Just back from the Grand 2/5-2/12-#1 post

[Reneek]

Arrived back home from the Grand Princess this evening and wanted to take a few moments to hit the highlights - I'll write full detail later.

 

SATURDAY: Stayed overnight at Hilton in Galveston (very nice) and proceeded to port at 11AM. Few stragglers disembarking but porters were ready to collect luggage for new comers. Parked at EZ cruise parking ($40/week). DH parked and shuttled back where I and 2 teen girls waited (took 30 min). From Terminal one, went upstairs and quickly thru check in to wait till 12 Noon to embark. Swift and painless. Maybe 200 people in terminal at that point. We were asked to go to Lido deck and wait till 1PM to go to rooms. We did honor this request while others did not. We explored Deck 14 and had the 1st drink of the day - Bloody Mary's - which were excellent. Room was ready to go at 1PM - those Stewards are amazing. We were pleasantly suprised by the size of the mini suite, the fully covered balcony, and the quiteness of the location (Emerald 719). I doubt I ever book another cruise without a balcony! We booked 2nd seating Traditional Dining which has positives and negatives.

SUNDAY: Day at sea. Explored, lounged by the pool and all of us had slight weird patterned (splotchy) sunburns. I guess we didn't rotate enough. Four pool areas and no problem finding chairs, but the pools were frigid.

MONDAY: It was not till reading the first PATTERS that we realized that Grand had changed up the port of calls. We were to go to Costa Maya rather than Belize for the first stop. Kinda threw us off as we had scheduled independent tours. Ended up just shopping in Costa Maya but bought very little. Lounged on the beach area at harbour (no swimming) for awhile. This port offered very little to interest as far as shopping (shop in Cozumel for better prices and less pushy people). Heard the biking tour was a diaster as old rusty bikes (one man's seat fell off and he suffered a nasty gash), snorkling was OK but not fantastic. Have little knowledge about this port, would have skipped to have more time in Belize if it were up to me, so depend on others for an opinion.

TUESDAY: EARLY, EARLY arrival to Belize 6:30AM!!!! We got up early 5:15AM, dressed, ate and caught an early tender to shore. We booked Marvin Deras Wet and Wild Cave Tubing. The rest of our party was already waiting on us to get going. We had little trouble with tendering in this early, but later I heard it was horrible. If you book with Marvin, (all were CC'ers) try to arrange 1st tender as this is a short port stop(6:30-1)and you need EVERY minute. This was truly an awesome tour with a knowledgeable guide, Junior. The "wet" was tubing the cave - the "wild" was the ride there and back. The fourteen of us deserved an "I survived" T-shirt and the front seat passenger needed a change of undergarment. This was absolutely the best tour off ship I have ever taken. The trek thru the jungle was informative, the tubing thru these caves was a magnificent experience. There was a 45 minute walk thru a wide path in the jungle-(no scary creatures) but you need GOOD thick water shoes/tennis that can survive the trek and the water. The river was Very Clean, so no worry there. It was however shallow in areas and many suffered bruises to the butt! There was little current in a lot of areas which required paddleing with your arms to move along. A few areas had small rapids which would propel you swiftly along. I was totally fatigued at the end of the trip, walked the last 100 yards of the trip as my butt was dragging and literally polishing the stones, however the rest remained in the tubes till the end. The ships tour only did one cave - we did two (or more).

We made it back to port at 12:50 - but no worry, there were over 500 people in line for the tenders back to the ship. Princess needs work on the tendering technicalities.

More on the Grand to follow.....