Review of Caribbean Princess-W Carib out of Houston 3/15/14-3/22/14

[cruzrbachoua]

Hi there I said I would do a review when I got back and I am just now getting to it...sorry for the delay. I will do this in installments for each day.

 

3/14/14-3/15/14

 

 

We woke up at zero dark thirty to catch our flight from San Diego to Houston. Flight was great and uneventful. We actually got into Houston a little earlier than planned. Once off the plane we made our way down to baggage claim where while descending the escalator I saw the Princess rep and our transfer driver (holding a sign with our name) standing side by side. It is such a small thing but it makes me feel so special when I see that. We walked up and greeted them. We traveled with another couple and the Princess rep said we would all be going in the same car. While the men went off to get the luggage along with the driver us ladies stayed and chatted with the Princess rep. She told us there was already a rep at The Four Seasons and when we got there she would give us the info on the transfer to the ship for Saturday. Once we got all our luggage we were off…it was a nice black suburban vehicle they had for us. We even had some extra room. We arrived at the hotel around 12:30 to 1. Our flight landed roughly 11:30 ish. The hotel is gorgeous! While checking in Rick (sminfiddle) showed up with a case of water for us….so nice. It was unexpected and GREATLY APPRECIATED! We handed it and our luggage off to the bellman and finished our check in. Once finished with that the Princess rep appeared behind us. She gave us our welcome letter and told us about the hotel and area. Told us our luggage would be collected the next day starting at around 9:30am and to meet in the lobby no later than 11:45 am on Saturday 3/15/14. Then off to our wonderful room. We were in room 1703 overlooking the main street and the sky bridge that attached up to The Shops At Houston Center which was a mall right next door. Our friends were on the 7th floor and they overlooked the pool. After rapid fire photos of the rooms we were off to explore the hotel and area. We walked up the street to Phoencia Market where we grabbed some wonderful pita bread and a chocolate chip cookie as a snack. Our friends got some slices of pizza. We then wandered around through the mall checking out the food selections. We walked up a couple blocks to the CVS where our friends got their bottles of wine and a case of water.

 

We decided to eat at Tejas Grill Sports Bar. It was empty except for about a handful of other customers. It was seat yourself so we found a table and perused the menu. We ordered the Stuffed Avocado for DH and I had the Juicy Lucy Burger with the wheat bun. I believe our friends ordered the Rare Seared Tuna and the Tejas Chicken…..all was very delicious. For dessert we shared a Pizookie and a slice of Chocoloate Mousse Cake. While the place was nice and the food was fabulous our waiter lacked a bit. He was very friendly and personable and chatty…….however his knowledge of the menu and skills as a waiter needed some improvement. That however didn’t stop us from enjoying our meal. Oh and also we were given a basket of tortilla chips and 2 different salsas.

 

After dinner we wandered around a bit then headed back to the hotel. Our friends took a dip in the pool while I was a bit chilled so we sat with our feet in the water and lounged. Afterwards we all went back to our rooms where sadly I had a bit of a family emergency. My mother called and was unable to get into our house were our 4-legged daughter was now stuck….for a week if we couldn’t get her a key or into the house. We jetted down to the concierge where we spoke with Stephen who was able to call fedex and after some time (this was now past 9pm) get someone to come out and get our key/pkg and take it to the airport to have it delivered by 2pm the next day or noon California time. He stayed past his shift to make sure it was picked up and the next morning Ted was on duty and was tracking it for us when we arrived on our way to breakfast. For breakfast we headed up the street about 2 blocks to Starbucks for some yummies we took back to our room. When we got back Ted told us the flight had taken off with our package and was on the way. Just a little past 9:30 am the bellman came round for our luggage and a bit later we met our friends in the lobby. The transfer busses were running a little behind and by the time they got there it had started raining…boo. We all made it on to the 2 busses with our bags and were off. Our bus driver was a rock star as well. As we were nearing the port a huge truck pulled out right in front of our bus cutting him off. Our driver hit the breaks to avoid it……then realized….the truck was hauling a huge yellow construction machine and hit the brakes a bit harder….narrowly avoiding all of it. YEAH!!! The entire bus erupted in applause for our driver. We made it to the terminal where they told us since it was raining not to worry about claiming our bags from under the bus that they would handle taking them off and handing them off to the local terminal workers to get on the ship…..we all thanked them and ran for cover and into the terminal.

We got to the terminal roughly 1:30pm. We were Platinum level and able to bring our friends with us. So we joined the line on the right which went quicker than the other one. While in line I got the text that our package arrived from my mom. We got our cruise card and headed for the embarkation pic area. We had about probably 20 people in front of us when she called and I could hear our little one whining and barking in the background……all was ok! We happily took our photo then headed for the gangway. Off to our rooms then off for a light snack in the buffet. They were doing the hand sanitizer (which I loved) and handing out plates and utensils. After eating we headed back to our rooms to unpack a little then gathered for muster. After that we went back to the room unpacked a little more and then off to dinner as we had first seating at 5:45 pm. Sadly we did not sail at 4pm but right as we were sitting down for dinner. We were in the palm dining room near the back about 1 table away from the window so we saw a bit of sail away. After dinner we went to the opening show in the princess theatre since that one usually shows a bit of each of the upcoming entertainers. It was good. After that we wandered around the ship a bit then retired for the evening as our friends were a bit overwhelmed being their first cruise and all. We went back finished unpacking and setting our room up and then night time. Sorry this is so long, but more to come…I will sign off for now while I work on gathering my thoughts for the next days activities…;)

Edited March 29, 2014 by cruzrbachoua

[lovevacadays]

Thanks for writing a review, Cassandra. Looking forward to your next installment.:)

[greenie082756]

Thank you for taking the time to tell of your adventure! Enjoying it completely!

[Daisyforme]

Enjoying your review--thanks.

[nnzz]

Thanks for the review. We are staying several days at the Four Seasons.

Interested in whether the Princess rep was there to offer any tours, info etc.,

Glad to hear the hotel is so nice.

[cruzrbachoua]

3/16/14-Sea Day

Ahh our first sea day…I had asked/planned for this day to be a nothing day….just lots of sun worshipping, reading, napping and eating! We woke up around 7 am I believe which is late for us since we normally wake up at 4 am at home. We slowly got up and ready and by ready I mean teeth and hair brushed, face washed and my yoga/jog suit on. We met in the hallway with our friends whose room was right next door. We headed up to the buffet and the lovely food awaiting us. They were still enforcing the hand sanitizer which I love and will gladly do. They also were still handing out the plates and silverware wrapped in napkins. Holding the silverware made it a little difficult to hold the plate and serve ourselves but believe me we found a way…lol. Once the food was piled on off to a table which we found rather quickly by the window no less. We had a variety of items between us and ate it all. After we were done we wandered around on the Lido deck testing out the temperature to see if it was warm enough for my lazy day…it was warm enough however those winds were crazy…… but we found a spot that seemed less windy. There were plenty of seats available so we ran back to the room lathered up the sunscreen got our swimsuits on and found our spots still open. We found a nice quiet spot to lay and relax. The men jumped in the pool while us gals stayed and read our books. After a bit the men returned and napped while we read or napped. We had plans to check out Zumba to see if it was something we wanted to do, but just got caught up in food and lounging.

 

From noon to 2 pm Café Caribe was serving Mexican buffet in honor of us heading into Cozumel. The food was good but let me say that this was not your average backyard Mexican buffet. No refried beans, melted cheese for nachos….this was a more refined upscale Mexican buffet. Food was still good though. I got some food from there a salad from Horizon court and dessert was some soft serve over in Scoops. I believe we headed over to food around 1 pm or so and after done eating wandered around the ship working off some of that grub. We went to the internet café to sign up for our free 150 minutes each of internet time…part of the platinum perks! It was easy except in my excitement I didn’t notice that they want birthday entered day/month/year and I did it month/day/year……ooops… no worries the internet manager showed me what to do and poof all better. I checked in back home and all was good and then since we were all a little sun baked we decided to head back early to our rooms to get ready for our first formal night.

 

We met up in the hallway at about 5 and headed down for those formal pics with the photographers. They had a new background we had not seen; of course it has been 7 years since we have done a Caribbean cruise so that could be why. We took our photos and made our way down to the Palm Dining room. Food once again was scrumptious. After dinner we wandered a bit in our formal attire. The show in the theatre was “Do you wanna dance”, we had seen it before and our friends were not interested in it. So we changed into some comfy lounge outfits and hit the decks just wandering around and enjoying the lovely sea air. We sat out by Outrigger for a while just watching the wake and chatting about what our friends thought so far. We agreed on a time to meet up tomorrow for breakfast before we headed out to Cozumel. We retired to our rooms and I read while DH played on his kindle fire before we finally went to sleep. All in all it was the day I had wanted a lot of nothing but beautiful scenery and relaxing…more to come.

Edited March 30, 2014 by cruzrbachoua

[cruzrbachoua]

Thanks for the review. We are staying several days at the Four Seasons.

Interested in whether the Princess rep was there to offer any tours, info etc.,

Glad to hear the hotel is so nice.

 

When we arrived Friday afternoon the Princess rep was there already. We did not ask about tours. I am assuming you mean tours of Houston right? She did tell us of the bar and some local restaurants though. I can tell you when we arrived 3 days before the cruise in NY and stayed at the hotel the Princess rep did not arrive until Friday early evening. So if you are coming into Houston more than 1 day early and staying at the Four Seasons I do not believe the rep will be there. But the hotel concierge will be able to tell of the local things to do. Our driver also gave us some info on our way as we got closer to downtown. There is a park not far from the hotel and he said it was a very safe area to be out in after dark as well. I would reccommend the hotel pool, even though we only stuck our feet in since we had no time for suits to dry it was quite nice and has a hot tub. I have uploaded pics of our cruise to my shutterfly account...the link is in my signature.

[Colo Cruiser]

Hi there I said I would do a review when I got back and I am just now getting to it...sorry for the delay. I will do this in installments for each day.

 

3/14/14-3/15/14

 

 

We woke up at zero dark thirty to catch our flight from San Diego to Houston. Flight was great and uneventful. We actually got into Houston a little earlier than planned. Once off the plane we made our way down to baggage claim where while descending the escalator I saw the Princess rep and our transfer driver (holding a sign with our name) standing side by side. It is such a small thing but it makes me feel so special when I see that. We walked up and greeted them. We traveled with another couple and the Princess rep said we would all be going in the same car. While the men went off to get the luggage along with the driver us ladies stayed and chatted with the Princess rep. She told us there was already a rep at The Four Seasons and when we got there she would give us the info on the transfer to the ship for Saturday. Once we got all our luggage we were off…it was a nice black suburban vehicle they had for us. We even had some extra room. We arrived at the hotel around 12:30 to 1. Our flight landed roughly 11:30 ish. The hotel is gorgeous! While checking in Rick (sminfiddle) showed up with a case of water for us….so nice. It was unexpected and GREATLY APPRECIATED! We handed it and our luggage off to the bellman and finished our check in. Once finished with that the Princess rep appeared behind us. She gave us our welcome letter and told us about the hotel and area. Told us our luggage would be collected the next day starting at around 9:30am and to meet in the lobby no later than 11:45 am on Saturday 3/15/14. Then off to our wonderful room. We were in room 1703 overlooking the main street and the sky bridge that attached up to The Shops At Houston Center which was a mall right next door. Our friends were on the 7th floor and they overlooked the pool. After rapid fire photos of the rooms we were off to explore the hotel and area. We walked up the street to Phoencia Market where we grabbed some wonderful pita bread and a chocolate chip cookie as a snack. Our friends got some slices of pizza. We then wandered around through the mall checking out the food selections. We walked up a couple blocks to the CVS where our friends got their bottles of wine and a case of water.

 

We decided to eat at Tejas Grill Sports Bar. It was empty except for about a handful of other customers. It was seat yourself so we found a table and perused the menu. We ordered the Stuffed Avocado for DH and I had the Juicy Lucy Burger with the wheat bun. I believe our friends ordered the Rare Seared Tuna and the Tejas Chicken…..all was very delicious. For dessert we shared a Pizookie and a slice of Chocoloate Mousse Cake. While the place was nice and the food was fabulous our waiter lacked a bit. He was very friendly and personable and chatty…….however his knowledge of the menu and skills as a waiter needed some improvement. That however didn’t stop us from enjoying our meal. Oh and also we were given a basket of tortilla chips and 2 different salsas.

 

After dinner we wandered around a bit then headed back to the hotel. Our friends took a dip in the pool while I was a bit chilled so we sat with our feet in the water and lounged. Afterwards we all went back to our rooms where sadly I had a bit of a family emergency. My mother called and was unable to get into our house were our 4-legged daughter was now stuck….for a week if we couldn’t get her a key or into the house. We jetted down to the concierge where we spoke with Stephen who was able to call fedex and after some time (this was now past 9pm) get someone to come out and get our key/pkg and take it to the airport to have it delivered by 2pm the next day or noon California time. He stayed past his shift to make sure it was picked up and the next morning Ted was on duty and was tracking it for us when we arrived on our way to breakfast. For breakfast we headed up the street about 2 blocks to Starbucks for some yummies we took back to our room. When we got back Ted told us the flight had taken off with our package and was on the way. Just a little past 9:30 am the bellman came round for our luggage and a bit later we met our friends in the lobby. The transfer busses were running a little behind and by the time they got there it had started raining…boo. We all made it on to the 2 busses with our bags and were off. Our bus driver was a rock star as well. As we were nearing the port a huge truck pulled out right in front of our bus cutting him off. Our driver hit the breaks to avoid it……then realized….the truck was hauling a huge yellow construction machine and hit the brakes a bit harder….narrowly avoiding all of it. YEAH!!! The entire bus erupted in applause for our driver. We made it to the terminal where they told us since it was raining not to worry about claiming our bags from under the bus that they would handle taking them off and handing them off to the local terminal workers to get on the ship…..we all thanked them and ran for cover and into the terminal.

We got to the terminal roughly 1:30pm. We were Platinum level and able to bring our friends with us. So we joined the line on the right which went quicker than the other one. While in line I got the text that our package arrived from my mom. We got our cruise card and headed for the embarkation pic area. We had about probably 20 people in front of us when she called and I could hear our little one whining and barking in the background……all was ok! We happily took our photo then headed for the gangway. Off to our rooms then off for a light snack in the buffet. They were doing the hand sanitizer (which I loved) and handing out plates and utensils. After eating we headed back to our rooms to unpack a little then gathered for muster. After that we went back to the room unpacked a little more and then off to dinner as we had first seating at 5:45 pm. Sadly we did not sail at 4pm but right as we were sitting down for dinner. We were in the palm dining room near the back about 1 table away from the window so we saw a bit of sail away. After dinner we went to the opening show in the princess theatre since that one usually shows a bit of each of the upcoming entertainers. It was good. After that we wandered around the ship a bit then retired for the evening as our friends were a bit overwhelmed being their first cruise and all. We went back finished unpacking and setting our room up and then night time. Sorry this is so long, but more to come…I will sign off for now while I work on gathering my thoughts for the next days activities…;)

 

Thanks for the review.

Were you staying in a Princess arranged hotel? Or did you book the hotel on your own?

Edited March 30, 2014 by Colo Cruiser

[cruzrbachoua]

Thanks for the review.

Were you staying in a Princess arragened hotel? Or did you book the hotel on your own?

 

It was arranged by Princess.

[cruzrbachoua]

3/17/14-Cozumel

 

Today was St Patricks Day…I sadly had no green bathing suit but did have a dress for dinner…but I get ahead of myself. Our original tour was to meat/leave at around 9 am and were given a note that said we were to now meet on the dock at 9:50 am. We met our friends downstairs at about 7 am ish in the International Café for breakfast. We were doing the Passion Island beach break and lunch so we just grab some stuff to hold us over until we got to the tour…plus who wants to eat a lot then go lay out in a bathing suit……ugh. Lol. We finished our breakfast and were able to get up on the promenade deck and watch us sailing in. We passed right by the Ruby Princess docked at the International Pier right across the way and the Carnival Dream was making its last moves to get close to the dock as we were approaching. We watched our mooring lines be tossed to the dock and us being secured. When we saw that the gangways were starting to be brought out we headed in to get down to the gangways. Shortly after 8 am ish we were off and on our way to do some shopping before we had to meet up with our tour group. We got all our shopping done and were able to take some great pics of our ship at dock and of the shopping plaza. We met our tour and headed for the boat to take us to the island. We did not do the twister one just the regular boat…..which is a good thing because we found our guide Alex who we had 7 years ago on this very same tour! He was still great. We made it to Passion Island and found our spots, then headed for the buffet and open bar. Food was good and served quickly. The bar had several options including corona beer and several mixed drinks. I tried a Passion punch and an Aquamarine…..I am a lightweight as I don’t drink very often, if at all and after a few sips I was ready for my lounger…lol. Just because it is free does not mean they skimp on the booze baby! They had added some new water toys from last time we were there. A water slide and some odd obstacle thing. The water was a little cooler than I remembered from last time but got used to it…….well that is until some odd white/clear looking fish attacked me! I looked down and it kept swim bombing my leg…….finally I was like ok I get it this is your house I will get out! So I wandered up to our chairs and relaxed a bit. Went and did some shopping, then off to explore the beach. Just walking along the crystal blue waters without a care in the world…ahh amazing. When we came back we saw some hammocks had opened up so we all headed for them. Nothing quite like swinging in the breeze, I could have stayed forever…but sadly our time had ended and we heard Alex and his team calling us to get our last drinks and head for our boat. We grabbed a drink or 2 to go and boarded our tour boat…….then all of a sudden out of nowhere a storm came. About halfway back we had crammed all the people from the top deck into the bottom covered deck and they were pulling down the plastic window things on the side of the boat. We knew they would keep us safe and it was like an adventure ride. They did some singing and played some music to keep us all entertained. We made is safely back to dock and with the rain now coming harder and sideways we all ran for the ship…looking back it was hilarious to watch us all who were already wet from the beach run for the shelter of the stores and or ship…lol. Had it not been for the temperature drop and the fact the rain felt like needles hitting you it wouldn’t have been so bad. It is crazy though to see the change in the view from when we first arrive to our trip back to the ship. I posted those pics as well on my shutterfly account in my signature. But hey at least the rain came at the end of the day.

 

We got aboard and went straight to our rooms as it was close to 3:30 or so. So we just started slowing getting ready for dinner. I checked in with home again with those nifty free minutes from the comfort of our room on the kindle fire…LOVED IT! We met out in the hallway about 5:20 ish and went looking for a spot to take some pics of ourselves then headed for dinner. After dinner we changed into our comfies again and headed to the 8:15 showing of Comedian Peter Sasso. He was good although he did have some moments of…”oh no he just did not go there” jokes. But for the most part he was good. The best part was later in the week I heard another passenger repeating one of his jokes as a statement as if he thought it up…..lol. After the show we wandered around a bit stopped and listened to some music here and there but were sun bake tired and our friends had a scuba tour the next day so we retired to our rooms. We watched a movie on tv for a bit before the day finally took me off to sleep. Despite the rain it was a great day and added an extra layer of adventure during our storm sailing. More later…

[cruzrbachoua]

3/18/14-Roatan

 

Welcome to wonderful Mahogany Bay in Roatan, Honduras! We had the Relax on the beach package and could get off ship anytime we wanted and our friends had a scuba dive and were to meet ashore at about 9am. So we once again met down in the International Café for breakfast at around 8 am I believe. We had our usual yummies I however had a little more since this tour didn’t include lunch and was not sure if or when the food ashore would open. I just love those chocolate donuts and found a new love…their beignets. Not sure how they compare to other ones, but I love the Princess version! We finished our breakfast and head up to the promenade deck to watch the captain back us up to the dock. We got to see our lines tossed over and begin the process of edging closer and closer. Once we saw we were tied off and the gangways were coming out we headed down since our friends needed to make a tour time. We were off a little before 9am. We said bye to our friends and headed up to the shopping plaza. We wandered around there a bit deciding on just what items I had to have…lol. Then we made our way over to the Magical Chair Lifts. Some thoughts here…if you can take your flip flops off…we kept ours on the first time and me being a worry-wort feared them falling off. But the ride itself was AWESOME! It climbed slowly and soon we were soaring above the people and water below. I swear we were as high as the lido deck at one point. Got some great shots of the ship from the chairs. Then up ahead we see our destination…the beach! Soft landing and off we go to the little building to the left of the chairs to claim our clamshell and floaties for the day. Our guy brought us over to a quieter area and set us up. After getting all set we walked down to the water…again a bit cooler than I thought Caribbean waters to be but got used to it quickly. It was an overcast day and I could have used a bit more warmth, possibly some from tomorrows scorcher...but it was all good. We swam and floated for a bit then back to our loungers for some R&R. DH took a nap while I read and then…oh yeah mini nap for me too. We explored the beach area and found they had a bar and a restaurant along with some games to do. We saw ping pong tables, big chess and checkers set up. We found 2 more stores as well and oh well there were some things that just screamed take me home and how could we resist. We lounged some more….which was fabulous and great to just do nothing.

 

Around 2pm we decided to head back to the ship as it started to get a bit chilled for me and then…yup it started to sprinkle. We went and rinsed off at the showers, gathered our stuff and headed for our chair lift ride back to the shopping area. This time we kept our flip flops off and was much more relaxed and free! The breeze and views were FABULOUS! Made our safe landing back at the shopping area….watched some of the people dancing at Fat Tuesday’s then headed back to the ship. Hopped in the showers to get ready for dinner slowly. Our friends said that their diving was great when we met up with them for dinner. We took our pics and then headed to dinner. After dinner we changed again into comfy clothes and headed up to listen to Island Vibes with DJ Ryan…this was a little disappointing. I expected island music, Caribbean music instead we got techno..blah. So we headed down to Multi Media Trivia: Power Ballads with Corey Deputy Cruise director…….OMG he was hilarious! We almost peed ourselves. Wished we had come down earlier when it first started vs the DJ Ryan ick. When the trivia was over Corey said he was heading to the Ultimate Deck Party……..we had never done one and since he was so great we followed him up……so glad we did. It started roughly at 9:15 pm and lasted until a bit after 11 pm. It was fantastic fun and I believe we even made it on the reflections dvd a couple of times as they were filming there. All the Cruise director staff was there and they were funny. Taught us some dances and if you didn’t catch on no biggie it was just too much fun. After it was over we dragged ourselves back to our cabins as we had an early day tomorrow in Belize!

[cruzrbachoua]

3/19/14-Belize

 

Welcome to Belize, today was a tender port, DH’s favorite. We however did not use the ships tender boats but local boats from Belize…but he was still excited. Our tour for the Altun Ha Mayan ruins, scenic river cruise and lunch met at 7:30 am in the princess theatre. So we got up at darkness again…..I know this because I turned on the bridge camera channel…lol. Slowly got up and got ready to meet our friends down at…you guessed it the International Café. It was just so much easier than fighting the buffet crowd. We ate our breakfast, then watched a bit of the scenery as we approached the site we were to drop anchor. Then we headed off to the theatre to find our tour and sit and wait to be called. Today things were a little slower. There was a delay with the tenders and we got ours a little after 8 am. We then took the long ride to the dock. I would say roughly 30 min ride. Right from there we were handed off to our tour guide and sent towards our tour boat. We stopped for a brief 10 minutes for folks to use the restrooms as it would be roughly 2hours before we got off the boat. We boarded and were off. The tour does recommend wearing a hat but there are times when the boat is jetting down the river and you have to hold onto your hat or keep taking it off and on so keep that in mind. It does also mention bug spray…BRING IT USE IT!!!!! Glad we did. Along the way they do slow down when the guide spots some wildlife. We had a citing (or I think we did) of a manatee, several crocodiles, tons of iguanas in trees and on the ground. We saw several types of birds and 2 separate trees full of monkeys! I will admit this was the highlight for me….I am not sure why but I was very excited when we spotted them and then again when the tree was on my side of the boat. I was right under them and got some good shots of them hanging around and chowing down. Our tour boat ride ended at Olde River Tavern where we had a nice local lunch of chicken, beans and rice with a small salad. They had free coke in a bottle along with an orange drink I think it was Fanta. Sprite and diet coke in bottles were for sale for $1-2. I think we had roughly 1 hour there to eat and shop at a local craft place. Shop here and at the ruins as this is your ONLY shopping time! Once we were done with lunch we waited a bit for the bus to arrive. This bus was the people who went the opposite direction of us. They drove up to the ruins then down for lunch and would board our boat to head down river back to town. We got on the wonderful AC bus…ahhh. Remember how I said I could have used some of this heat for our day in Roatan. The log shows it as 73 degrees but it sure felt hotter and like 1000% humidity…lol. It took roughly an hour or so to get to the ruins where sadly we did have very little time. There were 2 plazas there A and B. There was already a tour group in plaza A that was climbing the one ruin known as heaven…so we did a brief photo stop then off to plaza B. Where we got to spend a bit more time and then climbed the one that was known to the Mayans as hell. Ours had 9 levels and to them it was the 9 levels of hell……whoa baby climbing it was hell as well but awesome. At one point it was almost straight up and was using hands on the stairs to help push up. …but once you got up there………AMAZING!! You could see everything. I was just amazed at how lush and green it all was so far from the river. Also wondered if when the Mayans did live here if there was water near by…as I don’t recall seeing any. We got to spend a bit of time up top then back down, for some quick shopping where we got a few things. Mainly crafts no tshirts and stuff. They also sold coconuts where they would chop off the top and stick a straw in it for you to drink the coconut water. The guys got some and said they were delish! Then back on the bus for the at least hour plus ride back into town. We were given some history of Belize and its customs. Then were able to sit back and enjoy the scenery. We got back at roughly 3:30 pm and the last tender back to ship was at 4:15 pm. We managed to hit up 2 stores quickly to get some more typical tourist stuff before catching that tender back to the ship. We ran to our rooms to get all cleaned up for dinner. After dinner we caught the 8:15 pm showing of the Hawley Magic show. It was good. To me there were 2 acts that I was surprised that there wasn’t some mention that it may be too much for kids. One was a sword trick done with the lady and the other was a Houdini inspired escape trick done by the gentleman that with the drama build up seemed could be a bit much for some younger kids on board…just my warning. After the show we walked around a bit but were worn out from the long day of ruins and river boat. So we retired to our cabins and were fast asleep in no time. We agreed to meet the next day around 8 or so in the hallway to head to breakfast…..

[cruzrbachoua]

3/20/14-2nd Sea Day

 

We met in the hallway at 8am ish and made our way up to the Horizon Court buffet. They were still monitoring the hand sanitizer which was OK with me. They still handed us the plate and napkin wrapped silverware. But through the entire cruise salt pepper and sugar packets were on the tables. We grabbed our grub and again found a great table by the window. We had originally planned on doing some Zumba and bingo today but since it was such a warm nice day we opted for lounging by the aft adult pool….what a shame another day of laying around…LOL. We took a dip in the pool which was nice and warm which was nice. Then back out to lay, read and nap. In Café Caribe from noon to 2 they were doing Oriental buffet with sushi and California rolls. That was out for me so while the rest of the gang headed there I went to the pizza place and the grill ….yup I said it a slice of pizza and a hot dog with fries! I did get a salad too from the Horizon court. After our leisurely lunch we wandered over to scoops for some more soft serve…LOVE it. Our friends took off to wander the ship while we opted for some more pool lounger time. At around 2:30 or so we went back to get ready for our last formal night. Us girls do need lots of time you know. I also checked in using my fabulously free internet minutes to see how the folks back home were doing and to let them know we were all alive and still on the ship and not stranded anywhere..(moms worry). We got all dressed up and met up at about 5 to go for our formal pics with the photo staff then off to dinner. Corey was doing Finish the Lyrics in the explorers lounge and since he had been fabulous so far we went down to join in. After that game was over we quickly went and changed into our comfy clothes to join Corey in Club Fusion for the Marriage Match game show. It was a crack up! When that was over we wandered over to the piazza where at about 10:30 or 10:45 they dropped the balloons we had seen hanging over all day. I had never seen this on past cruises so we stayed for a bit and hung out. It was neat…until the popping of the balloons started and off we went. LOL. We wandered around a bit more taking in the night air and then were beat from our day in the sun and off to bed we went. Plus us gals made a plan of doing Zumba that last day to try to combat some of the wonderful food we had been shoveling in…LOL. Also knowing it would be sadly be a busy day of packing and buying our photos and such. :(

[cruzrbachoua]

3/21/14-LAST Sea Day

 

Us girls met up in the hallway at about 8:30 am and made our way to Club Fusion for Zumba at 9:15. We staked out our spot near the back on the carpet since this was our first time attempting this. Simone arrived and once we got the music unlocked she started up. WOW….she really works it. I couldn’t believe we were there about an hour I think and it went by pretty fast….but was super fun. Will for sure try that again as when I got home I found I had only gained 3 lbs……..yeah Zumba!! LOL. DH went up to the gym and said he did one of the bicycles for a bit while the other took advantage to sleep in a bit. We all met up in Club Fusion a bit after 10 am when Zumba was over to go check out our photos. DH brought me a donut……while it seemed wrong to just work out and then scarf a donut……I did anyway..LOL. We searched for our photos and by the time we found them all in the madness of last day photo buying it was time for bingo. So we found a spot to tuck them…..I do wish princess would hold them in a folder for you like HAL did. So off to BINGO we went in Club Fusion…. I was 2 darn numbers away from winning it all in the final round…….shucks! But it was tons of fun. After bingo we scampered up to the Horizon court for some lunch and when I went to check out what Café Caribe was serving…oh to my surprise I had forgotten that on Friday from noon to 2 was the Pastry extravaganza!!! I was SOOO grateful I had just burned off some of the previous food in Zumba cause I came away with quite a bit of dessert goodies so I went back to horizon court and got a salad and some other small items so I could indulge my sweets I got! YUM!!! The head pastry chef came by and chatted with us for a bit which was neat. After our eats we wandered back to the photos to make our final decisions and purchase our photos. By now it was roughly almost 2 pm so after that we went back to our cabins to reluctantly start packing… I was pouting the entire time! We got dressed for our last dinner and met up at about 5:30 to head down.

 

We said goodbye to our lovely waiters Alejandro and Eduardo, watched the baked Alaska parade. We wandered around the shops for any last minute items we decided we just couldn’t pass up. We had seen the show in the theatre and our friends were not interested so we went back to finalize the packing at set our luggage outside our rooms. We stayed in the rest of the night and watched a movie on the tv which for the life of me I cant remember what it was. I know we watched The Vow at some point. I checked in earlier in the day for our flight home and now was checking for the last time with home to let them know as of then all was ok and the captain was hauling booty to get back as he had gotten word earlier in the day there was to be fog. We read and lounged and mostly pouted that our wonderful trip was almost over and reality was almost upon us. :(:(:(:(

[cruzrbachoua]

3/22/14-disembarkation day and back to reality…boo

 

Our flight was out of Hobby at 2pm and our group was Navy 4 and was set to meet in the casino at 8:15 am as we had a princess transfer that was part of our package deal. We woke up at about 6:30 am and ran down to get some grub from..you got it the International café. I took the tray that sat on our desk in the cabin. We got our egg sandwiches and 2 donuts each. They had my 2 favs..chocolate and the beignet that I couldn’t pass up. Back up in our room we watched the bridge cam and saw we were already in port. We ate our last breakfast aboard in bed and then sadly met up for the last time at about 7:30. We slowly made our way to the casino where we sat and waited for our color to be called. Once it was called we all filed towards the gangway..they then announced oh you can go out the back of the casino through the piazza to the other gangway…….uh yeah all we did was end up making 2 lines trying to merge into one to get down the gangway. Silly. Once off and down the escalator we all funneled into a line where we all stopped assuming it was the line to get our luggage from the sea of luggage. After about 10 minutes a local porter came by and announced we were in the line for customs check out and need to first go get our luggage…..WHAT….this could have been done better. No one from Princess or the terminal was there to guide us. They should have had the line for customs file a different direction instead of letting it back right up to the escalator down from the ship. So we got our luggage and got back in line….had we thought about it we should have left 1 person in line while the rest tracked down the luggage then met back up with the person in line as it passed right by where we got the luggage..duh. But again nothing was labeled or noted as to what line was for what and was poorly designed and laid out. Luckily our flight wasn’t until 2pm. We made our way through the line and passed through customs and out to our waiting bus. We got to the airport at about 10:15 am where we checked our luggage and then headed through security to our gate. We boarded our Southwest flight no issues and left on time. We had a layover in Denver which is where things went awry! When we landed it was starting to snow…yes snow! What I was just in the Caribbean and now snow my body was in shock..lol. Our plane arrived to find another plane in its spot running late. We waited about 10 min or so then went to another gate. The first gate we were given for our connecting flight ended up changing so we went to the new gate where we sat and watched a drama unfold on an airtran flight to Atlanta I believe. This flight did not push back from the gate for at least a good 30 minutes after boarding with some drama about over booking, people trying to give up seats, running up and down the jetway……it was crazy. They finally left and our plane pulled up. We boarded…..man that jetway was cold! We arrived home a little after we were supposed to only to find out our luggage did not make the connection!!! I just wanted to cry……..we made our claim and headed out to my mom and 4-legged daughter who were there to pick us up. They called us at about 10 pm and said they had our luggage it was put on a later flight out of Denver to San Diego. They said they could deliver by 4am or tomorrow from 8am to noon. I said deliver it tomorrow. They did come and all was ok and everything was there. Whew!

 

So while the trip started and ended rocky (no fault of princess) it was a fabulous trip and we can not wait for our next cruise which oddly enough is 3/15/15 on the new Regal ship out of FLL. I probably would not sail out of Houston only because of all the possible dramas and lack of communication at the terminal. That said that also depends on if there is a fabulous cruise that I just must go on and it left from there then I might consider it long and hard…

 

I hope I didn’t bore you with my ramblings. I do have all my patters so if anyone has any questions about stuff just let me know and I will try to my best to answer your questions.

[Yuk0n Jack]

Thanks for your review - my family and I were on this same cruise and had a wonderful time. Be sure to try Little French Key when you are at Roatan some time - we had a great time there. I bet you are super excited for your upcoming cruise on the Regal!

[Swappie]

Nicely done, Cassandra! You're a fine writer!

[senior lady]

where the beach tours through Princess or did you book them yourselves? they sounded great. I'm a beach person:cool:

[cruzrbachoua]

Thanks for your review - my family and I were on this same cruise and had a wonderful time. Be sure to try Little French Key when you are at Roatan some time - we had a great time there. I bet you are super excited for your upcoming cruise on the Regal!

 

Oh yes I am following the process of the Regal closely and am already looking at hotels and flights....nothing to fix the cruise over blues like plannning another :D

[cruzrbachoua]

Nicely done, Cassandra! You're a fine writer!

 

Thank you very much. I will say though that everyone I came into contact with that lived/worked in Houston and Texas while we were there was very very nice. Your state was very kind to us and we enjoyed the people.

Edited March 30, 2014 by cruzrbachoua

[cruzrbachoua]

where the beach tours through Princess or did you book them yourselves? they sounded great. I'm a beach person:cool:

 

Both beach tours were done via the ship. The one in Cozumel is called Passion island. We took the normal boat there, but others took the twister boat and said it was fabulous fun...but you did get wet and knowing we would shop possibly beforehand we didnt want our bags and stuff to get wet. The one in Roatan was done via the ship but you could get off and walk over via the foot path which looked quite nice or you could walk up to the tix hut and get a ticket for the chairs. Then either find a non reserved beach lounger, lay in the sand on your towel or I beleive they also rented the comfy loungers, clamshells and floaty things there on the beach as well....so the Roatan one you could do on your own...that is if your ship docks in Mahogany Bay.....which I beleive is just Carnival Corp ships, princess, hal, carnival etc. It was great fun to just relax oh they also had lockers at Roatan beach as well. ;) they may also have had some water toys for rent but we didn't look into that as we wanted to lounge.

Edited March 30, 2014 by cruzrbachoua

[Eddieboysr]

3/22/14-disembarkation day and back to reality…boo

 

 

 

Our flight was out of Hobby at 2pm and our group was Navy 4 and was set to meet in the casino at 8:15 am as we had a princess transfer that was part of our package deal. We woke up at about 6:30 am and ran down to get some grub from..you got it the International café. I took the tray that sat on our desk in the cabin. We got our egg sandwiches and 2 donuts each. They had my 2 favs..chocolate and the beignet that I couldn’t pass up. Back up in our room we watched the bridge cam and saw we were already in port. We ate our last breakfast aboard in bed and then sadly met up for the last time at about 7:30. We slowly made our way to the casino where we sat and waited for our color to be called. Once it was called we all filed towards the gangway..they then announced oh you can go out the back of the casino through the piazza to the other gangway…….uh yeah all we did was end up making 2 lines trying to merge into one to get down the gangway. Silly. Once off and down the escalator we all funneled into a line where we all stopped assuming it was the line to get our luggage from the sea of luggage. After about 10 minutes a local porter came by and announced we were in the line for customs check out and need to first go get our luggage…..WHAT….this could have been done better. No one from Princess or the terminal was there to guide us. They should have had the line for customs file a different direction instead of letting it back right up to the escalator down from the ship. So we got our luggage and got back in line….had we thought about it we should have left 1 person in line while the rest tracked down the luggage then met back up with the person in line as it passed right by where we got the luggage..duh. But again nothing was labeled or noted as to what line was for what and was poorly designed and laid out. Luckily our flight wasn’t until 2pm. We made our way through the line and passed through customs and out to our waiting bus. We got to the airport at about 10:15 am where we checked our luggage and then headed through security to our gate. We boarded our Southwest flight no issues and left on time. We had a layover in Denver which is where things went awry! When we landed it was starting to snow…yes snow! What I was just in the Caribbean and now snow my body was in shock..lol. Our plane arrived to find another plane in its spot running late. We waited about 10 min or so then went to another gate. The first gate we were given for our connecting flight ended up changing so we went to the new gate where we sat and watched a drama unfold on an airtran flight to Atlanta I believe. This flight did not push back from the gate for at least a good 30 minutes after boarding with some drama about over booking, people trying to give up seats, running up and down the jetway……it was crazy. They finally left and our plane pulled up. We boarded…..man that jetway was cold! We arrived home a little after we were supposed to only to find out our luggage did not make the connection!!! I just wanted to cry……..we made our claim and headed out to my mom and 4-legged daughter who were there to pick us up. They called us at about 10 pm and said they had our luggage it was put on a later flight out of Denver to San Diego. They said they could deliver by 4am or tomorrow from 8am to noon. I said deliver it tomorrow. They did come and all was ok and everything was there. Whew!

 

 

 

So while the trip started and ended rocky (no fault of princess) it was a fabulous trip and we can not wait for our next cruise which oddly enough is 3/15/15 on the new Regal ship out of FLL. I probably would not sail out of Houston only because of all the possible dramas and lack of communication at the terminal. That said that also depends on if there is a fabulous cruise that I just must go on and it left from there then I might consider it long and hard…

 

 

 

I hope I didn’t bore you with my ramblings. I do have all my patters so if anyone has any questions about stuff just let me know and I will try to my best to answer your questions.

 

 

That was the one time I have ever been in port that early. Our phones picked up a sprint signal as we were crushing in the bay. Good review, my family loved the ruins. We did the city tour and ruins.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[sminfiddle]

Sounds like a good relaxing cruise! I know all about the bummer feeling of it ending...

Enjoyed your descriptions of it all. I can just taste the yummy Princess pastries from the IC! Next cruise, just a couple of months from now, our cabin is way closer than ever to the International Cafe - I'm in trouble as I don't even try to go to Zumba!

 

 

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

[cruzrbachoua]

Sounds like a good relaxing cruise! I know all about the bummer feeling of it ending...

Enjoyed your descriptions of it all. I can just taste the yummy Princess pastries from the IC! Next cruise, just a couple of months from now, our cabin is way closer than ever to the International Cafe - I'm in trouble as I don't even try to go to Zumba!

 

 

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

This was a first for zumba...while it was fun next cruise I will be alone as I doubt DH will join me so who knows if I will get to do it again...lol. It is one thing to look crazy with a friend quite another to look it all on your own..lol

 

Oh by the way we drank every last one of those bottles..the last 2 on our way to the airport...LOVED them. We took I think 5 or 6 into Belize......drank them all. Good thing too as I saw princess was now doing crystal geyser on board vs the arrowhead they had in the past.

 

In the IC I love the little mousse shot glass things and DH loves the peanut butter cup served in a mini tea cup I beleive. He got one of those and a peanut butter cookie and crumbled it on top...:D Their chocolate chip cookies are my fav too...yum