Cruising

A Prima Voyage

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Doug and Jackie

What a great start to the New Year! Jackie and I (well, mostly me) planned this trip to celebrate our 70th birthday milestones – choosing the brand new Norwegian Cruise Line Prima ship. Actually, a year ago when the ship was announced and open for booking I jumped on a reservation, since the design just wowed me. The amount of outdoor space and outward facing design really seemed like something very different. But, booking a ship that was still under construction for another year meant not knowing much else beyond the early renderings.

What a nice surprise this ship turned out to be.
I searched out and watched posts and videos of the launch, the naming ceremony and Katy Perry’s christening of the ship in Iceland and then caught every new reveal about the ship that was posted. This was going to be wonderful – oh! and a three story racetrack, too? Are you kidding me?

Turning 70 and celebrating this way is going to be a blast. So let me recap the adventure for you, post some pictures and remind you that a video of this whole trip is posted to our youtube channel ( A PRIMA VOYAGE ) and here on our video “Places” page.

Heading to the Ship

Most of a day’s drive takes us from Atlanta to Orlando and an overnight stay near the airport. We like the direct drive to the cruise port the next morning – less than an hour east. You know that our usual habit is to find a local brewery, such as Rockpit here in town. This time we checked out Gatlin Hall Brewing for pizza, salads and beer, with a repeat visit to Hourglass Brewing. Ok, back to the hotel (which was way more bargain basement than I had expected). Ah well, only one night and we would soon be onboard.

We were able to check in pretty early for the cruise and we were on board well before noon, gazing at the gorgeous lobby, searching out that first drink and arranging reservations for entertainment. If you cruise, you know the excitement of walking the gangway and stepping aboard – such a rush! And of course checking out all the decks of the ship and finding your cabin, getting ready for that marvelous sail away celebration as you head out to sea. Actually, as we were standing in line at the bar my brother texted that he was watching us leave the dock on the harbor camera. Yikes, we were indeed on the move and we hustled out to the rail to wave to the folks on Wonder of the Seas.

Aboard the Ship

This is certainly a different ship design and layout and while I won’t detail it like the many travel bloggers, I will try to point out what we noticed. Lots of artwork all around the ship. The colors and design are muted, classy and well thought out. Technology is evident everywhere, from the ipads for ordering food at the Indulge food hall to the room alerts and the VR Galaxy Pavilion. Navigation around the decks has been a source of discussion, but you do find lots of nooks with seating and bars that are spread around the ship – you just have to explore a bit.

This was our first time booking an outside balcony and I worked hard to get one that looked out and down along the side of the ship. Generous space that made it nice to gaze out as we entered or left our ports. The room was gorgeous and comfortable, no complaints.

Some adrenaline maybe?

Onboard we just had to try out everything. Jackie was game for doing both dry slides – the curly tubes that wound down the side of the ship, one of which was the Drop – a pretty quick whoosh straight down before spiraling to deck 8. The Wave waterslide was a quick rush down a tube, then up and out over the side of the ship. That one was pretty fast since you were riding a tube. We went to the sports deck and tried foot soccer, ping pong, mini golf and actually played a short game of pickleball, but it seemed like a small court.

And of course we had reservations for the race cars! I strapped my GoPro to a chest mount hoping to catch it all on video, but it caught more of the steering wheel and my feet than the wild ride around the 3-level track. It was nearly 10 minutes of absolute exhilaration – even though my car was last in line and I only managed to pass two cars. I booked a second run later in the week and I knew enough to get the first car in line. Wheeee!

What about food?

If you know me, you know that food is pretty high on the list. We had two nights booked in specialty restaurants: Le Bistro and Palomar. Both were excellent meals of seafood and with the offerings of the main dining room there was plenty of good stuff for dinner. I particularly enjoyed my grilled octopus, lamb chops and oysters – Jackie ordered her veal oscar without crab, but was a bit disappointed by her strip steak. After all, we do steak pretty good at home.

But hands down the best meals were in the Indulge food hall. You sat at a table or counter and ordered your tapas size choices on a tablet and whoosh they arrived hot and fresh. You can see by the pictures we had salmon from the Texas smokehouse, gnocci from Nudls, tenderloin from the rotisserie, naan and chicken tiki from the Indian kitchen and my favorite: bacon wrapped grilled dates. Definitely fun for tasting and sharing.

So what about ports of call?

Great Stirrup Private Island

NCL’s private island is just a stone’s throw from Royal Caribbean’s Coco Cay, but we didn’t miss the excitement of that other private island.  We tendered over early with no problems and hiked across the beach of lounge chairs to find a spot “in the shade” as Jackie insisted.  Well, most of those spots were already taken but I did find a lounge chair under a wonderful palm tree.  As you can see, the not-so-robust tree of maybe 3 fronds had little shade to give, but we stayed anyway.  The water was definitely on the brisk side, but it was clean and a nice way to cool off.

I had a zipline reservation, so off to the lighthouse I went to get set – figuring I would have to climb the stairs to the top.  Ah, but they had an elevator to the platforms above.  Each of us got strapped into our harness and clipped to the safety cable so we could walk gingerly to the launch spot.  Amazing view from up top, and more than a few were hesitant to walk around without any railings.  But the three zips were so much fun.  Two of them were pretty long as they crossed over the beach and loungers below.  Again, I had the GoPro fastened to a chest mount, but caught more of my harness and gloves than I wanted.  O well, the only way to really enjoy it was to be there and do it.  Really, really fun.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

This was a gorgeous port to slip into and the ship slowly made the passage to the dock and past Celebrity Reflection.  Our excursion started with a short van ride to the Mystic Mountain Skyway where we rode chairlifts to the top of the mountain and got ready for the Jamaican Bobsled run.  In preparation for this we watched “Cool Runnings” to recall the story of the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team.  Jackie strapped into her sled just ahead of me and with a big starting push from the staff we were both off and running.  This was full tilt speed down that mountain and a real rush.  I had the GoPro on a head mount this time, so I got more of the action than just my feet. 

Once at the bottom, the sleds are pulled back up the mountain through the woods to the starting point.  Really cool.  At the top there was an infinity pool, a waterslide, restaurant and shops, but we were pretty much ready to head back down the lift and onto the ship.  Before leaving, however, we spotted an Eastern Streamertail hummingbird in a feeder area.  This fella had pretty amazing wings and tail and would definitely be a sight at our feeder back home.

Georgetown, Grand Cayman

We had an excursion planned for Stingray City and some reef snorkeling here, but we learned that the excursion would arrive back at port just as the last tender was headed to the ship and figured that might be a little too close for comfort.  So we opted to skip it and stay aboard.  Two other ships were tendering just offshore too on a nice sunny day, so we soaked in the infinity pool and just relaxed.

Cozumel, Mexico

And then there was Cozumel.  We booked a 3 reef snorkel, something we have done before, grabbed our gear and walked down the pier.  Once checked in we were told “your boat is here, go get on it” and we walked back to a large catamaran loading up with guests.  “No, not your boat” we were told as we prepared to board.  “You have red boat.”  The two dozen of us looked around, there was another big catamaran, not red, and well … not much else.  Wait, there was this little skiff, not much bigger than a rowboat – could that be it?  Yep, that was us. Hmm, well we were packed in pretty tight, shoulder to shoulder and heading around the pier to a reef along the shoreline.  Just past the big ships. 

Into the clear warm water we all went to look for fish.  And the fish were there, but so were snorkelers, so Jackie and I tried our best to stay outside all of the swimmers.  I wasn’t that successful and found myself bumping into folks a bit.  But it was decent viewing.  I saw many of the familiar fish and when we picked up and moved to reef 2 I saw a couple of French angelfish that always delight.  Plus parrotfish and the pesky Sergeant Majors (attracted by the photographer who was feeding them).  Whadda ya gonna do?

Hey, it’s looking kinda dark over there, I thought as I surfaced.  As we climbed back onboard and our guide said reef 3 was next, the captain up top nixed that plan and good thing, too.  Suddenly the wind whipped up, the rain began and we were in the middle of a drenching, windy rainstorm.  Heck, we were already wet, so what was the big deal?  Well, the waves were doing a good job of splashing over the boat, soaking all our towels, gear, sandals … it was a slow, wet slog back along the shore to the ship.  We all had a good laugh about it, as we squeak-squished our way onboard.  Jackie and I both got in our shower and turned the water to “hot” and tried to warm up.  Fun!

Entertain Me!

Two shows were featured in the theater and we got into both of them.  Summer! The Donna Summer story was in the style of most of the bio/musicals that featured her life and songs.  Three singers who played her at different ages were terrific and did a fabulous job with the songs.  The Noise Boys was the other show that combined tap dancing, beat boxing and rap for a lively, loud presentation.  Not bad and I enjoyed the tap dancing.  Around the ship were other small groups performing Motown, classic rock, ballads and such and we sat in the atrium to listen.

Of course no cruise is complete without a trip to the Craps table for Doug.  First night was a winner!  Followed by up and down nights at the table and going into the last night in the hole.  BUT somehow that last night the table got hot and I was able to cash out a winner for the week – having had a lot of fun shooting the dice, placing my bets and collecting my winnings.  Yay. But that last day was a whopper – the wind whipped up late afternoon, rain came down and it was pretty much rock and roll with the ship. And of course it was raining when we arrived in Orlando. Yep, welcome home.

And the sad, sleepy trip back home.

You know it’s coming, that last morning when you grab the last breakfast, disembark to collect and drag your bags back to the car and start back home.  Orlando didn’t seem that far away at the start, but somehow driving north is longer uphill.  That’s ok, we had time to review all that we had done during the week.  It was an adventure.

What’s next for us?

Motorhome has some minor tweaks and needs to get out of the deep freeze here, so we will start up 2023 with some maintenance.  Then a family camp in Tennessee followed by a celebration of spring in Panama City Beach, Florida. There are two more cruises (yes, we ARE nuts) coming up, but more about that later.

Stay happy, healthy and thanks for joining us for the trip. Be sure to check out any and all of our videos, prior posts and adventures!

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Sunshine & Splashing

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Doug and Jackie

Oh my gosh, we are back from another cruise!  This one was super special, since we took our daughter’s family with us and that meant the first cruise for Karina, Jason and our grandsons Wyatt and Owen.  And once she heard about it, my sister Linda just had to join in the fun with the boys, bringing along “Uncle Norm”.  

This was a 5 day cruise out of Charleston, SC aboard Carnival Sunshine heading to Nassau and Half Moon Cay.  We all gathered at my brother Jeff’s house days before departure, since it was only 2 hours from the port.  It made for a great start to the cruise, even though it did leave my brother with major FOMO as we departed Charleston!

So what happened, how did it go, what are some stories from the trip??  I will mostly let the pictures tell the story, but here are some highlights (plus a NEW video of the fun):

It was a BLAST!  Our rooms were on Deck 9, the Lido Deck, all the way forward.  Only a few rooms have this full wall of glass facing the ocean ahead for an amazing view.  The boys totally loved it.

Ice cream and pizza were a hit – Wyatt had a record 6 cheese pizzas one day, Owen was not too far behind.

Waterslides were also a hit, but maybe not the big ones.  Wyatt was brave to try one of the racing waterslides the first day with Karina, but probably didn’t know just how fast it would be.  One and done for him, but he quickly made up for that on the smaller slides with Owen.  Whole lotta splashing going on.

The shuttle tender ride from the ship to Half Moon Cay was pretty much a sardine packed trip, but the beach and water more than made up for it.  Absolutely the best beach in the Caribbean and we all made a nice long day of it.  Uncle Norm was definitely a perfect playmate: “quit acting like a kid”.

The Serenity Decks (three of them) for adults were a nice break for us old folks and they gave a nice overview of the entire midship pool deck and it also was good for sunset watching.  The bar was close at hand, too.

Most of us stayed onboard when in port at Nassau.  As you can see by the pictures, the arrival area of the port is undergoing some major changes and all the docks have been rebuilt.  Surprisingly we were the only ship in port that day.  Linda and Norm took a snorkel excursion to a reef that had been pretty much blitzed in the past but they said it had recovered wonderfully over the 2 year pandemic.  Ah well, Jackie and I missed out on that one, but the time aboard with the family was pretty great too, much quieter.

The grandsons were very well behaved during dinner and sea day brunch in the main dining room, with a couple of activity books to help pass the time.

Ah the casino – something that has not always been kind to me, but entertaining anyway.  I bet conservatively and always hope my money will last long enough to have fun, but for two nights the craps table was hot.  Lots of fun and way longer than I expected – plus I definitely came away with some chips this time around.  Yay me.

The arcade and candy shop were also pretty exciting for the boys – heck anytime you have pizza, ice cream and gummies 24/7 it’s a good time.

Probably the only odd moment was one late night toward the end of the cruise when I discovered I had squeezed out anti-itch cream on my toothbrush instead of toothpaste.  I just caught it before brushing, but I was clearly getting cruise-tired!

I know we all declared it a major success and totally enjoyed ourselves – with thoughts of doing it all again (well, way into the future at least).

What’s next for us (after we do laundry and get our bearings)?  We have a week of camping at our local lake with paddleboards, kayak and the grandsons – plus Alex is going to try out his new/old camper.  Only one month of summer before everyone else is back to school and work, so we have to make haste.  Thanks for joining us on our travels and check out the videos posted on the PLACES and VIDEOS page.

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Family Sail-Away to the Caribbean

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Doug and Jackie

So the topic around the dinner table was whether or not lobster would be a good choice the next night.  About half of us were looking forward to it and the rest were “so-so” about it, saying that it was often disappointing – being a bit tough, not too tasty and well, just not the best.  Four of us were scheduled to eat at the Sabor Mexican specialty restaurant and would be missing the last fancy meal (I didn’t time that meal choice right) and even Jackie expressed concern that we would miss out.  She was reminded that she has a shellfish allergy and wouldn’t be eating it anyway, but she felt bad for Doug missing it.  But before we finish that story, let’s start at the beginning.

Last April my brother Jeff announced that he and Vickie were going to spend spring break on Harmony of the Seas and did anyone want to join?  Since it seemed likely the pandemic restrictions would be gone and cruising would surely be back to normal by then, we said sure and talked it up.  Soon we had nearly the whole family booked (14 of us) and were excitedly planning the adventure.  My nephews Adam and Chris had gotten married during the pandemic and were anxious for something fun to celebrate with the family – their wives Ashley and Becca were all in, plus Ashley’s twin sister Chelsey had also gotten married last year to Eric and they were also up for some fun.  Our son Alex and wife Bethany were in and my sister Linda and husband Norm said they would fly in from California to be part of this.  Ok, big group!

Fun times started right away.  The cruise departed from Port Canaveral, Florida so we all planned to travel the day before and stay local overnight before boarding.  The SC gang quickly posted a travel selfie from the road followed by us (taken safely while stopped) as we made our way to Orlando and Cocoa Beach.  It was something of a relief to be on the road, considering that we each had to have a negative COVID test the day before – which also involved a lot of “negative” text messages among the group as we sweated the results.  

In Orlando we had to wrangle a bit to get us all to a place to eat, but we managed to squeeze into the Rav4 and hit up Rockpit Brewing for some beer and barbecue. Thanks to Bethany for taking the far back storage area to make us all fit!

Next morning I dropped Linda and Norm at the airport so they could catch the shuttle bus to the port, circled back to the hotel, packed up the rest of our crew and we were off to the port.  Checking in at the port was a bit of a crowd at first as everyone had to pass a health check, wear their masks and go through security, but once aboard we were told the masks can come off and it wasn’t long before we all caught up on the top deck to gather and grab that “Welcome Aboard” first drink.  Yeah, we all bought the drink package.  Oh, and somebody’s hat decided to sail away overboard as we departed Port Canaveral.

Ok, so here are some stories from the trip – at least those that I know about.  For some of us it was our first time cruising, for some it was the first time on Harmony of the Seas, for some of us it was our second time aboard, and for a few it was our third time on the ship. Newbies went exploring right away and we all had different activities on our “checklist.” (You can now watch some video highlights at “How we did Harmony of the Seas . . . Again“).

Flowrider and Waterslides

Jeff and I got on the Flowrider almost first thing and mostly got the hang of it again.  The boys joined us and did well considering it was their first time.  Linda was in charge of photos “Is it on?” and did a decent job.  Of course we all had to try the waterslides, some of us nearly getting stuck mid-way with not enough water pressure and the day was VERY windy at the top. 

Onboard Entertainment

I think we tried to catch everything on board, from “Grease” to the ice show and aqua show to comedy to trivia and dance parties.  Some of us did quite well with the dancing, others not so much.  The gaming tables were probably a break-even plus a little more for the craps and roulette players, but I think some of the guys did better at blackjack.  It was exciting fun anyway.

Poolside on Sea Days

We started off on the solarium deck the first day, but once we found a better spot by the pool with good bar service and mostly enough chairs, it made for a base of operations.  The sun got pretty strong, so some of us moved in and out of the shade, grabbed munchies at the mini-bites and solarium bistro and had our share of frozen drinks and beer.  Oh, and milkshakes from Johnny Rockets!  A few braved the Abyss dry slide, which we were told “needed waxing” so it wasn’t too zippy scary.  

St. Marten

Our first port of call was Phillipsburg in St. Marten.  It was going to be a busy day with four big ships in port.  Half the group had an awesome ATV trip around the island exploring beaches and mountains and half the group had an excursion to Creole Rock on jet boats to try snorkeling.  Jackie and I were on the jet boats with Norm, Linda, Alex and Bethany and had a blast bouncing across the blue waters and among lots of sailboats.  The snorkeling was not great, since the reefs were pretty well blitzed, but the water felt wonderful and it was a thrill on the boats.

St. Thomas

Our second port of call was St. Thomas and we again split up for different excursions.  Jackie and I, Norm and Linda took a FastCat boat to snorkel at Turtle Cove and then hang at Hollywood Beach on Water Island.  Snorkeling was much better, water was awesome and clear – we did not see turtles but there was a barracuda under the boat that most of us spotted.  The beach spot was just perfect, as we bobbed in the clear shallow water.   

Perfect Day at Coco Cay

We were joined by Independence of the Seas at the dock on CoCo Cay, so it was going to be a crowd at the watery oasis.  Some of us found chairs at the Oasis Lagoon pool, some at the South beach area in the sand.  We spent time at both spots and I enjoyed the pool, which was a bit chilly, except that the music by the swim up bar was rather loud and created a very congested “spring break” style crowd.  Too many people, too loud.  Otherwise we all got plenty of water, sun, drinks and snacks.

Dinner

Our plans for dinner were to eat in the main dining room and I thought I had things pretty much set for everyone to be together at a reserved time each night, but it took a little negotiating at first to smooth things out – the result was a long table for 14 and the BEST dinner service ever.  A few of us had specialty restaurant reservations during the week, but the table was lively every night.  Our first night was a champagne toast to Dad, who along with Mom, introduced the joy of cruising to all of us.

For the most part the food was excellent and well received by all.  The prime rib slices were huge, the apps delicious – although there was some discussion about the lack of beets and oranges in the beet and citrus salad by some among us.  Someone finally got a banana split, french fries were quickly brought out for some of our diners and then there was the lobster affair.

You will recall I mentioned that the next-to-last meal was the fancy lobster tail meal choice.  Linda and I had booked the Mexican restaurant for that night, not knowing it was lobster night, so we were going to miss it.  Well, we resigned ourselves to missing what could have been a meal of average lobster – and most of us figured it would be chewy and tough anyway.  But the next day our crew said, guardedly, that it really was a spectacular meal and the lobster was the best they had ever had.  In fact, beside two tails each, the wait staff brought our extra plates of tails.  Oh, boy, that news didn’t help.

As we sat for dinner the last night and our waiter described the choices, I made pinching motions with my hands and told him that he could bring me my missing lobster tail from the night before.  I joked with him quite a bit but ordered the short rib anyway – and when taking my order Al said he would try.  Word around the dining room was that they had exhausted their supply the night before and not a lobster was on the ship.  That’s ok, I was fine with my order of short rib – I won’t pout.

When I finished my appetizer, the dining room manager Catherine came to my shoulder and asked how my day went in Coco Cay.  She said she saw I missed the lobster dinner the night before and then slipped a plate in front of me and revealed … a whole lobster, split and beautifully broiled!!  

After that last meal together we took some last group shots, broke off into small groups, packed our bags and some of us returned to sit on our connected balcony overlooking Central Park and reflected on a very satisfying family get-together that was the perfect start to the summer.  Even our armadillo mascot Heffe enjoyed himself.  I love our family!

I have some video I will soon edit and post, both here and on the “Videos” page, so watch for that update.  

What’s next?  This upcoming weekend we volunteer to pour at the Kennesaw Beer Fest and in 2 weeks we take the motorhome down to the panhandle of Florida and Grayton Beach State Park, meeting our good friends Dan and Terry, and … another cruise?  Stay tuned.

Categories: Cruising | 1 Comment

Snorkeling the Western Caribbean

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Doug and Jackie

It’s mid-October in Atlanta and the temperature has finally dropped from 97 degrees to a more fall-like 65 degrees with 40’s overnight.  Jeans have replaced shorts, shoes replaced sandals and it is cold enough to use the firepit. Yet here I am at the pool bar, sipping a fruity frozen drink as a warm breeze blows ripples across the water.  What just happened? Maybe I better back up the story a bit …

You see, since our last great cruise on the Harmony of the Seas this summer, Jackie and I stated rather firmly that we would not be cruising again for a year or so, since we had plenty to do back home with grandson-sitting, beer festivals, maybe a fall camping weekend and such.  But it was just fine if Dad and the family wanted to head out to the Caribbean once again, we would wish them well. So plans were made for Dad, my brother Jeff and wife Vickie – even my sister Linda and husband Norman – to head out to the Western Caribbean on the Harmony of the Seas for a fall cruise.  Good stuff – wish you well.

But things got complicated when Norm’s family announced a trip to the Canadian Rockies and suddenly Linda was a single cruiser and gosh she needed a way to get to Port Canaveral via Atlanta (from California) and wouldn’t it be nice if Doug picked her up from the airport and drove her to the port and heck, he could even be her cabin mate.  Hey, Doug, whatcha think? Well it seems that, being retired, Jackie and I go where we are needed: so that meant cruising as a plus-one with my sister.

Turns out it was a great time.  We drove to Orlando and spent the night, checking out two breweries of course.  Hourglass Brewing had a lot on tap so of course we had two flights between us. Then a return visit to Rockpit Brewing meant another pint to try before returning to the hotel. 

 

Up early in the morning and off to the ship! We parked, checked in and were on the ship by 10:30 – just minutes before Jeff, Vic and Dad arrived. This trip Jeff arranged a scooter for Dad, so we had to practice getting him in and out of the room and around the ship.  Turns out it was the BEST move, as he was soon zipping along on his own.  

 

How about some highlights from the ports and sea days aboard ship you ask?  

Perfect Day at Coco Cay

The scooter made a world of difference for Dad, who was down the gangway and on his way across the dock to the Oasis Lagoon pool in no time.  We found lounge chairs by the huge pool and were soon sloshing around with drinks in hand. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, as you can see from the pictures.  

The only disappointment was the snorkeling reef.  Over the years we have been coming here, the area to snorkel has been corralled in closer to shore and the last hurricane seems to have damaged the reef enough that you really didn’t have much to see.

Cozumel Snorkeling

The three reef excursion Linda and I took certainly was a change from Coco Cay.  We walked around and through the maze of shops on shore to find a taxi to the departure marina to meet our guides. 

Turns out there were only four of us on the small boat, which was awesome. Snorkeling in Cozumel is usually a float over the reef with the water current moving you slowly along.  We saw triggerfish (Queen and black), angelfish (Queen and French), parrotfish, yellow snapper, blue tang, butterfly fish, scrawled filefish, trunkfish and a couple of black and white eels.  Check the video:  Cozumel Reef Snorkel

 

 

We had a photographer along who kept attracting the yellow and black Sergeant Majors in front of us to get photos – nice at first, but a bit annoying if you were looking at something else on the bottom.  Overall, it was amazingly clear and a great snorkel. A float vest I purchased worked out perfect, along with a rashguard shirt that substituted for sunscreen (they are serious about protecting their reefs – no sunscreen).  Fish identification was much easier thanks to some waterproof cards I bought from fishcards.com. Thanks to Michael Greenberg for all his help getting us these essential cards. We had a few cold Coronas on the way back to the marina while sharing what we saw. 

Roatan Snorkeling

 

Getting to the reef in Roatan from our dock in Coxen Hole was much more of an ordeal than in Cozumel, where the reef was in sight of the ship.  Jeff, Vic, Linda and I made our way ashore (where they are in mid-construction of a second big dock), wound through the maze of shops once again and found our excursion driver.  Into a van with four other divers and we were off to the northeast coast. It was an hour’s drive up and over the mountains along a busy 2-lane road that was surrounded by small houses (barely one-room shacks by our standards) and market stalls.  Despite all the happy house hunters I have seen on HGTV, I can’t say that I would have chosen to retire to the island. Not exactly prospering.

   

But once we reached our destination at Turquoise Bay Beach and Dive Resort it all changed.  The small marina had several dive boats and we were soon joined by 5 others with Subway Watersports to head to the reef and snorkel.  Next to us was a beachside resort that we would be able to enjoy after the snorkel. Not far off shore we were moored and ready to slip in the water in a sandy spot that was maybe 6 feet deep with a few sea stars.  There was a bit of wind chop as we were directed ahead to find an underwater oasis of coral, sponges and fish that were just amazingly beautiful.  

The “wall” was covered with sponges, fans and corals of all sorts.  The fish were much like what we saw at Cozumel, darting in and around the corals.  A lionfish was pointed out to us along with a yellow trumpetfish. Our guide took my gopro down to get a shot of the lionfish (which was stunning, although destructive to many native fish on the reefs).  Again, my vest was a big help, since we were probably snorkeling the reef for an hour. The sponges and corals (thanks to my ID cards) seemed to be sea whips, sea fans, tube sponges (blue and yellow), sea fingers, vase sponges, staghorn coral, brain coral, star coral … gosh so many colors and shapes.  Check the video:  Roatan, Honduras Snorkel

As I mentioned, we were able to hang out at the beach resort until our taxi arrived to take us back to the ship.  Totally gorgeous spot on the water – dreamy. But since we would be leaving port early and Roatan was 2 hours behind ship’s time, we were a bit anxious when it had not arrived. We were told we would be waiting for the divers in our party to return, but when they were overdue and in fact were choosing to continue their dive, the excursion owner opted to have one of his staff drive us back to port.  We made it with time to spare, but grumbled about the decision by our fellow passengers to have extended their dive at our expense.

Costa Maya Shopping

We were surprised to hear Dad say he wanted to go ashore in Costa Maya to buy a shirt, but once again the scooter made that possible.  He was down the gangway and speeding along the dock ahead of all of us, making a beeline for the cluster of shops on shore. He found his shirt while shopping, as did the rest of us, and soon we were all back aboard.  Costa Maya is pretty much the shopping arcade, a water park and some nearby excursions and nothing else for miles around. But the coastline is very pretty and our sail away was beautiful. 

Around the Ship and Sea Days 

Now this is a big ship and you have a few of your close friends with you – about 6,000 of them, with about 3,000 crew members.  So finding a lounge chair on sea days can be challenging. You have to first get your Irish coffee at the Park Cafe, find something good for breakfast (waffles with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate syrup maybe?) then grab a mimosa or bloody mary and head for the towel check.  Maybe some sunscreen gets slathered on and you are all set – until Jeff says “hey let’s go do the waterslides!

   

So we climbed the stairway to the waterslides for the highest view aboard ship and zipped down.  The “toilet bowl” slide was a first time for Linda and she screamed the whole way down. I did the dark Abyss dry slide again; we bobbed in the pool and Jeff and I decided to brave the Flowrider kneeboard.  The board took a moment to get the hang of, what with all the water shooting at you, but soon we both got up on our knees and … well, we took a few falls and scooted around the fast-moving sheet of water. Totally fun and a real blast – I definitely got better as the week went on, but neither of us felt confident enough to do the stand-up wakeboards.  Check the video: How We Did Harmony of the Seas

 

Dinners were in the main dining room, except the night that three of us ate at Jamie’s Italian (oh my gosh was it a lot of delicious food!).  A plank of meats and cheeses, garlicky prawns, lasagna, pasta and lamb chops washed down with a delicious red wine and followed by a huge plank of desserts. We had a delightful serving staff at dinner, with special after-dinner shots to toast the day (thank you Mikayla).  Late nights involved pizza slices and Octoberfest beer and lunch involved the famous Royal Kummelweck roast beef sandwich in Central Park. We all lunched at the Sabor Taqueria one day and had a fabulous and filling meal – so much so that we skipped the dining room and just did nibbles for dinner.

And of course we had to spend time in the casino.  The odds were not in our favor on the craps table and as the week went on, fewer folks were playing it.  But Dad had pretty fair luck at the roulette wheel, so he spent more time there than we did. He also seemed to attract his share of women who became helpful friends.  One couple adopted him as their good luck charm and we ran into them several times around the ship. Actually, everyone he met was very accommodating and helpful as he navigated his scooter.

   

     

We were naturally concerned about Dad on the days that he remained on board and we went ashore for excursions.  When we returned from Cozumel he told us that he had found the spa and toured the gym and made an appointment for a haircut and shampoo.  Then when we returned from our Roatan excursion he shared how he drove around the buffet with a plate of food and a bowl of soup, driving one-handed.  And to think we were worried about him!