Proud Pride Cruisers!! (Feb 8th-Feb 15th Western Review)

[Viscus]

Great review so far! Looking forward to the rest; we leave on the Pride this Sunday :D

 

Lucky. :P

 

Order a double pig patty from Guy's Burgers for me.

[CruisingSnooter]

Lucky. :P

 

 

 

Order a double pig patty from Guy's Burgers for me.

 

 

Will do [emoji6]

[Viscus]

Well guys, tonight's entries could get interesting. I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory tract infection tonight, and they gave me hydrocodone cough syrup, so it's a party up in here tonight. Sorry if things get...weird.

 

Day 4: Why couldn't the Mayans invent elevators?

 

This was the main event port for my wife. In doing research for Belize, I found it was either snorkeling, cave tubing, or very long days trekking out to the various Mayan ruins in the country. Since we were snorkeling in Grand Cayman, we narrowed it down to 2. When my wife read we'd be able to climb on the ruins in Belize, my input was no longer valued. She had decided for us, and it was now my job as the husband to find her the best old rocks Belize could offer. ;)

 

We don't like booking excursions through Carnival, as it feels like we're getting ripped off even if we really aren't, plus the non-ridiculously priced excursions have a tendency to turn into cattle calls. If there's anything that ruins an experience for me, it's mass produced tourist shepherding. However, when I found the 2 best ruins options were Lamanai and Xunantunich, and both were 7-8 hour trips, I had to bite the bullet and book through Carnival. I wouldn't be able to enjoy my trip if I was constantly sweating my watch, and 7 hour excursions with 8 hours of port time in a 3rd world nation sounds like a recipe for disaster. Carnival only offered Xunantunich out of the 2, which seemed like the better site anyways, so we booked it up. Let the cattle herding begin!

 

But first! Fun Times!

 

 

 

 

 

We had to meet in the Taj Mahal theater at 8:30AM, so we decided to use the basic breakfast room service menu tag that morning. We also used the automated wake-up call system. Although it takes about 400 button presses to set the call the morning before, it has a built in snooze system and works as intended. We hung the breakfast tag the night before with a delivery time of 7:35AM and 7:45AM listed. It arrived exactly at 7:45AM, so good job guys!

 

It's a very basic menu, but works for when you need breakfast and don't have time to head to the MDR or the Lido buffet. I got 2 orders of toast, smoked salmon, and apple juice. My wife got some pastries and a bagel with cream cheese and OJ. Oh, and I ordered tea. The tea was kind of disappointing, they just brought a jug with hot water, a mug and 2 basic tea bags, both just generic lipton or whatever their brand is. Oh well, we gobbled it up, got ready, set up the day's backpack with all the necessities, and rushed out to make it to the Taj on time. Little did we know, we were almost the only people that courteous. You know how everyone shows up late to the muster drill? That's amateur hour. People put on a "Show up whenever you feel like it, screw everyone else" clinic for the early morning excursion meet ups.

 

 

Room service breakfast.

[Viscus]

Here's a couple of pictures to show what I mean. This was the Taj Mahal at the meeting time listed on the excursion tickets, 8:30AM. And I looked at a few other tickets for different excursions, the ones I saw all had 8:30AM listed.

 

 

Here's the same theater at 9AM. As in, 30 MINUTES LATE!

 

 

You know how much fun it is to sit in a theater seat with nothing to do but talk to your wife? Exactly. ;) I really wish Carnival had the guts to leave people who showed up that late. But no, those of us who can follow directions get to sit there and wait on the late people. Grrrrrr.

 

Anyways, let's move past me whining and get to the good stuff. Since our excursion was listed as an 8 hour day, we were the first group called to head to the tender boats. The path they led us on through the ship blew my mind. They took us down to deck one, then lined everyone up in the cabin hallways while they filled tender boats. As you all probably know, the cabin doors on Carnival are paper thin, and people weren't being quiet in the hallways. I'd be super pissed if the company I was paying to sail on was intentionally lining up 200+ people outside of my cabin door early in the morning. Really bad planning. It didn't impact me other than I felt a ton of sympathy for the people in those rooms with Snoozin tags on their doors. I've been on the receiving end of that before (kids screaming in the hallway in front of my door at 8AM when I was up until 2 AM the night before), and it's no fun.

 

 

Our tender boat. They packed us in there like sardines. I then learned why. When people say it takes 30 minutes to tender into Belize City, they aren't exaggerating. Unless they put your butt on a cigarette boat, you're in for a long, boring ride. I guess because of Belize's barrier reef, the ships have to anchor like 4-5 miles from shore. Definitely the biggest downside of this port. Limits greatly what you'd be able to do if you tried to do it yourself as far as excursions are concerned.

 

 

The cruise ships from the Belize City port. See what I mean? What are those, cruise ships meant for ants? How can we expect people to enjoy their cruise if they can't even fit inside the ship? It needs to be at least...3 times as big.

 

(sorry, had to sneak a movie quote in)

 

We walk through the cruise terminal, which is actually one of the nicest I've seen. Granted, we didn't have a ton of time to really explore it, but I like it better than like Grand Cayman's terminal.

 

We load up onto our giant, and air conditioned, buses to begin the 2 hour journey to the ruin site.

 

[falkcor]

hey man, just wanted to say great job so far. i haven't caught up yet but just wanted to provide some positive affirmation - can't wait to read more. sailed pride years ago and looking forward to the rest of your review :D

[Viscus]

We pull away from the terminal and our 2 bus guides begin to introduce themselves and tell us about Belize City. We'd end up with 3 total guides, with the 3rd meeting us at the site. This sweet lady was Ms. Caroline:

 

 

And this was crowd favorite Ms. Simone:

 

 

Caroline had a tendency to ask the same rhetorical question 8 times waiting for an actual answer, and Simone was such a Diva. They were both great, friendly, and very informative. I think the company Carnival used was called Chakka, but I'm not sure. They didn't give us any pamphlets or literature during the day.

 

Let me say this. Just like when people say the Belize City tender takes forever and they aren't lying, when people say Belize City, and for that matter, most of the country other than the small villages in the hills, is impoverished, they aren't kidding. I would not feel comfortable taking my wife or kids if we had any through the streets exploring on our own. Outside of the cruise terminal, you were treated to real world poverty. Apparently, the country was hit by a category 5 hurricane a couple of years back, and the people in the country are too poor to rebuild properly. What this means is houses with tin sheet roofs, giant trash heaps, and wild dogs running everywhere. Belize City and the surrounding areas are not a tourist destination. You have to get at least an hour outside of that area before you start hitting any.

 

That said, once you do that, the country is gorgeous. Still poor, and you can tell the infrastructure isn't there, but still beautiful. The area around Belize City is mangrove swamps, then out of nowhere, the countryside transitions into what looks like an African plain.

 

 

From the landscape, all of a sudden it transitions into mountainous rain forests. You go over low bridges that obviously get washed out when heavy rains come, but it's just so amazing riding through there.

 

 

After about an hour and 45 minutes, you arrive at the base of the mountain that the Xunantunich site is on. They unload the buses, and you wait your turn to go across the river ferry that is still hand cranked across the river. Those poor workers, but they get an amazing arm workout going back and forth all day. I asked one of the guides later why they didn't install a mechanical pully system, and he told me they almost did, but decided to keep it as is to preserve the original feel of the site. It definitely did feel like we were stepping back in time during that part, other than the iPhones and Canon cameras everywhere. ;)

 

[Viscus]

hey man, just wanted to say great job so far. i haven't caught up yet but just wanted to provide some positive affirmation - can't wait to read more. sailed pride years ago and looking forward to the rest of your review :D

 

Thanks bud, love getting the positive feedback. I went into the trip planning to do this after, so it makes all the extra time I spent making sure to get pictures of most stuff and planning things out feel worth it. =D

[Viscus]

More pictures from the village at the bottom of the mountain:

 

 

 

 

She was definitely a happy camper this day. She's a huge Mayan nerd, and was actually going back and forth with one of the guides at the site. The one she liked the most was one guy (cannot remember his name, oops) who had been on the site for 15+ years, and worked with the archaeological teams who were excavating the site in the 90's and 2000's. I have pictures of him, but my wife doesn't remember his name either. Great guy, VERY smart, and definitely loved telling people about his work.

 

 

Once you get across the river, they have a few shuttle vans waiting to take you up the last mile or so to the actual site's parking. Those drivers were flyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing up that mountain. Was pretty cool, they had people radioing when people were coming down, so they could cut the corners and were whipping those beat up cans. Heh.

 

 

The parking area at the actual site.

[Viscus]

Once there, we all took a bathroom break, did some "shopping" at their very basic souvenier shop, then grouped up and made the last quarter mile trek from the parking area to the temple grounds. If you can't make the last climb, they have vans that can take you most of the way, just takes a little bit to get them organized.

 

 

My wife's reaction when she first walked onto the grounds. She was literally bouncing. The site is BEAUTIFUL! They keep it extremely clean, the guides make sure no one damages anything, but you can still climb on them and touch them. Belize is one of the last countries with large ruins that lets you. Was very cool.

 

 

 

 

First picture from on top of one of the minor ruins. If they are going to allow me to climb on stuff, the gosh darn it, I'm going to climb on all of the things!

 

Our guide would take us from ruin to ruin, explaining what the experts think each building was used for during each of the Mayan time eras, all the while teasing us with the main temple, called El Castillo, or the castle, in the background. But again, the guide we had was SUPER knowledgeable, and I was actually enjoying each stop.

[Viscus]

 

I know in these early shots, El Castillo doesn't look all that big. Just wait. It's 130 feet tall, and steeeeeeeeeeep. As I said, why didn't the Mayans invent elevators?

 

 

Another smaller temple the priests lived in. In total, there were about 13 structures still standing in various states of decay, but the guide said at one point, over 4,000 people called the site home, and there were over 400 structures of some size or another. Absolutely crazy they were able to do all that with hand tools.

 

Oh, and not everything on the site is dead and decaying. This guy popped out of his hole as we were walking by and was nice enough to pose for me.

 

 

 

I really like this shot. I know the camera on my iPad isn't amazing, but from right at the bottom of the steps, looking straight up, with the sun behind it...Really reminds me of how beautiful and huge everything was there.

 

 

One of the masks still present on the lower levels. On the upper levels, the etchings are still there in a really impressive level. This mask was just an appetizer.

[Viscus]

 

Video I took of the main "lobby area"

 

From here, it was time to climb the castle.

 

 

The view from the 2nd "terrace". All of these areas were once individual dwellings carved into the side of the temple. Tell you what, these rich Mayans had a knack for real estate. :P

 

You turn from that view 180 degrees, you're treated to one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. This was worth the price of admission by itself folks.

 

 

Humans for scale:

 

 

This is what I was most excited for on this site. These carvings are magnificent. Thankfully, they're just out of reach for people to touch unless you're 7ft5in. Beautiful artwork.

 

Here's a video I took of the carvings:

 

[Viscus]

After being dragged away from the carvings, it was time to finish climbing to the very top. So while the Mayans didn't believe in elevators, they also didn't believe in handrails. I'm an adrenaline junky, but a few people in our group were scared of heights, and the stairs to the top weren't doing them any favors. You're walking on shoulder width wide walkways, with a sheer stone wall to one side and this on the other:

 

 

Then, once you walk around to the other side of the temple, you run into these bad boys. These stairs are tall, steep, and slanted out. I was having a blast, but some people were terrified. Lol, that was such a cool day.

 

 

Once you get to the top of those, you head through this arch to the last set of stairs to take you to the top.

 

 

Once you get to the top, though, you immediately know it was worth it. You emerge from the interior staircase to this view:

 

 

In this next picture, if you look close, you'll see a white road. That road is actually in Guatemala, Belize's western neighbor. Xunantunich is only 2 miles from the border, and you have great views into Guatemala from the top of the castle.

 

 

Here's another video I took at the top:

 

[Viscus]

 

She got mad at me if I stood up straight for the picture. Wind was kind of strong that day, but I'm pretty sure I had eaten enough Guy's Burgers at that point to keep from being blown away.

 

View from the top looking straight down:

 

 

 

Obligatory "Smiling couple with the entire Mayan ruin site behind them" shot. Everyone has one of those, right? Right?

 

After 10-15 minutes hanging out on the top, the guide finally bribed me down from the top with promises of more carvings down on the other side. I almost beat him down, I love those things.

 

 

Once you got all the way down to the bottom again, our guide told us to turn around and look up. This was the view.

 

 

How freaking awesome is that? I gotta tell you guys, this excursion in Belize was one of the coolest days of my life. That site was spectacular.

[Viscus]

We mosey'd over to the ball courts, where our guide talked about what the games were used for and how the sport worked. He also had us guess which team was sacrificed in sacrificial games. Do you know the answer?

 

...

 

The winners! The gods wouldn't want some mangy losers! Different times man, back in the good ole days when men were willing to play a weird variation of soccer for the right to be killed in the prime of their lives. :shrug:

 

 

Oh, and by the way, I couldn't get a good picture because they were in the jungle and the shadows were crazy, but there are heavily armed security guards at the site placed there by the Belizean military. Apparently, Guatemalan loggers will sneak onto the site for their Mahogany trees illegally. They've also taken tourists captive as hostages before the guards were stationed. Cool right?!?!?!

 

 

Our guide took us into the woods a bit to show us this huge termite nest up in the trees. This puppy was huuuuuge, the picture doesn't do it justice.

 

Finally, our guide led us over to the old throne temple before El Castillo was built.

 

 

Definitely an upgrade moving over to the castle, eh? As we were walking out of the site, I noticed some people standing on a temple we hadn't climbed on our tour. I thought it was roped off, but apparently, there was a hidden staircase on one of the sides of it. I asked our guide if I had time, he replied, "sorta, we'll leave you if you're slow though". At this point, I fist bumped him and took off running. I sprinted up the super steep steps, narrowly avoided a heart attack, and was rewarded with these pictures:

 

 

 

Totally worth it. :P

[Viscus]

By the time I caught back up with the group, I was sweating harder than a fat gay man in church (a southernism I picked up from my lovely wife), but I was a happy man. From here, it was another bathroom break, back down the mountain, back across the river, and back into the buses to head to lunch.

 

 

 

Think he likes his job?

 

The place they took us for lunch felt kind of tourist trappy, but the food was pretty good. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of it, but the lunch consisted of coconut milk rice and beans, barbecue chicken, fried plantains, and cole slaw. They also gave samples of cashew wine. That stuff was strong, but was probably a worse taste than moonshine for any of you out there that have tried it. Guess it gets the job done.

 

 

We loaded back onto the buses and started our hour and a half trek back to the cruise terminal. Don't remember much other than right at the beginning, one of the roads we needed to take was blocked by a political demonstration. Gotta love 3rd world nations and their lack of road laws.

 

My wife elbowed me awake as we were arriving, and we shuffled back onto the very last tender back to the Pride. And by last, I mean it. The last tender in the fun times was listed at 5PM EST. We didn't get there until 5:30PM. Good thing we booked through Carnival, eh?

 

 

The view from our tender boat as we pulled up to the Pride. I love the Spirit class ships, they have such a pretty silhouette.

 

After getting back on board, we headed up to the room to shower, change, and figure out dinner.

[Viscus]

All 4 of us decided the MDR menu looked kind of boring that night, so we decided to give the Lido buffet a try. Another great thing about the Spirit class ships, there just aren't enough people on board for there to be giant lines for things. From the time we walked into the Lido buffet to when we were all sitting and eating, it took all of 5 minutes.

 

 

The food in the buffet was just mass produced versions of the MDR food. I don't know if that's how it is every night since we only did the buffet once, but the main food was surprisingly good. The desserts, however...

 

I don't know if it's just me, but I've never had a good dessert in the lido buffet on any of our cruises. Maybe I'm just unlucky or a snob somehow, but the buffet desserts somehow taste way, way worse than the MDR counterparts.

 

 

The coconut cream cake was decent, but the coffee thing on the left was horrifying awful. Like, you took a bite, and your mouth just kept getting angrier and angrier the food was still in there. Ick.

 

After dinner and brushing our teeth after dessert, we headed down to the butterfly lounge for karaoke. Well, our wives headed there and dragged us with them so we didn't go to the casino.

 

So we got there early, and the wives did a couple of songs each, then one together.

 

 

At this point, there were, including us and the karaoke host, like 9 people in the lounge. The wives convinced me to go butcher Elanor Rigby, and I put my name on the list. As my name came up, and I'm not exaggerating, 40+ people walked in. I guess one of the set dining times let out. Just a wave of judging faces. After thoroughly ruining that beautiful song, husband#2 covered for me by ruining his own song.

 

My wife bribes me into going up and singing her favorite song to listen to me sing (Brick by Ben Folds Five), and I put my name on the list for one last song. I'm not kidding you, AS SOON as my name comes up, the lido congo line shows up. I guess they had some sort of Belize sail away party on the top deck, and they were congo'ing through the ship. Well, wouldn't you know it, as soon as it was my turn to sing, they arrived at their final destination, karaoke.

 

Nope.

 

I turned to my wife, apologized, and ran as quickly and my fat man legs would take me. Nope nope nope.

 

 

After a stiff drink from Alchemy (they are the only bar on the ship that can make a proper Old Fashioned cocktail, my favorite drink on the planet), we headed for bed. The next day, we had a full day planned with a private tour from Victor Bodden tours in...

 

Isla Roatan, Honduras!!!!

[Viscus]

And with that, I bid you all adieu. I've actually fallen asleep twice tonight typing this out, this hydrocodone syrup ain't no laughing matter. But! We're officially halfway done with the cruise review! Hopefully, I can stay home from work tomorrow and finish this bad boy off, plus, you know, rest and get rid of this illness. But you all are my priority! ;)

 

G'nite!

[petesweet]

And winter has been INSANE in Atlanta, we've had to wear our coats on a lot of days. COATS!!!1! It got down to like 35 degrees! So chilly!

 

;)

 

You seemed like such a nice person until you said this. Cruel to so many people.

 

Here in South Carolina we woke up to snow and a dead city (you know how that goes in the South). My pipes have frozen three times. But I realize we are the lucky ones.

 

Oh, well, in 25 days we'll be on the Pride.:D

 

Kathy

[petesweet]

And with that, I bid you all adieu. I've actually fallen asleep twice tonight typing this out, this hydrocodone syrup ain't no laughing matter. But! We're officially halfway done with the cruise review! Hopefully, I can stay home from work tomorrow and finish this bad boy off, plus, you know, rest and get rid of this illness. But you all are my priority! ;)

 

G'nite!

 

Hope you feel a lot better. Perhaps tomorrow (which is now today) will be a snow day for you.:D

 

Kathy

[Weeziblu]

subscribing!

 

great review, looking forward to reading the rest as I count down to my own Pride sailing!

[CruisingSnooter]

My husband and I are doing the ruins excursion in Belize...thanks for the in depth review. We were a little hesitant because of the long bus ride, but you have convinced us!!

[nybumpkin]

My wife elbowed me awake as we were arriving, and we shuffled back onto the very last tender back to the Pride. And by last, I mean it. The last tender in the fun times was listed at 5PM EST. We didn't get there until 5:30PM. Good thing we booked through Carnival, eh?

I had to laugh about the tender in Belize. Last August we did the Altun Ha and River Wallace tour, also an all-day tour. "Last tender" was supposed to be 4:15 p.m. Well, it seemed that most the passengers had every intention of being on that last tender. We got in line around 4:00 and it snaked around the port area. I think "last tender" ended up being somewhere around 5:00.

 

Your review is great. Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

[Viscus]

You seemed like such a nice person until you said this. Cruel to so many people.

 

Here in South Carolina we woke up to snow and a dead city (you know how that goes in the South). My pipes have frozen three times. But I realize we are the lucky ones.

 

Oh, well, in 25 days we'll be on the Pride.:D

 

Kathy

 

And see, you seemed like such a nice person until you said this. :P

[Viscus]

subscribing!

 

great review, looking forward to reading the rest as I count down to my own Pride sailing!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read it!

[Viscus]

My husband and I are doing the ruins excursion in Belize...thanks for the in depth review. We were a little hesitant because of the long bus ride, but you have convinced us!!

 

The bus ride is definitely the biggest downside, but the site is definitely worth it. You'll love it!