LaShelle2

YES $78 woo hoo

I booked an "Undercover" hotel on lastminutetravel.com. We got the Wyndham Rio Mar Resort and Spa for $78!!! Woo Hoo.

Now, the catch is this is about 15 minute drive from the airport. We decided to rent a car with Enterprise for $25 and the plus is we will be able to drive around the city and won't have to worry about cab fares.

We'll return the rental to the Airport Sunday morning and get a cab to the port.

I am super psyched about getting the hotel for $78, we definitely could not have afforded full price at the Wyndham.

I agree it is a little dumpy, and I am also alarmed they still take people there. Just not my idea of a place for a tropical vacation. We did the Corona Beach Break and it was a rip off. We had a lovely view of murky water, pebbly dirty sand, and oh yeah the homeless people sleeping under the bridge leading to Progresso.

We did decide to make the best of it, and the open market was nice. We were harrassed constantly on the beach. Seems like if Carnival is making you pay to go to this beach they coulda offered some kinda security to keep them from bugging you. To add insult to the already disapointing situation, this was an opne public beach@!!!$^* We coulda just walked out there for FREE like other people form our ship. They were even giving free drinks to people off the street, so I guess we paid for their booze too with our rip off excursion fee.

One good point is I got the absolute BEST becah massage for only $20 for an hour on the beach. $40 was haggled down to $20, go figure. After all the haggling, I really needed the massage. Still didn't make up for being ripped off by Carnival taking us to a nasty public beach with homeless people!

I was also shocked that nobody from Carnival was there for the excursion, so if something woulda happened to us how would they have known? I thought that was the supposed reason to book with Carnival, for extra safety and to make sure the ship won't leave you?

Maybe the ruins and stuff is nice, but I would not schedule much of my time for a beach day if I returned here. Maybe a couple of hours for the beach max.

As for safety, I could see where if you did not stay right in the few blocks where the Carnival bus dropped us it could get a little sketchy. Just use common sense just like if you were in a strnge city in the states. We were a group of single ladies and did not feel unsafe in the main tourist area.

Progresso is not so bad that I would refuse to leave the ship, but definitely not a place I'd make a point to return to either.

BTW don't feel bad about missing Belize. Belize City is nothing to write home about. Unless you catch a ferry to one of the Cayes it is pretty much a dud too. The only difference is the shops are a little more modern, but I am pretty sure the cruise lines own most of them.

Both Progresso and Belize are places where you need to research ahead of time and have something planned to do IMO.

how do you keep from getting malaria? are you in danger if contracting malaria in that country?