Good Bye Paradise!

Sunday, June 20 – Back to Miami

After the confusion with the clocks on Friday night, I never did get around to turning back the one I had by the bed. When I awoke on Sunday morning I “thought” it was around 6:30 a.m. which meant I could just lay there for another hour before I had to get up and face going home. I debated about looking out the window to see if we truly were in Miami but nixed that idea. The sound of the anchor being lowered several hours earlier was enough to confirm that fact. I was just drifting back to sleep when the phone rang with our wake-up call. That was when reality hit…it was really an hour later and it “was” time to get up!

Kent and Laurel joined us for breakfast in the Paris restaurant. As we sat there talking we all agreed we had a fantastic week. A cruise is a great vacation regardless but we decided it was even more fun when you share it with friends.

We made one last stop in the cabin to grab what luggage we had left. The flying fish was still laying in the porthole window in Kent and Laurel’s room just waiting on the new passengers to board and join him for another cruise!

The four of us went to the casino to wait our turn to debark. Finally a little after 9:30 our color was the last to be called and we got off the ship. Luckily our luggage was in the correct section and it didn’t take long to find it all. Once outside the terminal we assumed we would need two cabs to get to the airport (too much luggage for all four of us to fit in one together.) A cab driver approached us and said he had a van and could take us all. It was a “very” tight fit, but he eventually crammed all of the suitcases into the vehicle and off we went.

Kent and Laurel were on a different airline for their flight back to Nashville so we said our good-byes on the sidewalk outside the airport. Our flight didn’t leave until 1:30 which gave us plenty of time…in fact it was a long boring wait. I had debated about trying to bring some room service sandwiches off the ship to eat while waiting but was scared I would get in trouble going through customs. We opted for Pizza Hut inside the airport, but it just wasn’t the same as the Paradise pizza!! I chuckled when I overheard a couple sitting next to us in the airport…they had also just gotten off the Paradise and he was already missing the ice cream machine!!

Good-bye Miami.

Our flight was on-time and other than waiting an extremely long time to pick up our luggage when we arrived back in Minneapolis, all went well. After a quick call to the hotel, the shuttle from the Wyndham was there in no time to get us and return us to our car. Driving home from Minneapolis took just about the same time as it did to fly all of the way from Miami…a long day.

Doing two cruises on the smoke-free Paradise has probably spoiled us. I think we will cruise again in the future, but Bob and Kent are already talking about the possibility of doing a week somewhere that they could scuba dive. I’m sure we will be looking into all-inclusive resorts. Bob and I are also Disney fans and it’s been four years since we were at Disney World…I’m thinking maybe a trip to see “the Mouse” might be a possibility too! Who knows!

Sea Day #2

Saturday, June 19 – Day at Sea

Breakfast was open seating in the Elation dining room. Kent, Bob and I ordered the eggs benedict…something that wasn’t available at the buffet in the Paris restaurant. I don’t know that the food was that much better in the dining room, but it was nice to be served instead of getting the food yourself. I was also able to enjoy a cappuccino...another item not offered at the buffet.

  

On the last day, there is a big sale on Carnival t-shirts…two for $20. I knew from my experience on the last cruise that to get a good selection, you must shop in the morning. We each picked out a couple of shirts and then Laurel went to take one last look at the tanzanite rings in the gift shop. I found a big display of costume jewelry rings for sale…two for $39.99. Laurel never did end up getting a ring on the cruise, but I came away with two of the rings I found that day!

  

The debarkation talk was taking place in the Normandie Lounge which is located right by the gift shops. We stepped inside and listened for a bit but decided we could catch the talk on TV later in the day. Laurel’s main objective was to spend some time in the sun and we headed back to the cabin to change into our swim suits.

  

I am a fair-skinned redhead and had been very cautious all week about not over-doing it in the sun. I did not want my cruise ruined by a bad sunburn. Before the cruise I had spent several weeks visiting a tanning booth but still was only able to get a slight tan. Being it was the last day I decided to relax a bit and enjoy the sun with everyone else.

Finding four chairs together by the pool was hopeless, but we did find some one deck higher that overlooked the pool area. Being on this deck was actually more comfortable anyway…there was a bit of a breeze…and we could still see all of the activities taking place on the Lido deck. After an hour I started to worry that maybe sitting in the sun was sort of like suicide for me so I convinced Bob to join me on the outer part of the promenade deck. Once again we dragged lounge chairs out to sit in the shade of the lifeboats.

  

Around 1:00 hunger was starting to set in and Bob and I headed to the buffet. I’ve lost track what we ate when, but I “think” this was the day I tried one of the calzones from the Pizzeria. It takes about 10 minutes for them to make, but combined with the Caesar salad, it made a great lunch! Kent showed up while we were eating, but Laurel chose to stay and worship the sun gods!

That afternoon I knew it was time to start the dreaded job of packing. I switched on the TV and listened to the cruise director go through the debarkation talk as I worked. Bob left around 3:00 to go hear the Summer Trio perform and came back with one of their CD’s that he had purchased.

Dinner that night was enjoyable, but a little sad at the same time knowing it would be our last meal in the dining room. We made an effort to get to the Normandie Lounge early to snag good seats for the evening show. Steve Athearn, a juggler, opened the show and this guy was truly amazing!! At one point he “solved” a Rubik’s cube in a minute while balancing a ball on a long pole sitting on his forehead (meaning he couldn’t watch the cube while he was working on it!) Another astonishing feat was when he juggled a bowling ball, a softball and a doll sitting in a baby carrier!! Following the juggling, comic Jim Brick came onstage. Before he was done, Bob and Kent were both in tears from laughing so hard! What a funny guy!!

Steve, the juggler, was standing around after the show and we started talking with him. He said he and Jim Brick had flown to Grand Cayman to meet up with another Carnival ship (the Conquest I’m sure) and then transferred to the Paradise when we were docked together in Cozumel. Laurel was particularly interested in some of his routines. Her daughter is a world champion baton twirler and has mastered twirling four and five batons at once…very similar to juggling in many ways.

Both of us still had packing to finish up before bed because the bags had to be placed in the hallway by midnight. I had forgotten about the talent show or I would have made more of an effort to get the packing finished in the afternoon. After we were done and had the bags outside the cabin, we went for one last walk through the ship. We walked by the Normandie Lounge as the last performer was finishing up in the talent show and I was sorry we had missed it.

Last minute packing.

The four of us filled our big mugs on the Lido deck and went out to the seating area at the rear of the ship. Off in the distance you could see lightening in the clouds which was awesome to see in the dark night. Overall the weather had been perfect the whole week. There was one morning where we had a brief rain, but it was over quickly and had I not been up early I wouldn’t have even realized it happened.

As we walked back through the Paris restaurant, they were just preparing for the midnight buffet. None of us were really hungry, but the buffet was all crepes and I just couldn’t resist trying one or two. One side of the buffet had savory fillings, but I opted for the fresh fruit and whipped cream on the other side. Yummmm!!! The couple standing in line ahead of us were wearing their Carnival bathrobes. I’m not sure if they forgot to leave out clothes when they put their luggage in the hallway or just thought that was an appropriate way to dress for the last night of the cruise!

Cozumel

Friday, June 18th – Cozumel

  

The Paradise wasn’t scheduled to dock in Cozumel until 1:00 so we could sleep late!! Bob and I went for breakfast in the buffet and Kent showed up a little later and joined us. The guys decided to spend the morning working out in the weight room. Laurel and I looked through the shops and then went to a talk on diamonds and gemstones in the Normandie Lounge. Laurel was interested in getting a tanzanite ring and just wanted to find out more information before she shopped in Cozumel.

Lunch for us was a buffet set up in the Elation Dining Room. Since we were scheduled to dock around 1:00 I guess it works out better to do a buffet rather than have menu orders. The food on the buffet was nothing special…I think we would have done just as well to go to the buffet on the Lido Deck instead. There was open seating and once again we found ourselves at a table with others we didn’t know. I like the idea of having assigned seating most of the time, but it was fun to meet and talk to others in situations like this. While we were eating we realized the ship wasn’t moving anymore. It was only around noon so we just assumed that we had stopped for some reason before heading to the dock in Cozumel. We were in the middle of the dining room and not by a window so didn’t realize until we heard the announcement from the cruise director that WE WERE DOCKED!! None of us could believe it so we all had to jump up and run to the window just to make sure!! Also at the dock was the Carnival Conquest which towered over the Paradise!

While Bob and Kent were gathering their scuba gear, I ran up to the Sports Deck to get a picture of the two ships side by side…it sort of gives you the feeling of being in a city with tall skyscrapers around you!

The Paradise was docked at the Puerta Maya pier and wow…has it changed since we were there in 2002. The duty free shops were still about the same right on the dock, but just past the dock was a large shopping area with lots of brand new stores!! The stores were built around beautiful open air courtyards with cobblestone walkways. We meandered through this shopping area till we found an exit to where there were taxis waiting.

Shopping area at Puerta Maya pier.

The four of us climbed in a cab and headed to Chankanaab Park. Cab fare was $10 for the trip for all of us…not individually. The entry fee at Chankanaab had just been raised shortly before our cruise and is now $12 per person. The guys wanted to do a shore dive at the park so we headed directly to the beach and set up camp in front of the dive shops (there were three.) As the guys were getting their dives arranged, Laurel rented some snorkel gear and we went into the water. Although there is a sandy area with lots of chairs and palapas at Chankanaab, the entry into the water is by rocky steps with a very rustic wooden handrail.

  

Laurel was trying to get her mask adjusted so I put my head in the water and floated off enjoying watching the fish underwater. After a few minutes I went back to see how she was doing, but she was no where around. I just assumed she had gotten frustrated trying to get used to the snorkel equipment and had gone back to the beach chairs. I got out of the water to check on her but didn’t see her on the beach. I did see Kent and Bob all suited up getting ready to start their dive. I grabbed my water camera and followed them into the water taking pictures of them diving below as I snorkeled on the surface above.

I had heard some people on the beach talking about a statue of Christ that was submerged in the water. I started snorkeling in the direction they indicated but never did find the statue. The water at Chankanaab is strange in that there are fresh water streams flowing into the salt water. The fresh water is much colder and it was very obvious when you swam through it. Besides being cold, the water was “blurry”…not cloudy or dirty, just blurry. It made me feel like I had Vaseline smeared on my mask when I would hit a patch of the fresh water!

After 15 or 20 minutes I started to get worried about Laurel. I still hadn’t seen her and I was beginning to wonder what was going on. I got out of the water and started walking up the beach. As I was walking I saw a group of people quite a ways out from the shore and there was Laurel right in the middle waving frantically at me! I stood and watched for awhile as the group would swim together stopping off and on to talk.

I assumed she must be OK so I retreated to my beach chair. The chairs at Chankanaab are hard plastic “recliners” that sit right on the sand…they are a curved shape and have no legs. Getting into and out of the chairs is not something that can be done gracefully…at least not by me! Once in the chair I just sat enjoying the view…trying to imbed the scene into my memory so that I could recall it in January when it is below zero and Minnesota is knee deep in snow!

I dozed a bit and when I woke up Laurel still wasn’t back! I rolled out of the chair and started walking down the beach toward the restaurant. On the way I met Laurel running towards me! She was so excited she could hardly talk! Somehow she had gotten right in the middle of a guided snorkeling group and they invited her to join them. As fast as she could talk, she was telling me about all of the fish that she had seen! She had also found the statue that I had looked for! She had actually been snorkeling for over an hour and was ready for her beach break!

  

While we were by the restaurant I checked out the list of drinks. I had considered getting one of the drinks served in a fresh pineapple, but settled for a piña colada instead which tasted wonderful! Back at the chairs, I sipped my drink while Laurel gave me the full report on her snorkeling adventure. Hearing Laurel talk about what a great time she had snorkeling was sort of funny. When I was making plans for our day at Cozumel, I had considered booking a tour with Eagle Ray Divers. The guys would have been able to do a boat dive while Laurel and I snorkeled. When I asked Laurel about this, she insisted that she didn’t want to do any snorkeling…so going to Chankanaab became “Plan B”. Laurel and I could have beach time while the guys did a shore dive. Now Laurel was the one enjoying the snorkeling the most!!

Unfortunately the guys weren’t thrilled with the shore dive at Chankanaab. Compared to Roatan, there just wasn’t much to see. A boat dive would have been much better for them, but maybe next time… Laurel was still anxious to show us what all she had discovered on her snorkeling tour so Kent and I joined her in the water. Being a Midwesterner, it still amazes me how buoyant I am in salt water. We were snorkeling in 20’ waters and never once did I feel the need to wear a life jacket!

The three of us made it out to see the statue of Christ and on the way came across the guide that had been showing Laurel around before. He was carrying bait and had a huge bunch of fish swarming him.  

I wished we could have spent a whole day at Chankanaab…there was so much more that we never had a chance to see or do. The park has a botanical garden and Mayan ruins (reproductions); a place to swim with the dolphins or sea lions, etc. We pretty much just stuck to one area of the beach and didn’t venture out to other areas of the park. The Conquest passengers had long since left the beach since they were sailing much earlier so by the time we left around 5 p.m. we had most of the park to ourselves.

On the way out of the park we saw an iguana running across the path…the guys were pretty excited since they hadn’t seen the iguana farm like Laurel and I had in Roatan. There were plenty of cabs waiting when we reached the exit and it was about a 5 to 10 minute ride back to the dock. I would have liked to walk leisurely through some of the shops on the way back to the ship, but once again Bob was carrying a load of wet scuba gear so he didn’t want to lollygag around.

We were back on the ship early enough that we could have made it to our 6:15 dinner seating, but instead we chose to eat at the Paris buffet instead. We knew it would be quicker that way and we wanted to save time for shopping on the dock. Later I saw the menu for the dining room and it looked like some great choices that we missed that night!! Kent, Laurel and Bob all decided they would make an ice cream cone “to go” and eat it as we walked around the shops. Oops…bad idea! They were not allowed to get off the ship with the cones so we waited while they quickly stuffed the last few bites into their mouths!

Laurel was in search of a tanzanite ring so when we got to the shops, we (Bob and I) just went our separate way. There wasn’t anything in particular that I wanted to buy and we just strolled in and out of the shops. All of a sudden right at sunset, mosquitoes came out in full force! The people in the shopping area could hardly walk as they tried to slap and swing at the mosquitoes! Since Bob and I weren’t really looking for anything special we decided to head back to the ship. Kent and Laurel said they bought the last of the insect repellent that was for sale in a drug store and by using it were able to stick around and do some more shopping.

Bob and I left a sticky-note on Kent and Laurel’s door telling them that we would be on the Lido deck. We had brought along large insulated mugs that we filled with ice tea and sat at a table outside the Paris restaurant watching the lights on the shore at Cozumel. Luckily we weren’t bothered by the mosquitoes there!! Some of the folks from Cruise Critic who had been on our tour in Belize wandered by and stopped to talk for a bit. It was fun cruising with people that I had “met” online…although we didn’t do anything together we seemed to run into each other fairly often on the ship.

Kent and Laurel met up with us a little after 10 p.m…she never did find a ring, but they had bought a few other souvenirs while shopping. The Paradise was scheduled to sail at 11 p.m. so we went around to the other side of the ship and watched as the last minute stragglers made their way back to the ship. Many were so drunk they had to have help just to walk down the dock! We watched as one guy did a “tight-rope walk” along the edge of the pier…we just knew he was going into the water, but he made it! I assume everyone made it back…we didn’t hear of anyone getting left.

As the last few passengers were getting onboard, we saw the Mexican folk band getting off. They get on the ship in Cozumel just long enough to do the evening show in the Normandie Lounge. 

We were amazed at how clear the water was next to the dock. Even at night from 10 decks up, we could spot large fish swimming by. Slowly the Paradise pulled away from the dock and headed out. Our first cruise two years ago had been during a full moon and I loved seeing the moonlight reflect on the ocean at night. This time there was no moon and the night was very dark.

The Mexican buffet was just getting started when we went back inside the ship. We sampled a few of the offerings and then headed down to our cabin to call it a night. Since tomorrow would be our last day, we made plans with Kent and Laurel to go to breakfast in the dining room rather than eat at the buffet. The nightly towel animal was waiting for us in the cabin when we returned along with chocolates on the turned-down beds. 

Bob and I were just drifting off to sleep when the phone rang in the cabin. It was Kent calling to remind us that we had to turn our clocks ahead one hour. Ugh! Losing an hour of sleep was not something I wanted to do and we debated about changing the plans for breakfast and just sleeping in. I decided we could sleep at home so we re-set our clock and decided to stick with the dining room breakfast idea.

Grand Cayman

Thursday, June 17th – Grand Cayman

Once again we did the tender routine instead of docking. Bob was nice enough to go to the Normandie Lounge to gather tender tickets for the four of us and ended up waiting in line for 45 minutes. The “tickets” are just self-stick labels with a number printed on them…nothing else. No one ever asked to look at our tickets so I’m sure we could have just skipped this step, but I am a conformist…I always play by the rules!!

The tender ride in Grand Cayman is MUCH shorter than in Belize and only takes a few minutes. Once on shore, we split up with Kent and Laurel…they were headed for a tour with Nativeway to see the stingrays. Bob and I were going to Abanks Dive Center a 5-10 minute walk from the tender docks. We had done the stingray tour on our last cruise so decided that we would both dive in Grand Cayman. I am not certified but had booked a “discover scuba” dive with Abanks. The dive was scheduled for noon and it was only 10 a.m. We started walking towards the dive center in hopes that we could dive sooner. Bob had all of his scuba gear (plus my snorkel stuff) in a large bag that could either be rolled or worn as a backpack. Rolling it wasn’t working too well with the crowds and bumpy sidewalks so he resorted to carrying it…definitely a heavy load.

  

Other ships included a Royal Caribbean... 

...the much larger Carnival Conquest...

...and us, the Carnival Paradise.

By the time we reached Abanks, I was getting pretty hot. We checked in and were told they had no record of us scheduling a dive or paying the 20% down payment (which I had done online.) Like an idiot, I had left the email confirmation back on the ship so I had no proof that we had paid. John, whom we were dealing with, said we could either pay the full $75 and lose the $15 deposit I had already made or go back to the ship to get the confirmation. Now I was really hot…and not just from the heat! There was no way we were going to lug all of that gear back to the dock and take a tender back to the ship just to get the confirmation. But on the other hand…I didn’t want to have to pay the full amount when I had already made a deposit. I had booked the dive through a group called Island Marketing so Bob suggested that John give them a call (duh…why didn’t I think of that?!) The phone call cleared up the mistake so all worked out, but it put a damper on the day having to deal with the mess.

This photo was taken from the tender dock on a cruise we did in 2010. You can see the dive center on the far right of the photo. It was just a few minutes walk from where we got off the tender.

After being so upset with John, now I had to switch gears because he was going to be the one who dove with me! I explained to him that I had gone through the classroom portion and confined water dives with PADI…I just didn’t follow through with the open water dives that it takes to get certified. Instead of spending lots of time on the scuba instruction, John just did a quicky “refresher” course on the basics. As we were doing that, Bob was getting suited up in his gear. I actually got through my “training” before Bob was even ready…that’s how quick it went.

I had bought two underwater disposable cameras for our cruise…a Kodak that was supposedly good down to 50 feet and a Fuji which was rated to 35 feet. We had used the Fuji when we were cave tubing in Belize but I wanted to make sure to take the Kodak on the dive (since I wasn’t sure just how deep we would go.) As Bob was getting ready to get into the water I noticed he had both cameras. I told him to only bring the Kodak and to go put the other one back into the locker we were using.

Our dive was to Eden Rock, a well known dive site located just offshore from Abanks dive center. Getting into the water was a bit of a trick…it was very rocky and the waves splashing up onto the shore were hard to deal with. While Bob was taking care of the camera issue (or so I thought) John had me doing a few drills…flooding and clearing my mask, dropping my regulator, etc. I appreciated the fact that he didn’t rush me and let me take time to get used to breathing through the regulator. If he had pushed me to go faster I would have probably panicked and not gone through with the dive.

Immediately as we went under the water, we began seeing fish…BIG fish! I have no idea what kind they were; I was just impressed with their size (two to three foot long!) I was busy taking in all of the sites when I realized that Bob and John were both grabbing at something in the water. I then realized that John had brought a container of bait along and somehow it had spilled. The three of us were snatching the little pieces trying to capture them and put them back in the modified bleach bottle that he was using as a bait carrier. A large brown fish showed up trying to get a snack and ended up following us on the entire dive! It sort of reminded me of a little puppy…he stayed right with us and several times we would have to push him aside as we were swimming!

As we dove, I started to become aware of salt water in my mouth. I’m not positive, but I think my regulator must have been letting in small droplets of water. Not having much experience as a diver, I can’t be for sure, but I don’t think that was supposed to happen. I was very much aware of my throat starting to burn, but I was determined I wasn’t going to give up and ruin the dive for Bob. I tried to take my mind off the discomfort by concentrating on the beautiful surroundings. There were huge mounds of coral and before I knew it, John was motioning for me to swim through a small passage. Being a novice I do not have a lot of control over my buoyancy and I was pretty nervous about going through the small opening…but I made it!!

At one point in the dive, John motioned for Bob and I to come down on the sea floor and lay on the sand. There was a small opening under some coral and he had his hand out holding a piece of bait. After a second or two a VERY LARGE (5 foot maybe??) fish darted out and took the bait from his hand. (Later John confirmed that this was a nurse shark!!) This happened several times! Right next to this spot was another opening and here John just opened the flap he had cut on the bottle and held the container out in front of him. A huge green moray eel came out and stuck his head in the opening and helped himself to some food! As this was happening, I motioned for Bob to get a picture. He shrugged and indicated he didn’t have the camera. UGGHHH!!!

Just when I thought I couldn’t stand the burning salt water in my throat for another minute, the dive was done. Back on shore I questioned Bob about the camera. He wasn’t sure what had happened to it and just assumed he had lost it in the water. John said if he had, then it was hopelessly gone by now. I was not very happy at that point. Upon opening the locker, Bob discovered that the Kodak camera was in the locker so it was the Fuji that was missing. Now I was really upset. Not only did he not get the pictures of our dive, but he had lost the camera with all of our cave tubing pictures!!!

It took Bob an incredibly long time to get his gear off and rinsed or maybe it seemed that way because I was in such a bad mood. In retrospect, this turned out to be a plus because while I was waiting John found the missing camera. Turns out Bob left it sitting on top of the locker when he was putting away the second camera and someone had turned it in!! At least I still had my Belize pictures!! The only picture we ended up getting in Grand Cayman was Bob next to a statue of a pirate named Big Black Dick advertising rum! Hopefully people will believe me when I tell the story of the shark and moray eel because I don’t have pictures to prove it!!

Eden Rock is not just for divers and if we ever go back to Grand Cayman again, I would be tempted to just spend part of the day snorkeling there. Since we have our own equipment it would be a fun, free activity. (We did end up doing that when we went back to Grand Cayman in 2010 on a family cruise. You can click HERE to read about what we did that day!) Abanks did have snorkel equipment to rent and several people were there snorkeling. There is no beach, but there are a few picnic tables near by. There is a restaurant on the property so I assume they would prefer that you purchase something to eat if you planned to sit at their tables.

*We did end up snorkeling here in 2010 when we did a family cruise.

Since we had been able to dive right away, we were packed up and ready to leave Abanks by noon (the time we had originally scheduled to dive.) Bob’s “scuba luggage” was now heavier than ever because it was all wet. Slowly we trudged down the sidewalks towards the tender dock. On the way I stopped at some pay phones to attempt to call home and check on the kids, but I never could figure out how to use my AT&T phone card to make a call so I gave up.

There was no line for the tender in the middle of the day and it really didn't take too long to get back to the ship. While Bob was unloading all of his gear to dry, I hopped in the shower. He spread towels out and then laid out all of his stuff on the ledge below the portholes. I'm not sure where the stuff would have gone (probably the shower I guess) if we hadn't had that ledge. 

We were both starved so headed to the buffet to grab something to eat and then took another tender back to shore. We wandered around going in and out of shops, but neither one of us were really enjoying ourselves. None of the jewelry or high-priced items were of interest and we didn't want any souvenirs. After an hour of this, we were hot and decided to head back to the ship. 

Three straight days of ports and the pace had caught up to us! Once in our room we crashed and slept for a couple of hours...it felt wonderful! Thursday was the second formal night and while I putzed around the cabin getting ready, Bob went up to the Paradise Bar in the atrium. He took along his dive log book to fill out while he listened to the Summer Trio play classical music.

At dinner time we caught up with Kent and Laurel. They loved their sting ray city tour and Laurel said she was getting the hang of snorkeling! She had given up using the cheap Wal-Mart set I loaned her and used some offered by Nativeway.

  

After dinner we took turns taking pictures of each other in our fancy clothes and went to the evening show…Shout. Although it would have been more fun to see new shows (we had seen Shout on our last Paradise cruise) it was still enjoyable. Following the show we roamed around the ship and ended up at Karaoke in the Leonardo Lounge. The place was packed and after standing for some time some chairs finally opened up. We sat listening to the performers until I realized it was almost time for the Gala Buffet!

The Gala Buffet is actually set up in both dining rooms. The Elation was open first just for picture taking and was a little more elaborate than the buffet in the Destiny dining room. We stood in line with many others to get a chance to snap a few photographs of the food displays. Can you imagine people actually line up at midnight to take pictures of food!! But where else can you find a “jazz band” made of roasted chickens playing vegetable instruments!!

Rather than wait until the Elation dining room was ready for “eating” we went directly to the Destiny to sample some of the yummy stuff they had. This also gave Kent and Laurel a chance to see what the other dining room looked like. None of us were really very hungry so we didn’t take much. There were waiters waiting to seat people as they arrived…we were seated in a booth with another couple we didn’t know. Although Bob and I were feeling pretty good due to our long afternoon naps, Kent and Laurel were beat so as soon as we were done eating we called it a night.

Roatan, Honduras

Wednesday, June 16th – Roatan

  

The ship docked at 7 a.m. which was actually 6 a.m. local time in Roatan. Kent, Bob and I went to breakfast, while Laurel opted to order room service. Bob and Kent were excited because they had a day of scuba diving planned at Bay Island Beach Resort (BIBR). (Note: Bay Island Beach Resort closed permanently in 2010.) Bob had done his own research when looking for a place to dive and after contacting several resorts on the island, he chose BIBR. I think one thing that swayed him to make this choice was the dive site called “Spooky Channel” that was located near the resort. Bob had been certified for several years, but Kent had just finished a scuba class and got his certification a couple of weeks before the cruise…the Roatan dive was his first!

 

Photo of Spooky Channel saved from old BIBR website.

After breakfast, the guys grabbed their gear and got off the ship. It was so much more convenient to get off here because we were docked and didn't need to tender to shore. Before going back to the cabin to see if Laurel was ready, I went to one of the upper decks and took some pictures of the coastline and the dock area. It was funny because when I had the pictures printed I could see Bob and Kent all alone on the end of the dock (if you look VERY closely) waiting on their ride! Bob said they were the very first two people off of the ship that day!

Back at the cabin, Laurel had finished her breakfast and was ready to go. She was upset with Kent because room service had delivered her food while she was in the shower and Kent had stuck it on the table in the corner and not told her it had arrived. He left before she got out and she didn’t see the tray. She had gotten impatient thinking the food was very late and had called to check on it. About that time she spotted the food!

I had arranged to have Victor Bodden, a local cab driver, meet Laurel and me at the dock. When you first leave the ship, you must walk through an area filled with buses waiting on tours. Once you leave this area, there was a very long line of white taxis just waiting for passengers. Some of the cab drivers were yelling to us wanting our business but as soon as we said we were looking for Victor they pointed us in the right direction. Victor was in the process of lining up another cab for a group of people and once he had that taken care of, he turned his attention to us. His cab was parked quite a ways down the line so he grabbed our bags and told us to wait while he went to get it.

Victor told us that it was up to us what we wanted to do for the day. We told him we wanted to see “real life” in Roatan and not just the tourist areas so he started off by taking us to the eastern end of the island. Roatan is one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras and is 30 miles long and about 4 miles wide. Right away, we passed by two different ship wrecks near the shore. As we drove along we saw several very large and expensive mansions, but mostly we passed shanty-type houses. Victor explained that the tourist areas were on the western end of the island but the people that lived on the eastern end were very poor.

Laurel and I (and Kent too) are teachers and we were interested in seeing what a public school in Roatan would be like. Since it was still very early in Roatan, we saw lots of kids walking to school…all wearing uniforms. When Victor pulled over in one small town, we didn’t realize it at first, but he had stopped at a school. From the street it wasn’t obvious that it even was a school, but once we got out and walked through a narrow walkway, we were inside of a courtyard that was flanked by classrooms.

The courtyard was filled with children all lined up in single file rows listening as a man spoke to them. Right away another man noticed us and came to see what we were up to. After we explained who we were and that we just wanted to see the school, he spent 30 minutes or more visiting with us. The man was a social studies and English teacher at the school. He was very self conscious of his English, but he was actually very fluent. He told us that the man speaking to the children was the principal and that he was telling the kids that all of the public school teachers in Honduras were getting ready to go out on strike! Since the parents don’t listen to news on TV or read newspapers, the kids were supposed to relay the information to their parents at home.

After the principal finished speaking he came over to meet us. The teacher said he wanted the principal to show us around because he (the principal) needed to practice his English!! I teach at a small rural school and we have major financial concerns, but compared to this school, we are in very good shape. The classrooms were very sparsely decorated and overcrowded. One third grade class that we observed had over 40 students with one teacher. Each classroom was almost like a separate building and each one opened up into the central courtyard. None of the classrooms had doors and no screens on the windows.

The principal showed us a two story “classroom” that had just been built from concrete blocks…each story consisted of one room. The classroom was just a shell…no doors or windows and only contained a few desks. He said the school couldn’t afford to build the classroom on their own so they had parent volunteers helping. As we walked back towards the street, we looked briefly into the principal’s office, but couldn’t see much…the electricity had gone out! Laurel and I both agreed that visiting the school was one of the highlights of the week!

Another request we made was to see a local grocery store. I guess I had in mind stopping at one of the small local stores that had the fruit and vegetables on display outside, but the store we went to was “one of the nicest on the island” according to Victor. I wonder if he wasn’t trying to show us the “nicer” side of Roatan instead of the poor areas. The strange part was that the small town where I live in Minnesota has a very large Hispanic and Asian population so we have much more “ethnic” type foods than what were in this store. Most of the items we saw were well known American brands! The power was also off in this part of town so we didn’t spend much time in the dark store.

Victor said he usually takes his tours up to a lookout tower because the view is so outstanding. When we got to the road, it was barricaded and locked so unfortunately we didn’t get to do that. Our next stop was an “iguana farm”. The farm was run by a single man who has been feeding the iguanas for years. They are not fenced in or anything…they just stick around for the free food! The iguanas were just coming down from the trees for their daily meal and they were everywhere! The farm was right on the ocean and down at the shore the man had a fenced in area in the water where he had lobster and sea turtles. Back up the hill was a monkey and several tropical birds. The admission was $5 to get into the farm.

As we made our way to the western part of the island, Victor offered to show us Bay Island Beach Resort where Bob and Kent were diving. Pulling into the resort, the first two people we saw were Bob and Kent! They had just come on shore between their two boat dives. We only stayed long enough to chat for a minute and take a few pictures, but I was glad we got to see where the guys spent their day! (Even though the guys were only on the beach for a short time, they came back covered with sand flea bites!! They said they weren’t aware they were getting bit at the time and the bites never really did itch, but the red spots all over their body made it look like they had some disease!)

Laurel & I with Victor at Bay Island Beach Resort

In all fairness, the resort was very beautiful and if it weren’t for the bugs, I think I would enjoy going back to spend more time. The guys couldn’t stop talking about what great dives they had. Bob was particularly impressed with the dive at “Spooky Channel”…it was the one that had attracted him to the resort in the first place and apparently it lived up to his expectations!! Besides the two boat dives, the cost of the dives also included lunch at the resort.

After seeing Bay Island Beach Resort, Victor kept telling us how much nicer Anthony’s Key Resort was in comparison. He also pulled into that resort so we could take a look. His younger brother works at Anthony’s Key driving a water taxi so I’m sure Victor might be just a little biased. The resort was nice, but you can’t really see much of it without taking a boat because part of the resort is on a separate island.

As we drove towards the west end of the island, Victor showed us where he lived. He has lived on the island all of his life and now lives on a section of land once owned by his father. The large piece of land was divided between Victor and several siblings all of who live on the adjacent lots. I asked Victor if he realized how popular he was becoming on the Cruise Critic boards and he said he couldn’t figure out what was going on at first. He said people just started asking for him by name and he didn’t know why!! Victor has no computer and has to pay to get computer access elsewhere so he doesn’t always answer email immediately. Ships are only in Roatan one or two days per week which limits his “cruise tours”. On the other days Victor said he often “hangs out” at Anthony’s Key Resort and is available if resort guests need a cab or want to take a tour.

The time was going by fast…we had to be back on the Paradise by 2:30 p.m. Our last request for Victor was lunch and snorkeling. He took us to Half Moon Bay where there was an outdoor restaurant and a place to snorkel right off the shore. The snorkeling wasn’t great…or maybe we just didn’t get far enough out to see the good stuff. Laurel had never been snorkeling before so I just wanted to give her a chance to try before her snorkeling tour in Grand Cayman the next day. I have a nice mask and snorkel that I bought when I “thought” I was going to get scuba certified…but Laurel was using a cheap Wal-Mart set that belonged to one of my kids. The mask kept leaking so it wasn’t much fun for her and we didn’t spend much time in the water.

Our lunch consisted of shrimp and conch fritter appetizers…just to get a taste of some local food. Victor ate with us (we insisted on buying his lunch). The food was OK, but the best part was sitting there next to that fabulous blue ocean on a beautiful day.

Following lunch, Victor drove around the West End a bit…this area was definitely a tourist spot. It was interesting because the roads are just sand! Victor dropped us off at the ship and we paid him the $25 each (plus a tip) for our wonderful day. I was so glad we had arranged to spend the day with Victor…having our own personal guide for the day was great!

There were lots of locals who had set up booths selling all types of crafts, jewelry, etc. by the dock but Laurel and I wanted to drop off our beach bags before shopping. Having the ship docked was so much more convenient than tendering and it would have only taken us a short time to drop off our stuff and get back off the ship “if” Laurel hadn’t locked her Sail and Sign card in her cabin as we started to leave! In order to get off or on the ship, you have to insert your card into a machine that brings up your picture and other information…without the card, there was no way Laurel could leave the ship. Laurel called the purser’s desk and eventually someone showed up to let her into the cabin. We both thought it was strange that they didn’t try to verify if that was really her cabin or not. After the episode the previous night where Laurel had de-magnetized her card, she got a lot of kidding from the rest of us about the second mishap!

The street leading up to the dock was lined on both sides with booths…many of which sold the same type of things. There were lots of carved wooden items, “Mayan” pottery, jewelry, hammocks, etc. Laurel had a young boy latch onto her and he became her personal guide! No matter what she wanted, he said he knew where to get the best prices and took us from shop to shop. His mother worked in one of the booths and the boy even took Laurel to meet her. We each bought several items and then walked back to the ship. The boy followed us as long as he could and it was almost like he wished he could get on the ship with us. We gave him a tip for his services but were discouraged when we were scolded by a man standing near by. He said if we pay him he will grow up begging and not learn to work.

The line to get back on the ship had grown quite long when we returned, but we were entertained by a group of locals singing and dancing on the dock. Since we had to be back on board by 2:30, it was almost like having half port day and half sea day! I wished we could have stayed in Roatan longer, but I also enjoy the ship time too.

The guys were back on the ship when we returned. Bob’s beloved “Summer Trio” was playing classical music at 3:00 so he rushed off right away to hear them on the Promenade Deck. Being a violin player himself, Bob has always loved classical music. The Summer Trio consisted of three girls from Poland and Bob made it a point to hear them as much as possible during the week. 

I took some time to shower and just relax in the cabin. At 4:00, Bob and I went to “Afternoon Tea” in the Piano Bar lounge. As soon as we were seated, a girl came around with a wooden box filled with many different kinds of tea bags. The small tables were set with tea cups and small plates and another server came with small pots full of hot water to make our tea. “George” was playing quiet piano music as we sat and enjoyed our tea. (Bob found out later that he is married to one of the girls in the Summer Trio.) After a few minutes the server came around again with trays of bite-sized sandwiches and hors d’oeuvres. Kent and Laurel had gone to the “food and beverage demonstrations” and after it was finished, Kent joined us for tea while Laurel went to sit by the pool to get some sun.

Attending the afternoon tea was another thing on my “must do” list for this cruise and I was so glad we found the time to go. There were hardly any other people there that day but I thought it was a wonderful experience…sipping tea, listening to beautiful music and watching the ocean through the windows of the lounge.

The dinner menus had not changed since our last cruise two years ago. There are half dozen or so main courses on the menu each night so I had really intended to try new things this time but often would end up ordering the same exact meals that I did before! Tonight was one of those nights…I had shrimp in puff pastry that I thought was very good (both times!) Bob’s dessert that night was interesting…chocolate cake soaked in chocolate milk. He thought it was pretty good, but to me it looked like something a little kid did while playing in their food! I kinda thought it tasted that way too!

Shrimp in puff pastry.

Since Laurel and I had done our own thing while the guys were diving, dinner time was filled with stories of what we all did that day. Our tablemates listened with interest. They had gotten off the ship and gone into town but said there wasn’t much to see so they just went back to the ship.

Tia Thompsen was the featured entertainer that night. She was billed as a comedian/singer and did a super job on both! Tia had a great time with the audience…especially some of the male members! Following the show I convinced everyone that we should go to the piano bar…it was a fun place to spend the evening on our last cruise and I thought Kent and Laurel would enjoy it. When we got there the place was virtually empty. Only a few people were sitting around the bar trying to sing along, but the piano player didn’t have a good voice and basically no personality. After a couple of songs we all agreed to go find something else to do!

We wandered the ship a bit and ended up in the casino. None of us are gamblers…but that didn’t stop us from having fun watching those who were playing. Laurel managed to stand next to some guy at the craps table who was winning and as he played he gave her lessons! We did run into one of our tablemates and found out she had won a lot of money at one of the slot machines. It was her first try ever!