

 

 

There was now a huge bridge going directly over top of the pool.

 

 

No bridge before.

 

 

There were old trucks sitting everywhere as props.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Before, there was a sidewalk from shop to shop. There was only a small area around the pool that had some packed sand and beach chairs.

 

Before:

 

 

 

Now sand was what you walked in around the stores.

 

 

 

This used to be the exit out of the port compound. But now it was closed off and has a truck there. I started wondering if they have locked us in and we were now trapped under their spell.

 

 

 

What is used to look like:

 

 

Then we came across this...flamingos? At the port?