Western Caribbean (2004)

[Key: Memoir in Times New Roman, Travel Journal in Arial]

In spite of the fact that we’d had many exciting cruises, we opted for one to the Western Carribbean in Dec. ‘04 and portaged at the usual Mex. Ports - Cozumel, Honduras, Belize + Cancun.  After all how could we pass up bus transportation from our front door to New Orleans + the Norwegian Dream!

12-12-04 W. Caribbean Cruise

We enjoyed the Bon Voyage breakfast before our Good Time Tour bus picked us up here at 9 am + drove us for our uneventful ride to New Orleans where we boarded the Norwegian Dream to the Western Caribbean with ports we viewed were in Cozumel, Roatan Island (Hondurus), Belize + Cancun.

This is a week long trip, and we are grateful that we’ll sail today + tomorrow before beginning our shore excursions.

It was tiresome going through all the red tape, checking our carry on luggage and having to stand in long lines awaiting our boarding the ship.

After checking into our room on the 5th deck, we went through the usual life raft preserver routine, then toured the various decks.

We decided to check the food at The Four Seasons.  It was excellent.  We’ll have a hard time finding any restaurant that we’ll enjoy more.  I had a vegetable entrée which consisted of noodles, cashews, snap peas, tofu with a honey + balsamic vinegar dressing.  Bert enjoyed scallops + his bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

We retired early.

12-13-04

Our breakfast in the Four Seasons Restaurant was interesting.  We enjoyed sharing the table with a young Canadian couple.  After a 3 mile walk on the 7th deck, we explored the rest of the ship stopping at various gift shops + checking out the casino.  I lost $1.50!

Lunch was at the Sports Bar where we had pizza + salad.  We took in a handwriting analysis lecture + a slide show depicting upcoming shore excursions.

We met Lennie L + JoAnn N for dinner in the Four Seasons.  I had lobster tail + Bert had grouper – all elegantly served.

The Captain’s champagne party in the Stardusters lounge was packed.  After introductions of the crew, we stayed for the Jean Ann Ryan dancers.

We organized our materials for the trip tomorrow to Cozumel.

This was a busy day, but we’re looking forward to seeing land + the sights tomorrow.

12-14-04 Cozumel, Mexico

Our first shore excursion, the Ocean View Explorer, was a bit of a disappointment.

We arrived on time for the 11: 45 departure in the unique craft which houses 44 people, but only 8 adults and a child showed.  Supposedly we were delayed about an hour because of rough seas, but my feeling is we wanted more people on board.

Anyhow, we viewed many brilliantly colored fish and 27 different species of coral, in our submerged seats with glass panels and that was impressive.

We got back to the dock about 2:20 after a rough taxi ride zooming through the rough, narrow streets.

Cozumel is one of the best dive locations in the world, and we saw numerous divers swimming near our craft.

We walked several miles viewing massive jewelry shops and souvenirs.  I purchased a cotton hooded jacket which I think I’ll wear on the trip.

Dinner at the Four Seasons with our friends from the Trace was fun.

12-15-04 Roatan Island, Honduras

Our second shore excursion was quite a success!  It began at noon and we were met at the boat by a minivan where about eight passengers enjoyed a tour of the landscape + the local culture.

Our guide gave us a brief history of Roatan and the Bay Islands.  The Spanish + British pirates battled for control of the islands in the 13th + 14th C. ignoring the Paya Indians.

The island of Roatan is 40 mi. long + a mile wide.  We traveled through the countryside for nearly 2 hours and saw mangroves, large numbers of various trees and flowers.

We sampled different jellies and I bought some tasty guava butter.  There were many humming birds.

We boarded a small boat for a narrated trip through the historic 2 mi. long Dixon Cove Harbor with its keep, reefs + visible shipwrecks.  At Las Palmas Resort, we watched members, descendants of the Black Carib Indians perform, demonstrating their music + dance.

The people are very poor although the island is very beautiful.

Dinner at the Four Seasons with Jane + Joe was delightful.  We joined an interesting couple from Minn.

12-16-04 Belize, Aborted

We were awakened at 5:50 saying our breakfast was on its way as we were to go ashore at 7:30 for an excursion “A Tale of Two Cities.”  Due to rough water, we would have to be tendered to shore, and it was too dangerous.

At 8 o’clock our captain [announced] a change of plans to land at ____________.

Of note, Belize is a melting pot of Central America with a population of 280,000 people.  It’s a true democracy which operates under the Br. parliamentary system.  (We’ll have to come back here!)

This had been a beautiful, relaxing day.  We had lunch with Joe + Jane in the Terraces.  We checked out the shopping areas on shore.  Costa Maya has more modern stores but the same bargains junk.  I did find a beige color hat to shield me from the sun.  I had to haggle over the price + got it for what it’s worth - $10.00.

Dinner tonight in the Four Seasons with Jane + Joe + Jo + Keith S was fun.

The show, Chocolate Goddess of Love was a large black gal who did a great “blues”!

Costa Maya was also the Yucatan province of the Mayan Indians + is now known as the Maya Riviera – gorgeous aqua water, low density of population + it’s hoped that it will remain that way.  This was a good substitute for Belize!

12-17-04 Cancun, Mexico

Today was the best shore excursion on the tour going to the Tulum Mayan Ruins.

We had an early wake-up call and breakfast in the room before boarding the 200 passenger tender for the trip to the ruins.

It was an 80 mile ride in a modern air conditioned bus with an excellent guide narrating the history + explaining the culture enroute for an hour.  We had a 20 min. rest stop + we took advantage of this time to open our box lunches which we received on the ship before we embarked on the tender.

We spent about two hours viewing the walled city where the nobility lived in the homes.  There were about 300 people who lived there + about 2,000 of the rest of the population who lived outside the wall.

We had a breathtaking view of the Caribbean Sea from the towering El Castillo, 40 ft above the sea.

The meal this evening was a special farewell dinner which we enjoyed with the Hs and their friend from Panama City.

We took in the first half hr of a country + western show in the Stardust Lounge.

12-18-04 Cancun enroute to New Orleans

We slept in today with no schedules to meet until 10 a.m. when we got briefing on disembarkation.  We had our final enrichment lecture with Fredericka Nash on handwriting analysis, something both Bert and I were interested in pursuing.  Fun.  We had lunch at the Sports Bar on Deck 12.

After lunch we worked on packing, filling out the ship evaluations and customs info.  We checked the gift shop for last minute buying but couldn’t find anything.

We did some packing but will have to wait until after the 5-6 cocktail party for the Azalea Trace party.

We had fun at the party and Bert won a dopp kit which he tried swapping for a T-shirt or any of the other door prizes – no suckers.

Garnier M joined the Ss, Jane + Joe and us for dinner.  It was delicious as usual and now reality has set in.  We’re going home tomorrow and we had to do that last minute packing.

Off to bed – we’re homeward bound.