erby2283

Our first stop on the tour was a monkey farm. This was NOT Victor Bodden's monkey's. It was a different place; I want to say it was called Maya Eden or something like that. It was a $10 per person entrance fee and the second we jumped out of the van, a monkey named Jake jumped on our friend Matt's head, and from that second, the bromance was on. Jake and Matt were inseparable!

The monkey farm also had an enclosed butterfly farm.

Look at cute little Jake!

Jake refused to leave Matt's arms - even when his handler called him!

I had researched some private tours and almost booked with Victor Bodden but decided to book with a man name Juan Carlos instead. He used to work for Victor Bodden and I found some favorable reviews for him here on CC . I found some other roll call peeps interested in joining me for the tour and we ended up with a total of 7 people.

Most people prefer to just go to Carnival's beach which is within the port area. It has tons of shopping as well.

All private tours are not allowed within the port area so you have to walk outside and up a hill and then down the hill. A lot of people were on the right hand side of the street with signs and mopeds, etc but Juan Carlos was by himself on the left hand side with a sign, just like his instructions read. He walked us to his van, which he kept running so it was nice and cool when we got inside. A few on our tour were hesitant to book privately bc they had never done so before so I was glad they decided to join us for Juan Carlos' tour!

View from atop one of the scenic stops. Juan Carlos said if you cruised in on another ship, this is where you would have docked.

Wonderful review and great pics!

Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to do this... I leave on Sunday and always love to read recent reviews before I leave....

Adds to the excitement!! Great job Erby!! :)

Thanks Sheilb4. Hope you have a fantastic time!

Enjoying your review including the photos.

 

Keith

Thank you Keith.

We boarded the Legend as you were leaving! I like your review so far! I always struggle with mine!!

Did you have a good cruise? I heard the weather was not so good. :(

When we got pack to the port, we did some shopping and picked up a lot of souvenirs for people. Some coffee, chocolate, key chains, Christmas ornaments, coffee mugs, t-shirts. You know, the usual stuff. We took the tender back, tipping our usual $2, and went to drop everything off back in the cabin.

As usual, I sat on the balcony with a soda and my book and waited for sailaway and the sunset. It was on this day that I captured, in my opinion, my best picture of the whole cruise. What a gorgeous sunset!

After sunset, we headed down to see Fernando and his staff for a dinner for two. As usual, great service. This was night that I asked what night mac-n-cheese night was to which he replied, "It can be tonight Ms. Elisa!" I will never forget that line from this cruise. He brought a side dish of mac-n-cheese with my dinner even though I didn't ask for it.

I don't know what it is about cruising but I am just so wiped out by the time I finish dinner that I have no energy for enjoying the night life on board ships anymore. I used to live for the shows, and comedy and karaoke. But now, it's just back to the cabin and watch tv or sit on my balcony listening to the waves go by. And I'm only 39! Maybe it's because I don't drink. lol!

After a very long, slow and bumpy ride (about an hour), we finally reached Altun Ha. I had read on CC to be careful of the bugs and since it had rained non-stop the previous weeks, I was concerned about being eaten alive bc mosquitos love me. But I came prepared with 100% deet and wasn’t bothered in the least. However, I didn’t really notice anyone too bothered by any bugs so maybe it was the time of year and we got lucky? It was very hot and muggy!

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable in explaining about the different sites. Altun Ha was accidentally discovered during rock quarrying and they quickly realized these were not normal rocks. Since then, they have tried to excavate as much as they could. There really isn’t a whole lot to see, but the view from the largest ruin was beautiful. The one thing I took away was how off base the Mel Gibson movie "Apocalypto" was.

You really only get to spend about an hour there b/c the travel time to and from the ruins takes so long. Our guides told us about the shack that would be selling the local chicken and beans and rice (cooked in coconut water) that was located by the bus parking lot so me and my bf stopped in to get something to go. I just got the rice and beans and it was really good and he said the chicken was very good as well! Not to mention regular coke in a bottle!

Thanks for your photo review...the food photos are especially great. :):):):)

I should have taken more but then the migraines started every day and I didn't feel like eating much less taking a camera to dinner.

does anybody have the funtimes

Sorry, I didn't keep them this time. I have in the past but then I realized I never looked at them after the cruise. :mad:

Agreed--I would definitely be more than a little upset. I'd also like to know if OP contacted Royston about the issues, though obviously after the fact it's too late to do anything about their spoiled day. Those of us who had a good experience with Royston just want to make sure this was a one-off occurrence on a bad day, I think.

Absolutely! His tour is still one of my favorites to date!

p.s. - note to self - do not post just after waking up from the bed in the morning from your cruise ap..spelling and grammar were awful in that post...lol

va. Cruisers, Thanks for posting such a positive review of Royston!! I felt like I wanted to defend such a good guy on my previous post compared to the one slamming him. This is Royston's livelihood we're talking about!

I felt like defending Royston too, and I did in a post above. But let's be fair to the OP. If Royston was extremely busy that day and had to hire a 3/4th person who didn't know the normal routine and didnt take them to the fort as promised, etc, i would be a little upset too.

I've even though about email Royston myself to make sure he was aware of what happened bc the OP never answered my question as to whether he did or not. If Royston is not aware thag one of his crew did this, how can he fix it next time?

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We always carry pop on either 2 or 3 12 packs. Just be prepared that they open each 12 pack and go through it....Then tape it back up. So it does take a tad bit longer. But in tyhe long run it is worth it!

Really? They have never opened ours and we've been on 3 Carnival cruises now.

My and bf each carry on a 12-pack when we board. Since we have FTTF, we just drop it right off in the room. I am a heavy soda drinker and have never had the need to carry more on at another port bc.....damn that lemonade is crack!

As I stated earlier, I watched the weather like a hawk the weeks leading up to our cruise and it was supposed to be horrible for us with rain everywhere! The second we boarded the tender in Belize, it started pouring and of course, I forgot my poncho in the room. Not to fear, the rain stopped 5 minutes later. The best part about our tender ride was that in addition to the two Carnival musicians who were sitting right in front of us, the comedian, Happy Cole, was also sitting to our right. One musician even gave me props on my loyalty to my Dallas Cowboys when he saw my tattoo on my ankle!

We could overhear the three of them discussing where they were headed to. One musician was heading home, one was headed to another Carnival ship and Happy Cole was headed to a show in Ohio. No one really noticed Happy the whole ride b/c he boarded last and kept under the radar until right before the tender docked and a woman asked Happy if he was in the one of the shows. Happy was trying to convince her that he was just a musician until my BF blurted out “No, he was the comedian!” The look on Happy’s face cracked me up. He just slowly turned to my bf and said, “Really?”

We usually book one Carnival excursion when we cruise; and it’s usually one that is a tour that is far away from port. One that we are in fear of missing the ship and so we book with Carnival b/c we know it’s the safest route to go. We decided on the Altun Ha City View tour which was with Chukka. Last year, Chukka did our Horseback riding excursion in Montego Bay in Jamaica so I knew they would do a good job. We had a ton of people on this tour. I think we filled up 3 air conditioned buses. The first thing our tour guide told us was that it had been raining non-stop the past few weeks and that today was the first day they (Chukka) did not have to cancel a significant portion of their tours.

We drove through the streets of Belize and I snapped pictures of some of the nice homes we drove by. (I think people on other tours must have seen a different part of Belize b/c after seeing Roatan, I swore that Roatan was poorer than Belize but many disagreed). These are a few of the pictures of took during our ride through the city.

Our tour guide advised us that they do not believe in welfare in Belize; that you go to school and get a job and that there are enough jobs for everyone. She also said that there is one cell phone company and they charge so much that people complain but at the end of the year, they give back to the community and provide services to schools so they are trying to complain less. We also drove by a new track and field facility they are naming after Marion Jones. Apparently, her mother is from Belize and in an Olympic games, Marion Jones held up a Belizian flag. She also made a donation to help build the facility and the government matched her donation. I just thought it was little, I’m not sure what the word is, but wrong to name an athletic field after an admitted cheater!?

I'll get to Altun Ha in my next post :)

I'm leaving on the Legend on Sunday! You're review is holding me over until then! Sounds like you had a great cruise. Thanks for posting!

Have a great cruise!!! I will do my

Best to finish before you leave.

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Loving your review so far, thanks for taking the time to post it. Paradise Beach looks beautiful!

You're welcome and thanks for taking the time for your quick post to let me know you were reading/enjoying it.

It really takes a lot of time to upload/crop hundreds of pictures and then take the time to write a review. May not be as detailed as most but I post what I can remember off the top of my head.

When I am anxiously awaiting for a cruise, I love reading reviews which is why I choose to do one; to return the favor. Always amazes me to see how many people actually read the review versus actually posting a reply/thank you.

So thank you to all you who took a moment to respond.

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We tip van drivers who take us to the port about $5, porters $1 per bag. We did ATD this past cruise and in addition to the auto-tips, we tipped our waiter $35 (we also skipped the dining room 3 nights), and the assistant waiters $20 each. We tipped our room steward $40. Maybe this sounds like a lot to some people but my BF used to make a living off tips and we know how hard they work. We also know how many people don't tip at all so we try to do our best to make up for it.

Before we boarded, I stopped to take a picture of my BF in front of the Carnival Legend and Carnival Paradise. There was also another Carnival ship at another pier but I cannot remember which ship it was. It looks like a postcard to me!

One of my favorite things about cruising is sitting on my balcony just watching the water and hearing the waves. On this evening, shortly after sailaway, and lasting into the night, we had a lightening storm. I kept randomly snapping pictures with my camera hoping to catch a flash of lightening in the clouds and after about 9 tries, I was successful!

I would later go up to the Serenity area and lay on one of the hammocks with my ipod, and just listen to music watching the lightening in the clouds. I find so much peace and tranquility during moments like that!

I think we skipped dinner in the dining room tonight and ate from the deli/pizza.

A few cruises ago, I won $425 on a penny slot machine (on my first $20 too)! I headed down to the casino with my $20 and when I got up to $63, I cashed out. Why chance a good thing, right? I knew I probably wouldn't win like that ever again...lol!

After months of not being able to make up my mind of what I wanted to do, and with the uncertainty of weather, we decided to go to Paradise Beach with Poptart and her family (whom we met here on CC). My BF and I ate breakfast in the buffet and met Poptart and family in front of guest services so we could share a taxi to Paradise Beach. While walking down to Deck 1, we ran into another cruise critic couple in the hallway, Judy and Mike, who wanted to go to Paradise Beach too! The more the merrier. I’m so glad Poptart was there as she knew exactly where she was going and just led us to the taxi stand and told them where we wanted to go. There were 11 of us altogether so we had to split up. Still, it was nice to share a cab ride and not have to pay the fare by ourselves.

When we arrived there was hardly anyone there!

And the pool was just as beautiful as everyone said it was! Later in the day, Poptart and her daughter ordered some food and they brought over a table and set it in the water so they didn’t even had to get out of the pool to eat their food!

There were only 3 ships in port that day so I’m assuming this is a quiet day for Cozumel. We decided to hang out by the ocean for an hour or so and enjoy the view. We order a virgin pina colada and a diet coke. We just sat in the loungers and enjoyed watching everyone swim around and play on all the floats.

After an hour, we moved up to the pool area where Poptart and her family were and Judy and Mike who were at the beach with us, followed a short time later. We all enjoyed hanging out at the pool. It was not crowded at all! When it was time for us to order lunch, my BF ordered the Mexican Platter (I think it was $14.99)

As I explained earlier, I am the plain Jane eater so I ordered a plain chicken sandwich and French fries. My BF even told the waited in Spanish just the chicken (pollo) and bun…nothing else. It was delivered with cheese, lettuce and mayonnaise so I guess “plain” means the same thing in Mexico as it does here at every drive-thru in America! LOL!

As you can see, the grounds at Paradise Beach are extremely beautiful and well kept. I never had to use the bathrooms but I heard they were spotless as well! I am so glad we decided to come here for the day. We would definitely come back here again. We took a cab back with Judy and Mike and were on a mission to find a particular brand of Vanilla for a friend back home. The only bottle I could find was a very small bottle and all of them had been opened. Seriously, who would buy a bottle that had already been opened? So, we had to settle for a different brand. But when you can get a huge 32 ounce bottle of vanilla for around $10, does anyone really care what brand it is?

We were on the Conquest in Nov... we booked with Royston... I was very unhappy with the terrible tour.. 5 hours with no lunch stop (as stated) ... I was NOT going to eat street food at one of our stops... no fortress (as stated)..

I booked with Royston because of the positive reviews... we had people on our bus that required food for medical reasons...

We were quoted a price that was to include food and a tour...

They were VERY unorganised.. don't rely on positive reviews..

Book at your own risk!!

When you say they were unorganized, do you mean you did not have Royston himself? If that's the case, that's the first I have heard of him needing help.

Have you emailed him since returning?

We enjoyed our tour very much and out lunch choice was yes, from a street vendor, but very delicious; or a conch-something - can't remember bc I don't eat seafood and it was 2 years ago.

I too would be unhappy if i booked expecting one thing and getting another. I would definitely email him if you haven't already!

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We rented a car from Tampa and drove to MCO. We had a late flight (3:45) so we were not rushed but I can attest to competing with everyone from the theme parks. We still had to check our bags (we were already checked-in via early bird on Southwest but still had to wait in a short line to check our bags) and then in the security line. I'd say it took about 45 altogether but I think you just have to ask if you want to worry about it the whole time.

p.s. - they didn't START disembarkation until after 9 AM so I was thankful for the late flight.

We were on the week before you so I can verify that they did not start the Christmas decorations until we were getting off - we were off fairly early because I'm Platinum and they were just starting to drag the decorations off. So, my guess it was the reason for the delay in boarding. We boarded way earlier than 12:00.

 

I loved the Legend and wish she were hanging around - I live less than an hour from the port, but this was my first time on her. We really enjoyed our week.

Thanks for verifying the Christmas decorations. I was just glad I bought FTTF!!!!

It must be nice living so close to port. If I did, I could take so many last minute cruises at good rates!

I play Call of Duty on ps3 and have friends that live in Plant City. Isn't that near Lakeland?

Day 2 - Sea Day

It has been my experience that if you want a good spot in the Serenity on sea day, you have to get your butt up early! We got up around 8:15 and I changed into my bathing suit and headed up to Serenity. There were a few people already out but surprisingly, it was not too busy by 8:30. That WOULD change on the second sea day (Sat).

I had been watching the weather like a hawk prior to our cruise and it had called for rain (like 80-90%) every day in every port. But we lucked out on this cruise and the weather was beautiful. Other than sitting on my balcony, there is nothing I enjoy more than this view while being on a ship!!!

Debbie (AKA Poptart) found me quite early and I enjoyed her company all morning! Debbie talked about the Legend having her favorite Serenity area and I have to say after now having sailed 3 Carnival ships, I concur. It's laid out perfectly and has it's own pool. The showers are nice to cool off in as well.

I laid out in the sun until about 2 and decided that was enough. Too much sun gives me a migraine and I didn't want to ruin the rest of the day.

I grabbed a bite to eat from the deli (a turkey sandwich is all this picky woman eats) and I would eat from here almost every day. IMO the buffet on the Legend not only has a very limited selection, it's not very good. But between the turkey sandwiches and the pizza, I would not starve. :D

Tonight was formal night...AKA lobster not for all you seafood eating people. My BF ordered two!

After dinner, I went to the internet cafe to send an email to my mom who was taking care of my dog. What can I say other than the internet at sea sucks....always. But that's not Carnival's fault. Sometimes I wish there was a way for them to actually track how long it takes each page to load and not charge you for that time. One time, it literally took 5 minutes to load a page.

After checking in with mom, we went to the adult-only show for the comedian Happy Cole. We had seen him before on another Carnival ship and he's extremely funny. We got there about 10 minutes before show time and there was no place to sit down. Standing room only.

After that we headed back to the cabin. I swear I go to bed earlier on vacation than when I go to work!

We sailed away around 4:15 and a few of us who had met on cruise critic, but kept in touch more regularly on another website, had a little get together planned at 5 pm at the Unicorn Bar (another one was planned for noon the next day for those who couldn't make the one on embarkation day). Turns out our meet and greets were held in two different areas of the unicorn bar so we all weren't together in one spot and I didn't get to meet everyone. :(

Around 5:45, a few of us went to higher decks so we could get a better view as we approached the Skyway Bridge. NCL's Jewel left 15 minutes before us. Here is a picture (a bit blurry) of her sailing under the bridge.

Then we approached the bridge. It reminded me of when I sailed under the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco (RCCL). One of these pictures is really, really blurry, for which I apologize, but it's a picture of the Carnival tail as it passes under the bridge. You can see how the ship just barely clears.

After we sailed under the bridge, we got changed and headed down to deck 3 to the dining room for ATD. The line to get seated was pretty long when we got there and had to wait about 15 just to get seated. But my BF and I prefer to sit at a table for 2 so we were given a pager and had to wait about 10 more minutes. We were seated right by a window and enjoyed great service by Fernando and his staff tonight, and every night we had dinner. We asked for his section every night and were never disappointed. On Wed night, I asked Fernando what night mac-n-cheese night was going to be to which he responded, "it can be tonight Ms. Elisa!" Sure enough, with my meal, he brought a side dish of mac-n-cheese.

Here's where I must apologize to the foodies b/c I am about as plain jane when it comes to food as it comes. I do not eat any sea food and between that and my pickiness, unfortunately, leaves very little for me to choose at dinner every night. Every night for a starter, I have the spring rolls and I usually was able to find some sort of pasta, steak or chicken to eat.

For dessert, is there really anything better than the chocolate melting cake? I ordered it 3 times but only the first night was it cooked properly (with it melting inside). The other nights, it was overcooked but still excellent. I even ordered it with vanilla AND butter pecan ice cream! Then one night, I surprised my BF and actually tried something new. I always read about the Bitter and Blanc dessert here on CC but had never tried it, so I did. It was good, and I would order it again since it's only offered on one night but I still love my chocolate melting cake!

We walked around the ship a little more and peaked in on a couple shows but decided to go back to the cabin early. Monday would be a sea day!

The stairs that lead to the Steakhouse:

Yumminess!