sara mom

We bought our tickets through Shore Excursioner. We had the email printout with us when we arrived and paid the balance.

When we got of the ship, we went to a taxi stand and just had to say "Playa Mia". It cost $20 for the fare.

Pics from our day can be found at....

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2175819&page=2&highlight=vision

In February, we used .bz and loved it! We were a family of 4.

http://http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2175819&highlight=vision&page=2

We just came back and used .bz. Loved it!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2175819&highlight=vision&page=2

We were on the same cruise and possibly the same cave tubing experience!

misc pics from Playa Mia

That hot tub in the middle was freezing!

Water park

Water beds

My view from the water beds

Even with such a small ship, did you find there was enough to do, enough food options?

I have never had a problem not finding enough food options. We did WJ for breakfast and lunch (when on board). MDR or WJ this trip for dinner. We have done Chops on past trips.

Things to do? Give me a book and I am good. The kids stayed busy with us..card games, board games, pool, rock climbing, etc.

A little bit about us. My DH is a scuba diver. We choose this itinerary so he could dive at least twice. HA! This was our 4th trip to Cozumel since he has started to dive and EVERY SINGLE TIME the ocean has been CLOSED! You may ask how can the ocean be closed? The Harbor Master closes the ocean due to high winds/rough waves. This means that scuba boats can't go out and the inflatables at the beach clubs need to be brought in. Well...we watched the dive boats rock before we got off the ship and my husband KNEW that his ship diving excursion would be cancelled. Guest Services had no problem refunding his his money. By 12n, they closed the ocean. His dive trip was suppose to be at 12:30 I believe.

So DF, DS, DD and I were suppose to go to Playa Mia for the day, but now we had DH to worry about. We had already paid a deposit for 4 through Shore Excursioner and I did not think there would be a problem adding 1 more. But my DF told my DH to take his place. Thanks Dad! And we were off. This was our 3rd time here. We started before the water park opened and I think it's a nice addition. It has always worked out well because of the scuba dives being cancelled.

Some pics of our day:

when we 1st got there

The swaying palm trees was not a good thing.

When we arrived, they informed us that the sea kayaks were not going to be used due to rough seas (no kidding).

First time ever we made it out to the inflatable. Notice how the life giard has on a winter hat. :) It would eventually be brought in.

DS not quite making it on the obstacle course.

After leaving the cave tubing location, we were taken to our lunch location. This is what we were served. It was delicious. They offered extra helpings if you were still hungry. We were served a soda bottle per person (extra charge if you requested another). And then there was the rum punch. All you want. They even brought some back on the bus with us.

While eating, the owner stopped at our table to thank us for our business.

I would recommend cavetubing.bz for anyone interested in cave tubing in Belize!!!

See the ledge? We had walked along that trail earlier on the way to the caves. The width of the trail was maybe 10-13 feet across.

Our group was all hooked together. Our previous experience was being linked by putting our feet on the tube of the person in front of us (especially in caves)This time, we kind of looked liked a yellow bus.

We got to get up and swim for a bit.

You can see the color difference better in this pic of where we swam.

Pics from inside the caves. We did 2 sets.

Exiting the first cave

This was the entrance of the 2nd cave. I believe it was called the mouth of something..some long ago Mayan story.

Teeny tiny water fall.

Another entrance location

Great photos. Thanks for sharing. Looks like you had a great trip...well, despite the zipline incident with your knee. Ouch. Are the kids supposed to hang upside down on it. Hmm...giving me second thoughts trying it on our ship :D

 

Never heard of cave tubing before. Looks like fun and quite an adventure.

 

How did your little one like the Pullman? They're so smart for extra beds without taking up room.

Our guides did the upside down thing and the kids followed along. Talking with other families that did other zip line excursions, many companies do this. My DS is a dare devil, so this was par for the course.

As for the beds my DD slept on the mini sofa on her 1st cruise (she was 4) because I was afraid of her size and the pull downs. Now, I have no worries and the kids liking sleeping up there. Although DS shares a room with my DF as they both snore.

We went through 2 caves. This is where you enter the water.

A note about the tubes...some had the hole in the middle and some were solid in the middle. That made me happy! The kids were given kid sized ones.

Yes, there were fish in the water.

Entrance into 1st cave.

Once we got to the cave tubing place (the drive was about 45 minutes, not including the time we had to wait for another family to meet up with our bus), I was ready to go. We did have to drop off some people for their ziplining adventure. I assured my kids we would NOT be doing that again.

Changing rooms/restrooms:

Members of our group getting life jackets and helmets.

The tubes:

We did a ship excursion on Carnival in Belize before kids and we had to carry our own tubes. Gasp! Not this time. At the end of our leisurely trek though the woods, our tubes were waiting for us! I didn't think to bring the bug spray as we were going to be in the water, but I forgot all about the walk to the caves. Each kid ended up with 2 bites, but neither one of us adults did. (My df did not do this excursion with us)

last day we did this:

While I was taking pictures, DH was in line at 6:45 to get tender tickets and we were on the first tender. I don't recall what time we got off the ship, but here are some pics from when we were in our tender.

Another tender waiting:

The boat's back end. Notice how high up the rock wall is.

We booked our cave tubing with cavetubing.bz and were very happy with everything! Their employees were easy to spot and we were directed to an area on the breakwall to wait for others to get off the tenders. This is a view of the ship (can you see it) from where we were waiting.

This is what one of the rooms with 1 bunk down looked like.

Day 3 may of been the day that the Chop's Surf and Turf was 50% off in the MDR. (or day 4) The other family ordered it and it was a pretty good sized full lobster and filet that was delivered about 10 minutes after their regular dinner selections were delivered to the table.

Next up: Belize and cave tubing

Hi, great review, we are sailing on her in April. We are driving over early from Orlando on the morning of the cruise, how far is the port from the city, can you embark and then go back ashore and sightsee?

We did all of our transportation by taxi/shuttle, but got stuck in traffic each time. Airport to hotel, hotel to pier, pier to airport- so accurate times I do not know.

There was a small shopping area that was at the port, but it wasn't much. The Tampa Aquarium is next to the port but I would guess you would need at least 2-3 hours to see it.

Sail away was 3pm, so I am not sure I would chance it. I don't know if you could exit the ship after you got on. But I guess you could give your luggage to the porters, then walk around a bit, then get on board if you don't have a ton of carry on stuff.

So, the initial walk up was not bad. I think there were 12 platforms, but I could be wrong. The lack of railing caused me to hug the trees on occasion when landing on one side and having to move to another side. One other piece of advice, keep your legs up high when coming in.

My daughter did not have enough weight (65 pounds) and twice she did not make it to the platform and the guide had to go 'get' her. She stopped about 10-15 feet from the platform and he went out and pulled her in.

tandem

I remember hugging this tree

another fuzzy one

After we left the zipline/monkey spot, we had lunch at some small roadside restaurant the driver suggested. The choices were fish or shrimp, broiled or fried. Great lunch. He stopped at the Cameo Factory before heading back to the ship.

Now, on to the part I was unhappy with. Ziplining. I'm not a fan of heights but I did it anyways. My issue came when I got hurt on one of the platforms. I could not do the 'run and jump off' that my kids were doing, instead I lifted my legs and let gravity win. Well...gravity won. I am not petite, nor am I obese. But when I picked up feet, bending my knees, my knees slammed into the platform. 50 cent piece abrasion on my left knee. Which bled, a lot. But because I was with my kids, I did not make a big deal about it because I did not want them to be worried about me. And all my 1st aid stuff was in the camera bag down on land. So, I dripped blood for 8 or 9 platforms. Yup..not a good thing. We had our guide and a photographer with the 3 of us...I'm guessing the photographer could of gone to get a napkin or something. But, no, that did not happen.

Pics from the photographer. Some came out good, some not so much. The price was $20. I paid it without seeing all the pics because I just wanted to get out of there after getting hurt. Eventually, I was able to get peroxide and a bandaid.

oops, this was from my camera I brought.

now...his pics

first platform. None of them had railings.

bummed by some of the quality

But, he got this. I did not try this!

More pictures on the monkey part of the excursion

This is a lemur. There were 2 and we were able to pet this one.

For this bird, we were able to go in and interact with, but the kids were not fans of the bird's claws.

Love this pic

It was pretty easy to find our driver. Victor Bodden emails pretty clear directions on how to find his drivers. In all of my trips so far, this was my first time to Roatan and I had been looking forward to it.

pilot boat:

I made it!

pic from on top of the hill near the airport:

Our driver was kind and very informative. We asked a TON of questions.

Sunrise and treadmills again.

Luckily, this would end by day 4.

Day 3 was Roatan. My DH went diving through a ship excursion was was happy with it. The other 4 booked with Victor Bodden. We did a private tour and added on the ziplining (kids and I), along with the monkeys.

Here is one on the guys we saw. He did sit on our heads and shoulders and he loved sunflower seeds. He would even check your pockets to see if you were hiding any.

Escapee:

DD chatting with the escapee:

Kids went on the rock wall. They do the one at our local YMCA, but this was better because there was sun involved.

Big screen at the pool deck. They show an endless loop of a Canadian based “Hidden Camera”type show. But it did switch over to this and DS was so excited.

The day we boarded was Valentine's Day. They had some decorations up in the Centrum. They also did a few decorations for Fat Tuesday.

Day 2

Because of how horrible we slept at the hotel the night before, we were in bed pretty early on day 1. DS and I were up darn early so we headed up to walk on deck by 6:15am. DS is a soccer nut and having a week off from practice was going to be hard. We soon realized that running on deck was not going to be a great idea (wet deck), so the treadmills it was. They were full by 6:45. Leisurely breakfast where the child tried to see how many pastries and bacon he could eat in one sitting.

Empty pool:

Sunrise:

Us hardy northerners miss the sunshine and the kids were in the pool by 8:30.

No problem with deck chairs that day. Our Meet and Mingle was at 11am (not the best time for sun lovers). Not much happened this day but the pool and the cool little RC cooler for $30 with 5 Angry Orchards in it for me. (I did not drink them all that day). Our cabin steward kept ice in my bag until they were gone. Refills were $25.

My traveling group included DH, DS 10, DD 8, DF, and myself. Also on board was someone I worked with...we discovered last school year that we would be on the same sailing.

At dinner, we were seated with another family that lives in the same town we do and their kids went to a different elementary school than ours. (We have 4 elem schools). Small world.

During dinner, DH left to get these pics as we sailed.