4th Stop: Grand Caymans

We visited the Cayman Islands on Friday, January 23. This was our last island stop of the trip. Ted had researched all of the excursion companies and read that "Moby Dick's Tours" was the BEST! We had to take a ferry over to the dock again, though this time it was only about a 5 minute ride.

When we got off the ferry, sure enough, there were the people from "Moby Dick's Tours" waiting to greet us! We only had to wait about 15 minutes, then we were on our way! This was a GREAT excursion. We opted for the Snorkel and Sting Ray City Tour. The guys could not have been more friendly!

Because Sting Ray City was so busy when we went by in the boat, they took us snorkling first. This was the first time we used fins too... we went cheap when we bought our snorkel gear & only got masks and snorkels. I found that you really could swim faster with the fins. There was lots of coral and all types of schools of fish, though Ted and I agreed that we thought the fish were more plentiful and pretty at some of our other stops. Anyway, we had a great swim nevertheless. We had all loaded back on our little boat when one of the other passengers accidentally threw a swim shoe overboard and decided to dive in to get it. Personally, I think I would have let it go!

Our next stop was Sting Ray City. WOW! I have never seen so many sting rays in one spot. People keep asking me if we were afraid of them. Once we figured out how tame they were, we weren't scared at all. It took the girls a little while to get used to them, but once they did, they discovered what wonderful creatures they were! Ted and I both "kissed" the sting rays. Supposedly, this was to bring us 7 years of good luck. Personally, I think they just wanted to see how many people they could get to kiss them! I must say, they were quite slimey kissers! Interesting experience!

The girls were happy to discover that a friend from "Camp Carnival" was on this same excursion. Sydney was from Canada and was fun to have along.

After our excursion, we went back to town and shopped for a little while before heading back to the boat. Another fun filled day!

3rd Stop: Roatan, Honduras

On Thursday, January 22nd, we headed out to Roatan, Honduras. While we got into port pretty early, our day was to be a short one, as we had to be back on the ship to set sail by 3:00! We made the most of it and headed on into town to see what was in store for us! There were many things we WANTED to do, but just didn't have the time, so we settled on going back to the beach for more snorkling.

Once again, we rented a car so that we could "do our own thing". It appeared that none of the streets were labeled, but after a couple of wrong turns, we found our way to Tabanya Beach. At least there was a lot of scenery on the drive!!

Fortunately we found some retired Americans who visit Roatan frequently and were able to point us in the right direction and give us some tips on the best snorkling spots.

The walk to the beach was a short one and there were very pretty flowers along the way. We were greeted by a woman who wanted to braid Colby's hair before it got wet. Colby wasn't thrilled, but I knew it would be pretty, so I persuaded her to go ahead. Jessica ran ahead with Ted so that they wouldn't "get her" next!

We found a spot among some other Carnival Legend guests and settled in for the day. Once again, the snorkling proved to be amazing (just as long as you didn't go beyond the man in the canoe - apparently his job was to keep all the snorklers from going out too far)! Again, snorkling photos will come later (I hope!). What always amazes me is how quickly my girls TAN! We smother them with 30 spf sunscreen and they tan straight through!

I heard that the "Monkey La-La" drinks were awesome, so I bought myself a couple (YUMMY!) and Ted tried some of the local beer for a minimal $2.50 a bottle! I had to cut him off at 2 because the car we rented was a stick-shift, which I don't know how to drive!!

We had a great day, though short and soon headed back to town for some brief shopping before heading back to the ship...

One advantage of getting back to the ship a little earlier was having some "play time" on the ship while it was still daylight!

2nd Stop: Belize

On Wednesday, January 21st, we "tendered" near Belize, which meant we had to take a little ferry boat to the Belize dock. We made sure we headed out first thing, since we had a reservation for a Cave Tubing Expedition. Of course, we were early, and ended up having to wait for the rest of the guests anyway. There was NO snorkling to be done in these waters! The water was very dark and gloomy looking!

We took a ~45 minute bus ride to the place where we picked up our tubes and headlamps. We got down to the river and had the option of walking across (with tubes in tow!) or going up to a small cliff & jumping off. The girls and I opted to walk across (the girls got help, I did not!!) and Ted jumped in. Then we walked for quite awhile through the rainforest until we got to another part of the river where we did our cabe tubing! Because of a fatal accident, Carnival no longer offers this excursion anymore. I was a little intimidated at first (we had our kids with us for Pete's Sake!), but once we heard the full story, we decided it was safe to continue with our journey. Basically, when the cruise ships were offering this excursion, they allowed too many people to go through the caves at a time and a woman got wedged against a wall. Our guide only had the 4 of us in his "chain" and was EXTREMELY careful. Aside from the water being VERY chilly, this was an awesome excursion! It was like going through a cavern (like the ones in the mountains), but in an innertube!! Obviously, I couldn't bring my fancy camera, so hopefully our dinky waterproof film camera produces some good shots!

Belize was not somewhere that you wanted to spend a lot of time in the port (especially unattended by a tour guide!), so we shopped very briefly when we returned, then got back on our tender to head back to the ship.

First Stop: Cozumel Mexico!

We sailed into Cozumel early Tuesday morning, January 20th. We didn't have a scheduled "excursion", so we went to the travel assistance booth to see what they recommended. It was exceptionally windy that day, so the assistant suggested that we rent a car and head on the other side of the island where the water would be calmer (we were originally headed for "Paradise Beach" and afterwards learned that it was extremely choppy and there was not to be much water activity that day!). He circled a few points of interest and we were on our way. Renting a car was only $60, compared to the $100 or more it would cost for a taxi to take us to one stop & back! This way we could do our own thing. We had to quickly learn a few Spanish words (the kids were NO help, even though they have Spanish class once a week at school!). Words like "Alto" (Stop) and "No Habla Espanol" (I don't speak Spanish) came in handy!! Now, granted we missed a couple of things along the way due to some children fighting in the back seat of the car, but the beach we stumbled upon was absolutely stunning!! We did see some interesting things along the way, like horses coming out of no where & running out in the middle of the road!

When we arrived at our destination, Chen Rio, we had the beach/water to ourselves. This was the kids' first attempt at snorkling (we brought our own gear) and my first time without hypervenilating!! There were all sorts of schools of fish (once I get photos developed, I can post those on my blog!) and shells that we could dive down for!

We decided to move down the beach, closer to the little restaurant on the beach... we swam out beyond some rocks and found ourselves in our own little paradise! Just beyond the large rocks, there was a little cove where we saw even more fish of all kinds! It was fabulous!

After our snorkling adventures, we decided we should eat some lunch at the little "cafe". They told us of a special for 4 for only $55, so we decided to partake. It consisted of snapper, mahi mahi, FOUR lobster tails, shrimp, and conch, along with tortillas and tortilla chips (we were in Mexico afterall!) and soda served in old-style soda bottles! Amazing!

Another neat thing was that some of the locals were making little grasshoppers and hats out of grass. They gave the girls each a grasshopper and Colby said, "they gave them to us for FREE, but we gave them $1 because it took a lot of time to make them".

We headed back into town for a little shopping before heading back to the ship. The girls learned that if you chat with the locals that you can bargin with them a bit. Colby got a beautiful hand-made dress for $18!

What a fun day in Cozumel!

Hopping Aboard the Carnival Legend...

Our adventure began by flying on a plane for the first time with kids since they were babies. The flight attendants and pilots couldn't have been friendlier and even invited the kids up to the cockpit!

We were greeted at the airport by the very friendly Carnival greeters (similar to WalMart greeters - age-wise at least!) and transported to the ship. Once on board, we went immediately to our room, as the kids were VERY excited to check it out (as TINY as it was)! Afterwards, there was buffet-style lunch - very yummy! We took a tour around the ship (sort-of) and discovered it would take quite awhile to figure out where everything was (we were still confused by the end of the trip!). Another fun first day activity is reviewing Emergency plans and trying on our life jackets!

Our next day was a day at Sea, so we spent the day leisurely eating breakfast and lunch, hanging at the pool/hot tub (though it was extremly WINDY!), and involving some members of our family in silly cruise ship games! In one game, the participants had to "gather" items from the audience, one item being a bikini top. So since Colby had an extra shirt with her, we had her give up her bikini top! I think it got stretched just a bit!

The girls had an introduction to Camp Carnival... Colby decided right off the bat that she wasn't going to like it... "This is supposed to be a FAMILY VACATION, not CAMP!" In the end, she liked it okay, but much preferred hanging with Mommy & Daddy. Jessica, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the 9-11 age group, who had much more flexibility and freedom!

The day ended with a show in the Follies lounge that somehow sent Colby to snooze-land!

Greetings from the Western Caribbean!

Carnival Legend - January 18~25, 2009
Cozumel, Belize, Roatan (Honduras), and Grand Caymans

Well, everyone, we made it! 4 people (2 of them being children), 4 islands (actually Belize is a country) in 7 days! What wonderful adventures we had! Every bit of it was new and exciting, so I'm going to break it down by day, or at least by excursion and then ship time. We really had a fabulous time, so stay tuned for more to come! In the meantime, to wet your taste buds, here are a couple of our "Formal Night" photos taken on the ship! Many of you say I'm never in any photos, so here you go!! Love, Heather