NCL STAR Trip Report 4/3-4/10/16 SJ Family Suite with young children

[Coolwhip82]

About us: We are a multi-generational family [DM (age 60), Me (age 33), DD (age 7), and DS (age 1 ---21 months precisely)]. My mother retired two years ago and moved to KY to be with me and my kids. I am a single mother with a very demanding job, so she helps out a lot. We have very different vacation styles though. Her ideal vacation is going to a Caribbean resort and sitting on the beach all day with a cold drink in her hand. My ideal vacation is going on adventure, visiting historically or culturally significant places, mixing with the locals….and having a drink in my hand. Thus, we thought a cruise would be the perfect mixture of the two styles and satisfy us both. We are both avid travelers (I back packed through Europe by myself one summer pre-kids), but had never cruised before.

 

A few things were holding us back:

 

1. We are not a fan of ‘set’ anything (i.e. eating at the same time, with the same people, at the same restaurant). Plus with kids, esp. on vacation, their moods can be very temperamental, so we needed flexibility of eating at-will.

2. We don’t like to get dressed up on vacation. We aren’t slobs, but to us, vacation is a time for relaxing and getting dressed up in formal wear is not our idea of relaxing.

3. Drinking – we both like to have a drink in our hand on vacation. We aren’t getting bombed, after all the kiddos are in tow, but sipping on a mimosa with breakfast is vacation to us.

4. My mom has a fear of not being able to see land.

 

So Norwegian, with its Freestyle motto, add in the perk of the UBP, and that eliminates 1-3! What to do about 4? Leave my mom at home? No, need help with the kids. Ok, book a room on the port side (counter clockwise trip) and with as many port days as possible so she can see land and/or actually be on land as much as possible. Star, Western Caribbean itinerary, with 4 port days- check, check, check, check—we took the plunge!

 

Where applicable, I am going to try to highlight things dealing with suite life and cruising with young kids on the boat b/c I haven’t seen many trip reports dealing with both.

 

I am also going to try embed photos, which I have never done on here before, so please be patient with me.

[Coolwhip82]

ROOM

 

Now is the big question—what stateroom to book?

 

All things consider above, and after doing my research, we decided to go with the Family Suite (SJ) room 12530. At the time of booking, all 4 perks (UBP, 4 UDP, 250 mins of Wi-Fi, and $50 p/port excursion credit) were included if you booked a suite. That was a huge. Plus, we liked the idea of having more room.

 

My mom also has some mobility issues, coupled with the kids, we probably spent more time in the room then the average cruiser so we needed some space and a view. We didn’t want to deal with a balcony because DS is a crazy climber and would probably find a way to jump off the boat. We also liked the room had a divider. DM snores. She says I do too, but I don’t believe her.

 

I picked room 12530 in particular because it was port-side as mentioned earlier, it’s almost like a mid-ship location rather than a forward because it is at the ‘end’ of the row of SJs, and the floor to ceiling windows have the “bump out” window. This offers cool views and extra space (495 sq. ft compared to 410 sq. ft in other SJs). It’s almost like a bay window allowing you to see both port and forward views.

 

Sunset as we are leaving Tampa:

 

It was pretty spectacular and the kids really enjoyed it:

 

 

Here is DS sitting on the ledge as we came into port in Roatan:

 

 

One thing to note with this room, it only sleeps 4 people. The bump out nixes room for the murphy bed.

 

Also there at two big negatives I should mention about this particular room:

 

1. You can hear A LOT of noise from the joggers on the track on Deck 13 above and the joggers, at least on this particular sailing, did not seem to pay attention to the tracks hours of operation (see my now-closed open letter thread on that) and;

 

2. The smoking area by the pool is very near-by. My mother, a smoker, considered this a plus. My children and I, non-smokers, did not. The smoke smell drifted in from the smoking area down the hall towards our cabin. It never made it into the room, but the hallway area always reeked. The kids and I took to cutting through the library to exit on the other side of the pool on the non-smoking area as a way to avoid it.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Coolwhip82

[Coolwhip82]

Pre-Cruise / Embarkation Day

 

I lived in Tampa from 2004-2010. The kids dad is from there, so his family is all there. We went on Friday to catch up with friends and family. We ended up staying at a hotel as to not put out our F&F with 4 additional people. I originally had the Hilton, but switched to the Residence Inn by Marriott. For our purposes, it was fine. If you are looking for a pre-cruise hotel, it is probably not for you. No airport or port shuttle. But it is right across the street—within walking distance--- from International Plaza (higher end mall) and Bay Street (open air mall type place with tons of restaurants).

Kids being silly on the hotel balcony:

 

 

One of the suite perks if that you don’t have to pick a time be at the port. Any time between 10 and 2 is fine. We caught an Uber XL and arrived at the Terminal 3 in the port around 12:30. We started off loading our masses amounts of crap and I was hit with a surprise. We can bring our own water on board (we had two cases with us!), but it could not be a checked bag. I would have to bring it as a carry on. I was very confused by this because I have read about others bringing soda on as a checked bag (cute- Mistugirly’s epic struggle receiving her diet pepsi on the Jade). I was told soda was OK to check, but water was not. Super.

 

Luckily I had brought an umbrella stroller for DS. Thus, he was walking and the water was riding in the stroller. We got through security very quickly and were up filling out our health forms in no time at all. Here comes a suite perk that I love—priority embarkation. There was a slew of people in line to check-in, probably a good 45 min wait, but the suite guests have their own check-in line. There was one family ahead of us. In 2 minutes we were being helped. The entire process probably took 5 minutes and then we were being escorted over to the VIP waiting area. Here we were introduced to the concierge as well as our butler for the week – Ravi.

 

They have a bunch of snacks and (non-alcoholic) drinks out. We were told to help ourselves and take a seat. Ravi would lead us on board soon. We were very hungry, the kids especially since it was well pas their lunch time, but the food didn’t look that great. Plus, what I haven’t mentioned is that DS has a food allergy—dairy. Not lactose intolerant. Allergic. So we weren’t sure what he could have and didn’t want to eat in front of him. We asked if we could skip this lounge and just go aboard. Ravi said yes and whisked us away. He said our suite guest only lunch in Cagneys was open until 2, did we want to go there? Yes, but let’s drop off our carry-ons --- two cases of water!!!—first. He whisked us away to our cabin quickly pointing out major amenities on the ship.

 

After a quick stop in our room to drop things he took us to Cagneys. I honestly don’t remember much of that process, it was a whirlwind for someone who has never cruised before. By this point it’s 1:30 and we are starving . Not to mention in need of a drink. It’s sail away, and the only day they have the suite lunch in Cagneys (other days, breakfast and the lunch are in Moderno), so I don’t think the staff has their entire act together. They seemed very confused that we wanted kids menus and drinks. They said it would take a while for both the kids food and our drinks because they had to get them downstairs. Um, ok? We still want them…and they were right. It took forever.

 

I ordered my first of many pain killers based on recommendations on this forum, it did not disappoint. My food was less than desirable though. It was described as ‘seared shrimp and scallops’ with risotto or something like that. It had one tiny shrimp and a few bay scallops, none of which were ‘seared’ and some runny risotto. My mom got a burger, asked for medium, and got well done. Uh oh, if this is how the food was going to be our entire trip we were going to be upset. Luckily, it was not.

 

We finished lunch and wanted to go back to the room, but we didn’t remember how to get there! Neither of us were paying attention to Ravi’s whirlwind tour. We finally figured out based on the ships maps and headed back to the room. DM and DS were exhausted and wanted to take a nap. DD and I decided to explore the ship / go swimming (well, she did at least). She changed and we headed to the main pool just a short walk away from our cabin. I grabbed another pain killer from Top Siders (the line was kind of long, 5-10 minute wait all day, but this was the only day we experienced this). DD tried the slides first and was disappointed. She had to scoot all the way down (we would learn later that the secret is to lay down, not sit up):

 

 

And although she looks happy here, she was very unhappy that the pool was saltwater. This is only day she would swim here due to that pesky salt water, LOL:

Edited April 16, 2016 by Coolwhip82

[Freespir8]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review! I am enjoying it so far and looking forward to reading more.

We have stayed in the SJ's before and love them. I agree with the smoke smell. We specifically chose starboard side because we had read on CC that it was the non-smoking side of the pool deck. We were really glad we did because the smoke in the hall on the other side was pretty bad. Of course that would have defeated #4 for your Mom. :)

I read your other thread about the jogging track and agree that it would be nice if other cruisers followed the rules. They are in place for a reason and it's s shame that some people don't think the rules apply to them. So because that happens, we usually book SJ 12016 or forward. The jogging track ends there.

[Coolwhip82]

We wondered around the ship checking things out.

 

DD tried her hand at some golf:

 

We went down to deck 7, the Promenade, and walked around the whole ship. We stopped to get the obligatory picture of the wake from the back of the ship:

 

I got some more pain killers and we just wandered around. DM and DS were now up and the Captain announced we would be going under the Sky Way Bridge soon. He advised to make our way up to decks 13/14 in the forward part of the ship to get pictures. Us and a ton of other people did this, it was packed up there, but very cool:

 

 

The smoke stack is only 9 feet under the bridge! Talk about cutting it close!

 

At this point it is getting late (for us at least). DD decided she wanted to try out kids club, which opened at 8 (first day only, rest of the days 7 for the evening shift). We went to the buffet to grab her something to eat and then dropped her at kids club. DM, DS and I tried to go to the MDR for dinner, but it was packed. We decided to go to O'Sheenans instead.

 

We had a quick meal-- DM got the prime rib (served the first night only), DS and I got a burger. Everything was tastey enough. We picked up DD from kids club and headed back to the room. We were all asleep by 9:30 (which will be a theme for this whole trip, lol).

Edited April 16, 2016 by Coolwhip82

[Coolwhip82]

First Day at Sea

 

One last thing I forgot to mention, you set your clocks back an hour the first night, thus while it was really 9:30 ET, it was 8:30 ship time that we went to bed. DS is a robot, he wakes up at 7am every day. So, first day at sea this really meant 6am ship time. Good thing he was up b/c the joggers had already started their stomping.

 

DS and I went to the buffet to grab him some fruit while DM and DD slept. The suite breakfast doesn’t open until 7 on sea days (6:30am on port days). Note: Roatan, b/c of the late arrival time, is also considered a see day. We didn’t know this.

 

At 7 everyone is up and we head to the suite breakfast in Moderno. Where the salad buffet for dinner, there is a breakfast buffet. It has a wonderful selection of fresh fruit – blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries (they always had 3 out of 4 each day), prunes, dried apricots, etc. They had accompaniments for make your own granola and yogurt, as well as, oatmeal. They also had cheeses, some cold cuts, and cereal. You can help yourself to this, at any time, in addition to ordering from the menu. The first day, we got DS some more fruit and a scrambled egg (everything else on the menu had dairy, we had to custom order a scrambled egg with no milk), DD had the pancakes plain (they are served with fruit and stuff), DM got the crab cakes benedict, and I got the 3 egg omelet with mushrooms and cheese.

 

Everything was okay taste wise, but it was not fresh or warm. It was clear that they had prepped all of this earlier in the day and then just reheated and assembled ad-hoc. I understand this is necessary when you are trying to feed thousands of people, but it took forever to get the food. I guess because they were actually assembling it downstairs. And by the time we got it, it was not warm. The pre-made and lack of warmth caused us to only gave it a shot one other day. Instead we took to getting our breakfast from the Buffet—it was close to our stateroom and at least here it was hot. You can get eggs (and omelets) made to order as well. I would just run upstairs to get DS the fresher fruit. The buffet breakfast only had melon, bananas, and some canned peaches or fruit cocktail usually.

 

After breakfast, we decided to check out the kiddy pool area. It is on deck 12 as well, but Aft. DD was much happier in this pool b/c it was not saltwater. DS was happy in this pool b/c it was a pool. They both had a great time and played here until lunch.

 

[Clarea]

Very nice start, enjoying the review.:)

[Coolwhip82]

Post-pool we got cleaned up and grabbed some lunch at the Buffet (I think). We weren’t too impressed with the suite lunch the day before and just wanted something quick. We had reservations at Teppanyaki that night too. We went back to the room and all took a nice long nap.

 

Our reservations for Teppanyaki were at 5, which is the first seating -- tables only hold 12 people. The kids LOVED the entertainment aspect of the meal. You get 4 courses, only two of which you get to choose: 1. miso soup 2. seaweed salad 3. entrée (choice) 4. dessert (choice between two- green tea cake or fresh tropical fruit). DM and I both had the land and sea combo--jumbo shrimp and filet. The jumbo shrimp were in fact jumbo and the filet was very tender. The kids split the shrimp and chicken combo meal. All in all, it was a delicious meal. We sat with a family from Canada and another from Georgia and had great conversation.

 

Dinner wrapped up and it was time for the captain's reception for suite guests. 6:15-6:45p in the Spinnaker Lounge. We made our way and showed up promptly at 6:15. You enter in a line and the officers and are along the wall greeting you asking where you are from. It was very nice. DD got a picture with some of the officers and then proceeding to ask the captain “If you are here, who is driving the ship?” LOL!!

 

 

Ravi, our butler, was there and ushered us to a table towards the back. We sat here so the kids could run around a little and not cause a distraction for the other guests. Waiters brought around trays of drinks (pre-poured, a couple of beers, a glass of red and white wine, and some champagne). We asked about getting a custom ordered drink, like my pain killers that I was in love with, and despite there being a bar with a bar tender we were told they weren’t doing that. Only the pre-poured drinks they had. They also brought around a ton of appetizers that looked good—namely some huge shrimp on a shrimp cocktail, but we had just had dinner so we were stuffed. I can see this event being a bigger draw pre-UBP because of the ‘free’ drinks.

 

We sat and talked a long while with one of the officers: the guest services manager, Irma (I believe her name was). It was fascinating to hear about life on the ship. For example, she had been working on cruises for 20+ years, 15 or so with NCL. She said she was one of the “fortunate ones” in that she worked for 4 months straight and then got 6 weeks off. Others on the ship, like the butler or bar tenders, usually worked 8-10 months straight. YIKES!!!

She also played hide and go seek with the kids for a while, she was so lovely:

 

 

We left the reception at about 7, just in time for DD to go to kid’s club. She was not too impressed with it the first night and was hesitant to go back. I told her to give it one more shot and if she didn’t like it tonight, she didn’t have to go back. She took me up on that offer and went back. DM was tired, and DS was acting a little cranky too, so they went back to the room. I took DD to kids club and then wandered around the ship a little. I discovered the tail-end of “Karaoke Madness” (6-8p) at the 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar. I didn’t join in, but I watched while sipping on a “Tranquil Waters” (a rum drink, with chunks of mango, but don’t they look like pieces of cheese, LOL?). I vowed to come back earlier another day to catch all of karaoke. There were some great singers on this cruise!

 

Around 9, I went to check on DD to make sure she was having a good time. She said she was and asked if she could stay a little while longer. I told her I would come back at 9:30 b/c I was getting tired. I went down to Deck 7 and found a lounge chair. I just hung out drinking a pain killer, watching a family play shuffle board for 30 minutes, and then went back to get DD. Tonight had gone much better and she was willing to give Kids Club a try another night as well. At 10 (ship time) we were back in the room and in bed--- excited for our first port day the next day—Roatan!

 

Before you got to bed, don’t forget to set your clocks back ANOTHER hour (ports do not observe DST).

[Coolwhip82]

Roatan

 

Again DS wakes up at 7am ET, which is 5am ship time. Sheesh, what to do? We got up and just walked around the ship. We thought it was a “port” day so we tried to go to breakfast at 6:30. We got there at 6:20am and waited….and waited. Finally at 6:40 the hostess shows up and says they don’t open until 7. Wait, today is a port day, you open at 6:30? I have the paper that says it right here. She calls the concierge- Roel-- who says no, it’s 7. Defeated and hungry we go down to the buffet to at least get the kids fed. At 7:15 or so we go back upstairs. The hostess says b/c we do not arrive in Roatan until 11, it is considered a sea day, thus they don’t open until 7. Ok, that’s fine, but then don’t give me a paper in my stateroom saying it opens at 6:30.

 

Note: I kept ALL of the papers they put in our room each day. It’s like a ream of paper too! If anyone needs Freestyles or something, let me know and I will scan them in.

 

We sit down to eat breakfast and notice it is the exact same menu as yesterday. I guess we were naïve in thinking they would have different offering each day. Oh well, we are starving. DM gets the omelet and I get the French toast with berries and whip cream. Both were very tasty, but again, they were not hot. Not even warm really. We discovered later, that you can actually get all of this same stuff at the buffet with the exception of the non-canned fruit. So, this was our last time eating at the suite breakfast. We did the buffet with only a stop to the suite breakfast to get a bowl of fresh fruit for the rest of the cruise.

 

After breakfast, I try to put DS down for a nap. Wouldn’t it be great if he could nap on the ship and be fresh and ready to go at 11? No dice. He didn’t want to sleep, so we just hung out in the room and watched as we came up on Roatan and the port.

 

 

 

At 10:45 we leave to meet the concierge at Gatsby’s for our priority disembarkation—another suite perk that was awesome. We meet him there, along with some other suite families, and we are escorted to a “crew only” area, down a service elevator, and off the ship in 5 minutes flat. We got to cut in front of the other passengers waiting on deck 4 to get off.

I booked all of our excursions privately. After doing reviews on here, I knew that the NCLs ones were expensive (even with our $50 per port credit) and didn’t get the best review (i.e. large groups, rushing).

 

For Roatan, we were doing Victor Bodden, Best of Roatan private tour. This gave us our own driver, in our own air conditioned van, for the day. The price was $105 which included admission to the Monkey Business.

[mjkacmom]

Just a FYI for folks with little ones, there are no NCL ships that allow diapered kids in the pools or splash areas. They don't have a proper filtering system, like splash areas on DCL and some RCCL ships (that also don't have pools for babies, but do have splash areas).

[Coolwhip82]

Best of Roatan Private Tours

 

Victor’s pre-cruise communication via email was excellent. I knew exactly where to go and how to meet our guide. We exited the port and looked for the “Victor Bodden” sign in position #1. We were then ushered to our van and introduced to our tour guide/driver for the day – Calvin. Calvin confirmed our plans for the day: visit a primary school, see the monkeys, get some lunch, and go to the beach.

 

Calvin loaded our stuff into the van and we were off. First stop, the primary school. I had read on here ahead of time about how poor Hondorus is and that is certainly true. Roatan, because of the cruise ships, is probably better off than the rest of the country, but by-and-large they are very poor. Public school is only provided by the government until grade 6, after that families must pay. Additionally, public schools are plagued with teacher strikes over pay—that is, they are striking to receive their pay. Can you imagine a government that frequently doesn’t pay the teachers? yikes!! I had done some research and emailed Victor to see what supplies would be most needed. I purchased about 15 children’s literature books (in Spanish), glue sticks, crayons, markers, pencils, pens, erasers, paper, and scissors. It was a HUGE box of supplies.

 

Calvin took us to a public school that he said could really use the supplies in the heart of 'downtown' Roatan. The area for the school was pretty small, with a large fence all around it. There was a big courtyard and a cinderblock building functioning as the schoolhouse. There was a tree in the far side of the courtyard that had tire swings hanging from it—their playground.

 

(This is the only picture we have. We didn't want to seem disrespectful like we were gawking at their school by snapping a bunch of pictures. In hindsight, I am sure we could have asked if they minded)

 

There was national testing going on that day so the schools were dismissing a bit earlier than usual. We got the school and the older children had already left, but the 4/5 year olds were still there. We brought the supplies to the headmistress and she took us to one of the classrooms. On the way to the classroom, DS was walking next to me and all the children kept touching his hair. (Calvin said it was because they probably had never seen blonde hair before in real life.)

 

The inside of the classroom had some of the same features you would expect in any school: small desks and chairs for the students, a large desk for the teacher, a whiteboard on the wall with some dry-erase markers, and lot of drawings posted on the walls. That’s where the similarities ended. As you can see from the picture, there are no windows as we know them. Just open space with rebar to keep ‘things’ out. It was pretty warm in the room, but there was no fan to cool things down because there was no electricity in the building. Thus, there was obviously no technology. All of the classroom items such as books, manipulatives, maps, etc. were very old and worn. We were saddened by the state of affairs for this school, but knew that was why we were there—to try to help in some small way.

 

Counting our blessings, we got back in the van to head off to ‘the mountain’ to take pictures of the ship and visit some shops. As soon as we got moving, DS feel asleep (remember he wouldn’t nap earlier on the ship). About 10 minutes later, after going up some pretty steep and narrow roads, we were at the top. DM and DD hoped out to explore. I stayed in the van with DS.

 

Calvin took some pics of them from the top of the mountain. Notice the Star in the background? Pretty cool:

 

 

One DM took of the Star at port:

 

 

DD found a doll that she like (pictured here...this is later in the night after picking her up from kids club. It was a Survivor theme and she was on the red team, hence the face paint) and a magnet:

 

 

It started to rain lightly so they came back to the van and we all headed off to Victor’s to pay for the excursion and visit the monkey business.

 

About 15 mins later we pulled into Victor’s. There were several other groups there. We entered and paid in cash for our tour and were introduced to our monkey tour guide. He was Victor’s nephew I believe and would be taking us through the monkey business. Post about this coming in separate reply.

[Coolwhip82]

Victor Bodden Monkey Business (as part of the Private Tour)

 

I read review of this place a head of time with people trashing this tour. I have to say—those people are crazy. If you come here expecting the San Diego Zoo, you are going to be disappointed. If you come here expecting an up-close and personal encounter with some very cool animals in a CLEAN facility, then you’ll enjoy yourself. And seriously, it was $5 per person (not including DS, he was free). For what they offer, that price cannot be beat.

 

Our tour guide started off by letting us know the important things to keep in mind:

1.He works for tips. Tip him whatever you think is appropriate, but he works for tips.

2.Follow his directions when in the cages with the animals. Don’t grab them.

3.Pictures are encourage. He will help you get good ones. Did he mention he works for tips?

 

On we go to the monkey cage (if I had to guess, I would say each one was 20X20X20, they were very big) we will be visiting. The monkeys are white-headed capuchins, very small by ‘monkey’ standards. There is a double door system so the outer door can be opened, you walk in, they close the outer door and open the inner door. While we were in the holding part, the guide said he would take us to a certain spot in the cage. We were to stand there and he would get the monkeys and bring them to us. Did we understand? No grabbing the monkeys? Yes, we understood. He opens the inner door and we start to follow him in (me, DD, DM holding DS’s hand bringing up the rear). We are two feet past the door and BAM!! a monkey jumps on my head. I nearly **** my pants. Here is a pic after I calmed down a little:

 

 

DM and DD start laughing hysterically because I am freaking out. I knew we were coming in here to hang with the monkeys, but didn’t he say he would bring them to us? Guess the monkey’s had a different plan.

 

The guide feeds them sunflower seeds which they skillfully crack open with their front teeth and only eat the seed inside. They drop the shells and they fall wherever (later that day, when I took my clothes off to change into my bathing suit a whole host of shells fell on the floor. LOL, I guess they were hitch hiking in my bra!)

 

The monkeys take their turn hanging out with each of us, less DS. He was having no part in those monkey’s touching him!

 

DM and a monkey:

 

 

DD and a monkey (there were actually three of them, the guide could tell them apart, I couldn't!):

 

 

As we were hanging with the monkeys, one thing we notice—the lack of smell. The cages didn’t smell. The monkeys didn’t smell. There was no poo on the floor to watch out for. Everything was impeccably clean.

 

Now on to the birds! Here is one of the toucans:

 

[dna529]

We had an sj on the Star in November. We were very annoyed with the joggers early in the morning also and the smoke drifted in our room every time we opened the door. It didn't ruin our cruise but I will know better next time! Great review!

[Keith1010]

Very nice review.

 

Keith

[Coolwhip82]

We move on to the bird cages, same rules apply as the monkeys. Guide again says to stand in one spot and he will bring the birds to us. Don’t know why I didn’t learn my lesson with the monkeys, but I believed him. I am the second one in and a bird flies right down on my head. They don’t really hurt, but they do have some claws on them!!! And once again I nearly pooped my pants from the surprise of animal landing on my head. DM and DD are hysterically laughing again.

 

Here I am after the guide got the bird to come down on my shoulder. I am still in shock though:

 

Here is DM with the bird. She knew it was coming that is why she looks so calm:

 

And DD with two different ones:

 

 

 

And DS still isn’t having any part of these animals, but he got closer with the birds than he did with the monkeys thanks to the guide (look at his face though, he is so skeptical, LOL):

 

 

We saw lots of other animals along the way: different types of monkey, deer with babies (so cute!!), and some things that looked like huge tailless rats that are supposedly Honduran rabbits, just to name a few. Again, very much worth the $5 entrance fee (plus tip for the guide—don’t forget he works for tips!!)

 

Now we are all very hungry so we ask Calvin to take us to a restaurant and then the beach. How about a restaurant on the beach he says? Even better! And away we go.

[Coolwhip82]

Argentinian Grill West End/West Bay Beach, Roatan.

 

Calvin says he going to take us to a restaurant on the beach. They have bathrooms, showers, beach chairs, umbrellas and WiFi all for $10 each (less DS, he was free). We drive for about 15 minutes. Up and down these narrow roads, into the jungle practically. It looks like we are in the middle of nowhere and Calvin announces – we’re here! We get out and he grabs all of our bags. Walk this way, through the jungle, the beach is right over here. At this point, I am wondering if we are going to get jumped because I really thought we were in the middle of nowhere, but I was wrong. A building appears, we go to the side, and poof! There’s the beach!

 

Calvin takes our stuff down the beach and secures our chairs. We pay the cover fee and sit down to eat. Here is the view from the restaurant:

 

 

Here is view of the beach featuring some random dude DM took a picture of:

 

I had the shrimp burrito, DM had the filet mignon sandwich, DD had chicken tenders, and DS had a burger and fries. Everything was amazing and the portions were HUGE. It was probably the best meal we had the whole trip. We had several beers, DM drinking Miller Lite, I was having something local (Calvin recommended it and it was great). We kept our tab open and had more beers at the beach, probably 6 each in total. The bill was only $70 for everything including tip.

 

DD decided she wanted to get her hair braided. Just the top. Calvin had a friend who did it and he went to find her. She came back and said would do it for $30. We haggled and she finally agreed to do it for $20. I am pretty sure she was pregnant, so I ended up paying her $25. She did a great job.

 

 

DD and DS played in the sand and we all enjoyed the water.

 

 

 

The only negative thing I have to say about this place is the people trying to sell you stuff on the beach. They came up to you constantly and some things are really not appropriate for children to hear about. However, Calvin came to our rescue in this aspect. He shooed them off, saying something in Spanish, that made them move on to someone else anytime someone came near us. That was very nice.

 

About 5:30 Calvin says we should probably head back. All aboard time is 6:30 and there could be some traffic. We are tired by this point and agree its a wrap. We pack up, rinse off, and Calvin carries most of our stuff back to the van. Have I mentioned how awesome he was? He was awesome!! I highly recommend booking this tour and asking for him to be your guide.

 

It probably takes 20-25 minutes to drive back to port. Calvin unloads us, we tip him and say our goodbyes. We still have about 30 minutes before all-aboard so we decide to wander around the port area little. We find the place to get our passports stamped and happily take part—they work on donations so we threw in a few bucks. We walked around to the shops some and then call it a day and head back onboard.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Coolwhip82

[marathonrunner123]

This report is bringing back wonderful memories

[Coolwhip82]

Back on board we showered and headed to dinner. Pretty sure we ate the Buffet this night. Nothing spectacular. DM and DS were tired, so after dinner they headed back to the room. DD wanted to try out kids club again. I dropped her and said I would be back to pick up in time for the 9pm show- Marrambolla (the acrobat couple-- had to pull out my Freestyle Daily to get the spelling on that one!). Not sure what I did this night while was in kid’s club, but I am pretty sure it involved The 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar and some margaritas. Picked up DD at about 8:50 and we headed to the Stardust. It was still very empty and we got great seats about mid-way up the theater right in the center. The seats has filled up and the show started a little late, maybe 9:05, and lasted about 40 mins. It was entertaining, esp. when they got an audience member to come up on stage and pretended to throw knives at him while he was blindfolded. Post-show we decided we wanted dessert. DD was big into the make your own sundae at the buffet and I took to enjoying Nutella crepes. Yum. At about 10:30 or so we were back to the cabin to get a goodnight’s sleep for tomorrow’s port- Belize!

[Coolwhip82]

Belize

 

Again DS wakes up at 5am ship time, 7am EDT, and we go through the same process we did before. Get him some breakfast while DD and DM sleep. Then when everyone is up head to the Buffet.

 

Suite perk for Belize – no tender tickets required! Just meet concierge at Gatsby’s and you will be escorted to a tender. I had booked the Shark Ray Alley and Caye Caulker tour with Coral Breeze at 10am. First time cruising, I wasn’t sure how long getting off, tendering, and find them would take so I didn’t want to chance things so we got moving early. I guess we caught the 8:30 tender because we arrived at the port around 8:50am. We got off the tender and found the Belize sign to take the obligatory photos there:

 

 

One thing I have to say about all ports, including this one, they don’t make it easy to get out. We joked through the trip that the ports were like casinos—purposely confusing to keep you in! We finally figured out how to exit and found the Coral Breeze rep.

 

Pre-cruise I was very stressed out about what to do in Belize. I knew it was very water based, but DS is too young for most of the activities and DM has mobility issues. After much research, I booked this tour, with this company specifically because it could accommodate us all. Pre-cruise, here is what I thought (copied from my post in the Belize forum where another person, who had a father with mobility issues and a small child, was looking for something to do): “We booked the Shark Ray Alley snorkeling tour through Coral Breezes Tours. On your way to snorkeling, you stop at Caye Caulker for a bathroom break, non-snorkelers can stay behind at this point, snorkelers go on and do their thing. You come back to CC and everyone meets up and hangs out and then goes back to port. They actually charge less for the non-snorkelers too. I think their prices are very reasonable: Adult, snorkeler $72; adult non-snorkeler $42; kid (3-12) snorkelers $60; kid non-snorkelers $32; kid under 3 FREE”

 

What I didn’t mention there was that I contacted them to make sure my mother, with mobility issues, would be able to do this tour. They said it wouldn’t be a problem….that turned out not to be the case. While this tour was fantastic, I WOULD NOT recommend it for anyone with mobility or issues dealing with heat. I’ll add that on to this post as an end note.

 

We leave the port terminal and have a pretty lengthy walk to the pier where Coral Breezes leaves from. We arrived at the pier around 9:40 and hung around forever before anyone started doing things for the tour—like getting our gear, asking for the remainder payment. It was very difficult to control DS for those 30-40 mins. He was a wild man all over that pier and I was running around after him making sure he didn’t jump off into the water.

 

We finally get ready to go and we walk around this little hut on the pier to see our boat and we are shocked. I look at DM and say ‘there is no way you are going to be able to get on this thing. Let’s ask for our money back and go’. We talk to the lady and she assures us that DM can get on. The crew will help her. What that turned out to mean was the crew literally had to carry her on. It was nuts…and probably a little embarrassing for her and the crew.

 

The life jackets are on the benches around the perimeter of the boat that function as seats. They say not to hold them, but to sit on them. Ok. We make our way out of the port area and they say to hold on tightly to anything that can fly off—I didn’t know it at the time, but this includes small children. They reave up the engines and we take off. I heard someone saying we were going 40 miles per hour, not sure if that was correct and/or nautical, but we were going fast. Also, it was very bumpy, VERY bumpy. I now know why they said to sit on the life jackets- to pad your butt from the bumps and so they don’t fly out of the boat. I had to hold on to DS for dear life or he would blown out of that boat. Somehow or another though, he falls asleep. It was so bumpy I don’t know how.

 

45 long, hot, minutes later we arrive at Caye Caulker. We pulled up the pier. Boat is rocking, there is no ladder, how is DM going to get out? You guessed it, the crewed had to hoist her out. We exit the pier and are shown the restaurant, right across the road, where the non-snorkelers can hang out and we can pre-order our lunch so it’s ready for us when we come back. Here is the view from the restaurant out towards the water [DM took this, hence it contains another random dude]:

 

 

DD goes the bathroom, we get a drink of water, and head back to the boat with the other snorkelers. There is a man selling banana and plantain chips for 1USD. DD is hungry so we get two bags to snack on the boat. There were quite tasty.

 

The first snorkeling spot is only about 10 mins away. We pull up the outskirts of the reef and the tour guide gives us the do’s and don’t’s list: 1.You must “wear” a life jacket (this is a Belize rule, not CB). If you are a good swimmer/ experienced snorkeler this means looping the strap around your wrist and towing it along; if you are not, you loop the whole preserver around your waste like an inner tube 2. You have to stay with the guide in the water. We will be broken into two groups of 8 by ability to swim 3. Don’t touch the coral, it will kill it and it can sting you.

 

What he didn’t say was that not ALL coral will sting you, but too late DD is freaking out. She can see the coral from the boat in the water and is now crying that she doesn’t want to get stung. I assure her she wont, but she is having no part of it. She doesn’t want to go in, she will just stay on the boat.

 

We get put into the second group, never snorkeled / not good swimmers, because of DD. The first group jumps off the boat and heads out with their guide. Our group members are struggling to get on their masks, figure out the fins, while I am pleading with DD to go. She stands her ground and doesn’t want to go in. The captain says he is staying on board to tend to the boat, she can stay with him. Great, I am going! DD gets upset that I am going to go in the water and leave her there, but I tell her she has to deal with it. Mommy paid good money for this tour and if she isn’t going to do it, I am. I jump in and get with the second group. We all SLOWLY take off with the guide (although I had snorkeled 20 times before and am a strong swimmer, I was in the second non-snorkeler / bad swimmer group b/c of DD) and we hear the captain yelling. DD has changed her mind, she wants to come. Of course she does. I swim back to the boat and she jumps in.

 

She decided she only wants to swim in the water around the boat, not actually snorkel. Ok, fine, but I am going snorkeling. The group hasn’t made it that far so I swim off to catch up to them. I hear the captain yelling again. I stop and look up and DD is about 5 feet behind me paddling along. She changed her mind again. She will swim along with me, but she doesn’t want to snorkel. She is still afraid of the coral and really does not like the mask (side note: she thought she was going to have goggles, not a mask. She didn’t like the fact that it covered her nose. Had I known this was going to be an issue for her I would have just brought goggles. Lesson learned). Actually, she HATES the mask and wont put it on—it messed up her braids too—despite getting salt water in her eyes and crying about that The. Whole. Stupid. Time.

 

Everyone in group 2 is finally together and snorkeling. Our guide is showing us where to go, we see some fish, and then…time go get back on the boat! We have to leave for the second stop.

 

 

 

 

I head back to the boat pretty disappointed. I didn’t see that much. I thought Belize was supposed to be awesome snorkeling? Well, it turns out, it is. Group 2 just didn’t get to see it. Group 1 did though and when we got back on the boat we heard all about the amazing fish they saw. UGH!

 

Next up, second stop, Shark Ray Alley.

 

*End note—why people with mobility and/or heat issues will not want to do this tour:

1. There is a LONG walk from the port terminal to where they dock their boat. If I had to guess, I’d say a half mile. For most this isn’t an issue. For me, pushing a toddler in a stroller in the baking Belize sun it was. For DM, with bad knees, it was too.

2. The boat is a small fishing boat type. There is no ramp to enter or exit the boat. From the pier, with waves, you almost have to jump on board and navigate 4 different sized steps to get down (and up). The crew literally had to hoist DM on and off board.

3. There is no cover (they do have a cover, but they don't put it up) on the boat so it is VERY sunny. I wore SPF 50 and go burnt to a crisp.

4. The ride is like 45 mins out to Caye Caulker, and you go very fast, so it is very bumpy...and frankly uncomfortable. I had to hold DS the whole time and I thought he was going to fly out of the boat several times.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Coolwhip82

[Va. Plumber]

I am a little confused about the cold and stale breakfast comments, but not doubting your issue.

 

When everything was across the hall in Cagney's, you could watch them cooking you meal. I don't think they went all the way to galley to get your food. I would assume it was done in Cagney's.

 

Just asking, did you comment to the waiter or supervisor? Did you say anything the concierge? I suspect that would have ended the problem right there. The last thing they want is unhappy suite guests.

[Coolwhip82]

Just asking, did you comment to the waiter or supervisor? Did you say anything the concierge? I suspect that would have ended the problem right there. The last thing they want is unhappy suite guests.

 

We did not. It takes a lot for us to complain about things esp. when alternatives, which were completely fine for us, were available.

[Coolwhip82]

Shark Ray Alley

 

SRA is only a short ride away from the initial stop– 10 mins tops. We stop and the guides say they are going to jump in first and get the sting rays and sharks to come over aka put chum in the water. They tell us the water is shallow so no fins are needed. We can also stand so if you want to wear water shoes put them on. There are no more groups at this point, everyone just jumps in around the boat. As soon as we got in string rays were all around us. Tons of them. So close they were brushing up against my leg- AHHH!!! I like to look at all things fish in the sea, but I don’t like them touching me, so I was I freaked out. A few mins go by and the guides announce a shark has come. Everyone rushes over to where it is and the feet movement kicks up so much sand that it creates a little dust bowl and you cant really see it. I concentrate on trying to help DD actually put on her mask so she can see the sting rays at least. That was like trying to move a mountain. It didn’t fit. It hurt. She didn’t like it. WAH WAH WAH. Another shark, come see! She wants to see, but by the time we move over its gone. It came back around and I did get a very good look at it, but no picture. There was too much excitement. Sharks (maybe the same one, who knows) come and go, but DD never gets to see. She does finally see all the sting rays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By now its been 15 minutes or so and we are told to get back in the boat. What I forgot to mention previously was that a family in group 2 had lost their camera in the water at the first site. It was a water camera, so it floated. We spent about 10-15 mins circling around the first site to find it once everyone was on board. Against all odds, in the middle of the darn ocean, we found it. Good for that family, bad for the rest of us because that cut down our time at the next site.

 

Anyway, its time to head back to Caye Caulker for some lunch. We start to head back and they begin passing out snacks – homemade chips and fresh salsa—and drinks—rum punch for the adults and water for the kids. It was all very tasty. Short ride later and we are there. We disembark and meet up with the others who stayed behind at the restaurant. DM had pre-ordered me lunch, “shrimp something” she says. It turned out to be shrimp ceviche, which I was initially unhappy about, but it turned out to be amazing. We hung out there for probably an hour, eating, drinking, rinsing off and changing before it was time to head back to port. I was sun burnt to a crisp and not really looking forward to the long, bumpy, ride back, but after a few beers I was okay with it.

 

They hoist DM down into the boat again. She had some beers too so I think she was more comfortable being tossed around like a sack of potatoes at this point. We start heading back and while it is still very hot, sun is blazing, it is not nearly as bumpy. Don’t know if the winds/tides changed or whatever, but the ride back was a lot smoother. Again, DS feel asleep in my arms and then all of a sudden DD is slumped over on me too.

About 40 mins later we pull up to the port. They announce that they are allowed to drop us off here, but they cannot pick up here (hence that crazy long walk in the morning). Good, we are all tired. They pull up the dock and it’s pretty far away. I even have a hard time getting out. No way DM is going to make it. They let everyone else off and pull up to a different part for her. Much easier to hoist her out from here.

 

Walking down the pier we notice a crazy long tender line and audibly sigh. Lucky for us though it is Carnival’s line not ours—yay. We make our way down to pier 1 and there is a very short line which is moving very quickly. They had a cold wash clothes in line and I swear it was the best thing I have felt in my lift. Ok, exaggeration, but it was great after that long hot day. We find our seat on tender and start talking to everyone about their excursions for the day. Most people went cave tubing and seemed to be very happy with that. On the way back we get this awesome picture of the Star docked at sea:

 

 

Of note, they didn’t solicit for tips at the end of the tour. I tried to offer them some money considering their lifting of DM all day and they refused. They said the best tip could give them was to tell our friends about our trip and write a review online. Done!!

 

All in all, I have to say, they were pretty amazing. If DM is around, we won’t do this tour again, but I would in a heartbeat. They were so nice and accommodating. Not to mention patient with DD and her nonsense about not wanting to snorkel / wear her mask. I cannot recommend them enough (so long as you don’t have mobility or heat issues, that is).

Edited April 27, 2016 by Coolwhip82

[HoopTroop]

Any more coming?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

[Coolwhip82]

Any more coming?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

Yes...thanks for calling me out on it. You know how it is, you get home, you get busy. You think "is anyone even reading this thing?!"....I'll pick it back up tomorrow!

[cml4958]

First Day at Sea

 

Everything was okay taste wise, but it was not fresh or warm. It was clear that they had prepped all of this earlier in the day and then just reheated and assembled ad-hoc. I understand this is necessary when you are trying to feed thousands of people, but it took forever to get the food. I guess because they were actually assembling it downstairs. And by the time we got it, it was not warm. The pre-made and lack of warmth caused us to only gave it a shot one other day. Instead we took to getting our breakfast from the Buffet—it was close to our stateroom and at least here it was hot. You can get eggs (and omelets) made to order as well. I would just run upstairs to get DS the fresher fruit. The buffet breakfast only had melon, bananas, and some canned peaches or fruit cocktail usually.

 

 

FYI, your butler can bring you breakfast in the morning. Place an order with him/her the night before for whatever you want and it will be delivered at the time you want. Additionally, you can do that for any other meal as well, including specialty restaurants (with the exception of Teppanyaki, for the obvious reasons). You will still pay the fee for the specialties unless you have a dining package.

 

Great review! I was on the Star in September and had an awesome time.

 

Carrie