My View: Will we be Enchanted by Princess? (Live Views from a Princess Newbie)

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 4 - Belize

 

[APDMOM]

TIP:  Time changed again - falling back another hour to match Belize City time… It made for a very early sunrise.

 

Early morning arrival:

[APDMOM]

TIP: I recommend getting a water taxi/tender ticket early, then wait by the International Cafe.  I made the mistake of waiting too long - more detail below.

 

My Water Taxi Experience:

 

I thought it would be better to wait until the majority of people got their tender tickets to get off the ship.  Unfortunately, this backfired.  I got tender ticket 21, just when they announced everyone could go to the next tender.  I easily got a prime seat, and waited…and waited…. Two more tenders showed up to pick up passengers, yet we continued to wait for the tender to fill up.  I ended up waiting 25 minutes on the hot tender before we even left.

 

Tender timeline:

 

8:32 - seated on tender

 

8:44 - watching as 2 more tenders waited to pick up passengers 

 

8:57 - tender finally left the ship behind

 

9:18 - Arrival at port

 

Edited July 17 by APDMOM
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[APDMOM]

Picturesque Belize:

 

We initially had an excursion booked, but found out about protests in Belize City prior to our cruise.  We opted to cancel the excursion for this trip. The port area of Belize is beautiful - so colorful! 

 

Views as we approach:

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Views in Port:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

TIP: You can download the port guide from the app on your phone.  Just go to the Journey, Ship Schedule.  Click on the down arrow to download the port guide:

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Views of the Ship from the Tender:

 

 

 

 

Look at that view of the bridge 😁

 

[Canuker]

On 7/14/2024 at 4:52 PM, APDMOM said:

My View: Day 2 - At Sea

Your photographs are beautiful.

What equipment are you using please?

[richstowe]

I'm sorry they made you wait so long for the tender to fill. Very annoying.

We visited the Altun Ha Mayan site. A great excursion.

[Daniel A]

11 hours ago, APDMOM said:

TIP: You can download the port guide from the app on your phone.  Just go to the Journey, Ship Schedule.  Click on the down arrow to download the port guide:

I always write down the port agent's name and phone number on a small piece of memo paper.  I keep it separate from my wallet just in case.  If it's only in your cell phone and someone steals that, you won't know what number to call in an emergency.

 

I did find your tip about downloading the port guide to be very helpful - Thanks!

[APDMOM]

13 hours ago, Canuker said:

Your photographs are beautiful.

What equipment are you using please?

Thank you!  Most of the pictures are taken with my iPhone 15 PRO.  The superzoom ones (close ups of sun/moon) are taken with a Nikon P900.

[APDMOM]

It has been a FUN day in Roatan.  Sorry for the delay in posting more.  I will complete Belize soon, then start on today’s adventures and tips.

[APDMOM]

8 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I always write down the port agent's name and phone number on a small piece of memo paper.  I keep it separate from my wallet just in case.  If it's only in your cell phone and someone steals that, you won't know what number to call in an emergency.

 

This is a great TIP too.  Thank you @Daniel A

[APDMOM]

A little bit of wildlife from Belize:

 

[APDMOM]

Afternoon Fun:

 

Afternoon entertainment included ABBA trivia and 6-pin bowling.

 

We gave it ‘almost’ our best for the ABBA trivia, but came in second, so no Princess Coaster for us. 😞  19 of 25 was not too bad, but I made a couple of silly errors.  For once, I should have listened to DH on one question. 😄

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17 by APDMOM
Typo

[APDMOM]

Dinner:  O’Malley’s

 

We decided to do our first free ‘casual’ dinner at the pub.  

 

TIP:  The kitchen does not open until 5:30 PM.  However, the pub itself is open from 4 PM.  We found a booth around 5:10 when we were told the kitchen was not open yet.  We decided to stay, and were glad for it.  By 5:30, there was a long line of people waiting for a table to clear.  Since it is a small space, the wait can be quite long.

 

Menu:

 

 

 

Drink - Under the Mango Tree

(Very good)

 

Our Meal Selections:

 

Chicken Chopped Salad (Very good)

 

Crab and Artichoke Dip:

(Excellent)

 

Killarney Stout Stew: (okay - too dry)

 

Bushmills Blue Burger (Good - not as good as burgers from Chili’s, per DH)

 

Our overall impression of O’Malley’s:

I don’t think the meals we enjoyed here were worth an up-charge.  I am glad it was included in our plus package.  The only thing I may consider paying for is the dip - that was exceptionally good!

 

[APDMOM]

Evening Entertainment:

We enjoyed the country music evening with Pinnacle.  

 

We also caught the tail end of a very entertaining game show:

 

Ice sculpture in Marketplace Buffet tonight:

[APDMOM]

My View: End of Day 4 - Belize

I love cruising during a Full Moon - waiting and hoping to catch it next week on Norwegian Breakaway…

 

 

[APDMOM]

Princess Patter - Day 4 - Belize

 

Download PDF:

Princess Patter Day 4.pdf

[Canuker]

To APDMOM:

I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying your posts.

This is one of the best reviews - and in 'real-time' to boot - I've ever read.

Please do keep up your wonderful work. I have a personal angle: we shall be aboard your ship in about 3 weeks time, so all this information is especially helpful as it's so very current and thorough.

There is a thread for our cruise here and I've posted a link on it for folk to find your thread.

For us your onboard material is as good as it gets without actually being aboard - which we will be very soon.

Thanks again, APDMOM. You're a gem.

 

Edited July 18 by Canuker

[APDMOM]

@Canuker Thank you for your kind words!  It is a pleasure to share our experience with others.  I don’t think I will ever be able to ‘cruise alone’ - to me, half the fun is sharing the experience with my family, as well as CC friends!

 

Let me know if you have any specific requests.  🙂

 

[APDMOM]

Instead of diving into ‘too many’ pictures of Roatan tonight, I will share my tips about the balcony selection.  I will pick up on Roatan tomorrow, as we will likely stay on the ship for the day in Costa Maya.

[APDMOM]

TIP: Balcony Selection on Enchanted Princess.  If possible choose a balcony on Baja (Deck 11).  The balcony is double as deep as the other aft balconies, and half of it is covered.

 

This picture shows all the decks with aft balconies.  If you look closely, you can see the balconies on Baja and Dolphin are deeper.  Baja is a great location - 4 decks from the Marketplace and Lido on deck 16, and 4 decks from public spaces like Princess Live! on deck 7.

 

 

 

Our balcony - we were surprised to find a lounger, since pictures on the internet did not include this.  You can see half the balcony is covered.  We even had a rain shower today in Roatan, but could still use half of the balcony without getting wet.

 

 

Balconies below us on Caribe (Deck 10):  

 

Although this one is a wider balcony, it is not covered at all

 

Corner balcony on Caribe:

[perfect match]

Love the balcony pictures! It’s been a while since we cruised Princess, but since they will be home porting a ship in our home port, Canaveral, we’re thinking that another Princess cruise may appear on our cruise calendar soon.

[Bimmer09]

8 hours ago, APDMOM said:

TIP: Balcony Selection on Enchanted Princess.  If possible choose a balcony on Baja (Deck 11).  The balcony is double as deep as the other aft balconies, and half of it is covered.

 

This picture shows all the decks with aft balconies.  If you look closely, you can see the balconies on Baja and Dolphin are deeper.  Baja is a great location - 4 decks from the Marketplace and Lido on deck 16, and 4 decks from public spaces like Princess Live! on deck 7.

 

 

 

Our balcony - we were surprised to find a lounger, since pictures on the internet did not include this.  You can see half the balcony is covered.  We even had a rain shower today in Roatan, but could still use half of the balcony without getting wet.

 

 

 

 

Good advice on Baja- I managed to get B735 for our late October NE coastal out to Halifax from NYC on Enchanted-wrap around corner aft suite with balcony depth and roof cover most of the aft decks were denied by the "designers". Most wake-facing decks will get you sunburned or drenched.

Thanks for these pics.

Norris