brookeq

Our last sea day...

I was up early as usual.  I went to the lido and got some hot chocolate and sat on one of the couches in the shade on deck 11.   I read my book until everyone got up.   

There were a ton of loungers open by the pool that morning.  But all of the couches/chairs in the shade on deck 11 had towels on them.   I guess everyone had enough sun.   I got a little burnt on the boat so shade it was for us.  

When Hayden woke up he didn't want to go to brunch.  So he sat on our couch with the tablet and we went to brunch.  We met up with one of SIL.   I wanted to try the Michaels Crafts they had but brunch took too long. 

Here is a brunch menu for anyone who hasn't been on Carnival before.

I had the mac n cheese with bacon.  It was pretty good.   My husband and Amelia had the chocolate pancakes.

Up Next... Final Sea day

It was the 80’s deck party night.  We knew about this ahead of time and were supposed to have a family costume contest.   We talked about it and confirmed before we left that each family would be participating.  Well only the kids ended up so I felt a little dumb.  I even made our fun costumes. 

We were pac man and the ghosts.  Hayden refused to go.  I made him come just for the contest that didn’t happen.  So he was really mad.  He left after this picture. 

We headed to the deck party and were having a pretty good time.They taught some line dances to songs.   We danced to a few songs.   songs.  I don’t know what happened after those few songs because Amelia wasn’t feeling well and wanted to go back to the room.  So 80’s night was kind of bust for us.   I took her back and we went to bed.

4 hours ago, tinkr2 said:

Can you tell me more about the price guarantee?

 

It is rare for them to release a barb. The problem was not the barb but that they pulled it out improperly . 

https://www.carnival.com/content/shore-excursion-best-price-guarantee.aspx

here is the info  

Hayden and some cousins went and watched venom.

We decided to go around and  take funny pictures.   We made the three brother in laws get a cheesy picture together.

We joined this fun couple for a pirate one.  If you are reading this sorry for barging in on your picture. 

The teenagers took some really funny ones with the pianos.  I wish I had a copy of them. 

Amelia took some with her cousin and her friend that was also sailing.  They got along great all week.

We spent some time at the alchemy  bar.  Mike had something blackberry.  I forget what I had.

Hayden earned some money for the arcade for having good behavior.  My husband didn’t want to go with him so he loaded $25 to his card.  I explained to Hayden that the money goes fast so be smart.   Well he burned thru it so fast and insisted that he didn’t spend it all.   I knew one of us should have went with him.  He was so mad and couldn’t recover for the rest of the night.  

I had the veal.  It was decent.  I wasn’t too hungry.

Mike had the lamb and steak tacos. 

I  tried the steak tacos they were just ok.

I had the chocolate melting cake. 

Mike had the apple pie. 

I don't each much bread at home but loving having it on the cruise.  This was one of my favorites.  My other favorite had cranberries in it.   

For appetizers:

I had the meatball  

And the tortilla soup.  I didn’t like this one.

Mike had the pumpkin and lentil soup and liked it.

He also had the spring rolls

And the flat bread!

Here are the menus for tonight

Back on board I remembered that I packed some things to make ice cream sundaes.  So we all met at  the ice cream machine and enjoyed a fun snack.  I found small plastic squeeze of fudge and caramel at the store and also had sprinkles and mini oreos.   It didn’t really take up any room and it got us all together.   I would do it again.   I didn’t take any pictures though.  Ooops

One of the cousins found a duck.  We took a picture and she re hid it.  It was the only one we saw the entire trip.  No one has posted any pictures of ours since we have been home.

We hung out at the bar before dinner.  I tried a mango margarita.  It was ok. 

Amelia and I matched so we took a picture.

Hayden didn’t come to dinner.  He had a burger when we boarded and wasn’t hungry.   I didn’t force him to come. 

We headed back to the ship. 

Amelia loves when they have mermaids out.   She got her picture taken.

She also loves the Day of the Dead movies, Coco, Nightmare before Christmas.  All of that stuff.  So she got a picture with them too.  

I just wanted to stop and share  picture with you.   The kids had me walking back and forth from the front of the boat to the back.  (everyone wants to be with mom!).  It would get rocky.  The side of the boat was narrow and I was always scared I was going to fall off. So I walked sideways facing the inside fo the boat.  Well with the rocking I kept hitting my thigh off this knob/bolt.  I ended up with a huge bruise. Ha ha.  Between the bruise and the bites my skin was a hot mess!

When we got home  I went to the gym.   A guy stopped me and asked if I got the bruise playing soccer.  I laughed.  I told him I actually do play soccer ( I also coach) but I didn’t have a cool story for the bruise.  I just got in on boat being a chicken on a boat.  

Ok back to the review.

Their barbs don't really grow back (very slowly) so they don't use them.  They flee from situations they don't like.  

I figured so many people go every day in Grand Cayman.  It has to be a freak thing if it ever happens or we would hear about it and cruises would stop offering it as a tour.   

46 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:

I really like those videos.  It must have been amazing to swim so close to the stingrays. The water looks beautiful.  It looks like a very nice excursion and I am sure you were pleased that your son loved it.  Your excursion looks like it was worth every penny and what a perfect day with the weather.

It was.  I never had any interest in Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman.   I would hate that.   This was perfect.  They were friendly and would swim up to you  But if you were noisy or panicky they swam away.  So you didn't have to be near them if you didn't want to be.   

2 hours ago, travelplus said:

An awesome review thus far! I have an idea why not book a Birthday cruise for your son so that he can get the gifts your Daughter gets? Look at Royal Caribbean and surprise your son with a"Cruise Hayden" theme and invite the family

We are hopefully sending him to Utah to spend time with the family and going skiing for his birthday.  I am hoping they will pitch in for his ticket.    Got to keep things even.  Ha ha

57 minutes ago, SandiLynn said:

Thanks for the review. How much was the fishing excursion?

sorry i missed this.   I just posted the price later in the review.  its on page 8.  

Final thoughts on our day…

We had an awesome day.  We got to catch fish.  The kids want to go back and try to catch bigger fish next time.  El Cielo was an awesome spot.   I would love to go there again and spend more time.   We didn’t snorkel this time since the kids weren’t into it.  But Pedro usually takes you snorkeling.  Pedro and Sammy were awesome.  So friendly.  They work very hard to make sure you have a great experience.   I would definitely recommend it.  I like that we were on the boat with just our family.   I am liking to do more personal tours when possible.   Its more money but the experience is just better.  

We had paid a $100 deposit on paypal before we left.  Then we owed $275 when we were done.   So it was $375  for 1-6 people.  You can rent a bigger boat for $450. I think its $40 a person extra if over 6 people.  

So this wasn’t a cheap excursion but I thought it was a good value.  Like I said we were by ourselves so we got personalized attention.  And we were out all day.

My son declared it the best day of the trip.  And as I have said he is hard to please.   Amelia who didn’t want to go also loved it even though she didn’t fish.  

They called us a cab but none came.  So Sammy drove us down the road to the pier in his truck.   What great service. 

He told us of a good store to stop at for souvenirs.   He said its one of the cheapest.  It was called La Best.   So we stopped there since we didn’t have a lot of time.  We got some vanilla.   The kids picked out some pens for their teachers.  Then each got one souvenir.  Amelia got a fan.  Hayden got bongos.  Ugh! I also got an ornament.

The ride back the kids sat together in the front of the boat.  Hayden usually tries to avoid Amelia so it was really cute and sweet.  Of course my finger ruined the picture. 

Got another one to prove it happened.

We just relaxed on the boat ride back and talked to Pedro.  He is very friendly.   

Eventually we made it back to the marina.   We thanked Pedro and Sammy for a great day.   We paid the rest of what we owed and gave them a good tip.  I don’t know if you are supposed to tip on these kind of private tours.  But we certainly had a great time so we did. 

Unfortunately we had to head back.  I would love to spend more time here.   So we packed up and got back on board.

While we were swimming, Pedro made fresh ceviche with our fish.   He cuts up the fish and soaks it in lime juice.  The acid in the lime juice cooks it.   He just adds lime juice, cilantro, and onion.   It was delicious and I don’t really eat fish.  

The kids even ate it.  Amelia ate a lot of it.   Who’s kids are these?

Goodbye beautiful water 😞

Here are some videos of the sting rays.  As I said, I don’t take too many videos and you can see I do terrible job.   My husband took the first one.  I did the second one   Watching the second one gives me a headache!

stingray 1

sting ray 2

We played around some more.  

Everyone loved this place.

Seriously take me back!

I tried to get a picture with a stingray.  This was the best I could get.   Stupid fogged screen.

Here is a photo of our with our boat in it.

And here is another terrible short video I took

el cielo swim video

4 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

I've been following this review for a couple of days now. We went on the same Belize excursion 8 years ago and really enjoyed it.  I was wondering if people could still climb the pyramid.  No net!

Yup.  That is why I chose it.   I wanted the kids to be able to climb one.  It stinks you can't climb Chichen Itza anymore but I can see why they would need to keep it intact. 

The sting rays started to head towards our boat. 

I told the kids if they just floated the sting rays stayed below on the bottom. 

Amelia, who hated snorkeling this entire trip , and was scared of every animal and fish we encountered so far…well she put her goggles on and swam right up to the sting rays! 

Hayden also went and checked them out.  

At one point this beach was known for its star fish.  From what I read some storms recently came thru and there aren’t really any starfish anymore.  But there are friendly sting rays that stay in the area.   So I put my snorkel gear on and headed out to look for them.  I didn’t have to go far.  They know the fishing boats feed them so they were hanging out by a boat near us.   I swam and saw three immediately. 

One brushed up against me and it was so squishy.   I then just floated on top of the water and let them go under me.   I liked that much better.  One of them was pretty big.  

Our camera screen was completely fogged so I couldn’t tell how my pictures were turning out.   I just took a ton and hoped for the best.  

We were able to jump out and play in the beautiful water.  

The water was shallow and you could stand in the soft sand.  

Here is another video of the area  (click the link).  I don't really do videos so the quality is not the best. 

video