PHOTO REVIEW~Freedom, the 4th, and my 40th!

[Martini Mom]

 

 

 

[Lkozinko]

How hard was it to find the 2 gentlemen to take you to the island? I have read several reviews stating it was difficult? We are booked to visit the island on our September cruise on the Dream. Loving the review.

 

Thanks,

 

Lisa

[T2C]

Simba the jaguar is available to swim and take pics with for about $35. No matter how tame he is, I never trust wild animals. I chose to admire his beauty from a distance, through a zoom lens. That's just me.

 

 

 

 

They also have a rescued lion on the premises

 

 

Not just you, I'd never trust a big cat

[Martini Mom]

Enjoying your review. I know they are very time consuming so thanks for taking the time to share your trip with all of us on CC. Little French Key looks amazing. Is there only one vendor that goes there besides the one that Carnival offers!

Susan

 

Thanks for reading it :). Little French Key is privately owned, so you buy directly from them. Carnival used to partner with them, but not anymore. Carnival's new excursion isn't to the same place, so the only way to go to LFK is through LFK.

[Martini Mom]

How hard was it to find the 2 gentlemen to take you to the island? I have read several reviews stating it was difficult? We are booked to visit the island on our September cruise on the Dream. Loving the review.

 

Thanks,

 

Lisa

 

Not hard, but the meeting spot is a little out of the way. We asked some of the other vendors and they pointed us in the right direction. I have no problem asking for directions ;). Once we started heading that way, we ran into others looking for the same guys, so we all kind of banded together. You do have to walk a little bit, including up a little hill, so if you have mobility issues, the cabs can take you there. Once you meet up with the LFK reps, it's very easy.

[Martini Mom]

Belize and my 40th birthday! :)

I woke up to a little cake icon on my fitness watch. I guess I must have added my birthday when I registered it.

 

 

The chairs around the deck were covered in towel animals, but I didn't stop to take many pics. We were in a hurry to get breakfast and get off the ship asap to meet our tour.

 

 

 

Breakfast at the Blue Iguana. Premade flat taco things with eggs any style on top and a cheese filled corn pancake thing on the side. It was good! :)

 

[Jenny in TX]

Enjoying your review! Glad my fellow Texans treated you nicely....that is the Texan way!

[cruisingbajan]

Great review and pics. Really enjoying it.

[Gymrat64]

I'm loving your review. We've been to LFK and absolutely loved it too!!! Your pics of the monkeys are adorable! That was one of our favorite excursions. I really liked a drink they have there called the monkey lala. It was made with kahlua and coconut cream. Can't wait to read more and see your pics.:)

[islandatsea]

Thanks for taking time for this excellent review! Enjoying it & your pictures too :) .

[Lkozinko]

Not hard, but the meeting spot is a little out of the way. We asked some of the other vendors and they pointed us in the right direction. I have no problem asking for directions ;). Once we started heading that way, we ran into others looking for the same guys, so we all kind of banded together. You do have to walk a little bit, including up a little hill, so if you have mobility issues, the cabs can take you there. Once you meet up with the LFK reps, it's very easy.

 

 

Great thanks for the information, no mobility problems here. Probably need the extra walking with the drinking and eating that goes on for 7 days. lol

[Martini Mom]

We felt the same way ;)

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[whaletaillover]

Thank you for the Freedom review and great pictures . We are on the Freedom Sept. 26th going to the same ports and I believe that you have convinced me to book Little French Key . Did you book with them on line and how long was the excursion ? My wife wants to make sure that we make it back to the ship on time :)

[Martini Mom]

Thank you for the Freedom review and great pictures . We are on the Freedom Sept. 26th going to the same ports and I believe that you have convinced me to book Little French Key . Did you book with them on line and how long was the excursion ? My wife wants to make sure that we make it back to the ship on time :)

 

It isn't a problem at all. You leave whenever you want. I'm such a worry wart about missing the ship, so we came back a little earlier than most and had a drink at Fat Tuesday's, right at the end of the pier. You book directly through their website.

 

Here's the confirmation email from LFK to me:

 

 

We make sure you all will be back on ship before time..

 

Thank you for choosing Little French Key!!

 

Our Drivers, Dave or Larry will be waiting for you at the port since

before your

ship arrives, please don't worry about your arrival or departure time, we

will make sure you get picked up as early as possible and returned to the

port on time to maximize your stay with us.... Dave or Larry will pick you

up as

soon as you can disembark. Due to port rules you need to walk a short

distance to outside of the port´s gate to meet with our driver. Please do

not be lured by others and stay the course to outside of the gate.

 

Dave or Larry will be wearing a polo shirt with our Logos, ¨Little French

Key¨ on the back, and ¨Frenchy´s 44¨on the front, they will be holding up

a sign with "Little French Key" written. Dave or Larry will be the first

person to your right as you exit the gate and again please don't be lured

by anyone inside the ports and or in the booths.

 

You can make the payment once you get to our facilities with US Cash or

any major credit card (15% charge)....no deposit is required.

 

Looking forward to meeting you in person. Our mission is your enjoyment.

Edited July 22, 2015 by Martini Mom

[Martini Mom]

Whaletaillover- This is a pic of our ferry ride back to the main island. You can see that it was pretty much just us. :)

 

[Martini Mom]

Enjoying your review! Glad my fellow Texans treated you nicely....that is the Texan way!

 

Thank you! :) Texans are super nice people.

[Martini Mom]

Great review and pics. Really enjoying it.

 

Thanks for reading my review :)

[Martini Mom]

I'm loving your review. We've been to LFK and absolutely loved it too!!! Your pics of the monkeys are adorable! That was one of our favorite excursions. I really liked a drink they have there called the monkey lala. It was made with kahlua and coconut cream. Can't wait to read more and see your pics.:)

 

Thanks so much! LFK is so amazing! I wish I was there right now :). The monkeys were great. I love how I didn't have to hold them in a cage, they weren't on leashes or anything and there wasn't a charge to hold them. We did put some money in their tip jar though.

[Martini Mom]

Time to check out Belize!

 

We booked a cavetubing tour through a private vendor, cavetubing dot bz. They came highly recommended on Cruise Critic and other sites. They charge $50 per person and it includes air conditioned transportation to the caves with a tour guide speaking about the area the whole way, all of the safety equipment, guided tour through the rain forest, tubing through 3 connected caves, lunch at the owner's home/office, and transportation back to the port.

 

We met up in one of the main dining rooms to have immediate tendering with our FTTF. We ate breakfast and showed up at the assigned time. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later they escorted us down to the tender and we were on our way. We saw long lines of people in the hallways, waiting for regular tendering. Many later told us they waited 2-3 hours! This is where FTTF really came in handy! We were surprised how far from land the ship sets anchor. I think they said 5 miles, so the tender ride was kind of long.

 

First impressions...the water is beautiful, but the port is not. It kind of reminds me of Ensenada, Mexico. We walked through the gates, a very short walk, then you are faced with a sea of vendors trying to find their people and vendors trying to sell tours on the fly. We easily spotted our vendors. We were told they would have yellow shirts, etc. She then walked us down the road, along the water, to the lighthouse. We then realized that they were going to wait for a large group of us before they left. There were a bunch of minivans with their logos on them, but there were so many of us that we ended up going in a big Greyhound type tour bus. While we waited, they handed our free bottles of cold water and we chilled out on the sea wall. Had we known this, we might not have hurried off the ship or we might have done some shopping at the port (inside the gates).

 

Waiting

 

The small vans we DIDN'T take

 

 

We drove past and through this cemetery. We all asked why there was a big block of stone on top of each grave. It's Mayan tradition to bury their dead 6 feet underground, but Belize sits below sea level, so they hit water only 3 feet down. They put the 3 foot tall stone on top to equal the required 6 foot depth.

 

 

[Martini Mom]

The drive took about 45 minutes. Our guide was a little annoying. His style was to ask us questions like a teacher who was mad that the class didn't want to participate. We were basically being quizzed. When he handed over the mic to his partner, we all clapped. We stopped at the owner's home/office to pay for our tours. They don't require deposits. Then we were back on the road to the caves for a tiny bit longer.

 

Once there we were told to changed into whatever we'd be hiking in and wearing on the river. I went with shorts and my bikini top. You have to leave all hats and sunglasses on the bus. I was going to buy a waterproof camera on the ship, but they ran out. I decided to go with a very fancy substitution, a Zip Loc baggie. I put my cell phone in the double zippered baggie and took it out for pics, river and all. It worked out perfectly.

 

We didn't go in here.

 

Getting our safety gear. We really didn't need any of it, but I'm sure it makes people feel better. Some companies didn't provide helmets or headlamps.

 

Huge vines on our hike

 

Termites. Some people chose to eat them. They taste like mint I hear. No thanks.

 

Walking across this shallow area of the river with the help of a rope line. It came up to mid thigh on me.

[Martini Mom]

Beautiful! Wish we could have stayed her and swam a bit. We were quickly herded from place to place.

 

It took a little bit to get the tubes grouped together. They were trying to get families and groups in the same bunch. It was a little disorganized. They finally added Mike and I to the front of the last group (they carabiner them together). Mike just gave me a look...the guide for our bunch was the annoying guy from the bus. There were about 3 other guides. He's also about 5 feet tall, maybe. That will come into play soon....

 

 

 

A pic taken over my head of the rest of our group

 

It was a busy day there, so groups from all different vendors were stacking up and bumping into each other. It reminded me of the It's a Small World ride when all of the boats back up. ;)

[Martini Mom]

everyone always thinks I'm weird for being intrigued by cemeteries...I went to Ireland last year and visited several old cemeteries. The history of them fascinates me. Thank you for posting.

 

It's interesting to learn about the customs of the area :)

[Martini Mom]

Note- Almost all of the tubes have a solid bottom, so you stay pretty dry. I got a little wet from when we crossed the river, but you could do the whole trip, stay pretty dry and not even need to know how to swim. That's what made it easy to use my cell phone camera.

 

On the ceiling

 

 

The tubing part was not as awesome as I'd hoped. I was hoping for a little more adventure, but it was very mellow. Mike later told me that he assumed cup holders in our tubes (which the company proudly talks about), meant drinks on the go. He thought it would be more like tubing down the Colorado River. ;) Our bus guide/river guide "Red Bull" struggled to drag us down the river. There is very little current, so the guides hook their feet on ropes in the front, sit in innertubes, and paddle backwards with their arms to drag the 8 pack. He was struggling big time and even beached us on a sand bar. Mike had to get out of his tube and help a couple times. I think Red Bull was embarrassed because he started spouting off about how much everyone must have eaten lately and how heavy we all were. Mike's looked at me with a ***??!! look. He later said, "You never tell people that they're fat, especially women. How dumb!"

 

Time to walk back to the bus and head to the owner's house for lunch....

[british lady]

LFK only allows 100 people on their island at a time. It was never crowded. It felt like we were rich and famous ;). I HIGHLY,100%, COMPLETELY, recommend this place!!!! Seriously. You won't be disappointed. I haven't even posted all of the amazing ocean and food pics yet :)

 

Thank you for you review, I am really enjoying it. We are back sailing on the Freedom In December and after seeing your photos booked LFK:).

[ElleMo]

Little French Key. Roatan, Honduras.

 

 

Around the island....

 

 

 

Then I held the Spider and Capuchin Monkeys! I wasn't planning on it, but it just kind of happened. The Spider Monkey loved using my sarong as a jungle gym :)

 

 

 

 

 

The monkey pictures are amazing! Great review! Thank you!