Aug. 15th Legend Family Cruise...with Photos

[AryMay]

AryMay I have to let you know that because of your beautiful underwater pictures, I just ordered the Canon D10. We tried a disposable underwater camera last time & the pictures were also disposable too! We are on the Legend on Oct 17 & are going to do a Discovery Dive, Snorkeling & Cave Tubing, so I hope the camera comes thru for me.

 

Your cruise is coming up so soon! (I am jealous!) I hope the camera works out for you. It has so many settings...but I am a "lazy" photographer and usually just use the AUTO setting or a few of the presets (like underwater and sunset mode.)

 

It is so scary to put the camera in the water the first time...just make sure all of your little "doors" are shut tight! The other thing to remember...after using it in salt water, soak it for a few hours in fresh water. When I got back to the ship I would run a sink full of water in the bathroom and put the camera in and just leave it.

 

Is this your first Discover Dive? Where are you doing it? I have done a couple and both times I trusted my DH to get some photos (back when we were using the disposable cameras.) Once he forgot the camera...and the other time he lost it!! I have no "picture proof" to show I ever did the dives!

[AryMay]

"DS3 just graduated this past May with a degree in Marketing and had just started a position with Farleys & Sathers…a large candy company. (They own a lot of other companies as well…like Brachs.) What a surprise to walk in the grocery store in Roatan and right by the front door find a huge display of Sather’s candy!"

 

He should volunteer to be the employee who checks out these displays on a regular basis....you know, you need to make sure they are prominently displayed, prices are easy to find, etc. If he needs an assistant.....I would gladly volunteer my services. :D

 

Even better...instead of VOLUNTEERING...he should get them to PAY him to do that job! Actually I'm pretty sure they do have such a position because they have some pretty major accounts in Latin America!

[IMANITA]

Your cruise is coming up so soon! (I am jealous!) I hope the camera works out for you. It has so many settings...but I am a "lazy" photographer and usually just use the AUTO setting or a few of the presets (like underwater and sunset mode.)

 

It is so scary to put the camera in the water the first time...just make sure all of your little "doors" are shut tight! The other thing to remember...after using it in salt water, soak it for a few hours in fresh water. When I got back to the ship I would run a sink full of water in the bathroom and put the camera in and just leave it.

 

Is this your first Discover Dive? Where are you doing it? I have done a couple and both times I trusted my DH to get some photos (back when we were using the disposable cameras.) Once he forgot the camera...and the other time he lost it!! I have no "picture proof" to show I ever did the dives!

 

I am definately not a professional photographer & will probably use the presets too. Thanks for the tips! I am so excited for my camera to arrive, but I've read several reviews that the camera leaked & wasn't covered under warranty.That kinda scares me. I did order the floating camera strap though, so hopefully I won't lose it like your husband. That's sad :(

 

This will be my second Discovery Dive. My 1st was almost 10 yrs ago on my honeymoon in Tahiti. It was awesome! I didn't know until then that you could actually sweat under water! I only have pictures of us in our gear, but none under water either. This time we are going to try Roatan. I booked thru Island Marketing & they assigned us to a company called Anemone out of Fosters Resort.

 

I feel like I am going to burst with excitement before these 3 weeks pass!!! So much to look forward to. Thanks so much for your review & your pics, it makes the anticipation even better.

[sbaas95]

Thanks for such a great review of the Legend! My fiancee and I just booked our honeymoon on the Legend for next July, and this is getting me super excited! Can't wait to read the last final entries!

[AryMay]

Roatan continued...

 

I purposely hadn’t told the kids many details about what we would be doing at each port. They make fun of me enough as it is for being an “over-zealous” planner…I didn’t want to go overboard with information for fear of ridicule.

 

The first the kids knew about monkeys in Roatan was when we got in the van and Francisco started reviewing what I had requested for the tour. The monkeys are part of a “mini zoo” in the yard of Victor’s house and with an admission of $5 each you can go into the cages and “play”. I think my expectations were a bit too high and I was a little disappointed. There weren’t as many monkeys as I had imagined and the cages were much smaller than I envisioned. I worry that the monkeys get handled too much…but then again I’m not an expert on monkeys. Maybe they enjoy all the stimulation & attention. Don’t get me wrong…I did have fun…and the kids LOVED the experience.

 

When you arrive, you pay the admission and you are assigned a “guide” who takes you from cage to cage telling you about the animals. Our first furry friend was an anteater. As soon as someone would come close he would press his back up against the cage hoping to get his back scratched.

 

 

Nothing unusual to us…but there was a caged squirrel and some deer. Cute…but something I can see regularly in Minnesota. For $5 I guess you are limited on what you can offer. (It cost my DH thousands of dollars the last time he saw a deer…it nearly totaled his car!)

 

[AryMay]

Roatan continued...

 

When we got to the monkey cages it was worth the admission price for me just to watch the kids have fun with the monkeys!

 

 

 

The little critters would jump from person to person…looking in pockets…trying to open purses, picking at beads on my shirt, etc. This guy was obsessed with trying to get the button off the top of DS3’s hat!

 

 

I’ve heard the phrase “barrel of monkeys”…but Victor had a “bundle of monkeys”! These three little guys would cling to each other and turn into a little monkey ball when you held them.

 

 

 

[AryMay]

Roatan continued...

 

After the monkeys we saw a toucan in a cage and then got to spend some time with parrots. DS2 got a good scalp massage from these guys!

 

 

 

The birds picked up where the monkeys left off and tried to pry off the button on DS3’s cap!

 

 

There is a small gift shop next to the animal cages and DIL and I each bought a round inlaid wooden box filled with coasters. I bought it with the intention of giving it as a gift…but I liked it so much I decided to keep it for myself! We saw these same types of boxes at other places…and even in Belize…but the prices at Victor’s shop seemed to be the lowest.

 

When emailing Victor to plan our day he told me to make sure that we ask our guide to find him so he could say “hello”. Before I even had a chance to say anything that morning, Francisco told me that Victor was sorry but he wouldn’t be able to see us that day. He is building a new house and had gone to the mainland to get supplies.

 

What a surprise when I came out of the gift shop and there was Victor! He had made it back earlier than he thought and he was looking for me! How fun to see him again after 6 years! Victor is such a humble, considerate person and I’m so glad that his business is doing well.

 

A couple of photos of the flowers in Victor’s yard…I am always amazed by the foliage in the Caribbean!

 

 

[AryMay]

Roatan continued...

 

Next stop…West End…a kind of a fun, quirky place on the island of Roatan. There are lots of little stores, places to eat, dive shops and little cabins to rent for the night. The roads are unpaved and made of sand. It just felt like a really laid-back type of place. By the time we got here the kids were getting hungry. None of us wanted to take much time to stop at a restaurant so the kids ask Francisco if he could find us some quick authentic Honduran food. He pulled up alongside a little food stand on the side of the road and ordered “baleadas”. He told the lady working there that we would be back to pick them up shortly.

 

I knew the kids…especially the guys…would enjoy having a beer to go with their food so Francisco stopped at a tiny little store where we were able to buy some local beer and Diet Coke for sister and I. We were all so thirsty that we couldn’t wait until we got the food!

 

 

 

Here is what I found on Wikipedia: Baleadas are one of Honduras's most original and popular foods. A baleada is a wheat flour tortilla, often quite thick, folded in half and filled with mashed fried beans. This is the no-frills baleada. People may also add other ingredients. The most common types of baleadas are the baleadas sencilla (simple baleada) which has crumbled cheese and cream. The other baleada is the baleada mixta (mixed baleada) which has same as the baleada simple but with an additional scrambled eggs. Many other people add sausage, plantain, hot sauce, avocado, chicken, pork and chimol which is diced tomato, onion and bell pepper. The big Honduran towns often have more than one restaurant that sells baleadas.

 

Francisco explained that you could get baleadas at quite a few places on the island but if you went to some of the tourist places they would charge around $5 a piece. We stopped back to get our order and it was $11 for 8 baleadas! (Ours contained chicken, beans and cheese.)

 

After picking up our order, Francisco pulled over and we found a couple of rickety old wooden benches to sit on while we ate. The kids insist that this was one of their favorite meals of the whole cruise!

 

 

 

 

[adamsfly]

I found your review and loved reading it....it helped passed the afternoon here at work :). Those monkeys were adorable when rolled like a ball.

[CFitzRN]

Awesome addendum as usual! We too really enjoyed Victor's animals - he has definitely added quite a few since we were there 2 years ago. The baby capuchins are SO cute. The little capuchin I was holding opened my backpack and climbed in, looking for food. Then he jumped to my husband and started looking into the viewfinder of the video camera while husband filmed the kids. He was a SCAMP! My kids totally and thoroughly enjoyed Victor's place.

[AryMay]

Roatan continued...

 

We had brought all of our snorkel equipment with us and the plan was to spend part of the afternoon at the beach. After having a bite to eat, the kids all unanimously decided that they would much rather continue touring the island than snorkel. Francisco suggested that we just make a quick stop to see the beach…but not stay.

 

He took us the Infinity Bay Resort. We walked through the area by the pool to get down to the beach.

 

 

If I’m not mistaken if you looked in one direction you were seeing Tabyana Beach and if you looked the other way you were seeing the beach in front of Bananarama. But I will be the first to admit I don’t always remember everything!

 

 

We just stayed long enough to get our feet wet and then headed back to the van.

[AryMay]

Roatan continued...

 

DIL’s one big request for the day was to visit a school. I tried to describe the school that my friend and I had visited six years ago and Francisco thought perhaps they weren’t on strike like the other schools. Once we got there and I saw it I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the same school AND we discovered the teachers had just gone on strike that same day!

 

 

 

There were still a lot of kids hanging around however. We had brought some school supplies that we gave to the teachers to distribute to the kids and DS3 had brought some candy to hand out. (The kids thought it was neat that he worked in a candy factory!)

 

 

 

 

I teach in a small, rural school in a 100-year old building…but it seems modern by comparison to the classrooms we saw. The teachers told us that a thousand kids go to this modest school and there are two shifts to accommodate everyone. I’m sure DIL will be telling her geography students all about her day in Roatan and what the school was like.

 

[AryMay]

Roatan Conclusion!

 

By the time we left the school it was time to head back to the ship. (We had to be back onboard at 5:30 pm for 6 pm sail away.) Francisco dropped us off right at the entrance to Mahogany Bay and we said our good-bye’s. What a great day we had!

 

 

A little shopping and then back on the ship to shower and change for dinner. It was fun to tell DH and DS1 all about our adventures and to hear about their day diving.

 

I will end this post with just a few more random photos that I took from around the island…and then start writing about our FABULOUS day in Belize!

 

 

 

 

 

[CFitzRN]

We chose to snorkel at Half Moon Bay and it was really excellent in Roatan. We saw a stone fish (and my son got way too close to it, ack!), a sea snake, and tons of amazingly colorful fish. I was snorkeling with my then-10 year old son and when we saw the sea snake, he screamed through his snorkel and I started laughing so hard I swallowed a bunch of seawater, haha.

[poptart]

Was so happy to find your review this evening. Loving every word and picture.

To date the Legend is my favorite ship. Sailing on the Dream in 3 weeks and doing the exact same intinerary as the Legend. Can't wait.

 

Thanks for your diligence and hard work to finish the review. Lots of time life gets in the way and reviews are never finished. :(

 

Happy Sails!

[mariamherrera]

wow small world! I lived in worthinton most of life! I wonder if I went to school with any of your kids! I was class of 2001. how old are your kids and their spouses? one of them looks really familiar in your pics!

 

 

I've been so happy reading your review! I hope the weather holds up for us in Roaton as nicely as it did for you guys! Im going in November and I've heard it's the rainy season there! we will be taking a tour with Victors tours as well!

[gelboydad]

I am really enjoying your review. We are looking at another cruise for late next year and this one is high on my list for a future cruise. Actually I almost booked it for thanksgiving 2011 cruise.

 

You are doing a great job. I think I will bookmark this thread to make sure I can use it for future reference.

 

thanks.

[AryMay]

Belize

 

It is Friday already...and our last port of call for the cruise.

 

For DS3 and GF the day started early…they got up to see the sunrise…the rest of us got a little more sleep. Our arrival time to Belize was 8 am…last returning tender 4 pm…set sail at 5 pm.

 

 

After strongly considering a snorkel tour for Belize I eventually decided to do the cave tubing. DH and I had already done this…but I wanted the kids to have the experience as well. I mean how often do you get a chance to float on a river through caves?? I read every review on Cruise Critic and also Trip Advisor pertaining to the different tubing tours and eventually contacted Vitalino Reyes with cave tubing dot bz. There wasn’t too much information about his tours on CC, but all of the reviews on TA were very positive. I was especially interested because it sounded like we could have a private tour with just our family.

 

Vito was very prompt in answering all of my emails. My sister has difficulty walking and Vito was willing to try and do anything possible to allow her to take part in the tour with us. In the end she decided to not go with us and instead did a horse-drawn carriage tour of Belize City. If you have any questions about that, just ask as she has been reading this review and will probably answer.

 

A few days before we left for the cruise Vito called me at home to see if we were still planning on the tour and make sure everything was in order. Since he doesn’t require payment until after the tour I’m sure he just wanted to make sure we showed up…but I also thought it was a nice gesture to make the personal phone call.

 

There is no cruise ship dock in Belize so the Legend anchored waaaaayyyy off shore. To get to the port require a very long tender ride. I was worried about getting on one of the early tenders because we needed to get an early start to our tour. Traveling to the caves is quite a trip and I didn’t want to worry about running late at the end of the day.

 

The FUN TIMES said anyone wanting to go ashore before 9:30 am should go to the Follies Lounge after 8 am…and only when the entire party is present and ready to leave the ship. I assumed we would have to wait until all of the Carnival tours had left before we would be allowed on a tender. When we got to the lounge we were all given numbered stickers…ours was “10”…and we sat down to wait. What a surprise when our group (the non-Carnival tour people) was about the 3rd or 4th group called to the tenders! We were lead by a Carnival employee through the hallways down to the gangway on Deck A…a very organized and civil way to disembark. (I still have memories of the mob scene trying to get tenders on one of our earlier cruises!)

 

The tender ride takes about 15 to 20 minutes even with the boat moving very FAST and if you were sitting next to an open section…you will get sprayed!

 

 

 

[AryMay]

Belize continued...

 

Once on shore we followed Vito’s instructions and went through Terminal 1 and found the cave tubing dot bz guys in their yellow shirts. I still am not quite sure what our guide’s name was…but it sounded like FABULOUS…and that’s what we called him all day!

 

We followed Fabulous down the street a bit to where we were to wait for our van. DS1 had to point out the Radisson Hotel…his employer!

 

 

 

This photo gives you some perspective into how far out the Legend was anchored.

 

 

When the van arrived our family of 7 was grouped with another couple and their two college-aged daughters. Vito, Jr. drove the van while Fabulous acted as our guide.

 

Just a short distance from the port we stopped at a roadside food stand (which Fabulous called “Belize fast food”) and Vito picked up bottled water for everyone. Fabulous said many locals come to these food stands to pick up breakfast each morning. (Sorry for the poor quality…it was taken through the van window and has a bit of a glare.)

 

[Crusin Karen]

Just found this...it is FABULOUS and your pics make me foam at the mouth! :eek: I have 2 DS'es and we have cruised with them and their then DG'es a few times. Now they are married and have little babies...and I am thinking are going to have MORE little babies! :D But some day I am hoping to do one more cruise with them and the little ones. I am glad you had this wonderful time together as a family and thank you so much for sharing it. :)

[Eeyoregon]

Belize...you can't leave us hanging :p!!!

 

Q: In Roatan, is local time and ship time the same?? I am SOOOOOO confused about the times in each port vs. ship time. We have independent excursions booked in all 4 ports and I am having a heck of a time knowing when we need to be at the various places?! :rolleyes:

 

Gina

[Lady_Jag]

Belize...you can't leave us hanging :p!!!

 

Q: In Roatan, is local time and ship time the same?? I am SOOOOOO confused about the times in each port vs. ship time. We have independent excursions booked in all 4 ports and I am having a heck of a time knowing when we need to be at the various places?! :rolleyes:

 

Gina

 

If I may butt in again - Roatan is 2 hours behind ship time (11am ship time=9am Roatan). Belize is also 2 hours behind.

 

Cozumel and Grand Cayman are 1 hour behind ship time.

 

If you have a Mozilla Firefox browser, you can download a free add-on called "FoxClocks." It puts the current local time of any country and time zone you wish in the status bar of your browser. I use this to track the local times of India (for work) and the ports for my upcoming cruise (currently Cayman Islands, Cancun/Cozumel, Honduras, and Belize).

 

:)

[djmaine]

I'm really enjoying your review and look forward to the rest.

 

I would love to hear more on the carrage ride. could we have some good details about it.

 

How you chose the carrage.

How long was the ride.

where did they take you

Did you feel safe

Did you do any stops

 

We have 2 little kids with us on our cruise and I want to feel that they are total comfortable and safe.

 

I would love to do the cave tubing but with a 4 year old there isn't a lot to do in port.

[kml2000]

I'm really enjoying your review and look forward to the rest.

 

I would love to hear more on the carrage ride. could we have some good details about it.

 

How you chose the carrage.

How long was the ride.

where did they take you

Did you feel safe

Did you do any stops

 

We have 2 little kids with us on our cruise and I want to feel that they are total comfortable and safe.

 

I would love to do the cave tubing but with a 4 year old there isn't a lot to do in port.

 

I am interested in this also. I want to do something different in Belize from a beach day - which DD is ALL about. However, we will probably end up snorkeling.

 

Can you also include an approximate cost?

[Eeyoregon]

If I may butt in again - Roatan is 2 hours behind ship time (11am ship time=9am Roatan). Belize is also 2 hours behind.

 

Cozumel and Grand Cayman are 1 hour behind ship time.

 

If you have a Mozilla Firefox browser, you can download a free add-on called "FoxClocks." It puts the current local time of any country and time zone you wish in the status bar of your browser. I use this to track the local times of India (for work) and the ports for my upcoming cruise (currently Cayman Islands, Cancun/Cozumel, Honduras, and Belize).

 

:)[/quote

 

:D Thanks!!! :D