It’s Okay to Take a Break and Enjoy Yourself.  Maybe a Caribbean Cruise?

We did one last year and really enjoyed it.  So, we went on another cruise this year and had a great time.  This will be a fairly lengthy post as it is mainly for family and friends who want to see pictures.  But, I hope it will also be a good resource for people who are considering a cruise for a vacation or getaway. We started with a trip to Miami as we were taking a Caribbean cruise and Miami was the best port with the added benefit of visiting the big city and the South Beach area. We flew out of the Tri-Cities.

We decided to stretch the journey a couple of days.  One reason was to make sure we had enough time to get on our ship, we also had the chance to see the sights in and around Miami where we stayed in a motel for two nights before we embarked.

We flew from Pasco to Salt Lake City to Atlanta to Miami.

We called our motel and they sent the shuttle van to get us.  It took a while for the van to show up but he made it and gave us a nice, scenic ride back to our motel.  He went through South Beach and Miami Beach with some historical commentary along the way.  We got to our room on the top floor and ordered some food from the on site restaurant for pickup and ate in our room then got to bed late as we still weren’t quite adjusted to the 3 hour time difference.

The first day in Miami, we took the public bus to the South Beach area and immediately went to the beach and ocean as we’d never been to the Atlantic Ocean before.

The water was beautiful turquoise, the sand was light colored and the weather was excellent in the 80’s with sunshine.

We had some time the next day before our ship left so we decided we would come back and swim in the Atlantic.

We wandered around the fascinating area of South Beach with all its shops, restaurants, stores and more.  There is a winding sidewalk which follows the beach for a stretch of several miles.

We saw an eclectic collection of people walking, roller-blading, bicycling, jogging, riding Segways.

Our son, Justin got to try out a Segwayand had a big smile on his face, it was very interesting to see it work.  We also saw several examples of “meathead” workout areas.

Places for guys who are doing pull-ups, push-ups, and other workouts to try and impress themselves and people who walk by.  It’s rather humorous to see.  At least they’re getting some exercise! We were walking away from the beach and into South Beach when a sidewalk restaurant hawker had us test his buffalo wings.  We decided to have lunch at the restaurant called Wings and Rings.  It was pretty tasty, the service was so-so (hard to keep our water cups topped off, I think we often get ignored because we don’t imbibe, that may be a post for another day).  The atmosphere was nice as we were outside, under big awnings.

One warning though; as we got our bill they had already pre-calculated the gratuity and included it as part of the bill.  I was not impressed but was told “thats the way they do it at restaurants here”.  Needless to say there was no extra tip given but we had a decent lunch. Just across the street from the restaurant, we found a depot for an area wide bicycle rental program called Decobike.  We saw the bikes all over the place and wanted to try it ourselves.

Its a really neat system.  There are dozens of bicycle vending machines around town.  You rent a bicycle from any of these depots and ride as much as you want for a specified amount of time (we chose 4 hours, 3 was enough for us).

It is $18 per bike for 4 hours.  Other rates are: $4 for 30 minutes, $5 for 1 hour, $10 for 2 hours and $24 for all day.   Then, you can return the bicycle at any of the other depot sites around the Miami, South Beach areas.  It is great for this area because parking is limited and the area is fairly compact so you can ride bikes and see all the great sites like the beach, the Art Deco area of South Beach, Lincoln Road Mall and more.

We had a great time on the bikes, they also have little bells and front and back lights for safety and the depots boast that they are solar powered.  You can click here for more info on Decobikes.Justin was fascinated by the coconut trees which grew all over South Beach and Miami.  We found one where we stopped to see the waterfront which was only about 8 feet tall so Justin wanted to pick his own coconut.

After a few jumps and failed efforts to climb the tree, He got on his bicycle seat and got his coconut! We rounded up our bike ride back on the beachfront sidewalk and dropped them off at a station along the sidewalk.

Then, we walked back into town and sat at some chairs along the road and just did some people watching.

It is a fascinating place with a very diverse population with people from around the country and around the world. We stopped at a McDonald’s and had some dinner and snacks and found we were at the famous Lincoln Road Mallarea of South Beach.

A closed off road that stretches for several blocks with designer boutiques, businesses and shops lining both sides.

It has a very worldly feel and we didn’t spend any money but it was interesting to do some window shopping.  One uniquely opulent clothing store is from the UK called Allsaints Spitalfields.  Its displays are more interesting than the rich clothing featuring dozens of attached antique sewing machines as window dressing and dividers for the store.

The mall has many upscale businesses from an Apple store to high-dollar clothing stores to restaurants and even a Tesla Motors high-performance electric carstore.

The store has a Tesla chassis which is filled with thousands of batteries and a Model S in the showroom!

After our walk around the mall we headed for the bus stop.  We were watching a man with a white cane with a red tip maneuver along the sidewalk, tapping along the curb as he headed for the bus stop.  It was obvious he had done this many times before and knew the neighborhood well.  I asked him which bus he was waiting for and he said “the L bus”.  That’s the same bus we were waiting for so I told him so and told him I’d let him know when it came.  We chatted a little but and found out he was from Columbia and came to the U.S. 30 years ago because of better programs and resources for blind people.  I asked about his blindness and he said he lost his eyesight in  his young 20’s through alcohol poisoning.  He seemed to appreciate the help in identifying his bus and making sure he got on and off at his stop okay.

Victor’s stop was just before out stop. On the bus, I sat next to a guy who was from South Carolina.  He was a black man with a big gold tooth in front.  He had two teardrop tattoos on his cheek (Justin said those were gang markings from homicides).  I asked if he had a good thanksgiving and we had a nice chat as he helped make sure Victor and we got off at the right bus stops.  An interesting bus ride back to our motel but the bus stop was right at the driveway into the front office of the motel. Our motel was a nice place.  Not too fancy with all outdoor entrances but clean and adequate for our needs.

We were on the third floor and looked out over the harbor, a very nice view.  We could also see over to the Miami skyline around the corner from our room.

The next morning we got up for breakfast at the motel the Best Western.  They had the typical breakfast buffet fare.  Then we hopped on the bus for the trip to South Beach with our suits, ready to do some swimming!

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The video above is a short look at Miami Beach with a panning shot.  Justin and I spent quite a bit of time just swimming in the clear blue ocean water.  The temperature was great and we brought along some swimming goggles so we were all set for seashell hunting.  The shells collected along a ledge before the shore where the riptide returned from the waves.  We found gobs of shells, it was a lot of fun. We then got back on the bus to return to the motel for our shuttle to the ship.  The shuttle was included in our room cost.  We were dropped off right at the luggage drop-off area.  Since we only had carry-on luggage, we bypassed the luggage handlers and got right in line to check in.

The check in went smoothly and fairly quickly.  We had some great views from the top deck looking back to Miami and the surrounding area.

Even before the ship left port people were already hot tubbin’ and enjoying the ship.

It seemed like the loading of supplies took longer than expected, we left port about 2 hours late.  First, we had to go through the safety briefing where everyone has to report to their life boat stations.  This can be rather miserable as everyone is lined up like sardines in a can.

It gets quite warm and kids don’t like this part, they are usually crying (we’re all supposed to be silent during this drill!).  No worries though as there was plenty of food and we got to see some beautiful evening views of the sunset and Miami city lights.

Once on board the ship, we got to explore and see some of the amenities.  We did our dinner dining in the Golden Dining Room.

The Atrium Lobby is a beautiful site.

It is several stories high with glass elevators and a performance area on the main floor with a dancing area and lounge. You can watch this video for an idea of the ride down the elevators.

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Balcony Cabin, Carnival Glory #8379 from Paul Shoemaker on Vimeo.   The ship has plenty of food; buffets, pizza, Guy’s Burgers, deli sandwiches, Fine steakhouse, burrito bar, salad bars, dessert bars, soft-serve ice cream and it’s all you can eat.  Hours are limited on some things though.  The pizza and ice cream is open 24-hours a day and so is room service with a decent menu. There are opportunities for entertainment galore on the ship.  There is an auditorium near the front of the ship that seats several hundred people.  There are big production shows like a Motown show that we went to, it was pretty good.

There was also a “Latin Nights” musical production show that was a little risque for us.  My favorite show was a comedian/juggler named Dana Tison (check here for his web site).  I haven’t laughed that hard for a long time!  Not only is he a very talented juggler, he has a FUNNY,  clean show that got a standing ovation from our crowd.

I had to go down to meet him and thank him for the entertainment.  I wish there were more shows like his! Though not as funny as Dana Tison, there were several comedians on the cruise as well.  They played on a stage at the back of the boat at the Punchliner comedy club by George Lopez.  George Lopez wasn’t on the ship but he lends his name to the show and does a videotaped introduction.  One of the comedians Eddy Clark, he likes to do quite a bit of audience participation.  He targets people who come in late to the show.  Justin just happened to be one of those latecomers so he got called up on stage.

It was a pretty funny show as the comedians had some “family friendly” performances early in the evening with the “R-rated” shows later at night. There were also several opportunities for audience participation activities throughout the week on the cruise.  One was called 60 Seconds or Less patterned after the television show “Minute to Win It”.  I put my name in the bowl.  They drew my slip and I was called up on stage as a participant!  Denise was up in the balcony and I waved and had fun with it all.

We participated in several games like threading a strand of spaghetti through macaroni pieces while holding the spaghetti in your mouth and no hands.  Another was holding pencils on the back of your hand and letting go then grabbing them in your fist (12 pencils).  Another was stacking cups with one hand then unstacking as fast as possible.  The field was whittled down from 6 to 2 final contestants, me and Zach.  We stood back to back and stacked paper plates alternating with plastic cups as high as we could.  Neither could see what the other was doing but we could have help from the audience.

Some people in the front row helped by telling me to stop because Zach’s tower fell and I was the champion!  I got a bottle of champagne which I donated to my cheering section and a small Carnival trophy!  It was kind of silly but fun. I think I mentioned we had pretty good food.  I ate my year’s supply of bacon, that’s for sure!  I had steak nearly every night and enjoyed lobster, shrimp, caesar salad and more.  We ate in a semi-formal dining room every evening with a great staff of waiters and waitresses.  We had an appetizer, salad, main course and dessert every evening and you could choose as many of any of them as you wanted!  I didn’t go overboard there but it was good food and plenty of it.   Probably Denise’s favorite part of dinner was the entertainment.

I’m posting all of our dining pictures here so you can scroll through them quickly if you’d like to get to the next section.

We had a couple of interesting occurrences on our cruise.  On Monday, November 26, 2012, our captain Salvatore Rassello announced there was a passenger with a serious medical problem that required emergency medical attention.  He informed us he would maneuver the ship to get repositioned to allow a helicopter to take the passenger off the ship for medical treatment.  The ship turned and headed back toward Miami for several hours.

Then, we saw a reconnasciance airplane circling overhead.  A short time later, the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter showed up and lowered a guardsman onto the ship by a cable as the helicopter hovered overhead.  A short time later, 3 or 4 people were lifted into the helicopter in a basket (I assume it was family) then the helicopter flew off as the guardsman gave us all a thumbs up.  It was fascinating to watch and most passengers were up on deck to see the transport.  Here’s a short video of them lowering the Coast Guard person onto the ship.

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Coast Guard Rescue on Carnival Glory Cruise Ship from Paul Shoemaker on Vimeo.

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After the rescue, our ship turned back around and got back on course. Another fun activity on the ship was miniature golf.  Justin and I played a couple of times and Denise played too.  It was on the top floor of the ship so it was a bit windy but great views.

We had a great steward on our cruise.  His name was Yevgeni and he is from the Ukraine.  He was always friendly and had a smile on and was making sure everything was just right.

He did a great job and took care of our malfunctioning safe (it needed new batteries).

He also made the traditional towel creations that were waiting for us each night as we came back to our room from dinner.  I’ll post pictures of them all now so you can scroll past if you’d like.

There was plenty of time to just relax on the ship.  There are 3 pools and several hot tubs.  The hot tubs get kind of crowded but the water slide and pools aren’t too busy and the water temperature is fairly nice.

The views of the sunrises and sunsets were beautiful.  I was up early each morning to ride the elliptical but I didn’t see every sunrise.  Here are a few sunrise and sunset pictures.

Another hiccup in our journey was a malfunction in the drive system of the ship cutting down on the high-speed cruising ability of the Carnival Glory.

Our captain Salvatore Rassello announced that the engineers had been unable to fix the problem and that we would limp along to Isla Roatan where a specialist would be flown in to try and effect repairs.  If the problem could not be corrected, we would have to miss our final stop, Grand Cayman, and head directly back to Miami.  Denise was really bummed.  We said some prayers and hoped for the best.  When we got back on the ship after our day at Isla Roatan, the captain announced that he thought the repairs were a success but he wouldn’t know for sure until we got back into the open sea to run the ship at speed.  A couple hours later, the ship was okayed and we found out we were heading for Grand Caymen!  Prayers answered.

-Cozumel

Our first port was Cozumel, Mexico.

We had to take boats to shore from the ship.  This process is called tendering.  Since we had a planned excursion, we were among the first people tendered to shore.  From the pier, we were directed to another pier to board a boat to our excursion.  The boat ferried us to Playa del Carmen where we boarded a van to the Amazing Secret River.

-Rio Secreto (The Amazing Secret River)

We signed up for an excursion through Carnival called the Amazing Secret River.  We were really looking forward to this adventure as we were headed for a river in caves beneath the Mexican jungle.  Our guides say this cave system was only discovered 6 years ago.  You have to drive a few miles through some pretty primitive roadways cut through the thick jungle foliage.  When you arrive at the tour headquarters, you get out of the van and change into clothing you’ll be getting wet.  They have you shower so your body oils won’t contaminate the water.

Then, they fit you for helmets with lights, wet suits, personal flotation devices and water shoes if you don’t have your own.

Then its a short walk down a trail to makeshift shrine where a Mayan “descendent” does a blessing with some tree pitch before you enter the “sacred” chambers of the Amazing Secret River.

This area is pretty pristine with a very fragile ecosystem.  The stalactites and stalagmites and other formations are very sensitive and can be easily damaged by carelessness.

We hiked down some steps into the cave system and got a briefing from our guide.  Then, we started walking through puddles that slowly got deeper until we were swimming in a large pool!

It was a fascinating adventure with amazing sights.  At one point be tried to be silent and then turned out all our lights.

All we could hear was some dripping and lapping of the water on the rocks from our waves but it was pitch black!

The many formations were awesome to see.  There were no real areas that we had to squeeze through but you had to be careful to watch your step as you walked through the water.

After our adventure in the caverns of Rio Secreto, we got back in the van and headed back to Playa del Carmen.

On the way, I realized I left my sandals on a table at the trailhead area.  I told our guide who phoned back to the site and said he would get them back.  We wandered among the shops for a short time and did a little haggling then got back with our group where the guide had my sandals!  I was very grateful!

We got back on our shuttle boat for the ride back to Cozumel and then it was back on the ship for another port.

-Belize

Our next port was Belize.  We cruised through the night to get from Cozumel to this next stop.  We didn’t pre-plan an excursion for every stop and Belize was unplanned.  We wandered among the tourist trap shops along the waterfront for a while.  I sat on a bench where a man who looked like a local was sitting.  His name was Peter and he was a tour guide for the local Mayan ruins.  He was resting and nursing a sore shoulder.  We had a good chat and I asked where we could find the best experience.  He recommended we go out of the shopping area to a back street into the real Belize City.  We followed his suggestion and walked along another street with more vendors who seemed more eager to barter.  Denise got a bamboo seed bracelet and I got a couple bags of cashews.  All along there were people trying to sell their tours and products and junk.  One lady started talking to Denise and then, after her sales pitch, Denise looked at me as if to say “what do you think, it’s up to you know?”  We ended up going on a tour of the city with Laura the taxi driver.

Laura took us all over Belize City, the good and the bad, the “wealthy” and the poor.  This is truly a 3rd world country with severe poverty and we saw quite a bit of it.  It was a real eye opener.

Utilizing Laura as our tour guide was a great find.  She had air conditioning, she lived in the town so she knew the area very well.  She also knew the history and could answer our questions while giving us an informative tour.  We recommend looking up Laura for a tour of Belize rather than signing up with any of the “train” tours our other tours offered by the vendors along the waterfront.

Laura’s Tour & Taxi Service, Safe & Reliable Personalized Tours:  City Tour, Belize Zoo, Birds, Mayan Sites, Rain Forest, Cave Tubing, Zip Line, Beach.  Lourette Cadle, Licensed Tour Guide:  Cell (501) 622-6903 USA (914)363-4990

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a very interesting and informative tour of Belize City. Laura gave us a great tour!

-Isla Roatan, Honduras

Our next port was the Carnival built Isla Roatan, Honduras.  Also known as Mahogany Bay which is right next to the ship pier.

Since Carnival built this place, they have a huge pier where the cruise ships dock so there is no tendering to get to shore.  When we got off the ship, we looked for the sign for our excursion to Maya Key, a private island with a beautiful beach and other amenities.  When we talked to the guy who was holding our sign, he said there was a problem with no power on the island because of a generator malfunction.  He offered us a refund if we wanted but we decided to go ahead.  While we waited, we took advantage of the mock character costumes posted in the plaza to get some family pictures.

At this port,  we got on a boat which transported us to Maya Key.  This is a small, private island which was really enjoyable.  We walked up the path from the boat dock and there sitting out in the open were two colorful birds.

As we went down toward the beach, there were some chain-link enclosures which held some more brightly colored tropical birds.

There was an animal preserve on the small island.  One worker says many of the animals were rescued and may not survive in the wild.  This baby crocodile is blind but can still be very dangerous if not held properly!

 

 The workers at Maya Key have some baby black howler monkeys to go with the baby croc.

 

 

The monkeys were running wild in some trees along the beach too.

We rented some snorkeling gear to explore the reef that was just off the end of a long pier.  There were beautiful fish swimming among the coral.  The colors were stunning, one of my favorite things to do.

-Video of Snorkeling with Colorful Tropical Fish at Maya Key

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With our repaired ship, we were off from Isla Roatan to Grand Caymen.

We were excited to get to Grand Caymen as we had a car rental to go explore the island.

The rental car was a Suzuki.  Denise drove and had to adjust to driving on the left side of the road.  I had read before-hand about the best places to snorkel.  One of those was Cemetery Beach.

We rented some snorkel equipment along the road and started into the water.  Immediately we saw tropical fish.  It got even better as we headed about 100 yards offshore and got into a coral reef area.  This snorkeling was different from Isla Roatan as the water was clearer.  There were amazingly colorful fish and lots of great coral.  After snorkeling, we drove the rental car around the island.  We spotted a church building.

We also stopped at another beach where we found two large conch shells.

We had two nights before we returned to Miami.  The weather was a little rainy but it was a relaxing return.  It was kind of weird to see Cuba off the side of our ship.  I was reminded of Diana Nyad’s record swim attempts from Cuba trying to reach Florida.

The cruise was wonderful but the adventure wasn’t over yet.  We traveled home via Atlanta, Minneapolis then Pasco.  We had a 5 hour layover in Minneapolis so we decided to visit the Mall of America, one of the biggest shopping malls in the country, complete with an indoor amusement park.

 

We walked around the mall a little bit, then went into the amusement park area.  There were some pretty cool rides.  The ride below was like a giant skateboard terror ride where it rolled on tracks from side to side while riders rotated in circularly arranged seats as the “board” topped out completely vertical on each side!

One thing really caught our eye.  There were people walking through a giant ropes course high above the main floor.

Justin was pretty excited as he is always talking about Parkour.

We plopped down the reasonable fee and I surprised Justin (& Denise) by going on the course too!

It was really awesome as we walked monkey bridges, tightropes, loose ropes, board bridges and various suspended platforms.  They kept going higher and higher in the air!

The highlight of the course was way up in the air when you walked the plank!

I felt completely safe although Denise and my mom probably couldn’t look!  We were in heavy-duty harnesses which were carefully fitted and snug and we were attached to a “track” system that held the harness at all times while on the course.We walked along the edge of the amusement park and spotted a Lego store!  The sculptures on display are amazing and made of Legos!  A worker at the store says the robot pictured below is the largest Lego sculpture made.

Justin was fascinated by the store, as were Denise and I.  The kind of creations were very well done.

What a wonderful vacation and we got home safe, sound and on time.  An enjoyable adventure and we may cruise again.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be adding more to this blog like videos of snorkeling with tropical fish soon so please check back for more pictures and details! More exciting stuff ahead so stay tuned!