DownToTheSea

There is also a new sign inside the Tourism Village. It was fairly close to the tender docks.

On 4/14/2019 at 9:48 AM, deladane said:

My alarm clock went off bright an early at 7am.  I jumped out of bed, eager to get this exciting day started!  Peeking out the window at 7:30, it looked like we were already tied up to the dock.

 

 

Once we were both dressed and with our beach bags packed, we went upstairs to Lido for breakfast.  We had good timing because there were only two or three people on line at Blue Iguana, so it didn’t take long to get our breakfast burritos.

 

Breakfast with a view!

 

Like a kid in a candy store, when I finished my burrito, I left DH sitting at the table and sipping his coffee so I could go take photos of the port from the outside decks upstairs.  It was shaping up to be another sunny, beautiful day in the Caribbean!

 

 

 

 

The Carnival Freedom was in port with us today

 

We were in Roatan on Freedom that same day! Very cool!

13 hours ago, JP-Cruise said:

Got it. Thanks for sharing these details and your experience 

Hope you have a great time in Caye Caulker whatever you decide to do - and an awesome cruise as well!

47 minutes ago, JP-Cruise said:

 

Oh ok haha. I was wondering also during shark ray alley. Did any of the guides let the people hold a nurse shark? 

Thankfully, no.

The sharks moved in and out fairly quickly as soon as the chumming stopped.

Truthfully, I found that part less enjoyable than the reef. Just my personal preference but I was a bit uncomfortable with attracting the sharks and rays like they do. Trying to hold them would have been too much. I did see one of the guides try to grab one of the rays and thought that was unnecessary.

Next time we hope to find a guide where we can skip that part and spend more time on a reef.

1 minute ago, JP-Cruise said:

 

Thanks. It wasn’t too crowded? No issues with being kicked in the face by other snorkelers like in the cruise ship snorkelling excursions? 

We were in smaller groups (3 of us and one other couple in our group) on the reef so it wasn't bad. Only time I got kicked in the face was by my girlfriend, so I can't complain. LOL

It was a bit more congested at the shark ray alley, but that is in shallow water so it was more manageable.

14 minutes ago, JP-Cruise said:

How many people were on your tour in total?

There were about 20, including one group that had four kids under 12. I believe one of the kids and two adults stayed on the boat. We were not aware of anyone staying ashore from our boat.

There were probably six to eight boats from various tours at both stops.

They will definitely be able to see the sharks and Ray's from the boat, but that was the shorter of the two times we were in the water. We had one person from our group stay on the boat and the crew kept her entertained and made sure she was comfortable. Staying on the island is also an option - they might enjoy walking or taking a golf cart taxi to the Split to swim.

We had about 1-1/2 hours to eat and hang out. We walked over a block to Quan's - a small general store with everything from food to pool supplies to liquor. It was the closest place to grab the local beer and rum souvenirs we wanted. We might have lingered a little longer eating than we really needed; regardless I would have liked to explore the island more. Hanging out at the bar would have been a good option as well. It's a "go slow" place so rushing to do everything sort of defeats the vibe.

Lunch prices were reasonable - between $10 and $15 US for most meals, and there were several options if you wanted to go higher or lower. Everything we had was very good. 

For what it's worth, we would definitely book this one again and are planning to return to just Caye Caulker for a few days this fall.

We did. The snorkeling and hanging out for a bit on Caye Caulker was the highlight of our entire cruise. We’re already planning to spend several days on the island this fall. The reef is awesome; we covered a lot of territory around the reef - I personally might have liked being able to drift and just observe a bit more.  Good coral, lots of fish including a couple of moray eels, and saw a huge ray on the way back to the boat. The sharks and rays were fun for a bit, but it felt just a little bit contrived with using chum to attract the rays and sharks.

Our crew was outstanding! My 75-year-old MIL rode along but did not want to snorkel. The crew kept her entertained and the captain even accompanied her off the boat for a bit and helped her overcome her fear of getting in the water.

Lunch was at Island Magic. The boat stopped on their dock after coming over from Belize City for restroom breaks. You could order lunch there to be ready soon after we got back from snorkeling. It was quite good and went down nicely with a Belikin beer. We had time to run to a nearby grocery and stock up on liquid souvenirs (more Belikin and some One Barrel rum) to take home.

Those were the same hours we were in port. You should have no problems.

It was outside on the first sailing back from dry dock. Can say it was much more comfortable in mid-March than the previous Freedom experiences in June and August!

Rusty Fish is an excellent option. They have multiple locations, including Coxen Hole and the Mahogany Bay complex.

Returning to Belize in just over three weeks, and hope to find some specific items while ashore. We have an excursion to Caye Caulker with limited time on the island and then back to the Tourist Village. I’m hoping to find convenient places to pick up some local rum and a couple of bottles of cashew wine. Those shouldn’t be too difficult, but would appreciate any suggestions.

The tougher one is find a store that sells CDs of Belizian musical artists. I can find a few things through online music stores, but I’m old-school enough that having a physical copy would be better.

Appreciate any suggestions!

We discovered the - and enjoyed - the Ocean Plaza breakfast on Breeze last summer. Hopefully it hasn't changed for you.

Love your fun approach to the review and the cruise. I’ve jokingly wondered how long the thread would be if you and St. Greg ever took the same cruise.

It may be buried in there somewhere I’ve missed, but what type of camera are you using for your underwater shots? They are amazing! The one I’m using now only seems to be able to get to the quality of your “wrong setting” shots.

Again, thanks for all of the details!

Workin', watchin' football ... and keeping an eye on the lotteries this weekend. The right numbers could eliminate the workin' and make the next cruise come along MUCH faster!

The experiences are appreciated. Advise regarding excursions and vendors is not pertinent, but is also laughably predictable. Travel safe and keep it funky!

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It could make a slight difference as far as timing to catch the ferry to Caye Caulker when we hit Belize. Belize does not observe DST, so we would be an hour ahead of local time. We could potentially catch an earlier ferry, but it also means we would need to head back to the ship earlier as well. Or maybe I've just got too much time on my hands to be thinking about it this far ahead!

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We've always cruised in the summer and are familiar with the ship staying on the same time as the embark/debark port - Galveston in our case. But, we're sailing on March 9 next year and DST starts that night.

Will the ship observe daylight savings time, or do we get to keep that hour the entire week until we get back?

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Well, now I can share what I learned ... Online bookings are not assigned a PIN automatically. The Carnival rep was extremely helpful and also helped answer a couple of questions related to casino rates and PVPs.

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Should not be a problem. I've done this a couple of times in the past by calling Carnival 800 number. You may need to give them the PIN's associated with the bookings as well as the booking numbers. As others have stated often before, if you have trouble with the first Carnival rep who answers the phone, just keep calling back until you find one who can help you.

 

 

 

Also, if you have a good TA, they may be willing to do this for you even though they did not get all of the bookings. Ours has also done this for us in the past.

Good info - Thanks.

I've never noticed or needed a PIN for any of the cruises we've booked - all online. I've looked through the confirmation and don't see anything other than the booking number and my VIFP number. Sounds like a call to Carnival is in order.

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We have two cabins reserved for next spring, one direct through Carnival and one through a TA.

When comes time to link them so we are together for dining, are there any advantages or disadvantages of doing through CCL or the TA?

I know there are rules/policies where Carnival cannot help when booked through a TA, but does this extend to simply linking the two?

Thanks for any experiences anyone can share!

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You've already purchased Early Bird, so that takes care of needing to check in. Download and set up the Southwest app for your phone - you'll have the boarding pass directly in your phone. Have the app open to the QR code with your passport/ID and you're through security with no issues. Seem like as many people are scanning phones as using paper boarding passes at the gate nowadays. If you're checking bags, you'll have the option to print boarding passes, but it's not necessary if you're using the app.

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We did this last summer. I fell in love with the America's Cup when the 12-meter boats were around and did a bit of competitive sailing when I was younger. The outing in Cozumel was like going to a fantasy camp for a baseball fan. We absolutely loved it. Everyone got to participate to their comfort level. The highlight was passing the other boat on the last leg, crossing the line to win, and then having the captain ask if I would like to take the helm. Yeah, it was a top 10 moments of my life kind of thing.

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Decided to commemorate our return from a week on Freedom tonight by trying to duplicate the cinnamon-creme rum shots served in the MDR. Don't know that we ever perfected the combination of ingredients, but the more we tried, the less we cared! :D