Family Cruise 2019--Day 3, Roatan

There was artwork right outside the girls' cabin and we just had to get a picture of Lucy in the sky with diamonds. No, she was not named after the song. She was named after a dog. True story.

We got breakfast at the main dining room. I had thought we needed to be off the ship right away but it turns out the excursion was local time and the ship was on ship’s time. So we opted to go off a little early for our excursion, in case we had any troubles, and also with the hope they’d be there early too and we could get going early. Rob is always paranoid about making it back to the ship, especially if we’re doing a non-ship booked excursion.

Rob went for smoked salmon on a bagel. He thought it was good. Several people in our group got Eggs Benedict. However, they were disappointed. Mom's was not warm at all. We made her speak up and she got a fresh one, but it was still not "hot". I don't remember my eggs being all that great either--I think it was premixed scrambled eggs rather than done fresh. I think that was the Express Breakfast but there's an "Eggs done your way" breakfast that maybe is a better choice---but would they still give you the pre-mixed eggs if you asked for scrambled? Or did I get the omelet? The coffee actually wasn't too bad this day! Later in the week, it was terrible. 

 We headed up top to check out the port.

 Construction of a larger pier :(

This is the Coxen Hole port, not Mahogany Bay. This port is currently small--but that's really nice!! I'm sure it'll be nice when they can add a bit and spread out, but I really don't want to see more of the same stores that are at the big ports. The Port Shopping Guide only showed two "approved" stores and that was fine with me!

We headed through the shop area and through the “tunnel”. It’s not really a tunnel. Just a covered walkway between buildings. We kind of just followed the crowds. I believe it's just to the right of the long pink 2 storey building in the centre. If you look at Google Maps satellite image, you can see a greenish area between the two parking lots. That's this walkway with excursion operators running booths on each side.  We came to the end, but I couldn’t see anything saying “Gate 2”. The woman in the last booth was quite nice and pointed to where we needed to go. A little building with a green roof was the exit. We headed there and right across the street was two men with a Roatan Adventures sign. Pretty easy once we knew where to go.  Here's a tip--use Google Streetview! I never even thought of that. The Gate number signs are clearly visible from the road--not so much from the inside of the port. 

Our driver’s name was Jefri. A young man with very good English. We told him we wanted to see the island, the sloths, the chocolate and rum factories and perhaps a short dip at a beach. We didn’t want to spend hours at the beach, but we at least wanted to go to a beach. He had parked quite a ways away so he told us to wait in the shade on what seemed to be the only tree. Looking at the streetview, I think we were at Gate 4, where the sidewalk ends. We were just watching traffic, the motorcyclists (one with a helmet sitting ON his head, only as far as his forehead--it was obviously way too small. A woman walked up and started talking to us, and she told us the green area across the street was the oldest cemetery. We hadn't even realized it was a cemetery. It was a lot busier than in the Google Streetview!!

We headed out to a look out area with a view of the ship. I sent an email to the tour company and the response was that it was called Airport Lookout. However, if you enter Outdoor Craft Market, Roatan, into the Google Maps search bar, it will come up. Hard to believe you can get great cruise ship views there! 

There were many little shops there with souvenirs. We would have liked to bring back a hammock but there’s just no room in the suitcase. We did pick up a few things. We tried haggling but no luck. Watch out for the people selling vanilla. The bottles look recycled, they’re not security sealed, they're all different and the one they let us sniff was very alcohol scented.

We headed on out through the countryside. Jefri had a lot of info on Roatan in general and lots of personal stories. He came from an English speaking family and had a hard time in school because it’s done in Spanish. His friends would mock his Spanish and then they didn’t try too hard when they started to learn English. So he ended up pretty much bilingual, which has really helped him in the tourist industry. He has a tourist visa for the US and has been a few times. One time, in Lousiana while visiting family, he even got to see a rare snowfall. He went out for about 15 seconds and was sick the rest of the day.

Learning about the life on Roatan was interesting. Things like there’s only one electrical company on the island, so prices are high. He pays $200-$250 for one month rent, but electricity is $250-$350. Internet is pretty cheap though. There’s two cellular suppliers. The crime rate is low, and he attributes it to partly because the low population means everyone knows everyone and if you do something stupid, you have to face your elders, which is even worse than the court. If you do something really bad, you get sent back to Honduras to go to jail. We even talked about the helmet laws. 

We ended up at Manawakie Park, to see sloths. I thought we would automatically go to Daniel’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout. I had only recently read there was another place to see sloths so I didn’t know much about it. I had planned on w$10 per person at Daniel’s, paid by credit card. This place, was $15 pp and their credit machine was down. We had to pool money. We had a tour guide, with his arm in a sling. First up when he asked if we had questions, Mom asked about the sling. He laughed and paused. Mom asked if the sloths did it to him. He replied his wife did it and then laughed and blushed and said motorcycle. Jefri had told us that most of the accidents on the road are by motorcyclists. Helmets are mandatory and the fines can be quite steep. We got the rest of the story and it involved a group of young men, wheelies, and the police. 

First up was the little souvenir shop and a “museum”. It was interesting to learn a little of their island history. I’m sure the kids didn’t really care but at least they can say they learned something on the trip LOL. Then we went to see the sloths!

They were a little hard to see in the trees. One had a baby, so they keep her away from the people. The “sloth trainer” looked like she was 16, and had one female, pregnant sloth on her. She seemed much smaller than I thought she’d be! We all got to hold her. The fur is soft, but almost waxy feeling. Course, but soft. Does that make sense?

 Unfortunately, we were in a shaded area and it made for some dark photos. I did "enhance" these but I don't have the skills to do more. I got in trouble for using the flash for one shot.

 The guide took some photos and said their photo tech would fix them up and post them to their Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/parkmanawakie/  Oh, if you go to Facebook, Sept 18, there's a photo album of our visit! Look in the Mobile Photos album.

She really liked Megan's hair!

 We posed for group shots. One has Rob's head totally cut off. This one, we were supposed to do funny faces.

Then we stopped at some bushes and a small garden and we got a lesson on plants and all their medicinal uses. It was interesting but very hot and no where to sit.

From there, we went to the monkeys. Two little monkeys who were more interested in playing with each other than with the girls. 

 No way was I getting in there. I'd probably trip on something and end up with an appendage in a monkey's mouth accidentally. The little screeches they made freaked me out.

The guide kept encouraging the girls to “play with them, wrestle” but the monkeys seemed rather rough. See the monkey on the guide's foot?!

Next cage over were a bunch of large rabbits. The girls enjoyed petting them for a few minutes. There was a white one with thin black circle around the eyes and Grandma thought he looked really creepy (the eyes looked way too big because of the black).

The last cage area was the birds. A bird trainer came over and got one of them, “George”, the most social of the birds, because he was a “yellow” one. 

 Even Grandma held George! I was surprised! I was also really impressed with the girls though they've held lots of different animals over the years!

He didn’t really talk, but he did love to laugh. Then the guide had to step away so our tour guide took over, and put the bird on Megan’s head. 

Then he placed George on Lucy’s head. After a minute he got a funny expression and said “Oh no…George is um…leaving a mess….” I didn’t see anything, Mom didn’t see anything but the others realized it was a prank. Lucy was a good sport and headed to the bathroom where they let her in on the prank. It was really funny!

Mom bought a gift for her friend and then we headed out. We were pretty hot but Jeffery’s van was air conditioned. As we drove along, Jefri pointed out things like the local dump. It recently had a huge fire and they had to cover it with the red dirt/clay. There was quite a few people and children sorting through the garbage. I hope the girls saw them. You can see the dump in the satellite image of Roatan, at the Y of the road between Sundancer and Col Los Maestros.

Jefri drove us down by the shore. He talked about how the resort “trains” dolphins and how they let the older ones out because they know they’ll come back, sometimes with other new dolphins. And there have been dolphin babies. I believe this is the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences. 

We continued along, past Anthony Key Resort, a quaint older place. Then we drove onto the beach; W. Sandy Bay Beach Road. The beach was nice but it didn’t look like a place to swim. Jefri talked about how the reef protects the beaches and they haven’t had a bad hurricane since Hurricane Mitch in 1998. He was pretty young and thought it was really cool but now as an adult and parent, he doesn’t find the storms quite so fun. He also talked about how the weekend had been their Independence Day celebrations and a huge fishing tournament. The top prize was something like $30 000. His friend and his buddy got second place with a huge marlin. Marlins are catch and release and quite violent. Jeffery told us about the one time he caught a marlin and it turned around and bashed his boat and put a hole in it. Take marlin fishing off the excursion list!

The girls were getting antsy and wanted to go to a beach. Mum and Rob were too hot, and Rob was worried about getting back in time. We headed to the chocolate shop.

Wow, it was packed--so no pictures. There was also a craft market on the other side of the parking lot. We got to taste raw (or roasted?) ground cocoa beans mixed with raw brown sugar. Strong. We looked at all the chocolate. Some of the bars were rather squishy, even though there was air conditioning going. It was pretty warm! Lucy and I bought some chocolate. There was also some really nice jewellry made with semi-precious gems/geodes.

Wait a minute! Where we went did not look like that drawing on the website I link to in the previous paragraph! Quick Google search...we actually went to Mayak Chocolate. I had no idea there was more than one chocolate factory! Perhaps that's why we didn't really get free samples? 

Then off to the rum factory, despite the girls displeasure. Their website has been under construction for awhile, so I won't link. Easy enough to find though. We needed to bring back some coconut rum for Mum’s neighbour/tenant who was looking after the dogs. He aksed for an American brand he can’t get at home but we thought he might like something more authentic. The rum place didn’t seem to have anything showing the production or history. It was mainly a shop. We tried a couple samples which were fine. The rum cream was nice, not as thick as  Bailey’s. The rum cake was yummy. But they had only big bottles for sale, around $25-$30US. I wanted small bottles. So, no rum for us.

Jefri headed back to the port. On the way, he stopped at the big Roatan sign. It seems every port has these big signs now. It was a little tricky getting a shot that was mostly us and not other tourists. Mom didn't want to rush across the road to be in the shot. She was more fascinated with the man handpainting the lines for the parking spots. My brother does this during the summer, but using modern, large road equipment.

When we come back to the port, the taxis can come right in to drop you off. That’s nice. We tipped Jefri and headed aboard. 

We went up to the pools while they were a bit quieter than on the sea day.

Dinner was very nice!

 We were a little disappointed to see little packets of butter instead of butter balls. Cheaper to buy and dispose of the garbage than to hire someone to make a million butter balls? Anyway, this is the Roasted Poblano Potato soup and Mom had the shrimp cocktail I think. The soup was really good and I could have eaten more!

This is the Arugula and Radicchio salad. It was also really good though I'm not a fan of cold cauliflower. The goat cheese was really, really good. 

 I got the Braised Beef Short Ribs and Mom got the Chicken Parmesan. She said it was quite good. My philosophy is to not order something I can make (or get at local restaurants). The short ribs were also very good. The food in the dining room was consistently very good! And not the huge portions that cruises used to be known for.

 I think Andrew heard Megan mention she'd like to try the risotto, so a dish magically appeared. It was good...but sauteed mushrooms....ewww.

Dessert...That's the lemon curd tartlet. As I've found in the past, the pastry is quite tough. I'm not a pastry fan anyway (except my own), so I just scooped it all out. Andrew started bring a dish of vanilla ice cream with strawberries (not fresh, they were in a sauce) for the girls. They loved their strawberry "sundaes". Megan got the Creme Brulee (not what she was expecting--the sugar seemed a little burnt actually), and Dad got the warm chocolate cookie. It was more like a shallow brownie, but oh man, very good. 

The show was the ice show! "1977" was the name. Megan wanted to be at the doors at 7:55 for the 8:30 show. Rob and I got there and she wasn’t there LOL. They got a little disorientated--it's hard to determine where the entry is to the rink on the maps. We weren’t first in but got front row seats at the side near the stage. As usual, it’s a great ice show. I had seen something either on the TV in the cabin or just before we left that talked about an ice show and using drones with lights to create a show. I wasn't sure which ice show that was part of, but it turned out to be part of this show. It was really cool, even though I had seen it on the TV. 

 They changed colours and did different formations. Hard to photograph, so it's worth searching out a video online.

 Hard to see but this was a fascinating double death spiral. Two guys holding the two women, spiraling. Crazy. You can barely see the other woman; her arm is around the front woman's waist.

The costuming is always really cool to watch. Mom was impressed with the quick changes!


I think they’ve improved the quality of skaters. It used to be a couple of “guest stars” and then what felt like a synchro skating team backing them up. Now, there were about 5 couples—they weren’t all pair skaters but they were all featured instead of just the background. 

This is one of those stunt moves that used to be more common in their ice shows. They've got a swivel device around their necks so she can spin during a sort-of death spiral. 

At one point, a Yeti lunged over the railing towards Megan (who just happened to have her Skate Canada lanyard showing). The yeti actually startled Lucy and I quite a bit and I only got his butt LOL. Megan says to him “Do a double Axle!” He replied “Don’t worry, I can!” He did do one later! I like the small venue for seeing a show but I’m surprised that it’s not really any bigger than on the Freedom class. Royal Caribbean is actually now the largest ice show production company in the world.

At the end of the show, the cruise director Ricky came out, on figure skates. He was joking about how much ice skating they do in Jamaica. He tentatively got on the ice and did a few glides. We all applauded and then he comfortably skated to the other end LOL. He even did a little jump and spin.

We forgot to go to the adult comedy show. Not sure if we did anything after the ice show. Maybe a deck walk, maybe a swim?

Family Cruise 2019--Day 2

We were all up fairly early again and headed to Johnny Rocket’s for breakfast. I thought I had read they were only open for breakfast on sea days. It was pretty good, made to order.

I’m pretty sure we just chilled at the pools for the afternoon.

At the end of June, I sprained my ankle. I didn't realize it was bad for awhile, and didn't get into physiotherapy until late July. Then I discovered I also had plantar fasciitis. My massage therapist gave a me couple great massages in the two weeks before we left, and she suggested using a heating pad on my calf, while icing the heel. I was concerned about taking a heating pad since I knew heat-producing items are generally banned. A message to Royal and I got the response that I could bring one, with a doctor's note (but it would still be up to security). An old fashioned ice pack that you fill with ice did the heel. This is me, tethered down, trying to get ready for the formal night. 

 Rob and I wanted a quick photo in front of the squashed VW Beetle, but little did we know it was going to turn into a full fledged photo session, complete with trying to figure out what the photographer was indicating with her hands. I never got to see the photos ☹

Rob had seen a bartender making a mojito and he thought it looked good. Except he couldn't remember what it was called. So it was fun trying to hear him figure it out, and to pronounce it. He's not too good at the Spanish "j" LOL.

I got an apple martini. It was supposed to be sour, but it wasn't. It was not sweet either, but it just didn't make me pucker. I wanted to try a lot of different cocktails, especially not sweet ones.

I'm not sure what this appetizer was called. Extremely thinly sliced beef, possibly raw. It was okay, but not filling.

This was a seafood linguine (my dinner). First time having mussels since being a consenting adult. Some of them were okay but a few tasted more fishy. They weren't slimey, which was my big fear.

Lucy got Duck L'orange. Partly so she could say "L'Orange" in French LOL.

Bailey's souffle? Very yummy and not too heavy at the end of the meal.

I'm not sure if this is from the second day. We tried to make sure Mom wasn't seated across from the empty chair, but for some reason, Dad ended up at the end of the table again. This would have been great because of his hearing, but it also meant the rest of us had a hard time hearing the wait staff at times. Because we were seated right next to the three story opening in the dining room, noise seemed to really carry. One of the wait staff offered to bring Dad a dessert and Mom picked the Royal chocolate cake because he loved chocolate cake. We all had a few bites.

First towel animal of the cruise. They only did them on the formal nights.

After dinner, Captain Rob was at the VW Beetle so we got a picture with him. Some had changed and were casual, but I and one of the girls were still dressed up. One side of Captain Rob was formal, one side was casual. So casual in fact, that Rob’s fly was half down! Captain Rob is not the most energetic or gregarious captain we’ve met. Mom and I had another encounter with him in the elevator and he was not interactive. In fact, we decided that there was a Captain Rob robot out doing his public events while the real Captain Rob controlled the ship. We also noticed that other than the location, his “Welcome to….” Message was always the same. Complete with identical weather forecasts. Which were never right.

Then we noticed “orchestra” playing on the Promenade (Top Stage is above one of the stores…it’s a little stage area). They were labelled the “High C’s Horns”. Get it? High Seas? High C (the music note)? The girls were excited to recognize some of the songs they were playing—it was listed as a Big Band genre show. Many thanks to Durham Jazz Bands for giving them this education!

After dinner show—Hiro. Kids and Rob went to front row and had a great time getting wet.

I think we had a comedy show booked for the adults, but I thought it was at 11pm when it was actually earlier. Who knows now LOL.

We were booked for Hiro, the AquaTheater show. We headed out to the Boardwalk and saw a long line. No way to know if this was for  reservations or for people without, so we sent the girls up ahead to scope it out. It was the reservations line. We got in line and the girls went to the carousel. Then Rob decided to go for a ride!

We found some seats on a bench, off to the right. The benches are not all that comfortable. We were one or two rows back from the splash zone. The girls and Rob decided to go sit in the very front row. Crazy. I did end up getting wet when the woman next to the man next to me knocked her wine glass over. 

 It is a very overwhelming show. There's things going on everywhere. Here was a slack line walker. It leaves from a door at the top of the rock wall (you can see it lit up) and goes over to the very top of the dive tower. There were so many different types of acts in this show. Synchronized swimmers, divers, slack lines, drumming, "trapeze", high dives....The girls and Rob had a great time in the front and felt really connected with the performers.

Our room steward, who I still hadn't met, made a sloth! So cute, considering we were going to see the sloths the next day!