Let's Go Cruising!

Winter....time for another cruise.   We decided to try Royal Caribbean again, since it's been a while since we've cruised with them.  

This will be our dozenth cruise!  

This time, Don and Shauna (Shelley's sister/husband) came with us, as did Paul and Nancy (Doug's Uncle/Aunt).  It was their first cruise for all of them, so we had to be on our best behavior.  No goofing off in the theater, no going into doors that say "Crew Only" and minding our manners at dinner.

Our trip didn't start off too well. We had a 7:30 am flight out of Salt Lake Saturday morning.  The biggest snow storm all year decided to come Friday night.  We left at 5:30am to allow enough time to get to the airport. Well, it was snowing so much, the plows couldn't keep up on the freeway, and the 5 lane freeway was down to two lanes, and even those lanes had about 6-8" of snow on them. No roadway was visible.  Our average speed was about 25mph.

We finally made it to the airport, and the security line was long!  We were surprised it was so long that early.  We RAN to our gate, and they had just closed the door, and we missed it literally by about 3 minutes.  Being Southwest Airlines however, they will let you go standby on other flights for no charge!  They immediately booked on the next flight out, which was actually on it's final boarding call, and we got the last two seats.  We ended up getting to Houston faster this way, than we would have on our original flight - because the original flight had a longer layover. We ended up having to wait an hour for our luggage (which made it on the original flight) to arrive.  So it all turned out great!

We chose the Liberty of the Seas, which is an older ship (about 10 years) but like our other Royal Caribbean cruise, we found the ship to be in excellent condition, clean, well taken care off, and did not seem that old.  Liberty held true to this as well.

The ship left from Galveston and we stopped in Roatan, Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel. 

 We've been to Belize and Cozumel before, but there is plenty to do at each location.
The cruiser "make up" for this cruise was a little different than we were used to - it was a older crowd, and mostly people from Texas.  The average age was about 60+, with many many many using walkers, and motorized wheel chairs.  Not too many kids this cruise.

   

As we were arriving to the port, we saw the Carnival Breeze there as well.  We were just on that ship  a year ago.  Excellent ship!  (Read about that trip HERE)  We thought Jacob and Hannah would like seeing it again.

Entrance to the promenade when you enter the ship

Looking down from the third floor of the dining room where our table was

This is our cabin.  It actually had TWO windows!  It was on the edge, so it wrapped around. It was very spacious!  We loved it.

Looking at the rest of our room.

The slide area at the back of the ship

The rock wall

Mini Golf area

This is looking out into the Promenade.  Most Royal ships have this area. This is where the shops, deli's, and most of the inside activity happens.  There are also cabins that look out on the promenade - we had that cabin last time.

Looking at the front of the ship - our cabin on the left, 2nd row up.

As we were leaving port, we passed the Carnival Breeze. It would follow us most of the cruise.

Obligatory (terrible) selfie before leaving port

The food was presented very well on this ship...It was all about presentation. Oh, it tasted good too!

First night - nobody is out here!  I think they were all gambling and drinking at the bars!

Night shot of the slide area.  I liked how it was all lit up with different colors.

The endless hall!  Our cabin was at the very front, so we walked the length of the hallway every night going to dinner.  The ship is 1,112 feet long, and the hallway goes that entire length!  That's almost four football fields.

The first two days were at sea, since we were going all the way south to Honduras.  We spent a lot of time relaxing and reading which was awesome. This was the view from one of my reading spots.

Most Royal ships have an ice rink, and they have an ice show that is just amazing.  They do stuff on the small rink that shouldn't be possible.

Apparently, I wasn't supposed to take pics of the show.  Ooops.  Please forget you ever saw these. 

This guy was an ariel artist on ice and was amazing. He is from Salt Lake City.

View from our cabin

Time for dessert

This cake was the most fantastic chocolate cake we've ever had, on any cruise. It was so good!  We talked our waiter into bringing us some the next night.  It was my birthday, well, actually it wasn't....but a cruise secret  - tell them it is and you'll get something special. 

Shelley getting us some seats in the theater for the show.

One of the shows was Nathan Osmond (nephew of Donny/Marie) he's a country singer. 

Of course, you have the nightly animals that show up on your bed.

Another one of my reading areas

Kiddie pool area - we didn't go play.  :-( 

Time for the Belly Flop contest.  People do weird things on cruises they wouldn't do anywhere else

VIDEO:

 

It's amazing how far back you can see the wake

Most Royal ships have the FlowRider - Don loved this!  He perfected it by the end of the week!

Here is a VIDEO of Don doing his thing:

Looking up from the Promenade 

Never was a shortage of empty chairs

   

Sunset right before dinner

Hannah would have loved the sunsets!

View from our table. We were right next to the railing looking down. Was a great table!

VIDEOS:  Dancing Waiters - yep most cruise lines do this in some form or another

   

The Macarana: 

  

More dancing featuring our waiter!

Very yummy cheesecake

The show tonight was Saturday Night Fever. This was the broadway production show. It was amazing!  We have been impressed with all the shows on Royal more than any other cruise line.

First stop, Roatan. We booked a driver to take us around to some local places. Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the world.  Roatan is a small island about a 45 min ferry ride off the mainland.  Roatan isn't as poor as the mainland, as they have tourism from all the cruise ships.

Panoramic view of the ship

Roadside store

We went to the Monkey/Sloth hangout.  It's a popular place, so we did it first before all the cruise tours came. It was really fun!  It's "hand's on" - or I guess "Heads-On"

There are other assorted animals here that I've never seen. Most of the animals here, including the monkeys and sloths are "rescue" animals - the owners moved, or couldn't or didn't want to take care of them anymore, so most were pets at one time.

The monkeys just jump on you...on your head..on your shoulder.  They tell you to take out everything in your pockets, because they will reach in there and take your stuff.  We saw that happen to one guy.

Here's Don just hangin out with the monkey

This one really like Shauna's hair

The sloth just gives you long hugs.  Fun Fact: It spends 99% of it's time in the trees. It only eats one or two kinds of leaves.  It only comes down from the tree to the ground once a week - to go poo!  It get's all the water it needs from leaves.  

Nancy getting a sloth hug

This one's eating some leaves they put out for them.

Back on the road. I was thinking this was someone doing their laundry...Nope..our driver said it was someone selling clothes.  That would explain all the underwear. 

This little area of town was getting ready for a party

Local ladies out for a walk. It was rather warm and humid

Vantage point overlooking the pier

Shauna and Don

On the way back from the "view area", where they bring all the tourists because there are shops up there, the little kids line the road dancing, playing music in hopes you will give them money.  They were so cute!!!  We didn't give them money, but we brought lots of candy and we gave them that.  They seemed to really like it!

This girl was so little but really energetic playing her drum

Next we passed the Drumming Trio!  They were super excited to get candy

Video of the kids: 

 

This girl was dancing to the drum beat

We stopped at an Orphanage/School which was planned. We brought a bunch of little dollar store toys and a ton of candy.  We had to get special permission from the Ship's officers to bring it off the ship and through customs, but it wasn't a problem.  The kids were SO nice!  And SO appreciative. They just waited until we came to them to give them their candy. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Here is everyone.  Notice the kids with the squeeze balls - these are BYU Independent Study squeeze balls. They loved them!!

We brought a bunch of small pillow pets to give out to the kids. Somehow, this grown lady ended up with one. She was sneaking away when I saw her ha ha.

These two boys are looking at the puzzle they got.

After visiting the school kids, we had TONS of candy left over.  Our drive took us to his neighborhood and told us we would be swarmed.  We didn't quite know what he meant.  So we stopped where a few kids were playing, and started handing out candy.  Within 30 seconds, it was like total chaos!  Kids came running from EVERYWHERE! Somehow they knew..and they kept coming and coming!  We finally had to stop because there were so many.

     

Next stop was the beach

We wanted to go snorkeling, and on the way to the snorkel spot, a guy with a boat was offering snorkeling for super cheap.  So we took him up on his offer.

We went out a ways and it was a pretty good snorkeling along a reef

This was the boat we went on..yep, it doesn't look like it could float...but it did ok!

This is how they fix the roads in Roatan.  They fill up the pot holes with dirt they gather from the side of the road in the bucket.  But they just stand there - they want the drivers to give them tips and then they will start filling in the hole. Of course with just dirt, it doesn't work too well.

Our ship is in view

Our last stop was a "Cameo Factory" where they take shells and carve them into intricate and very expensive things

This was our fantastic driver, Andrew.

Dinner time!  This was our waiter.  A lot of the staff was from the Philippines as was he.  You may know cruise workers work 7 days a week, often 12-15 hours a day for usually 9 months in their "contract".  Then they go home for three months and sign another "contract" to come back.  He was in his 3rd? 4th? contract, I can't remember, and he just came back after his three months off.  He got married in his time off, but he had only met  his wife twice before getting married, and only for a few hours.  They do arranged marriages there, so his family decided who he would be marrying.  Like most cruise workers, they send their money home and they can make 100 times more working on a cruise ship than they can at home. But it's extremely hard work.  

Small island as we approach Belize

Nancy and Shauna waiting for us.  We had a miss-hap getting to Belize. It's a "tender port" meaning you have to take a boat into shore because the ship can't dock.  Our group got separated and we ended up getting to shore about an hour and half later than we wanted to, for our planned trip to some ruins.  It all worked out, as our driver took us to some closer, but smaller and less impressive ruins, but we still had a great day.

Local woman selling stuff at the market

We went to Altun Ha, which is a burial Mayan city - where important rulers were buried.  Each hill in the area is a tomb.  Many are still un-excavated,  In one of the tombs, they found a huge head made of out Jade. It's the treasure of Belize and is stored in an undisclosed vault - only two people know where - the president of Belize and the Queen of England, as Belize is still under British rule, although they are independent from Britain.  

One of the tombs that hasn't been excavated.  

Our little group

Belize is the only place where they still let you climb on the structures

The entire site is only about 5 square miles

 

This is a replica of the Jade Head.  They say it's at the Central Bank, but most Belizians don't believe that.  Story also is that there is no Jade in Belize, so it was brought over from another place from the Mayans - meaning they were a nomadic people

We stopped for lunch at a roadside place....Unfortunately, the only pic I got was when Shelley was blinking.  The food was pretty simple - chicken, rice and beans, but was very good and very flavorful. We were impressed!

Back on board it was time for the Royal Caribbean parade down the promenade.  It was very elaborate.  

These are the names of our waiter and asst waiter. They were fantastic! We've always had excellent waiters/asst waiters on every cruise

Super yummy fruit appetizer

We had bats hanging from the ceiling this night

Arriving in Cozumel

Cozumel is either a beach day or drinking day (if you drink).  This is the 3rd time we've been to Cozumel and the last time we had planned to go to Paradise Beach, but we were rained out.  No rain this time!  This beach really was paradise!  It was beautiful - tons of shade and chairs, inflatables to play on, kayaks to use, snorkeling...we'd come back here again!

Oh yeah, in case you didn't like the beach, there is a huge pool also

Back on the ship getting ready to leave

Carnival Breeze again following us, along with the NCL Pearl, which we've been on

All the chef's sang to us this night

Don being silly

Us NOT being silly

Monkeys tonight

Most Royal Caribbean ships have Johnny Rockets....we stopped in for some fries, onions rings and shakes

Back "home" view from our bed

This Key Lime pie was SOOOO good!

The last night was a new acrobatic ariel show called "In the Air" and it was all done in the air!  It was amazing!!!  They made it clear I wasn't supposed to take pics in this show..so you will have to use your imagination.

Flying over Southern Utah

Flying over Utah lake and Lehi near home. Lots of snow!

We had a GREAT time!  Please come with us next time!  April 2018 is the date. It's already booked.  Let me know if you want to come!!  We are trying a new line this time. MSC and going on the Seaside - more info HERE.