Hi, I’m Julie McCoy, Your TR Director Review of the CB

[lynwar]

Hello,

I'm still here. It's good to see you. As I told scubacruiserx2, I'll check out the webcam in awhile to see some sail a ways...it's the closest I'll get to a ship in awhile, but, I hope to see a couple while down in Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday and part of Friday. We will be meeting a cruise friend from Massachusetts at the airport, have dinner and then deliver him to his motel. He will shuttle to Miami on Friday for his "free" cruise. (not counting air fare and other extras). It will be nice to see him after 5 years. That's the time we sailed out of Miami with him and his mom. We first met him, Mom and Sister on a cruise in 2005.

 

The sun is shining here and it's about 70 degrees in Central Florida. What do we do between cruises? Watch football! Today, it's Green Bay and Seattle. Later, it will be Indianapolis and New England.

 

Take care for now. Lynne

[jenseib]

Hello,

I'm still here. It's good to see you. As I told scubacruiserx2, I'll check out the webcam in awhile to see some sail a ways...it's the closest I'll get to a ship in awhile, but, I hope to see a couple while down in Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday and part of Friday. We will be meeting a cruise friend from Massachusetts at the airport, have dinner and then deliver him to his motel. He will shuttle to Miami on Friday for his "free" cruise. (not counting air fare and other extras). It will be nice to see him after 5 years. That's the time we sailed out of Miami with him and his mom. We first met him, Mom and Sister on a cruise in 2005.

 

The sun is shining here and it's about 70 degrees in Central Florida. What do we do between cruises? Watch football! Today, it's Green Bay and Seattle. Later, it will be Indianapolis and New England.

 

Take care for now. Lynne

 

I've been slacking lately too. I just have been busy with work and life. Watching my grandaughter and my daughter is now in the works of getting braces so we have had appointments for that as well.

We have had some snow and very cold weather which means we have had some school canceled as well, which my daughter has been very happy about. ;)

I am slowly putting away the Christmas decor as well and getting the house just straightened up.....that just is not a fun chore. I have my new treadmill arriving tomorrow if all goes well so I really need to get my husband to get the old one out so I am sweep and make room for the new one. He doesn't seem to be quite as excited as I am about it. LOL.

[jenseib]

We kept moving and Miguel would point things out here and there.

I wanted to add…..remember the New Zealand family from the bus?...I am going to refer to them as the NZ family from now on…..well their 2 sons just kept climbing on everything. I would say they were preteen age probably…old enough to know better. I know they were told at least once to stop climbing but the Mom just smiled….it reminded me of one of those “boys will be boys” looks. Now I know no one has a perfect angel for a child, but if my kid was told to stop climbing…he would’ve got an extra scolding from me too, especially because I would’ve been saying all along, get down from there this instant.

On to our walk.

There were a lot of neat things we walked by but just didn’t have time to stop for.

[jenseib]

As you can see this area was very tropical.

These reminded me of the Chihuly display I went to see last year in Columbus.

[jenseib]

A look up.

We were now headed into the butterfly area.

[jenseib]

It’s single file through there and we kept moving so I tried to snap pictures when I could.

[molme]

Jen

I have been following your review from the start and have wanted to ask this question from the start. Do you by any chance live in the Toledo area? Don't have to answer if you feel I don't need to know.

Mollie

[jenseib]

Jen

I have been following your review from the start and have wanted to ask this question from the start. Do you by any chance live in the Toledo area? Don't have to answer if you feel I don't need to know.

Mollie

 

 

I do....do you know me? Or I know you? LOL

[jenseib]

Continuing through the butterfly area.

[jenseib]

And then we moved on to an area that is supposed to be like a re-creation of a Mayan village.

[jenseib]

We then stopped for a treat…a corn tortilla with some guacamole.

I am not a fan of corn tortillas and I didn’t care for it at all and the guac was extremely runny and in my opinion, not so good. Not like the way I like it at least. It dripped out of the tortilla and was a big mess. It seemed like most of us on the tour were not impressed with it.

I think this ashtray was near where we ate our tortillas and I thought the turtle was cute.

We moved on and saw a bunch of parrots. I know they probably have a technical name, but I call all colorful birds parrots so just bear with me when I call all these birds parrots for the rest of the report. LOL. They had them all over the park and I must say…I do love a tropical, colorful bird.

It was now time to get ready for our cave swim. We were going to put things in a locked duffle bag and it would be transported to the other end of the swim. Miguel told those of us with nice cameras that he would just hold on to those because they would more than likely get damaged in the duffle.

This was our duffle.

We also got life jackets. I picked a large I believe, but I should’ve went a size smaller as about half way through the swim I noticed it kept riding up and it really rubbed my armpit area raw.

[Colo Cruiser]

Love the photos. :)

[jenseib]

And here is Miguel with MY camera strapped around him.

Here are some people getting ready for the swim….I think they were at a different entrance than we went to.

[jenseib]

Love the photos. :)

 

Thanks

[molme]

Jen

I am originally from Toledo, but live in GA now. I married a guy from Toledo 54 yrs ago and followed him around in the Air Force for 21 yrs before we settled in GA. He still has family up there that we visit every year. I doubt that we know one another as I am much older than you, probably more your Mother's age.

Love your review and have been reading it since you started writing it. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Mollie

[jenseib]

Jen

I am originally from Toledo, but live in GA now. I married a guy from Toledo 54 yrs ago and followed him around in the Air Force for 21 yrs before we settled in GA. He still has family up there that we visit every year. I doubt that we know one another as I am much older than you, probably more your Mother's age.

Love your review and have been reading it since you started writing it. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Mollie

 

What a small world!

[jenseib]

It really looked like paradise here.

We walked down the steps and entered the water one at a time. There were a few from our group that decided not to do this and Miguel said he would tell them where to meet the rest of their party. Mom and I get in and Mom immediately freaks out. She is claustrophobic and she just said she didn’t like it at all. So I told her to go back up towards the guy that let us in and tell him you want out. I was trying to get out of the way of others and then I lost her. I assumed she got out and I went on through the caves. I must say she made the right decision because there were areas that were in complete darkness and she would’ve hated that.

Of course after I part ways with her I realize I have the key for the duffle bag so she won’t be able to retrieve her cover up till I get back.

I swim along and try to take pictures.

I was disappointed as there wasn’t a current pushing you along so you really had to work to swim. Plus my life jacket was too big so I kept flipping in strange positions and to swim I had to fight it.

Also when I would try to swim if there were several people coming up behind me I would kick them. I must’ve been really slow because people kept passing me. I really was trying but it was so hard.

[jenseib]

A look up.

I also seemed to stay with the “romantic” couple who were always clinging to each other and smooching. UGH! I kept trying to get away from them and no matter how hard I tried they were always either right behind me or in front of me after a bit.

This was an exit you could take if you wanted to get out before the end. They had several along the way and I was sooo tempted to use one.

I also kept trying to change my camera settings but I just couldn’t see well enough to figure out what I was doing.

[jenseib]

There is the romantic couple again.

A look underwater.

It took me a long time to get to this point and by now my underarms were rubbed raw from the life jacket. I tried to readjust it a few times but it wasn’t helping.

[jenseib]

Hey…there are some flamingos.

Hey there is a fish…..nice shot I took of it…look how I framed it so well…..NOT! LOL.

There is the end!!!!!! YAY!

I was so stinking glad to be done with that. It was too long for me. And the fact that my lifejacket didn’t fit properly was another downer for me. And struggling without a current was another issue. I think if I were to try it again I would need a buddy with me. Like the romantic couple…her guy pushed her most of the way…I need a romantic buddy for this!

I got out and was so relieved to be done with that. I went to the counters to get our duffle and then retrieved all our belongings and moved on.

The next picture I took is of this gorgeous …..wall. No clue why I took this picture….unless I truly did like the wall? LOL.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Great pics and review

[scubacruiserx2]

Thanks for your review and beautiful pictures . We have never been to X-Caret before and it's nice to see what it's all about . :) :D

[sprint180]

Day 3, This was my very first Princess cruise, but I had the status of Elite already because of some course I had taken. (I know some die hard Princess goers have issues with this, but I did take a lot of courses and worked hard for that certification

 

Are you a Travel Agent?

[john watson]

If you want to see back numbers of the TV show "Love Boat" search on YOUTube for Love Boat Season 1,2.3 etc. up to 9. A lot of new issues have been added in the last couple of weeks. Pacific Princess is mainly featured but at least four other ships have been used particularly on the Mediterranean, Far East and Australasian specials.

 

Regards John

[jenseib]

Great pics and review

 

Thanks

 

Thanks for your review and beautiful pictures . We have never been to X-Caret before and it's nice to see what it's all about . :) :D

 

Thanks

It really is a neat place with a ton of different things to do. A lot cost extra though