Caribbean Princess in Belize

Hello from Belize on a beautiful morning.

There are three ships anchored here today, our Princess ship and two Carnival ships.

Belize is another tender port. Usually in Belize I'm doing some snorkel excursion (which are always good ones) but this trip I'm trying to make plans around what hubby can do. And he can't snorkel and doesn't want to sit on a snorkel boat in the heat. It's a hot one out today. We've been wandering the ship and taking photos for some Cruise Ship Saturday videos and I filmed one Tuesday Tutorial. At some point today I was hoping to interview a crew member for the new book but that may need to wait until turnaround day. It's a pretty packed day without even going ashore! We've been to Belize several times before and will be back again in November so we're not too worried that we're missing anything by not going ashore on this trip.

One thing we ran across on the ship today was some new seating and menu. It's a place called the Wake View bar - which really is just a seating area - with a limited appetizer menu.

Not sure we'll partake in their offerings, but pretty funny that after a week and a half on the ship we finally found this place.

On to the buffet itself...I visited with the supervisor the other day. I hardly ever complain but this thing of not being served drinks until forever is getting old. It's unfortunate because the food in the buffet here is amazing. Probably the best of the fleet right now. It's the service that just plain sucks. Like I said, as an experiment I've been timing how long it takes for someone to offer drinks at dinner.

The time has ranged from six minutes to 20 minutes. Two nights ago it was 15 minutes. Ugh.

But last night, after having talked with the supervisor, I didn't even need to start the timer. Drinks came right away and I noticed the crew members working in the buffet were hustling. I hope it's a permanent change, not a temporary one.

It's worth mentioning again - the food is so darn good on this ship. Just last night there was chicken scallopini and meatball sliders and a lightly breaded shrimp-scallop-calamari dish. All were amazingly tasty.

Medallion™ Update:
I've combined my updates to make the progression of the roll-out more clear. 
August 18-25 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here. 
Sept 1-8 updates can be found here.

Encouraging Word Money Pocket Drop Off:
We did several today. The crew member who found one a couple days back found another one today, the You are amazing one. Her name is Grace and she said she knew it was meant for her, like Amazing Grace. Really amazing.

We then dropped some in the Piazza and found that one of the girls that helps hubby in the morning found one in the sugar container when she was cleaning tables the other day. Her cabin mate was working and we were all talking about the encouraging notes on them. I told the cabin mate to pick one out of my hand (she couldn't see the saying so it was like a pick a card, any card kind of trick). And she chose the the Never Give Up one. The two girls had a laugh and an oh my gosh and an I can't believe it. And why? Because in their cabin they have a poster. A poster that says Never Give Up. How awesome is that?

Tomorrow we're off to Cozumel.

As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please click on the envelope icon at the top right of this screen.

Caribbean Princess in Roatan

Hello from Roatan, Honduras!

Roatan is an island off the coast of mainland Honduras. Both Carnival and Princess Cruise lines use Mahogany Bay in Roatan; other cruise lines use Coxen Hole in Roatan. Mahogany Bay is so much better than Coxen Hole, especially for beach lovers. The private beach is right there! While we love Roatan and we love the West End - snorkeling is absolutely amazing there - we chose to take the freebie Mahogany Bay beach day instead. While you could rent clamshell loungers or cabanas or snorkeling equipment or kayaks or a slew of other things, we stick with the free loungers.

To get there you can take a $14 flying chair (think chairlift) or walk on over to the beach.

It's a bit of a jaunt to the beach. Hubby had to do some walking today anyway. He called today his redemption day. Several years back he tripped and fell on the cobblestones on our way back from the beach in Mahogany Bay. He was wearing shorts at the time and hit the ground hard. Even kind of skidded a bit. He tore up his knee and lower leg terribly. He wound up having to go to the medical center onboard to have them pick out all the gravel that had embedded itself in his leg. They had him going back to see them day after day for treatment and bandage changes. It took months and months for his leg to heal. He still has big scars from that fall. So he was going to make sure he walked over those same cobblestones today without a fall.

And he did. Good job to my hubby!

The beach was packed with the two ships in port. We know from having been there before that the farther you walk down the beach the less crowded it gets. So that's what we did.

See the yellow loungers? There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. Skip them.

Then come the blue loungers. Skip them.

Then the path curves past the cabanas and it looks like it's the end. But it's not. Keep going.

Once you round that curve you come to the end. At the Hideaway bar and restaurant.

At the Hideaway take a right. And find a beach that looks like this.

Or if you like crowds go back to those yellow loungers and find a beach crammed with people like this. No thank you.

We like the less crowded area. A server from the Hideaway delivers drinks.

Here's the menu.

It was a good great non-fall day, the umpteenth perfect day of our umpteenth cruise.

Medallion™ Update:
I've combined my updates to make the progression of the roll-out more clear. 
August 18-25 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here. 
Sept 1-8 updates can be found here.

Encouraging Word Money Pocket Drop Off:
At the restroom on the way to the beach.

Tomorrow we're off to Belize.