First Cruise (Christmas Present from the In-laws!)
Posted on : 2012-01-14 by sarahm
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Cruise Line :
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Norwegian Cruise Line
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Cruise Ship :
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Norwegian Pearl
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Cruise Region :
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Caribbean Western
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Cabin Number :
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N/A
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Ports :
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Belize City
, Costa Maya
, Key West
, roatan
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Days :
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7
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Departure Date :
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01/07/2011
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Avg. Price per Pax :
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N/A
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Tags :
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norwegian honduras belize
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My husband and I were so lucky in that my in-laws decided they wanted to go on a vacation for Christmas, and paid for us to come along. We had to share a room with my sister in law (unfortunately) but that was a small price to pay for a cruise and airfare paid in full. My husband loved the buffet (as well as the Blue Lagoon= all night eats) and we were the only ones on deck using the hot tub every night around 11pm. Our excursions were wonderful, and it was amazing for me to go back to Belize (I'd been when I was 15) We were wonderfully spoiled and totally relaxed by the time we returned to snowy ol' BC.
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How did I book?:
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Did I get a good price?:
N/A
How was my trip to the port?:
The trip to the port was smooth. We had arrived in Ft Lauderdale the day before our cruise was to depart, which was lucky since the air line lost ALL our luggage! Fortunately our bags made it to our hotel at about 6pm the night before. We rented a stretch SUV to take us all to the port.
Embarkation/Debarkation:
We had a very smooth embarkation/ debarkation, with no problems. We were a little annoyed observing random people casually swiping food from the "Executive" waiting area, but what can you do.
The ship:
The ship was WONDERFUL! It was large enough that it rarely felt crowded, but small enough that I never got lost or turned around. Unfortunately, there was a VERY large group (family, religious group, not sure) that reserved one of the restaurants every single night. So, the night that we wanted to go to the fancy dining area, it was the one that wasn't booked, so EVERYONE was trying to get into it. That made for an extremely long line up, wait time, and short tempers.
Cabin:
We had a very basic cabin. We had three people in an inside room. Two got the beds, and one got the short straw and had to sleep in one of the pull-down beds on the wall above the normal beds. The bathroom is quite small as well, but for how much time we spent in our room, it was completely adequate for our needs.
Dining:
The majority of the cruise, we ate from the buffet (Garden Cafe or Indigo Main Dining room). If it was late at night and my husband got a craving for their amazing tomato soup, we'd head over to the Blue Lagoon. They didn't have an overly large selection, but man it was good! We also did one "dress up" night and ate at the Summer Palace, which is the free up-scale restaurant. We chose not to try any of the restaurants that required a cover charge.
Entertainment:
We didn't attend too many of the entertainment events on board. We participated in the conga line and dancing for the "Send off Party". We overheard a comedian while relaxing in a lounge one night enjoying some drinks. The most entertaining night was when we went to the Broadway night. One of the songs they did was a personal favorite, and the singer was so good it moved me to tears!
Ports & Excursions:
Roatan, Honduras - We got a tour of the island before we arrived at the zip lines. Our zip line guide was helpful and funny. Afterwards, our tour guide Laura brought us to a quite spot for snorkeling. A small village would best describe it - it had a couple restaurants, a couple houses, and several lounge chairs by the water. After some snorkeling, a woman came and offered her services doing hair braiding, so my mother in law and I got our hair done.
Belize City, Belize- This was a fairly rushed day, as we opted to do two excursions. One turned out to be north of Belize City, and the other out west, so we drove fast! First we went to see the Mayan ruins of Altun 'Ha. I climbed to the top of the highest ruin! Which was something I didn't do the first time I visited Belize, so a personal victory there for me. We headed to the second excursion, but stopped to have lunch at the company-run roadside restaurant. Typical Belizean fare; Chicken, rice, and beans..but it was delicious! We finished our trek at the Cave Tubing place, where we were given life jackets and giant inner tubes. The hike through the rainforest was more of a jog through the rain forest, as we were running late. The leasurely float had some frantic paddling, but it was all very fun. The cave tubing was something I chose to do twice during my previous visit, as it is such a wonderful experience.
Costa Maya - The first half of our day was a short drive to the Chacchoben Mayan ruins, we had our own private guide with two other families. Then we were taken to a resort that was actually on a lagoon (it was not how I pictured a lagoon, very beautiful) The resort had just reopened after having been destroyed by a hurricane. We arrived with one other family (who joined us from the mayan ruins) We had complimentary drinks (the best pinapple juice I've ever had! Wish I knew what they put in there.) Then we enjoyed kayaking and swimming. I didn't swim very long as it was extremely rocky, but it was nice to cool off between tan sessions :) We took pictures before we left, as the entire place was covered in colorful flowers.
Key West, FL- A dissapointing stop. Even though the Captain decided to push the day from 10am-4pm to 10am-5pm, we still spent over two hours in line for customs before we could get off the boat. When we finally did get off the boat, we only had a couple hours. We couldn't decide what to do with that little time, so we basically just ended up wandering around and earning blisters. We did find a cafe to try some key lime pie (which was good.) We also got henna tattoos, but they did not work at ALL despite leaving them on for double the time he'd said (I've had henna done before, I know how it works) We went back and he wouldn't refund our money but offered to re-do them. They still didn't turn out.
Overall Experience:
The staff (especially our room stewards!) were very friendly, the boat was clean, the food was fabulous. The ports were each incredible experiences. It was a truely amazing vacation.
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2012-01-14  Published 
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