Julie Bootsma

Age: 42
Occupation: small business owner / mom
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Paradise
Sailing Date: December 28th, 2003
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

We really enjoyed our first cruise! Our family of 4 went which includes me, my husband and our two daughters 16 & 13 years old. We all had a great time! We stayed in a quad interior room and have no complaints about that. There was sufficient room. There was only one electrical outlet for the 4 of us. I would bring along an extension cord as getting ready with 2 teenager girls and a mom who all use blow dryers and straight irons proved lengthy.

The aspect that made the trip the most enjoyable was taking advantage of all the ports and seeing what they had to offer. We had done quite a bit of research online on these ports before we went so we felt like we had a good handle on what each had to offer.

After reading other reviews online we had decided to arrange our own excursions when we arrived at the port as to save money and to get a more intimate experience of the areas.

Having said that, we lost our confidence the night before arriving at our first port, Belize, so at the last minute we booked the cave tubing excursion offered through the ship. The cave tubing itself was amazing but we felt like we wasted so much time waiting for 50 people to load on the bus, 50 people to use the bathroom and change into swim suits at a stop on the way to the site, 50 people to get their tubes and rent water shoes (if needed) at the cave tubing site, 50 people plus 2 other bus loads to change into dry clothes at the site after tubing (women’s restroom only had 2 stalls) and 50 people to wait in line and get lunch at a primitive restaurant that the bus stopped at on the way back to the ship. When you walk off the ship there are many vendors that offer the same excursion and I think you could see a lot more of Belize and not waste so much time waiting if you did it that way.

The second port was Roatan, our favorite! Very primitive! Get up early and do as much as you can in this port. The ship docks first thing in the morning but leaves in mid afternoon so don’t sleep in on this port day, you will regret it. You pull right up to shore here – nice! You will see dozens and dozens of cabs lining the street waiting for your business. After the “bus load mentality” of Belize we decided to go on our own in Roatan. We are so glad that we did! We had read another review from a family that did the same thing and got a taxi driver that they loved. They posted his name and cab number on their review. When we saw ALL the cabs we thought that we would never find this guy but as soon as you set foot on the ground all these taxi guys bombard you for your business. We told them that we were looking for Victor Bodden and amazingly other taxi drivers started yelling his name and there he was. He was very nice! A young soft spoken guy who spoke English well. We felt very comfortable with him right away. He took us on a tour of the island, showed us his house, told us about growing up on the island, about his family etc. It truly gave a good feel for what life is like on Roatan. Then he took us to a beach on the West End. His cousin manages this beach and for $3.00 a chair we basically had a private beach for most of the morning. This beach was right next to Tabyana Beach where ALL the cruise ships excursions go. That beach was SO crowded with row after row of white plastic sit up chairs. Our beach was not crowded and we had nice reclining chairs and shade under the palm trees if we wanted. Victor took us to a snorkeling shop and helped us get our gear and helped carry it to the beach for us. The snorkeling was good, the water very clear. He came back and picked us up in time to hit the vendors in town before getting back on the boat. If you want to do Roatan the way we did it PLEASE look up our cab driver. His name is Victor Bodden. He drives cab #081. You can even email him at victorbodden@yahoo.com and set it up before hand. He will meet you outside the boat with a paper that has your name on it. I recommend him highly!!

The next stop was Grand Cayman, our least favorite for a couple of reasons. First it is so commercial and “American” you feel like you could be on the Gulf Shores of Alabama or Miami Beach. BUSY! EXPENSIVE! Secondly, we were going to go to Sting Ray City and snorkel the coral reefs but unfortunately the water on that side on the island was so rough that day that all the excursions to those spots were cancelled. That meant that most of the people on the 6 cruise ships that docked there that day ended up on 7 mile beach. That was really the only thing to do unless you wanted to shop the expensive stores. We were told the turtle farm was nothing more than a tourist trap so we did not venture there. The water was beautiful but the beach CROWDED! We did hear at dinner that night that the people who went on the Snuba excursion REALLY liked it. We would do that next time if we had the chance.

Our last port was Cozumul. We really enjoyed the day there. We took a taxi to the nature park, Chankabee Park. The park was beautiful ($10 per person to get in)! Well maintained, the water was beautiful and the snorkeling pretty good. It was rather busy but the place was big enough so it was ok. We stayed there until late afternoon, went back to the ship, cleaned up and headed back out for an evening of shopping (you are in this port until 10:30 pm).

You hear a lot about waiting in lines on cruises. We felt like that the first day on board (there is probably no way around it with getting that many people on board in a short time) and on our excursion in Belize. Other than that we did not feel like we were being “herded”. Our kids loved it and we would do it again in a heart beat! I hope this review helps to make your cruise more enjoyable!