Caribbean Cruisin': June 2019

For my niece's 16th birthday, my family decided that she should go on her first international trip.  What this trip was going to be went through a lot of discussion-- but eventually, my mom, my sister, my niece, and I headed off for a week-long cruise to the Caribbean, departing from Miami and going to Honduras, Belize, and Mexico on the Norwegian Breakaway.

June 23: Setting Off

My mom, sister, and niece were flying out of National, and that went fine.  I was not so lucky-- by the time I work up at 6 am, my flight out of Greensboro was so delayed that I wouldn't have made it to Miami before the boat was scheduled to leave. After a couple (somewhat panicked) phone calls, I wound up having to drive and hour and a half to Charlotte to catch a flight to Fort Lauderdale which go me there about 2 where I had to catch a taxi to the port because the Norwegian shuttle was gone. I got to the ship around 3. However, it turns out that when you're the last person boarding that process is quite quick.  Apparently, my family had to stand in line at security, wait in a lounge for about an hour before their boarding group slowly made its way on board, and fill out health forms which I never saw.  I, on the other hand, put my purse through the x-ray, picked up my key, and walked on board in a matter of minutes-- just in time to see the room

 and then go to the required safety and lifeboat presentation.

And then we set sail.

After a bit, we went up to the top deck which is where the pool is located as well as all the lounge chairs.

The upper deck is also where the Grille is located-- the large, self-serve eatery with a huge variety of food.  I hadn't eaten since breakfast and when everyone else had gone earlier to the Grille to get food, it was so crowded that they left.  So, we went and made a snack plate to enjoy

That's mostly cheese, fruit, and bread, though there is also some fried yucca.

while we sat on the deck (we couldn't go in the pool because our suitcases hadn't been delivered to the room yet, so we didn't have suits.  But, we actually only ventured into the pool once, on day 2.  It's really way too small to accommodate the number of people on the ship, so you basically have to fight for a space and then just stand or float there, not moving.).

We were going to watch the preview show of all the entertainment on board, but since that was around 8, we decided that we'd rather go get dinner at the Grille instead (which I forgot to take pictures of because I was so exhausted from being up forever and the stress of trying to get to the boat on time).  And then, because we had all been up for quite a long time (my family since 4:30 and me since 6) we went back to our rooms and went to sleep.

June 24: At Sea

The first full day of our trip was spent at sea, which we had a lovely view of from our balcony.

Morning coffee on balcony.

We explored the breakfast buffet after a while. One thing about cruise ships is that they are really fastidious about "asking" you to wash your hands everywhere you go, but especially when you enter places where food is served.  There is someone waiting at every entrance to spray your hands with hand sanitizer. And, in the morning on our boat were these three guys

who sang about how happy washing your hands makes you.  The one in the front right has hand sanitizer to spray.  The one on the left is using a smart phone to look up lyrics to popular songs like this one

and the one in the back is playing the guitar.  I never did get a video of the actual washy-washy song (or versions of it set to other songs, like "I Want to Wash [Hold] your Hand"), but this gives you a sense of how earnest they were about it.

We explored the ship a bit.  There are lots of activities on the ship to do, like a ropes course,

mini-golf,

and arcade

which, of course, were all really crowded because everyone on the ship needed something to do. We watched some of the "game shows" on the 6th floor lobby and hung out on deck (and tried the pool for a few minutes) and basically relaxed away the day.  At some point we got lunch (which was about the point I remembered to start taking pictures).

Egg salad sandwich, pineapple, fries, beet salad, cheese.

That evening, we decided to try one of the "complimentary" (in other words, no additional fees) restaurants on board.  It was a little confusing as there were 3 "higher end" restaurants (as well as an Irish "Pub" and a Noodle Bar) which were complimentary and when we read the descriptions, it sounded like the 3 higher end restaurants were different, serving different food. But, when I went to examine the menus, it turned out that they served all the same food.  Maybe on other voyages, they differentiate more. They all do look a bit different, but not enough to make them feel like one is a different experience from another.

The food was really good though.  There was a standard menu which always stayed the same as well as a menu of specials which changed every night. All the menus were 3 courses (appetizer, main, and dessert), though there was no rule about how much you could order, so if you wanted, you could order everything on offer (or, as we did at times, multiple appetizers and no entree-- because sometimes the appetizers were more interesting and it was hard to choose).  Mostly, though, we ordered multiple appetizers and shared them.

Spinach and Crab Dip Appetizer

Spring Rolls with Thai Dipping Sauce

My entree: Roast Beef, Sauteed Spinach, and Potatoes

And, we tended to order multiple desserts as well (until later, when we discovered that there was a daily cobbler in the Grille and started going there for dessert instead).

I'm forgetting exactly what this was-- I know it was a really rich cake. 

Chocolate Hazelnut Mouse

After dinner, we had reservations for the 9:30 showing of Burn the Floor, the ship's dance show which was filled with numbers of different styles. I couldn't take pictures of the show-- but this was the moment before the show when all of our key crew members, including the captain, were introduced.

It was a fairly international crew.  And, that ended our first full cruise day, at sea.

June 25: Roatan, Honduras

Roatan Port from Top Deck

We didn't have to get up too early to have breakfast on day 3 as our excursion wasn't leaving until late morning.

Muesli (in bowl), Eggs, Biscuit, Pineapple, Cantaloupe, Hash Browns, And coffee- which was quite good and always very hot.

Our excursion for the day was a dolphin swim and snorkel--fulfilling a long dream of mine to swim with dolphins.  Every port we went to had different people playing music while guides for different excursion tours tried to sort everyone to where they had to go.

We had to take a bus and then a boat to get to the site

View from the small boat that took us to the swim site.

and then were in relatively small groups to do meet our dolphins. Our dolphin was named Alita.

For the first part of the dolphin encounter, we were in a small group, lined up, and got to interact with Alita by petting her as she swam past us as instructed by her trainer.

This is Alita's trainer (actually, her secondary trainer)

who fed her fish (which are in the cooler) to get her to do tricks like swim on her back

or do jumps.

We got to take our own pictures of Alita doing tricks and swimming by, but there were professional photographers to take pictures of us with the dolphins. They did group pictures first

Our group picture with Alita.

 and then individual pictures of everyone getting dolphin kisses-- which is a nice touch because it pretty much guaranteed some pictures with genuine smiles since it's hard not to smile/laugh when a dolphin is kissing you.

Me and Alita.

My sister, Rebecca, and Alita.

My niece, Fynn, and Alita.

My mom, Barbara, and Alita.

After we met the dolphins, we donned snorkel gear and go to out into deeper waters to swim with the dolphins and fish and coral. (There are no pictures of this, unfortunately).

The dolphin swim and snorkel itself was in something of an inlet which let out into the ocean. We were told that they do let the dolphins out to swim in open waters-- and they come back.   The shore itself is lovely

View from the deck outside the bathroom.

After our swim and snorkel with the dolphins, we headed back to the boat and then the bus to return to port. We took a slightly different route on the bus and saw a bit of the more residential areas of Roatan, namely the west end, which had some cute homes and restaurants.

Because we were coming into port, it gave me a chance to try to photograph our ship from afar

but I'm not quite sure that gives a sense of its size-- the Norwegian Breakaway had 10,000 passengers (and then, more than 1,000 crew members).

Back in port, there isn't really anything to do, but we decided to stay on shore to have lunch at the Drinky Monkey.  The real "advantage" to eating in port is that there is free WiFi at restaurants. My mom had taken a WiFi package as one of our two free options for each room which gave each of room 250 minutes for the week-- that is about 30 minutes a day split between two people. (My mom and I actually had minutes left at the end, but I don't think Rebecca and Fynn did.)  The food itself was pretty awful and overpriced.

The restaurant is right next to the ship.

Margarita.

Virgin Pina Colada, served in a pineapple.

A Platter of Mixed Appetizers: Fries, Chicken Tenders, Chicken Wings, Quesadilla, Guacamole, Salsa, Sour Cream. It all pretty much tasted like it was microwaved. The food would have been much better on the boat. This, however, was really the only disappointing meal of our trip. 

After lunch, we went back to the ship-- we were leaving port fairly soon, and I could see the preparations from our balcony.

These are the ropes anchoring us to port-- at some point, the man standing off to the far left removes the ropes. He was earlier dropped off by a small motorboat which then comes back to get him once the ropes are released. 

Leaving port is sort of fun to watch-- you can see the ropes are gone. And, you can see the musicians who were there when we arrived bowing to the ship as we go (I'm assuming they were there in port playing for most of the day.).

Leaving port provided a nice sunset view from our balcony.

From our balcony, we could also see the captain directing us out of port.

And then, after showering and resting, later we went to dinner at the Grille.

Asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower, meatloaf, olives, cheese, bread. 

Dessert: chocolate cake and our first night of cobbler.  There was a different flavor of cobbler almost every night-- a different featured fruit

Carrot cake

And that was pretty much the end of day 3.

June 26: Harvest Baye, Belize

We had to start the next day fairly early so that we could get on our eco-cruise to see the Rain Forest/Jungle of Belize. We went to breakfast first. Much of breakfast was the same each day-- but there were variations like different kinds of Eggs Benedict offered.  Previously (I think on morning one), there had been an option with avocado and sriracha.

Today's was over hash browns.

Muesli, Eggs Benedict, Cantaloupe, Poached Fig, Coffee

After breakfast, we had to walk down a fairly long bridge to get to the port where our boat was waiting.

The port itself is mostly a  resort area. You can go to the right to get to the resort, or to the left to get to the boats that went on different excursions, which is where we went to get our boat.

There were probably about 15 of us on the excursion which was through the wetlands and marsh to the jungle to see howler monkeys. Our tour was led by a local of the village

who, along with the man piloting the boat, could spot tiny wildlife that I don't even think I would have noticed close up.  (There were several times they pointed out birds or bats that I never say. Others on the boat would ooh and aah like they were seeing something-- which maybe they were. Or maybe they were pretending.)

Mostly, the wildlife along the way was different kinds of birds which were sometimes easier to catch in video than in pictures since they either were flying about or hiding in the plants and trees.

The bird is basically center in this picture.

Bird-- left center.

We also got to try some of the indigenous fruit.

This is a fruit with a hard outer shell that you could sort of pierce with your fingernail to get to the fruit inside, which was ok though not particularly sweet. 

The boat itself was relatively small, and sometimes we went at a really fast clip.  It also mostly wasn't closed in

My niece, sister, and mom.

which meant when it started raining (which it did, quite heavily) we all got soaked.  Apparently, it hadn't rained in months in Belize.  The day we were there was the first of the rainy season when it actually rained-- which happened for most of the day. It did, however, stop when were in the jungle looking for howler monkeys.

The dark spot in the middle is a howler monkey.  I don't think I would know that, however, if I didn't know what I had been taking a picture of.

The best shot I got of them was in a video where you can see them moving.

They really aren't people friendly and don't want to be seen. There was also all sorts of flora, including a lot of medicinal plants (which the indigenous peoples know are medicinal-- I would never know) as well as birds of paradise.

The eco-cruise was about 3 hours long-- and not as exciting as I think we wanted it to be.

On the way back, we did stop at a local store and restrooms

The bathrooms are the blue building on the left.  The store, the green building on the right, had some basics like sodas and candy and a small sampling of local art. 

where there were also mango trees.  We did try the mango

though it wasn't entirely ripe yet, so was a bit stringy.

From the description, it sounded like we were going to be with more interactive wildlife... like monkeys that might actually come sit on our shoulders or something like that.  But, those would be different than howler monkeys.

When we got back to the port, Fynn really wanted to go to the beach while my mom and sister wanted to go back to the boat to change. So, I took my niece to the resort area which first had a pool

and then led onto the beach

where we did manage to get lounge chairs. The beach area has a roped off swimming area, but even that had a sign (which you can see a little right of center in the picture above) warning that there were jellyfish, so the water wasn't particularly inviting.

Fynn and I were probably at the beach for a little more than half-an-hour before my mom and sister returned. And then, we were all there for maybe another 15 minutes before the it began to pour. And the rain didn't let up. We tried to wait it out for a bit under umbrellas at the resort restaurant, but it really wasn't slowing down, so we left.  There were some small shops in port which we could dash in and out of in the rain. There was one small stand (not a store) which sold paintings done by a local artist (the son of the man running the stand) which was still open only because the proprietor was waiting on someone to come back and pick up a work of art that had been bought and left for later.  He did,  however, have a few prints of a painting of the area we were in, which is the souvenir my mom, sister, and I all tend to look for when we travel, so we were able to at least buy those before making a dash through the torrential downpour back down the dock (along with everyone else-- there was just no avoiding get soaked as we waited in line to be checked back into the ship).  For the most part, we didn't really get to experience much of Belize because it was rained-out.

For dinner that night, we went to one of the restaurants again, which was decorated differently than the one we had been to previously

but which had the same menus as the other two-- including the same specials for the day.

Caesar salad

Cornbread

Eggplant parmigiana

Cannoli

Chocolate cake and ice cream

We finished our evening off by seeing Rock of Ages-- I could only get a picture of the stage before the show began.

The show itself was really well done and fun to watch. And the actors are amazingly good.
And that was the end of day 4.

June 27: Costa Maya, Mexico

Our Costa Maya day excursion was intended to be much more relaxing-- a spa day.  It, like every other day, started with breakfast.

Today's addition was pancakes

And then we headed off the boat into Costa Maya.

Costa Maya is a fairly busy shopping port-- there are stores everywhere. But, there is also a spa with it's own "beach" (which is really just brought in sand) and a pool, which is where we started. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of the actual spa or that experience--photos weren't allowed.  It was an elements experience combined with Mayan rituals which included ritual baths, head massages, a steam lodge ritual that including stating what we hoped to get out of the experience, clay masks, and finally, a hammock massage (which is what it sounds like--lying in a hammock while receiving a massage). 

After our spa experience, we did hang out at the private beach and in the pool for a while.

The pool and beach were located next to a bigger pool which is where the dolphin experience for that location took place-- it seemed like a much more limited experience than the one we did in Honduras (it was also difficult to get a picture of because I wasn't supposed to be photographing it). 

Eventually we decided to go the actual port in Costa Maya, and find something to eat because the food offered at the spa resort seemed pretty similar to the awful food we'd had in Honduras. The shops themselves were a large mix, mostly souvenirs, clothes, and jewelry.

There was also a flamingo oasis in the middle.

 However, if you walked to the back end of the port area, there were small produce stands and food stalls that served authentic, really good food.

We elected to get tacos

which were really fresh and yummy.  We finished lunch off with churros and gelato from a local coffee shop. 

Making churros

There are also a few museums in Costa Maya-- I think that we were actually offered "excursions" to these museums as packages from the boat.  If you're ever on a cruise that stops in Costa Maya, don't bother paying the ship for the excursion-- what you're really paying extra for is a guide to show you to the museum which you don't need because the port isn't very big and you can't get lost.  I suppose it also gets you a guaranteed entrance time, but we were there on a pretty crowded day and didn't have trouble getting in.  

There are two museums: the tequila museum

and the chocolate museum.  My mom and I really wanted to do the chocolate museum, so we did that tour while my sister took my niece shopping. 

The museum is in the back of a chocolate store, Kakaw (I think if you pay for the excursion from the boat, you also get a free sample from the store). 

You are enticed into the tour by this guy

who walks around the store selling tickets and then gathers each group in a small room which has some information about the origins of chocolate.

The tour, which explains how chocolate was originally made by the Mayans, is based on the premise that you're traveling back in time with a mad scientist who needs to get the ancient ingredients and learn the process to make chocolate because it's been lost to the modern world.  It's a little goofy, but it is fun. 

Display of cacao beans-- we had to take one of these back to the future. My mom was assigned to hold onto it for the whole tour.

Crushing beans

Here, to the left is our mad scientist time traveler interacting with the store host who appears in the scene to discuss the religious beliefs associated with cacao.

Making hot chocolate

There is a tasting portion to the tour during which a monk demonstrates making hot chocolate and everyone gets a cup.

I got to also drink my mom's since she's allergic to chocolate. (She was, however, really hoping the mugs were souvenirs.  They were not.)

Finally, at the end, we go back to the mad scientist lab and he puts the bean and the knowledge we've collected into this machine

This guy from the tour was elected by the mad scientist  to run the machine in case it blew up

and then we all celebrate because the world has once again discovered chocolate and it's a better day.

After we had finished our chocolate tour and my niece and sister had finished shopping, we were going to head back to the ship when we passed piranha pedicures-- and I got rather excited because I had wanted to do this in China but hadn't had time.  So, the four of us stopped to have our feet made much smoother by tiny biting fish.

There was basically no one there when we sat down, but they put us in the outer tanks, so we sound up talking to everyone who walked by which actually enticed a lot of people into the booth to also experience having their feet chewed on by tiny fish. (We should have gotten a commission.)

Basically, you put your feet in a tank of water and little "piranha" fish start nibbling.

It's a very strange sensation as you can hear all of us discussing in the first video I took.

After we finished our piranha pedicures, it was close to the time that we had to be back on the ship, so we headed back with much smoother feet.  And, it actually did last-- my feet were really smooth for about two weeks. It was kind of amazing.

Dinner that night was Asian themed, so we ate at the buffet.

Every night, there were fruit and vegetable carvings done in the theme of the evening

Duck-- at the Peking Duck station

but this was the one night that there was also an ice sculpture.

Dinner was a bunch of different foods from all over Asia.

Peking Duck, Kung Pao chicken, Szechuan string beans, miso soup

though dessert wasn't particularly "ethnic"

It did magically transform "mixed greens" into cookies though.
And that was the end of day 5.

June 28: Cozumel, Mexico

On our last day of excursions, we had to be up pretty early for our full day at Rio Secreto.  Our last port was in Cozumel, which was a pretty busy port. You can see other cruise ships arriving in the port as well.

The port itself isn't particularly big-- this is pretty much all of it.

It has a few stores and a somewhat sketchy looking beach, but for the most part, you have to leave Cozumel by ferry boat to go to another location for excursions.  Many people from our cruise were going to a water park; we were headed to Rio Secreto, underground caves which required not only a ferry ride, but a pretty long bus ride which eventually went over unpaved, dirt roads, to get to. The travel time back and forth contributed a lot of time to what made this a seven or eight hour excursion.

Once we got to Rio Secreto, we put on wet suits (which were optional, but the water was quite cold) and other gear like headlamps and met our guides.

Our whole group, including our guide, before we entered the caves.

As we were changing, my mom, who is claustrophobic, decided that she needed to take something to help relax here for the whole experience, which she told everyone, announcing quite often that she had "taken a tranquilizer" (which was a bit of an overstatement).  She also announced many times to our guide that she's claustrophobic and was going to need help to get through the experience-- and thus began her very close relationship with Alex, our guide whose hand she held throughout almost the whole experience. 

For the most part, the photographer was trying to get pictures of just the people on the excursion-- but here, you can see the hand-holding. 

We weren't allowed to bring cameras into the caves; instead, each group had an assigned photographer who took pictures of us as we went through the caves. Those pictures don't really capture how amazing the scenery inside the caves is, but they do show the variety of the environment in the caves, so part of which were dry, others which were shallow water, and others which we had to swim through.

One of the rare parts where we actually had to swim.

The four of us-- also a nice shot of the stalagmites(which rise from the ground) and the stalactites (which come down from the top) 

More stalagmites and stalactites, bun on dry land.

We bought these pictures which came on a jump drive-- along with the photos taken that day were stock photos of the caves. Not all of them are from the specific cave we went through; there were several groups and each of us went through a different section of caves.  But, they are lovely-- and more focused on the scenery.

The drive also contained a lot of images of flowers and animals that we never saw, like these:

I have no idea where these were to be found or seen.

After touring the caves, we changed and got back on the buses to go back to a large pavilion for lunch.

Decoration outside the pavilion where we had lunch

My mom remembers none of this bus ride because she fell asleep (she also doesn't really believe she slept through the incredibly bumpy, uncomfortable bus ride, though did remark when we go to lunch how short the ride back seemed).

Lunch was a buffet of different authentic Mexican dishes.

Watermelon, tacos, tamales, black beans

It was all really good.

After lunch, we returned to the Riviera Maya port to wait for the ferry back to the Cozumel port to catch the ship.  We had a little bit of time there to go through the very large souvenir shop before getting back on the ferry, but mostly it's something of a holding area for all the people headed back to cruise ships. By the time we got back to Cozumel, it was actually later than the time we were supposed to be back on the cruise ship, so we didn't have time to explore the few port shops.

We were headed back to the rooms to rest after our early wake-up and long day (though, for some reason, my mother, still under the influence of her "tranquilizer," was insisting that she was not going to take a nap-- she fell asleep pretty immediately after getting back to the room) before showering and going to dinner.

The buffet dinner that night was Mexican themed.

I don't really know how the peacock relates to Mexico...

Steak, tamale, nachos

We also went to see the comedy magic show that evening, though there aren't any photos from that-- my sister did think it was perhaps the most hilarious thing she'd ever seen. It was almost funnier to watch her in hysterics than it was to watch the performer. 

The one real evening picture I have from that day is the sunset as we were leaving Cozumel (which was from before we went to dinner).

June 29: At Sea

The last day of the cruise was relatively uneventful as the whole day is spent, once again, at sea getting back to the Miami port. Mostly, we slept in a bit, went to breakfast,

Muesli  with dates, cantaloupe, hash browns, quiche

went to the pool (where we had to fight to get chairs-- and there was nothing in the shade), went to lunch,

Beet and couscous salad, succotash, and egg salad sandwich along with a couple of desserts, including one which is chocolate mousse inside a meringue shell

went to watch and play one of the game shows in the lounge,

They showed movies with the plot depicted through emojis and you had to guess the movie. We actually did ok, but didn't win.

and went to dinner, which we had in one of the restaurants.

Butternut squash soup

Spinach salad

Mushroom ravioli

We then went back up to the top deck for dessert hoping for one more shot at cobbler-- which they had! (I really never knew how much we all loved cobbler until this cruise.)

The coffee on the upper deck was also surprisingly better than the coffee in the restaurants-- it was always piping hot.

On our last night, my sister, niece, and I went to one of the clubs on board to watch dueling pianos for a while.

Basically, members of the audience give the musicians songs to play (there are three musicians who alternate at two pianos and, sometimes, a guitar or drums), and they play them.  They do have iPads so they can find the music and lyrics if they are stumped, though they do know most of the songs the audience gives them. 

And that was pretty much the end of our cruise experience, except for breakfast the next day.

June 30: Going home

 We pulled into port pretty early on the last morning.

There's a little bit of time to get breakfast (for which there are fewer options on the last day)

before having to get into line to get off of the ship, a process which takes a shockingly long time even though we were in one of the groups that had our luggage taken off for us (which had required us to leave our suitcases outside the rooms the evening before). We had to have stood in line for close to two hours just to disembark, collect our luggage, and get on a bus to the airport where, thankfully, all of our flights home, including mine, went smoothly, ending the 16th birthday cruise extravaganza successfully.