We started the day with everyone sleeping in.  I would have let it go on indefinitely, but I knew that we wanted to eat in Savor with Cher and her team and that closed around 9:30 A.M.   I woke up the kids a bit after 9 and everyone jumped into their clothes or swim suits.

They gave us two tables by the window today instead of the long table we’d had every other morning.  I ordered Katriel the peaches and blueberries again today.  When the waiter learned she only ate the blueberries (I ate the peaches) he brought her a small dish filled with blueberries. 
Man it was going to be hard to go back to normal life tomorrow.

There were not a lot of photos this day.  There was a lot of pool time.  Waterslide time.  Mini-golf time.  And club time. 

We left the water areas long enough to eat lunch in the buffet.  We settled for this outside but not in the sun section.  I didn’t want to be cold in the A/C and many did not want to eat in the blazing heat. 
See Tab at the bar behind me?  That was where their buddy Craig worked.

It got a bit busier in the pools this afternoon, but it was far from unbearable.  Much of the crowd waxed and waned.  We were some of the only ones to practically take up residence. 

We did take a little time around 3 P.M. to all head back to the room and do some packing up.  Thankfully, we pretty much just had to throw stuff into suitcases without much sorting.

We had dinner reservations for 6:30 P.M. at Moderno Churrascaria, their Brazilian themed dining spot.  Nan and Kelly decided to eat in the MDR as their credits and dining package had gotten used up.  The food here was pretty unique.  There was a buffet with a variety of items – sushi, bamboo shoots, salad, asparagus, etc.  They also brought a serving dish with potatoes, yucca, mushrooms, and rice.  They did not bring us beans because of Stewart’s allergy.

They had, we believe, 8 roaming servers with huge skewers of meats, as well as one with grilled pineapple.  It was a LOT of meat, and I confess we probably didn’t appreciate it as much as we would have liked to. 

They brought Stewart a crazy amount of meat.  Like, two pieces of every kind.  They grilled his separately. 

I had to take someone to the bathroom and I got a glimpse of the setting sun.  As Marie and Tabitha wanted to hurry back to the stateroom to change and go to their club, I grabbed the camera and hurried back to the aft deck to take photos.

It was windy, warm, and wonderful. 

Dessert was a zero.  That’s ok.  We stopped by the buffet for a few more before we retired.

Boys went to hang with Craig a while and we took the little girls back to the room for bed and packing.  Marie and Tab enjoyed their club til about 10.

It was hard going to bed knowing it was the last night on the ship.  It had been so much fun.

 

My desire to take my family to Playa Mia Waterpark is the reason I picked a Western Caribbean itinerary.  We’d been talking about their giant inflatable for over a year. While the ship had an excursion to Playa Mia, I booked it via Viator, an off-shoot of TripAdvisor.  They have a solid reputation, and a back-to-the-ship-on-time guarantee.  They were cheaper by about $15/pp.  Kelly made her own plans to visit Mayan ruins.  As she was traveling solo she went ahead and booked through NCL.

I had to set an alarm to get up.  And it was hard.  Very hard.  The busy-ness was getting to me AND we lost an hour sleep last night adjusting the clock… (or did we?)  I got up around 6:45 A.M. and got the kids up around 7:15.  They didn’t rouse easily.  Getting only about 6 hours sleep between our two Magic Kingdom days didn’t phase them; but today was a work-out for some of them.

We somehow mobilized and headed to the buffet because we knew it would be quicker.  The permission to go ashore was likely to come around 8:10-8:30 and we wanted to be ready.  Moods cheered as we left our stateroom and breakfast was as yummy as ever.

Nan and Kelly ended up meeting us at the buffet.  Kelly was to meet her excursion group in the atrium at 7:45 A.M. 

We drew closer to the pier as we were eating.  It was the most overcast day we’d had, but still projected to be hot and dry. 

As we finished our speedy breakfast I asked Nigel what time it was. (Nigel was “Master Timekeeper” as John’s watch had stopped working back in Disney.)  Nigel told us it was 8:05 A.M.  I declared this was perfect.  Then I paused.  Kelly’s ears perked up and she said, “It’s 7:05, right?”

I offered that, no, we had to advance our clocks last night.  She has a moment of panic.  I have a moment of shock.  We all look for a black-clad employee and find one.  She confirms it is 7:05 A.M.  We were to move our clocks forward later THAT night.

I got them up an hour early.

I’m considered turning in my vacation planning credentials then and there. 

It was a low moment. 

No one scolded me.  They knew how badly I felt.

We went back to our room and just did nothing until it was time to get off the ship.  We were in the first hundred or so folks off the ship.  We walked down the pier and stopped for photos.  I was pretty nervous, I admit, on that pier.  It felt dicey.  I don’t know.  Maybe I was vacationed out?
None of us took photos of the port area.  We were all sort of off, I think.  We followed the directions on my paper from Viator and found a representative from the club.  He stated we were a little early (don’t go there, dude); but concluded that as we filled a van he’d get us one.  (One nice thing about being a large group is we never had to wait for more people to fill a taxi to go somewhere.)   He explained our package to us painstakingly: admission, transport, food, non-alcoholic drinks, non-motorized watercraft. He also mentioned all the things we were missing out on (alcohol, umbrellas, and motorized watersports) with Great Emphasis and assured us we could add those features to our package when we got there.

He lead us over and yon to a main street and called a taxi/van for us.  We drove about 15 minutes and arrived at Playa Mia.  The man from the port had told us to look for Julio when we got there and he would direct us into the park.  Julio actually met our van and he again reiterated what was and was not included.  He also told us that cabs leave every hour on the hour to go back to the port and we could decide when we wanted to return to the ship.  He then said, “You have a lot of young princesses.  When you want to go back, anytime, just come find me.”  That was nice to know.

He lead us through a clean little shopping plaza to the cashiers.  He gave the women in the booth our paperwork and they proceeded to remind us what was and was not included.  They offered to sell us whatever else we wanted to add to our package.  Um, we’re good.
The place was all but empty.  I wonder now if they were even really open!
Pool area.

Looking back through shopping plaza we’d walked through.

Buffet/dining area.

Beach side pool with swim up bar.

Some dining tables available on beach.

The inflatable course.

It was so windy the chairs would blow closed as quickly as they’d reopen them.

We found chairs (there were thousands) and John and the older four went out to the inflatable.  The sand was course.  Very course.  There would be no lounging in the sand here.  That was hard for me to swallow.  Frankly, I’d never go back.  Beach was as yucky as the ugly one I went to in Jamaica with Emily 2014. 

The water was gross and grassy.  It was rough water; that isn’t their fault. 

After John and the kids came back in, they told me how “scary” it was to fall off the course.  There was really grassy water just beyond the inflatable and the water was murky. 

We hung out in that area for more than an hour.  It took that much time, incidentally, for cruise ship excursions to start arriving.  The Viator angle DID get us an extra hour there.  Yay us…

When John and Tab came back in, they went with Nan, Johanna and Katriel to the beach side pool.  Soon Marie and Stewart came back in, then finally Nigel.  We all relocated away from the beach.  I think we are all a little let down.

We decided to eat.  This meant figuring out what Stewart could and could not eat.  Honestly,  he didn’t miss anything.  The buffet was immense… but it was so American-ized!  I was really hoping for spicy food, but it was very bland. 

It looked so good, but was so bland. 

We headed to the waterpark side after lunch.  We spent a few hours over there.

Here is a photo of the kids and I in the whirlpool just moments before they told us kids were not allowed in the whirlpool.

Which, I gotta tell you, was not posted and makes ZERO SENSE in the world when you consider its location right smack dab in the MIDDLE of the main pool.

We had fun.  We were on vacation on an island in the Caribbean.  But we wouldn’t go back.  It was far from awful.  But it was far from amazing, as well. 

It was 2 P.M. on the nose, I believe, when we decided to find Julio.  He had a cab/van right there for us to pile into and we were back to the ship in no time. 

There are three ports there, and the one we were at was very nice.  We saw some street performers, and peeked in a store or two.  But mostly we headed back to the ship.  Of all the places we stopped it was the most built up port.  Hotels and such immediately outside the port complex.  You have to go up and over the road to get back to the port side.  It made for nice photos, if not a little jumbled for strollers and wheelchairs. 

We did the ropes course again (most of us – Katriel wasn’t keen to repeat it) and did some pool time.

It really was so fun. 
The plank was closed today.  I’m guessing it was because it was so windy????

We had our last group dinner tonight at Le Bistro, the French restaurant.  It was beautiful, and strikingly small. 

The service was attentive and sophisticated.  They were exceedingly nice. 
The menu – I think it was really good.  But I think after two weeks of eating out it was hard for us to be moved by food.  For appetizer Marie had escargot, and Nigel may have as well.  

This was an app, as well, but none of us know exactly what it was.  Something fishy?

The soup course was fun.  They brought us out this.  At first I wondered if maybe this was it and I was going to have to explain to my kids that what makes this fancy is the exquisitely small servings?

Then the waiter returned to soupify my soup.

And yet another server (the creme-bearer???) came by to add the white swirls.

It was delicious.

I had to take some girls to the bathroom between courses.  A lovely older couple signaled for me to stop and they proceeded to tell me how fantastic my family was, asked if that was Grandma at the end of the table, and shared how much we made them miss their extended family.  We chatted a few minutes and she later grabbed Nan on her way by, as well.  It’s always an encouraging thing to hear, especially when your kids are the only ones in a finer dining room.  

Dinner came under silver domes.

Well, Marie got a pot?

Tab ordered pizza, but they gave her Daddy’s plate somehow…

Can you see the reflection?  Katriel was on my lap.  She was tired. 

I had a lamb dish.  I thought I would try something new.  When the boys heard what I had ordered, they made sport of me until I couldn’t eat it. 
“Yer eating a widdle lammy?”
”Was he baaaaaad?”
I was careful to to waste any of my beans. 
Five beans. 
And that smear was some other bean concoction.  I am clearly too bourgeois to be impressed. 
Of course someone suggested what part of that lamb that was…

Tab gave Daddy back his plate.  That is a bamboo shoot.  Is bamboo native to France?

Now  – there were no jokes when dessert came. 
Honestly – their desserts might be a reason to eat there. 
Four or six of them got these desserts for two.  Siblings who would pierce one another’s cheek with a dull carrot for looking at them wrong are suddenly UN peacekeepers when there is chocolate to share.

Rivaled only by the tiramisu as best dessert on the ship.

After this gourmet brownie, Hanny still said normal brownies are more fun.

I think there were a few kids to the clubs, and a few to the golf course and Craig.
We were all tired, and I believe all in bed by 11. Or 10?  Or is that 12?  Island time?

 

Check this out: I was NOT up early.  Nope.  Not today.  I think the pace of the last, um, six months caught up with me and I had to cry “Uncle.”  We were not on any tight schedule, and the extra sleep didn’t hurt us any. 

We were at the pier long before we were ready to disembark.  The waves and the wind seemed rough to us, although we are not experts.

We headed to the buffet this morning, because we’d knew it would be faster.   It really is a good buffet.  So many choices and it was always well staffed and well stocked.  I still prefer the MDR, but this was not a bad second choice.

As I was researching our ports of call, I had the most trouble with Costa Maya.  There is no shortage of possible activities in Costa Maya, but none of them seemed to rise to the top for us.  There are a lot of opportunities to go see Mayan ruins, or to snorkel; but those are not things we were at all interested in.  I wanted a beach, and we needed something inexpensive as other days had more costly excursions. 

Nan decided she needed a day off, and this was the day to do it.  The rest of us were off the ship around 9:15 A.M.  Disembarking here was very easy. 

There are dozens of beach clubs in the area and comparing them is like shopping for mattresses.  But Mitsugirly from Cruise Critic had been to half-a-dozen places in the area and I ended up picking Blue Kay Beach Club.  Their website wasn’t the greatest, but I followed them on facebook for a few months before we went and was able to ask them questions about their facility as they popped into my head.

Costa Maya has a nice port area with lots of shopping.  They also have a system of trams that you can ride from the ship to the port area, and another set you can ride from the port area down the Malecon (main street) of beach clubs. 

We opted for the open air tram.  They charged us $3 per person, but the two little girls were free.
It was a nice, but VERY windy ride.   

Replica along the road.

We rode the tram to the first stop and then walked back toward the ship about one-third of a mile.  It was sunny and hot, but very windy.  It was what I call sunburn weather – too comfortable. 

We picked Blue Kay in part because they have no entry fee.  They just ask that you buy something to eat while you are there.  Or so I read. 

When we got there they asked for $5 per person 12 and over and it included one drink.  We were fine with that.  I figure it actually cost us less than what I’d anticipated.  We paid for Marie, too, even though she wasn’t of the age; we just know these folks work hard for not much money.  They gave us each a blue band.

The sand was great here.  The water was a little chillier than Honduras, but still really comfortable.  The view was sort of dull, but in a peaceful way.  While they had water things to rent, we didn’t pursue renting anything.  We just sort of hung out. 

We could see the ship from the beach. 

It was super uncrowded; our club was the first in a miles-long stretch of clubs.
There were a few snorkelers out there and some small grassy patches near shore and some larger ones just a bit out from us.  A snorkeler John got talking to said when they were there a few years ago they saw someone get stung by something.  We weren’t interested in exploring much anyway (I know – what kind of ocean people are we?).

All that UV protective clothing… and she sunburnt her legs. 

We almost forgot to order our drinks.

Our late breakfast made us not that hungry for lunch so we weren’t in a hurry to get back to the ship.  When we were ready to head back the bartender called a cab for us.  The taxi only charged $2 per person over 12 for a ride back to the ship.

We poked around the shops just a bit, but didn’t buy anything. 

We hadn’t had a chance to do the ropes course yet, so we had ourselves up there half-an-hour before it opened to be first in line.  This didn’t work as well as we thought, because they sent half of us back to our staterooms to change clothes.  Um. Ok.

John stayed on the ground the first time through to take photos. 
They have a mini-course for the little ones.

We all took turns on the plank. 
The “plank” is the reason I booked this cruise line, by the way.  When I first pulled up NCL.com on the internet the first image I saw was a man on the plank.  I figured this was the ship for my family. 

After I zipped I got off so John could get on.

Dinner was at La Cucina, NCL’s specialty Italian restaurant.  This was Cher’s home-base.  I must say, for as much as I love Italian food in general, I’d probably not pay extra to eat there.  The portions were small, and they weren’t all that exciting.  It was also awkward the way they made a table for 10.  It ended up creating two seats with large table legs in the way of pulling the chair in.  We were not comfortable while we ate.
I hadn’t had much chicken during the week, so I tried to order that.  I say tried, because the waiter told me it was very dry and talked me out of it.  My sister did end up getting it and thought it was fine.

John  got tiramisu again for dessert which I tasted.  (I also had some in the buffet one afternoon.)  It was good, but I still give the Tropicana tirumisu a higher rating. 

I got ricotta cheese cake which was nice, but not exceptional.  Although, I must admit, I might just have been getting fooded out.

I don’t have a photo of Stewart’s dessert. Cher had asked the chef to make him a special dessert.  It was some kind of rich vanilla custard/crème brulee thing with fruit, but not exactly crème brulee… how is that for clear?  I had a taste of that too.  It was amazing!

The boys played some mini-golf and hung out with Craig, while the older girls went to their club for a little while.  Who is Craig?  Oh, just the bartender they befriended.  He manned the bar closest to the mini-golf, right near the buffet.  It wasn’t heavily trafficked in the evening hours, and my boys talked with this young man from St. Lucia a lot.  He liked to give Nigel wisdom, such as: “You need to drink more water; that Mountain Dew isn’t good for you.”

They all came back to their cabin somewhat early as they wanted to watch a movie on the movie channel. 

Speaking of the movie channel, the TV choices in the staterooms is awful.  We never watch much TV, but we often use it in hotel rooms, etc., as a treat for the little girls while the big ones are getting ready, etc.  Lots of NCL specific stations, some news channels, a movie channel, and a pay-movie channel.  The pay-movie channel does have movies for $0.00, so that worked out at one point.  I’m including this info for folks who do use a TV on vacation.

 

Belize City was a replacement port announced about six months prior to the trip.  The original port was to be their new private island, however construction delays pushed back the opening at least a year at this point.

I woke early, and thought I’d try something different and went to O’Sheehans.  I didn’t like this as much because it had almost zero view of the ocean, and it had TVs that although the volume was low, it was still distracting.  And when another couple came in they sat them right next to me, despite the fact the restaurant was all but empty.

I don’t have many photos of the morning.  This was the point in the trip where you should have a routine; but, in fact, you do not.
We could barely make out the mainland when we anchored.

We ate a lot of yogurt parfaits and peaches and blueberries in the mornings.

Pound cake french toast with dark chocolate syrup.  Yes it’s real.  I never did have it.

I will also say that while we very much enjoyed our trip and would absolutely cruise with NCL again, they aren’t stellar with getting off at ports.  We’d booked this day’s excursions through the ship and they did have our tickets waiting for us in our staterooms when we boarded.  They also told us where to meet them shore-side.  But they did not tell us anything about tendering.  Early in the AM they had signs in the elevators that directed people to Tropicana on deck 7 for tendering.  When we arrived at Tropicana, it was closed.  That kind of thing. 
When we asked others what they understood us to do, no one knew what to do. 

Finally, we found a crew member who got us to the right place.  Along with many hundreds of other people. 

It took a while to get on a tender.  And then we were on there like sardines.  I didn’t take many photos there, either. 

We were told to check in at 10:45AM I think, and we were there in plenty of time.  Our tourguide, Lourdes, directed us to shop or look around the port and be back on time.  It was tremendously hot and exceedingly humid.  It was like a city-sized sauna packed with people.  I loved it.  I just do love it.  The other nine members of my party weren’t as enamored.  I suggested to John that the purchase of soft drinks for the kids might generate the kind of goodwill that NATO only dreams of, and we went in a pharmacy and let them each pick a bottle.  We did decide not to purchase Flexeril, Percocet, and Allopurinol…  I would have taken a photo of that, but signs strictly forbade it.  (And I Belized their threats.)

We finally boarded an “air conditioned motor coach” which was nicer than any other vehicle we saw in this beautiful, but underprivileged country.  We had a 35 minute drive inland.  Lourdes provided an informative and impressive history of the city and country, and a vivid description of life in Belize City these days.  The time flew by.  She was great at what she does.

They rely 90% on tourism.  That’s a very volatile thing to rely on.  😦

Some photos John got from the bus.

This IS a park, but it is NOT a beach.  The coastline is nothing but rocks.  It’s sad that a country that needs tourists was not blessed with beaches.  😦

This is a major river.  I did not catch the name.  I did catch the fact that it is loaded with crocodiles and other unsavory water animals.  We didn’t stop for a dip.

We got to our destination: Bacab Jungle Park.  It is basically a lovely pool, some pathways, some food, and a few opportunities to rent kayaks or horses.

The bus let us off at what can only be described as the end of a dirt path.

We walked 300 yard through some lush foliage until we came to the pool area and were promptly met by this guy.

I didn’t take any photos for the longest time then.  We were HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We just wanted in the pool.  We reapplied sunscreen and made haste to the water.

After we cooled off we got our plates of food.  This was the most authentic food we ate on the vacation.  I felt as though our other destinations American-ized their food. 

After we were cooled off and fed, I went off to take more photos.

This is where people could kayak.  I did not see anyone do it.  There are crocs in there, we were told. 

That is a waterslide on the left.  It is short, but FAST.  We all tried it.

We have another fish in the family.

These guys would come right up under the tables.

Once again I was one of the last families out of the pool.

At first I felt cheesy back home as I booked an in-land “jungle park” excursion for our family.  I’m really glad we did it.  They clearly prided themselves on service, and it was the closest thing to a relaxing day we had. 

We got back on board our bus, and Lourdes talked with us some, but also encouraged siestas.  Some Butlers took her up on it.

Once we got back to the pier and the shopping district (I am kicking myself for no photos there) we moved toward the tenders.  These tenders were not NCL’s own lifeboats, as our tenders had been on Princess in 2014.  The tenders we used for Belize were Belizean.  On both the way to and from Belize they not only shared safety details and information about Belize, but they were also very friendly and very upfront that they depend on our tips. 

I stopped on the pier a moment to try to get a shot of our ship in the distance.  I was not able to get it (line moving too quickly) BUT I was “able” to get separated from my family and ended up getting routed to the top deck of the tender, while my family had boarded on the lower deck. 

It afforded me lots of opportunities for taking photos.

I should probably turn in my camera for lack of meaningful photos this day.  But we had a good time.  I swam so much my hands were pruney. 

We cleaned up for dinner quickly as we had dinner reservations at Cagney’s, NCL’s premium steakhouse.  We’d heard a lot of good things about it.  We weren’t disappointed.

Many of us enjoyed the shrimp cocktail.

Even the really tired travelers.

My steak was perfect, if not ginormous.
Nigel opted for lobster and prime rib.

Stewart had preordered a Porterhouse based on Dad’s recommendation.  And he was not disappointed.  He also had asked if he could have a grilled tomato.  Grilled tomatoes are something Stewart first tried on DCL in 2014 and we have since learned to make ourselves.  They are some of his favorites.

This is someone’s seafood dish.  I think Kelly’s or Marie’s.  My kids ate enough Calamari this week to sink the Nautilus. 

This was the joke of the meal.  This is my side of onion rings.  They were cold and gross; all four of them.

My mushrooms were decidedly much better.  I shared with Tab.

Desserts were pretty good. 

Oh – and if kids order “cookies” of the kids’ dessert menu they get a plate for FOUR big cookies.  FOUR???  We helped her every night. 

My apple crisp dish was a delicious, if not rare, departure from chocolate. 

Hanny ordered the brownie from the adult menu, as opposed to the kid one.  She decided after that night to stay with the kids’ desserts.  She declared this one as being too rich.  Her words.  Yes, she’s been hanging out in fancy restaurants too much. 

The big kids went to clubs or to play mini golf.  I took the little girls to the room.  They were excited to see tonight’s towel animal, and even more tickled to see Figaro incorporated.

Anna saw us head in and came to say goodnight.  My girls really liked to visit with her and she was super chatty and just loved the girls.  We continue to pray for Anna.

It was another good day. 

 

When we first booked this cruise, it was because I had wanted to take the family to Cozumel to visit Playa Mia waterpark.  That meant a Western Caribbean itinerary.  The full offering from NCL was Roatan, Honduras; Harvest Caye, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico; and Cozumel, Mexico.  I knew nothing about the first three ports and took to the Cruise Critic message forums to learn more. 

Harvest Caye is a private island owned by NCL that was slated for completion November 2015 that has now been bumped out to November 2016.  The replacement port was named as Belize City, Belize about 6 months before we’d left. 

There is a woman on Cruise Critic with the user name Mitsugirly who has taken dozens of cruises, with the majority being on NCL.  She writes very detailed trip reports (FAR more detailed than this one) with thousands of photos and a great deal of good-to-know information.  She had visited all of our anticipated ports and did a number of excursions in each one.  I read all of her reports and took note.

One of the first jewels I noted was Little French Key, a private island off the Island of Honduras.  I was absolutely intrigued but wrote it off early because of a swimming jaguar and high admission price.

Months went by and I chose an excursion, only to have us decide in February or so that Little French Key was by far the best option.  We were able to negotiate a lower price, as well, with our group of 10.  And they no longer had the swimming jaguar.

I woke up early again and headed to Savor taking photos of the ship along the way.

O’Sheehan’s is a complimentary 24 hour eatery with a sports bar feel to it.  It spans the ship from starboard to port with an open area in the center where you can see into the Atrium.  We never dined here as a family.

Looking down into the Atrium.  They played movies in the Atrium, although we never got a handle on when and what…  it could be exceedingly loud in the Atrium mid-day through evening.  I have no idea how anyone could even hear a movie down there. 

Empty at 6AM however.

Mid-ship chandelier that spanned decks 6, 7, and 8.

Called…

Art Gallery – the displays changed frequently.  Sometimes being changed out mid-day and again in the evening.

Atrium from deck 6 looking up to O’Sheehan’s

Outside Illusionarium, where we ate Sunday night.

Other areas I found but we never visited.

We did need to use the internet café one evening to file Stewart’s work availability.  We’d forgotten to do that while in Florida.  Cost $21 for 17 minutes.  Grrrr.

The name of the Getaway theater.  I never even saw inside the theater once.
I collected my family and we headed to Savor for breakfast.  We were tickled to see Cher there.  We learned that was where she worked out of in the mornings.  We ate there another two mornings.  It was  nice to have her watching Stewart’s back.  As we waited for our table we visited a neat replica of the ship.



Into our second week of vacation, Hanny was getting very good at placing orders.  LOL.

The good news was we were the only ship scheduled for Roatan for the day, which meant we would get a position at the pier and avoid tendering.  The bad news was we weren’t docking until 10 A.M. 

It was hard waiting.  It was cool to watch us head into port.

The problem with docking later is more people are up and ready to disembark when permission is granted to disembark.  It was painfully congested.

Looking back at the ship.  While at first I didn’t think it was very pretty (not a fan of hull art) she was starting to grow on me.

After we disembarked we were inundated with offers to take us places/sell us excursions.  We were following some vague instructions I’d had sent to me from Little French Key, but did go ahead and answer people who asked if they could help us.  When we got the same answer twice I was comfortable we were on the right track.  We found our liaison who vaguely directed us down a street.  We eventually found a group that was going to LFK and hung out in an alley waiting for our cabs.  Our family got our own 12 pax van.  Same kind we drive at home. 

It took half-an-hour to get to a small pier where a smaller watercraft would take us over to that private island in the background. 

We only waited about five minutes for our boat to come.

When we arrived to the island we were met by a young man who gave us a tour of the island.  It was breathtaking.

They have a number of rescued animals.  We did not spend much time looking at them.

Our admission fee covered a lunch and two drinks each.

We just jumped in and had fun.  Well….. some of the kids weren’t as excited as others of us about being there. For real.  How the amazingness of this location was lost on them is lost on me.

I don’t really know how many beaches there were.  I mean, it is an island, it’s mostly all beach.  But each section offered its own features.  We planted here at this one and didn’t really explore a ton.  We had great seats, not too far from restaurant and restroom.  “Our” beach got a little more crowded midday, but not by much. 

John and the oldest three enjoyed jumping from this platform, and later swinging from the rope.

The bulk of our day included swimming and paddleboards and kayaks, in no particular order.  Tabitha met a friend from the kids’ club who was there with her family.   We did have a hiccup with lunch when they told us we could have pizza for the kids instead of the plate of Honduran food.  The waiter took it as an order for six whole pizzas.  We wondered why it was taking forever to get our food.  When the delivered out the first two whole pizzas we all clued in and canceled half of them.  But not before we’d spent an entire hour in the dining area.

Why, yes, that is Coke in my baby’s sippy cut.  No judging.  It was VACATION!

Who doesn’t love a restaurant where you can play on the “floor”.

Except for the rock lobster, it was good.

Swing area.

Some of the grounds.  The owners live on the island.  They also rent out tree houses for people to stay.

We headed over to meet Rico.

Okay.  So my husband and mom are great folks.  But they don’t get island time.  They are a little worried about the ship leaving without us.  I suppose it is good that there are those kind of people. Truth is, everywhere else in the world, I am those people.  But days like these?  Nuh, huh.  I wasn’t going to leave until I had to.  Had. To.  And – we were not the last people to leave the island.  But I wasn’t leaving until we had to.

As we got back to the pier, we saw what they were going to take us back to the port in.  A school bus.  Too funny.  Hanny and Katriel fell asleep.

We got back on the ship and had plenty of time to clean up.  We didn’t have to be to dinner until 7:30 P.M.  It was our latest night.

Tab & Marie remembered that something they were interested in going on in their club that night.  It took a bit of back and forth, and in the end Tab decided she wanted to go and Marie chose to eat with us.

Dinner was at the Tropicana and I am sorry to say we don’t have much in the way of photos.  It was one of the Main Dining Rooms, therefore complimentary.  It was every bit as excellent as the specialty restaurants.  The menu was more diverse, to be honest.  The only thing that took away from the awesomeness of this meal was that it was at the very end (aft) of the ship.  And the ship?  She was a rockin.  I was really feeling it.  John was really feeling it.  Nigel and Nan were really feeling it.  In the end, Nigel and John ended up leaving before dessert.  John took the little girls (whose desserts had come early) and headed back to the room to take a meclizine.  The timing was too bad, really.  This restaurant was one of our favorites.

Me?  I held in there.  And ordered two desserts.

The best tiramisu I’ve had in a long time.  Carrot cake was just ok.

We all were in bed around 10, I think.  Island time…. 😉

 

I was up early and dressed quickly.  I grabbed my Bible and cameras and headed out. 
It was warm and humid and I loved it.  My camera did not, however, so photos had to wait.  I went to an MDR hoping to score some hot chocolate.  I picked Taste over Savor for absolutely no reason whatsoever.  The sit mid-ship on deck 7 across from one another.  They gave me a window seat and at that early hour there were very few other patrons. 

I headed back to the room after about 30 minutes and found my family had gotten up.
This is the deck on the room John and I shared with Johanna and Katriel: 12182.  The other stateroom was slightly smaller, but had an angled deck as it was the last stateroom of that category before the larger ones start: 12180.
As you can see, we were perfectly around the corner from Splash Academy, which was a great location. 


And we headed back down to Taste together.
It took a few minutes for a table for 10 to be arranged. 

I met a woman in the restroom who had a DCL lanyard on.  I chatted with her a few minutes.  She had 27 DCL under her belt, as well as oodles of numbers of every other line she could rattle off. She likes them all and said we’d love this ship.  She did say, however, she thought that when I got off NCL I would find I was within a few hundred dollars of what DCL would have been.  Seeing as how DCL base fare was almost $6,000 MORE than the NCL base fare I wondered out loud where she thought I would see the charges.  She was speechless.  She asked what kind of rooms I’d compared and was absolutely astonished we’d gotten the rate we’d gotten on NCL.  She also acknowledged that as a FL resident she never saw such gaps in pricing.  That’s not me boasting, that’s me overwhelmed with gratitude.  She acknowledged we’d saved a bundle and that we would nowhere come near that number.

Since I am mentioning restrooms, I want to say now how great their bathrooms are.  This ship is only two years old and you can tell some tremendous thought went into the design.  The bathrooms were large, easy to find, and plentiful.  They also had automatic toilet flushing, automatic soap dispensers, automatic faucets, and automatic dryers.  They also had automatic towel dispensers and garbage cans by all the exit doors, with signs that said to use a paper towel to open the doors.  All the enter/exit doors opened inwardly. 
We got to the sports deck and found it oppressively busy.  I sincerely hoped this wasn’t going to be our lot for the entire cruise. 
There are limited hours for each activity, and from pre-trip reading, I knew there was very limited hours for the bungee trampoline.  Although it was hot and we wanted to swim, we all reasoned that it was worth the wait to get this done now in case it wasn’t available later in the week.
Johanna was too small so she worked to conquer this thing.  It took her a while, but she made it.
I had to go back to the room to get shorts and socks for those not wearing them. 



By the time they each had their turns we were ready to melt.  The ropes course line was very long so we bailed on that activity in lieu of waterslides.
Two of the waterslides say no piercings or metal bathing suits whatsoever.  I had to skip that one that day because my suit had metal.  Tab had to miss them all together because her pierced ears were too new (and only recently healed of infection). 

The little girls played in the kids’ water area all day long.  It was a great set up IMO.  There was an inner, free form shape with about 6-10 inches of water and a slide.  There was an outer free form shape with sprayers and seats and such.  Along both areas were bench-style barriers that adults could sit on to watch the kids.  I spent many hours on the benches and in the water.  Right next to it was the salt-water family pool.  My above ground pool at home is bigger.  But it was never such kid soup that it felt dangerous to let Tabitha go into it.   There was a life guard by the family pool, and the waterslides were somewhat next to/above this set up.  There were adjacent bathrooms and this whole section was between two bars.  What was NEVER available were lounge chairs.  Chair hogs must have been out very early to claim these, too, I might add.

This first sea day was the most crowded we ever found decks 15 – 17. 

Around 2:40 P.M. Marie went to the Splash Academy to join her age group on the sports deck for some games.  Kids over 10 are allowed to check themselves in and out of the club.  The deal with signing out, however, is they have to have been there for two hours.

Did I mention I hung around the kids’ pool all day?  I love this kind of thing.  They are happy splashers, I am in the sun; it’s all good.

After 3 P.M. the boys queued to do the rock climbing wall.   They were the only ones who ever did it.  Maybe next time.

And, John and I stayed by the water.  Occasionally, we would head up to some slides with Tabitha, or go watch Marie play.

Around 4 P.M. we decided to head in to clean up for dinner.  We asked Marie to meet us in the stateroom by 4:45 P.M.
Our dinner reservations were for Teppanyaki at 5 P.M.  Our chef, Michael, kept us in stitches.  And while I can’t say it was all super yummy (some Asian food thrills me, other dishes do not) the service was amazing.  The maitre d’ for Teppanyaki had been in communication with Cher and Stewart had a wonderful, personal meal prepared for him out of sight.  But we all enjoyed watching our “Japanese cowboy” make dinner.

Every one got edamame (gag) and salty soup (gaggity gag).  (Everyone but Stewart.  He got a garden salad.  Lucky him.)

The Seaweed Salad was delicious.

The meat and veggies were fantastic.  And the portions were enormous.  The assistant maitre d’ of Teppanyaki asked how are meal was.  With all the enthusiasm a five year old can project, Johanna said, “The chicken! is EXCELLENT! Yum!”  And it really was.

Dessert was lame.  But we’d fix that later. 

We tried to take some family photos.  I had visions of doing this after dinner each night.  Nope.  It was always crazy windy outside and/or my camera would be too foggy and need more time to warm up than we were often willing to take.  Meanwhile, inside was often too dark.

The boys went up to play mini golf, and the older girls went to their club.  So John and I took the youngest two to Savor for dessert. 

We really enjoyed meeting one of the supervisors in this restaurant.  He is from India and showed us pictures of his daughter.  On both the DCL cruise and this one, we were regularly approached by crew members who would talk with our kids.  They would ask how old and then talk freely with us about their children.  I am always so humbled that these folks bend over backward to serve us in this opulence, while they go 7-9 months without seeing their own children and families.  My kids loved to talk with these folks. 
We headed back to the room, and even with our clocks having turned back the night before we were tired, early.  Katriel was asleep by 9:15 P.M.  Wait.  Maybe it was 10:15 P.M.  That pesky time change…