We just got back from our first (and certainly not the last) cruise! It was brilliant. We left from Miami and made stops in Roatan, Belize City, Costa Maya and Key West. UH-mazing ports. I spent 6 months doing volunteer work in Belize back in 2001 and could not have been happier to be returning for the first time, 10 years later, even if only for a day.
We sailed on a Sunday with Norwegian Cruise Lines. I don't have any pictures of inside the ship or our cabin, mostly because one member of our party was so over-excited he couldn't wait for my incredibly slow self to a) get the camera out and b) stop for photos as he hauled me around the ship looking at all the different rooms and "fun spots"... okay, we mostly just went straight to the BUFFET!!!
Damage Report Time.
Number of Pounds Gained (as a result of overindulging our horrible tendency towards gluttony):
Derrald: 9lbs
Hayley: 2lbs
Skin Burnt or Peeling (as a result of intense sun exposure and mismanaged application of sunscreen):
Derrald: 1 day of tender back and possible back peeling to come
Hayley: 2 days of tender entire body (excluding face) and possible peeling to come
Belly Aches (as a result of "sea sickness"... or more likely, hitting the buffet too hard!):
Derrald: two
Hayley: zero
Number of Awkward Latin Dances endured:
Three! (Derrald is now on his way to mastering the Merengue AND the Salsa... introducing the Cha Cha pushed him over the edge and lead to a nervous breakdown. Note to self: baby steps!!)
Picture Time!
Our first stop, Roatan was wonderful. Derrald did the research on this one and saved us a small fortune by putting us on the local bus (#2) and haggling with the driver to get us some very reasonable fares - $1.50 per person each way. Taxi's were charging $20 per person each way. The happiness in my husband's heart at finding this saving almost outshone the actual sunshine we had on the beach that day.
The beach.
Smug.
A shout out to Brendonius for getting us these hilarious matching caps. Go thrashers! (are they Trasher hats?)
Our next stop was Belize City.
Unbelizable Belize :)
Reflecting on my memories with views of the city from the bus.
You better belize it!
Butt's Up!?!
In Belize we decided to do a shore excursion and go cave tubing. I had never done this before and we thought it would be a good way of getting to see a little more of the countryside (the bus ride is an hour) and I have never been to these caves so this was a new side of Belize even for me! We would end up passing thru some fairly shallow areas of water and were warned that if we did not heed the tubing company's motto "Butt's Up!!" we would have some very sorry encounters with the likes of the "nut cracker" (and some other choice names that I no longer remember).
On to port number three. Costa Maya!
This was my port to research... so, no plans here folks.
We got a wonderful, colorful welcome. Turns out Costa Maya was more fun than we thought.
After consulting a nice lady (not seen above) for directions to the closest beach we set off on foot this time, although we could have hired golf carts, dune buggies or jeeps. I have no problem being the ONLY people walking from the cruise ship down a two mile stretch of road in 80+ degree heat and humidity ...
... to join the rest of the tourists (who took taxis) on their beach front lounge chairs drinking pina coladas. Okay, obviously there was plenty of beach for everyone and you can't even see the other tourists in these pictures, but trust me, they were there.
In fact, the walk back totally paid off when we saw an iguana. Both delicious and endangered.
We completely failed to catch it... so we returned to the cruise ship to find our dinner... oh sure, we
found it!
Our final port of call was Key West. We didn't get a lot of time here and this is the only photo I managed to snap before the camera died:
For Brendan.
Well, that about sums it up folks. Our cruise was a smashing success. There will be
another post to follow including more photos from our actual time on the ship - most of them will include food/eating cos that is what we seemed to do most of the time we were on the ship! What's not to love about that though?
