A time to GETAWAY and see the SKY

[Seminole1975]

Following along and enjoying the review and pictures.

 

I thought the MDR-Taste or Savor- had "sit down" breakfasts as well.

[jsparents]

Following along and enjoying the review and pictures.

 

I thought the MDR-Taste or Savor- had "sit down" breakfasts as well.

 

 

you are correct. Must have deleted that line out of my paragraph.

[jsparents]

Finally got my scanner to work.

 

 

Love the fish idea on the carpet

 

 

Day 1 Freestyle Daily

 

 

 

 

[Seminole1975]

you are correct. Must have deleted that line out of my paragraph.

 

Thank you but I see now that you did say that the dining room was a choice for breakfast. I am not a fan of the buffet either.

[jsparents]

Day 2 Freestyle Daily

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 Continued:

 

We had our Facebook and Cruise Critic Meet and Greet at 11:00am. The Facebook one was in the conference room and the cruise critic one was at Cagney's. I mixed them up, but attended both. The Facebook group had been started by a 16 year old who had been on many cruises. We stopped by and introduced ourselves.

 

We stayed 20 minutes and made our way up to Cagney's. I would say NCL must value CC as there were snacks and drinks for our group. There were only 15 people still there, but we sat down and talked for awhile. The group organizer had been on quite a few NCL cruises. I spoke with a woman from Alabama that was on her first NCL and first solo cruise. She said she usually cruises Carnival and so far was not impressed. We found many people that were on their first NCL cruise and normally cruise with Carnival. I would say we talked to 30 people that fell into this category.

 

It was nice to meet people and put faces to names of people that I had been communicating with for several months. I value CC and people that participate in the threads and treasure the information I receive.

 

We had lunch and then went to Vibe. I could not believe how crowded the decks were. Even the deck by the entrance to Vibe was full. The line at the bar next to Vibe was 15 people deep. When I slide my card to get into Vibe and there were only 15 people there, I could hear the people outside asking what this was. 30 seconds later, I had my drink in hand.

 

That night, DW and I dined alone at Cagney's celebrating our anniversary (17 years). It was actually a few days before our cruise, but a time with no kids. Our friends went to Moderno. We were sat immediately right next to the kitchen. DW asked to move a couple tables away from the kitchen which was handled with not problem. We were given our menus and after a couple minutes approached by our waitress. I asked for a wine menu and she said our wine steward would be with us. Our waitress returned with water and asked if we were ready to order and DW said she would like some wine first. The waitress kind of got an attitude about this, but my attitude was any steakhouse I have ever been to is really not rushed and I order wine before I order anything else.

 

Our wine steward came and brought us an i-pad to review the menu. Now, I have to say that I love technology, but hate this way of showing the menu. There are so many buttons to push to get where I want to be. With a paper menu, I just skip to the section I want. I am not really concerned about a photo of the bottle until I get it. Our wine steward was from South Africa and very friendly, but semi hard to understand. So I had DW look at the menu and she could not find a glass of wine she wanted so I ordered a bottle. When I ordered it, our steward gave me a weird look. At this point, let me explain a little about myself. I am a shorts and t-shirt type of person with a laid back attitude. I work in a high stress profession so when I am not at work, I am as mellow as I can be. We live a couple hours from Napa and visit a couple times a year. So with this, I know a little bit about wine and love red wine. So the bottle I ordered, I knew what I was getting as I had been to the winery before and had the wine before.

 

Our wine steward returned with our wine and I told him where we lived. His demeanor changed as I think he realized I was not a person that chose the wine because of the label. He made a comment later about he thought he was going to have to really explain everything. We all laughed and enjoyed our wine. Later after dinner, he returned to make sure everything else was fine and offered us a glass of his favorite wine. He said he would being it when we were finished. We finished and no wine steward. No biggie as we had finished our bottle and were pretty full from dinner. Then he showed up and brought us two full glasses of the wine. I thought just a tasting for the two of us, but nope full pours. Really good. Sorry I don't remember the name.

 

After getting our wine, our waitress came back. DW asked about the fish and she said not many people order the fish since it is a steakhouse. She said not many people order it, but when they do they do not complain about it. We all laughed about this as placed our orders.

 

For dinner I had the rib eye steak which was delicious and DW had the Seabass which she said was perfectly cooked. I have been to the steakhouse on Carnival and Princess and have to say Cagney's was the best and rivaled steakhouses on land. DW told the waitress about the Seabass and how great it was and that she could recommend it. We all laughed about this.

 

We went to Burn the Floor at 10:00pm. I do not love the shows on cruise ships. I think some of them are poorly done and the singers are not as good as they think they are. This show was all about dancing and they could dance. Unfortunately, after all the guys were sweaty and still dancing, I was pretty over it. It was not bad, just not my cup of tea.

 

After the show it was time for bed. We had Roatan tomorrow.

[jsparents]

Here is a list of all the shore excursions offered by the ship. Under Harvest Caye, you will see the option for the Placencia Village Ferry. I had been told it was $20 pp from people on CC, but found it had gone up to $25 pp. Locals told me that it is going up to $30 pp and I will elaborate more on this when I talk about Harvest Caye.

 

 

 

 

[jsparents]

Day 3 Freestyle Daily- Roatan

 

 

 

 

 

I post this not for the shopping, but for some facts about the port. This pamphlet also has a map of the port, but I'll post a photo that is better later.

 

[jsparents]

We woke up at 7:30 am and could see land. We were not scheduled to dock until 10:00 am. We went to breakfast at Margaritaville and enjoyed the breakfast and views with the other 20 people there. I had booked at tour through Costco which uses Shore Excursions Group. I booked Roatan by Land and Sea for $62 pp. It was a 5 hour that included a tour around the island before boarding a small boat for a tour of the dolphin institute and then snorkeling along the reef. For the price I thought it was perfect, plus small group.

 

First view of Honduras

 

 

 

 

We went back to our room to enjoy our balcony since the port was on our side.

 

 

We got to watch some excitement. As we were pulling towards the dock, there was a port boat with a worker in it getting ready to catch the lines. I noticed he was between us and the dock and disappeared for a minute. I heard the loud revying of an engine and out came the boat making a really fast u-turn. The driver seemed to have no clue that he was about to get trapped by the dock and a 145,000 ton ship. The driver whipped the turn so fast that the back end of his boat hit the dock. The worker inside the boat fell down causing his orange hard hat to fall into the water which floated under the dock. The dock workers were looking at the driver and shaking their heads. Must have been the drivers first day and probably his last. His boat had some damage to the fiberglass. Thought I got a picture, but didn't.

 

Plus, this dock already has some damage.

 

[jsparents]

So I found a picutre of the boat and the employee in the boat who lost his hat. The employee held onto a rope while in the boat. It's hard to see, but there was a chunk taken out of the left rear of the boat.

 

 

The boss was called. Blue shirt guy.

 

 

We went to the Haven and were escorted off the boat. This was a very nice luxury.

 

 

We were given instructions about where to meet our tour. We were to walk towards the staircase and out towards the parking lot. The instructions said we would pass a lot of people selling tours and to just continue past them. Once outside the gate, cross the street and we would see someone with a RTT sign. We found the sign and he was wearing a orange shirt. All employees of this company were wearing the same shirt so it was easy to know who was who.

 

This is the path way to walk out.

 

 

It puts you out here.

 

 

A quick left and 500 feet later you are here. Gate 2. You can see all the people waiting to pick up people for tours.

 

[jsparents]

This was our tour guide and the orange shirts they had on. His brother in law is the one that runs the company. He was very knowledgeable and a very good guide. Spoke perfect english.

 

 

Our ride. A/C worked great.

 

 

We drove around the city and by Mahogany Bay which had Carribean Princess and Carnival Glory in port. Our guide said Carnival has this area built as a private beach and they tell their customers how unsafe it is to leave the grounds. The guide said they do very limited business from there.

 

 

 

We drove around for 45 minutes and made a stop at Pristine Bay which is a community that has the only golf course on the island. They stopped at the top of the hill which has a building that is supposed to be a restaurant, but has never opened because the developer ran out of money. The view from here was awesome.

 

View from one side:

 

 

View from the other:

 

[CECRN]

We will be on The Getaway two weeks from Saturday! Really enjoying your review!

[jsparents]

So I forgot to mention this and this was the only issue I had with this tour. We met our guide and were directed to stand out of the way (that is why the picture outside the gate is from a distance) while we waited for the additional people. There were supposed to be 9 of us. The other group arrived and we walked to the van. We all got in a realized we were short 2 seats. Somehow, the group grew by 2 and we learned that one of the families had brought two more people with them. Unfortunately, our friends were the two seats. They said they had another van and were going to the same places as us so they went in the other van. This was not true and we never saw them again until we were snorkeling. They were in another boat which had more people and was older. I felt bad since I planned the tour. They also did not go to places I knew we were going that they wanted to go to. Kind of pissed me off, but our friends said they were okay with it. I felt bad since I arranged the tour.

 

We continued our drive to the West End. I thought it was going to be a longer drive, but it only took 20-30 minutes and we were there.

 

 

Bottle cap artwork outside a school.

 

 

 

We stopped at a restaurant where we boarded out boat. The water looked so refreshing and was clear. A couple photos along our way to the dolphin institute.

 

 

 

It was a 20 minute ride to the dolphin institute. On our way there, our boat captain had some mangos from his tree at his house. They were really good.

 

[jsparents]

Sorry for the double photo post. This was our view when we arrived at the restaurant. The restaurant is the brown building and our boat was docked behind it.

 

 

Our visit to the dolphin institute was with a view from a distance. It did not matter to me because the boat ride was so relaxing.

 

 

Our captain threw some bread in the water and this happened.

 

 

 

I was pretty excited if this is what I was going to see once I got into the water.

 

After about 10 minutes of looking at the dolphins we headed towards the reef. The funny thing is that the reef is about 1500 feet from the dock of the restaurant. We were fitted with snorkeling gear and into the water we went. We had 4 people in the group that did not snorkel.

 

Fish were everywhere so enjoy my photos.

 

 

[jsparents]

 

 

 

 

 

[jsparents]

After about an hour in the water we returned to the restaurant. There we had lunch which consisted of a Baleadas and rum punch. This was similar to a bean burrito and was good. You could also order more food and drinks if you wanted to. We were asked if we wanted to go to a chocolate factory and we said yes. I knew from prior reviews that this was offered and wanted to go. We were told our friends would also be going, but never did. The chocolate factory was walking distance from the restaurant (maybe 500 feet).

 

We learned how they make chocolate from scratch and how it is different from Hersheys. The key is oil not added like the major manufacturers and their chocolate really does not melt in the sun because of this. It cost $20 for 5 chocolate bars. Each bar is 2.8 oz which is about equal to a king size candy bar. You can sample all the different flavors which are definetely different. We purchased a few bars for people at my DW work. We bought the sea salt, chipolte and some others. We also bought some Honduran coffee beans. Not a bad sourvenir. We spent $40.

 

 

 

The process of taking the bean and grinding it to finally making chocolate. This place smelled great.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent about 20 minutes at the factory and then returned to the van. We were offered to go to the sloth and monkey farm that also had be large birds for $10. I had a bad experience with a Macaw biting my ear and have no desire to have this happen again so we passed. We were taken back to the ship with another couple after we dropped the rest of our group off at the monkey farm. The tour was allowed to drop us off inside the port terminal so it made for a short walk.

 

I really enjoyed the tour and the cost was really good. $62 pp and I forgot to say, I had a 10% off coupon when I booked. So under $120 for the day, which I think is really good. Really enjoyed the island and never felt unsafe. Would love to go back.

[jsparents]

Forgot to show you how they grind the cocoa bean by hand.

 

 

We looked around the port shops for a little bit before returning to the ship. We did arrive within minutes of our friends at the port so we were able to walk around with them.

 

We got back on the ship and went to the buffet for a snack after realizing Shanghai is only open for dinner. I grabbed some pizza which was okay. I really liked the pizza on Carnival as it is hand tossed and constantly coming out of the oven. I hated the pizza on Disney as you could tell they used frozen pizza dough. Eitherway, I was hungry so it worked.

 

We were scheduled for the comedy shows tonight. We went to Shanghai for dinner and it was okay. The pot stickers were good and the food was fresh, but I would have liked a little more seasoning.

 

Remember when I said our friends used Roland at the Haven to schedule a couple things for us. Well we decided we wanted to go see Cirque and had to change Million Dollar Quartet and a comedy show. Roland said we were all squared away, but everytime I checked my activity page on the TV is was completely different from what Roland said was scheduled. We spoke to Roland about this and he said he would have to send an email again. He said he was not able to print us anything.

 

We finally went back to the Haven to sort something else out and dealt with Hanno who I guess is the head concierge. He looked at the schedule and corrected a few things pressed print and gave us a copy right there. Needless to say we only dealt with Hanno for the remainder of the cruise and he was great and funny. Hanno was the one that always escorted us off the ship.

 

We returned to our stateroom and found a gift from Ronnie. It was a bottle of champagne and a chocolate plate. It seemed that it had been there for some time as the chocolate was starting to melt. Our friends had a similar plate in their Haven suite and said some of the things had no flavor. I sampled one thing and did not eat anything else. I thought the gesture was nice.

 

So let me talk about our room steward. We met Marc the first day and always saw him in the hallway. He knew our names after one meeting and always asked how we were doing. He was friendly, but did some weird things IMO. First thing was he left the above chocolate plate in our room for three days before removing it. Second was the bottle of champagne we were given we were not going to drink so I asked him if he could use it. When I asked him he looked at me like we did not speak the same language. He said he could open it for me. I told him that I did not want it and I was not going to throw it away. He said he could not use it. He removed it and I am not sure what happened with it.

 

The other thing was the towel situation. DW and I have no issues reusing our towels. We would hang them on the bathroom door so they could air out and dry for the day. We would return at night and find the towels removed and nicely folded towels on the towel racks. No biggie right? Well we did not figure out what was going on until the next morning when DW showered and got out to dry off with a wet towel. Marc was taking our towels and then refolding them to make them look nice even though they were not dry. Just weird.

 

We went to two comedy shows this evening. It turned out to be the same comedian at both shows. The opening act had the same stuff for both shows so I was not too thrilled. The second show there was a newlywed couple in the front row that just had to be the center of attention. She had to make sure everybody knew she just got married and the comedian I think was over it. It looked as if he was ready to bust out, but it was the family show.

 

After the shows and a little gambling we turned in.

 

Tomorrow is Harvest Caye.

[jsparents]

Day 4- Harvest Caye

 

Freestyle Daily

 

 

 

 

[just luv cruizin]

we are on the GA in 6 weeks from Australia. loving reading youre review and the photos are Great.

[jsparents]

Harvest Caye Continued:

 

We had booked a tour that left out of Placencia and knew we had to be on the ferry early. Like I said before, I booked this cruise and my excursions through costco ( they use shore excursion group for the tours), but they did not offer any excursions here since it is NCL private island. I looked around and found shore excursioneer and booked the Rio Grande River Rafting Excursion. The cost was $69 pp and was scheduled to be a 4 hour tour.

 

The website has a warning about needing to be on the first ferry of the morning since our tour was scheduled to depart at 9:15am. When we got our tickets, it says the same thing on the cover page and at the meeting location. I even got a call from them reminding me of the first ferry and if unable to get tickets for the first ferry when we boarded in Miami, to call them can cancel without any penalty . So I think you get it, right BE ON THE FIRST FERRY. Just so you know the first ferry says 8:30, but it was closer to 8:45-8:50.

 

We woke up about 7 am and looked out the balcony to see the island. We were starting to make our approach to the dock so we went and got ready. Up to Margaritaville with our friends and a quick breakfast once again with 20 other people.

 

First view

 

 

 

We went to the Haven and Hanno walked us down and we were off the ship before 8am.

 

We had arrived. She is pretty big

 

 

 

It is pretty easy to figure out where you are going here. Off the dock, follow the only path until you see the signs.

 

 

And then this sign

 

[jsparents]

A view of the pool on the island. As you can see, we some of the first people off the ship as nobody is at the pool yet.

 

 

 

The building behind the sign is the boat dock.

 

 

We arrived at the boat dock and checked in with out tickets. We were given an orange colored (I think) bracelet that they wrote the ferry return times on. I believe ours said 11:30, 3:30 and 4:30. We were then happy to see our ferry was already there. Great, we were on time and ready for the FIRST ferry. Now, when you hear ferry you have an idea in your head. If your not near a ferrry, you might have seen the one in Miami during sail away. Well, remember this is partially a third world country and their ferry is mighty different from other countries.

 

 

This beast held a whopping 61 people and no cars. The first ferry was full maybe exceeding 61 by a few. There were people waiting for the ferry when we were leaving so I believe it is first come first served as our tickets we turned in did not have a time on them. It is a pleasant 15-20 minute ride to the mainland.

 

Upon arrival, this is like no other port dock. Only two-three huts with people selling tours. A short 50 feet later and you were off the dock where we located our tour guide holding a sign.

 

Sorry I thought I had a better picture.

 

 

[jsparents]

This is a photo of town

 

 

They were setting up for a lobster festival.

 

 

The guy in the orange shirt was our tour guide, Andre but goes by Dre. The guy in the green shirt was our driver.

 

 

A map of Placencia

 

 

So once everybody got off the ferry we learned that three other people in our tour did NOT get on the first ferry. Dre said we were going to wait for them and it would be about an hour. Come on, don't people read their paperwork.

 

So we stood around for an hour. Our friend had to use the bathroom, but there are not any. He went to the bar where we were waiting and had to buy something to use the bathroom. $3 later he used the bathroom and had a local beer.

 

The next ferry returned and we gathered our family that can't read. We got into a boat and we were off.

 

Something I forgot to mention. Remember how I said my wristband had times written down on it. On the way to the mainland, they explained that this was the times the ferry returned to HC and we were allowed at those times.

 

We took a boat ride to somewhere else and it was explained that we could drive to this location, but it would take a couple hours compared to the 20 minute boat ride. I enjoyed the boat ride as we got to see some interesting things.

 

 

[jsparents]

We pulled into this area.

 

 

 

We got off the boat and our van was parked there. At this point we were asked for payment for our tour. This tour I paid a deposit online and then had a balance owed. Payment made we were off.

 

Interesting.

 

 

We asked about the tire and he said better safe then sorry. We started driving and after a couple minutes we pulled into a gas station to get gas. I have never been on a tour where this happened. I figured they must run on a shoe string budget and once they get money they put gas in the van. Dre went inside and brought ice cold water for us to drink so I guess the stop had other merits.

 

 

 

On the way, the driver was driving pretty fast. I think they were trying to make up the hour lost. Dre said we would be back in time for the 1:30pm ferry. I told him that it was not listed on our band. He said there was a ferry at this time and he guaranteed we would get on it.

 

I forgot to mention that people had come on the first ferry to walk around and see the town. They were already back at the dock ready to go back to HC before the ferry returned. The town/village is very small.

 

Dre did not talk about the area during the drive. Our driver almost missed the dirt road turn we needed and a couple more bumpy dirt roads we had arrived. Seemed like a 45 minute drive.

 

[jsparents]

River View

 

 

This guy was giving all the information about what to do. He said the river was about 15 feet deep. he recommended we try to stay in the middle of the river as were are low tree branches and trees in the river. He told us to go under the rope and when we got to the bridge stay to the right and we would see Dre to get us out of the water. I asked him if he was coming with us and he said he was going to be on the river with the other three. We had booked a raft while the other three were in tubes.

 

 

We loaded up and pushed off. We were on the water for 1 minute when we heard something scury in the tree above us. We believe it was an iguana. It kept moving and then we heard a bunch more noise and then splash. The iguana had fallen out of the tree (approximately 20 feet) missing our raft by three feet. We laughed, but then thought what would we have done if it landed in our boat.

 

 

Tree branches in the river

 

 

We then saw this. Can you make it out? I know a little blury.

 

 

At this point, I was thankful that we were in a raft and not in a tube. The people in the tube had their legs in the water. I hate snakes and have no idea what kind of snake it was, but it had no issues swimming in the water.

 

The rest of the tour was very relaxing. We saw a couple houses on the banks and livestock. You could hear cars like a road was near, but could not see anything.

 

The guide and other group were about 1500 feet behind us the whole time.

 

[jsparents]

 

 

The weather was nice. Not too hot not cold. The water was refreshing.

 

We finished our tour and raced back to the boat dock. Our boat was waiting and then Dre said he was going to be leaving us so they could take the van back (guess they can't leave it there). Dre then changed his mind and escorted us back to dock. When we arrived, the ferry was just arriving as well. We got off and got in line. I saw different colored bands, but they never checked to see what times were on them and did not deny boarding to anybody. The ferry was not completely full, but I would guess probably 50 people on it. I was ready to get back to the boat and eat. There was no food on the this tour or anytime to stop for some. I really think the hour we lost killed a lot of things.

 

I would have liked to stay and walked around. I knew this was only going to be a 20 minute adventure so we decided to leave. The tour was okay, but I would probably not do it again or recommend it.

 

We returned to HC and checked out some of the shops. Our friends picked up a couple things and then we went back to the ship to eat. I think we were on board by 2:30-3:00 pm. We went to the buffet (really no other place) to grab a snack.

 

We went to the spa which was a little more relaxing since the ship was not full. We had reservations at La Cucina which was okay. Nothing terrible nothing fantastic. Afterwards, we went to a comedy show. We did not have reservations and stood in the standby line. No issues with getting seats. Comedian was good.

 

Stay Tune. Costa Maya next.

[jsparents]

Day 5- Costa Maya

 

Freestyle Daily