Katy Chavez

Age: 34
Occupation: Lawyer
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Paradise
Sailing Date: November 2nd, 2003
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This is my review of our cruise on the smoke-free Paradise that we took on November 2, 2003. It will probably end up being pretty long, but I really appreciated all the comments made by other people that helped me prepare to make the most of our cruise. So I want to include all the suggestions I think would be helpful. I would love emails if anyone had any questions or comments. I have also been to Ocho Rios on the Triumph.

I will start with some quick recommendations, in case the whole piece is too long to read: First- I definitely recommend eating in the dining room any chance that you get over eating in the buffet. The food and the experience is so much nicer. And don’t feel shy about ordering several entrees, if you like. At our table there were more than one person that ordered THREE of the lobster entrees. Also we ordered up one of the quails for the table just to see what it was like. Next- Ziploc baggies are very helpful for packing snacks or lunches for port days, etc., especially when traveling with kids. We learned on our first cruise that there is nothing on the ship to wrap up leftovers or snackies for the baby (except maybe the dining room napkins). Also- our table mates discovered that if you normally have a glass of wine each night, it is much cheaper to buy a whole bottle, and they will put it in the wine cellar each night and bring it up each day. As for all the pricey “extras” (like bingo, the casino, the shore excursions, etc) I always keep in mind what another reviewer said “It is people that buy that stuff that keep my ticket low-priced”! Don’t be annoyed by the sales pitches- be grateful to the people that are buying. Oh, and let them take your picture- it is free to look at them, and if they come out really nice, wouldn’t you like to have the chance to buy it. A really good picture lasts forever and is always worth whatever the price. And finally- consider a cruise for all your vacations! I can’t believe I have gone so many years without ever trying it. For the price of round trip airfare you can have the transportation, along with the room and the food included, in a format that is so much more fun and comfortable! I think we will continue to cruise a couple times a year.

Our particular date had to suffer a little catastrophe because in preparation for a Free Trade conference in Miami later in the month, our cruise left from Miami and returned to Fort Lauderdale. In order to get back to our car afterwards we had to stand around like cattle in the Florida sun until the busses came back to bring us down to Miami. We should have parked in Fort Lauderdale and taken a taxi to Miami before the cruise, and thereby could have arrived home about 2 hours earlier, but we would have had to pay for the taxi ourselves. I was really surprised at the wholly unapologetic way Carnival handled this. The information they handed us notifying us of the change did not even say “we are sorry for the inconvenience”. Needless to say they didn’t give us free drink tickets or anything in recognition for our inconvenience. The only concession I recall was that when a passenger was feeling sick while waiting in the sun, a representative brought out six bottles of warm water, and gave her one.

Otherwise the experience was wonderful. Our cruise director was Jeff Bronson, who happened to have been working on the other cruise we took, the Triumph back in March. He had been promoted to his own ship. However, our cruise was his last week on the Paradise and he was about to switch to the Glory. The first night show was very funny, but it didn’t make the audience participants as memorable as the show on the Triumph. John (of the Triumph) really knew how to bring out personalities in each participant, and you would spend the rest of the cruise feeling like you knew those people. One time in Jamaica my husband said to me “The Yabba-Dabba Doo guy is in there”. It is like they became celebrities for a week.

On the first or second night (the first formal night) we had the traditional captains cocktail party with free drinks and snackies for an hour in the theater along with a chance to meet all the bridge officers, the captain, and the top managers. In addition we were invited to another reception later in the week because we had cruised on Carnival before. That night had even more free drinks and even more sophisticated snackies. There was a Carnival propaganda movie and an appearance by the Captain and Cruise Director.

On another review I saw that someone won rum cake because he had a hundred dollar bill, so I prepared for the trip by bringing a hundred dollar bill. Rockin Robin did give out prizes during her shopping talk, but this time she asked for someone with a bill with the white house on it. I was the first to show her a bill, but unfortunately I was showing her the Lincoln Memorial instead of the White House. Most of the prizes go to people in the front row, and none go to the people in the balcony. Other times she offered free samples of the rum cake- which is super yummy. IN Grand Cayman there are Tortuga Rum shops all over and they all give free samples in what seems like dozens of flavors. Definitely try some!

I can’t say enough about how much I loved Camp Carnival. When I learned that they have free day care until 10pm for all kids older than two, I knew I wanted to take a cruise as soon as our daughter turned two. The first night they have a party in the dance club with lots of fun games, and then an ice cream decorating contest. After that they will watch the kids from 9 in the morning until 10pm with no extra charge. It was our first opportunity to spend some time alone together in two years. They also have babysitting until 3am. All of the counselors are just wonderful, and Baby Terry had a wonderful time. When a little playmate would see her in the halls, he would say “she is in school with me!” They played games, and did lots of cool art projects, and watched movies on a wall with dozens of TV sets all over it. They also gave out neat presents. She got a little beanie, and a T-shirt and a growth chart. We especially liked the scavenger hunt. We almost had everything, but we were missing the blue eye shadow. Well, in addition my husband accidently cheated because in order to get the blue nail polish he went to the Spa, which was against the rules but he didn’t know it because I had the paper with me. Of course I wonder where the other three families found blue polish if not the Spa…

Speaking of the Spa our table mates told us that in the spa they have a stream room, a sauna, and a shower with powerful jets all around. These are things that are not really advertised. They also have big discounts on massages and other stuff during port days, but I would rather be in the ports myself.

The Ports
Belize- Our first stop was Belize City. They have not been receiving cruises very long, and I think they still don’t get that many. We were most interested in really exploring the local people and territory, so I had gotten the bus schedules and we made our own plans. We had decided to first take a local bus from Belize City toward Belmopan, and to get off at the Zoo on the way. Afterwards we had plans to go to the Blue Hole National Park, but we went back early instead. We got off the boat and immediately left the cruise ship area. Of course we were inundated with people asking us to rent them for the day, but we just kept going. After getting outside of the area, we asked the security guard about how much a taxi should be to the bus station, and he said about $5. (Which is $10 local money). So we went around the bend to where the taxis are and the started in on their sales deals, we said we were going to the bus station, and the driver said he would take us for $10., so I walked away, and then he said, OK $7., and I said I would pay $7., but no tip. We got in the car and he was telling us about how it was going to take about a ½ hour to get to the station, and wouldn’t we want to rent him to go all the way to the zoo, but we told him we like the bus because we get to meet people. Also because we planned to go to the park afterwards instead of returning right to Belize City. It took about 5 minutes to get to the station. Belize City is very small. It only has 70,000 people (according to the sign outside of town). It is riddled with canals that the driver said have been there for centuries. You have to drive around the canals to get from one place to another. Since it is not really a city (but a town), there is not really much to see there. It is a typical Latin American town. The bus station was filthy, but it was still neat to be there. Our ticket cost $1. per person all the way to Belmopan (40 miles away), with no charge for the baby. Our bus departed about 10 minutes after we arrived, bu
t we didn’t get on it. I didn’t realize it was our bus because the sign said something different than “Belmopan”, so we had to wait another 45 minutes. FYI- the time in Belize is one hour earlier than “ship’s time” By the way, apparently Novelos is the only remaining bus company, so if you get the schedule off the Internet, the times are correct (I think), but all the bus companies are now “Novelos”. While we were waiting we discovered that I had lost my card to get back on the cruise. We were worried about how much of a problem that would be, and that is why we ultimately didn’t go to the National Park. Although I was trying to think through all the stuff they said in the legal language on the cruise ticket, and I couldn’t remember a part that said they would leave me in Belize if I lost my card. All in all, I was glad I didn’t lose it on the ship, where somebody could have charged it up, but we weren’t sure what would happen. As it turned out it was fine. They just looked up my name on a list and asked me my birthday and let me on. Later I went to the Purser, and they made a new card in exactly 5 seconds. But back to Belize: We finally got on our bus. It was a thirty year old American School bus blasting Mexican music. There was still a sign that said “Caring for your children is Our Business”. We opened the windows and we were on our way to our Belizean adventure. My daughter shared some cereal (Cruncheroos) with two little girls sitting behind us. They all had a great time. We talked with a bunch of the people on the bus. I think everybody in Belize can speak Spanish, but the ones born there speak English first, but there is a lot of immigration from the other countries that speak Spanish. Belize is a little more stable economically, and there is still quite a bit of British presence. There are British soldiers there training the Belizean army, and the money is still printed by the British. It even still has the Queen on it. The houses are a mix of standard Latin American concrete and cute wood cottages in pastel colors. We go to the zoo and got off along with a guy from Australia who was on his second day in Belize. The zoo was really neat, especially because they let you get so much closer to the dangerous animals than you can iin the United States. The Black Leopard was close enough to touch, if we were to put our hands through the electric fence. He kept walking back and forth in front of us. Of course there were the Black Howler Monkeys ( the ones that you would see in the “Baboon” sanctuary), and they were neat to watch. Also all of the incredible colorful birds and huge Eagles. When we left we had enough time that we could have gone on to the Blue Hole National Park. To do that we would have taken another bus to continue to Belmopan, and then another one out to the park. The park has bright blue water pools that you can swim in that come from underwater streams. You can also explore the caves and the rainforest. In a choice today, I would recommend the park over the zoo because it is more of an experience in the local land. But we decided to go back early and have some local food, and go back to the ship and rest. We took another bus back, and found a small family restaurant. The food seemed very Caribbean to me- pork or chicken with rice and beans, maduros (sweet plantains) and potato salad. Afterwards the taxi charged us $4. to go back to the cruise ship, and I gave him the $7. that the other guy charged. I will discuss the other things to do in Belize that I heard about. If one wants to go to the beach, they can take a water taxi from just outside the terminal down the coast to a nice beach. The cave tubing is supposed to be very interesting and fun, but you have to lug your tube for 45 minutes through the rain forest, and you can’t bring any small kids. The Baboon Sanctuary was interesting to a lot of people, but the monkeys won’t come down and play with you, they will just take food form your hand if you hold it up. Apparently you also are traipsing through peoples yards to see the monkeys (with their permission). It is also possible to go to the sanctuary by bus without taking an organized tour.

Honduras
I really loved Honduras, it was so beautiful and undeveloped. Whenever I think of a tropical paradise, what I imagine is like Roatan, not the over-developed built up locations that Hawaii, Cancun, Miami, etc. have become. The whole island has about 35,000 people, and I never saw a single big building. More importantly the cheap wooden houses are not all cramped together into a depressing ghetto. They are separated by large amounts of lush greenery. One thing I don’t like about many parts of Mexico (and Belize, too I suppose) is all the dirt and dust all over everything. Roatan did not have much exposed dirt, so everything was not covered in a layer if dust. Upon arrival we made a bee-line to get out of the fenced in area and all the tour guide coyotes. It was 6:30 in the morning local time, which was great for me, because the water would still be warm, but I didn’t need to slather my pale skin with sun block. We were swarmed by drivers as soon as we exited. Our waitress on the ship told us that we should expect to pay $10-$20 per PERSON! We couldn’t afford that, so we were going to walk into town and take a mini-bus. The taxi drivers wouldn’t even quote up the price to West End, because they wanted us to rent them for the day. So we kept walking. After about 100 yards I called to an empty taxi that was leaving and asked him how much he said $6. for all of us. (By the way Honduras money is $17. to $1US—they also print $1. bills which is the least valuable bill I know of. Even Mexico doesn’t print bills worth less than $2.) He took us over the mountain to the beach in West End which is completely un-built-up, and it was early enough that no one else was there. We had a great time. The water was so clear and warm. There is also good snorkeling off the shore, but I didn’t go out there. I did look around with my mask near the beach, though. We played in the nice sand. There was a boy trying to do circles in the water with his boat and he tipped the boat over, and my husband (who used to work driving launches in Mexico)went over to help him. He was so scared he didn’t even help bring the boat back to shore. He knew his boss would be furious with him. My husband got the boat’s rope and pulled it back to the beach. The boy was a small skinny boy about 13 years old. His boss was yelling about how angry the owner was going to be when he came in. They thanked my husband a lot and said they would let us use the snorkel equipment if we wanted. But we left to go to the Institute of Marine Sciences. There is a museum there, but we didn’t go in. We enjoyed lounging around in the chairs there watching the trainers practice with the dolphins. It was before the hoards of tourists arrived, so it was very peaceful, and shady too. They have dolphin encounters too, and I imagine it is possible to watch that as well. But we left to go back to town. In town my husband went to get a $3. haircut just the way he liked it. The dirt road was under construction, so it was kind of dusty there in town. But the whole town center is just a main drag about three blocks long. After the main center as one gets closer to the cruise ships the tourist gift stands start. We did some regular shopping for provisions (toothpaste, Honduran coffee, cold soda) as well as some souvenirs (T-shirt for the baby and a magnet), and went back to the ship. The taxi back to the ship from town cost $1. Other people told us about West Bay which is the tourist center. Apparently it is starting to get built up there and there are condominiums and the beginnings of beach resorts. The Iguana Wall is also supposed to be really neat, and some of our table-mates went there. I would have liked to gone there too if I had known.

Grand Cayman
Without a doubt the must-do thing in Grand Cayman is the Stingray City or Stingray Sandbar. Although is is shallow water there, it is necessary to take a boat to get there because it is miles from the shore. Also the boat leaves from the other side of the peninsula from where the cruise ship arrives. However, we did that the last time we were there in March. For those interested in doing that, we arranged a tour privately before going on the cruise through an outfit we found on the Internet. I had wanted the superfast boat that zips out to Stingray City and back in like an hour and a half for $19., but that was booked up by the time I called, but they offered me the 3 stop tour for the same price. I am glad we did that because we got to do some really beautiful snorkeling at the coral reef and then at the “living aquarium” before seeing the stingrays. On our cruise this time I met some people that had not booked anything and were waiting until they arrived. I am not so sure how easy that is, because Grand Cayman has a lot going on besides tourism, and tourism isn’t really their big priority, but there definitely were some signs advertising bookings. I would recommend grabbing something before leaving on the cruise, though. If you don’t want to make a foreign phone call, you can make arrangements by email. The experience is incredible. They feel all soft and squishy. The boat captain lifted one on top of my baby’s head. The suck the food from your hand. But anyway, we didn’t do any of that this time. I first went to the courthouse to watch how they conduct court. Since they are a British Colony, the Superior Court proceedings still require the lawyers to dress in gowns and powdered wigs. Even the black attorneys have wigs. The summary Court proceedings were interesting too. The Defendants never go in front of the bar, and the lawyers all sit in a row in front and don’t move when they are arguing their case. The cases that day were being prosecuted by a police officer and not an attorney. Afterwards we spent the day at the beach. We weren’t sure whether to go to a beach with facilities or to go to the public access beach. We decided to try the public access first. It was wonderful. Even though there were FOUR cruise ships that day, the beach was empty by the public access. Everybody was packed into where the cruise ships sell tickets. There was a big ramada with benches and tables that we stayed under to avoid getting burned, and the beach was beautiful, clean, and the water was warm. Pretty much everything you could ask for in a beach. A note about the transportation in Grand Cayman. There are two ways to go. There are the “taxis” which are minivans aand they will pick up other people while you ride, and there are “buses” which are minivans and that will pick up other people while you ride. The “taxis” charge about $4. (Cayman) per person to go to the beach, and start from the cruise ship, and the “buses” charge $2.(Cayman) per person and start from a block away from the cruise ship. ($2.Cayman= $2.50US). You can tell “taxis” from “buses” because the “buses” have a number in a circle. If you are going further there will be a bigger difference in price. If you are with a bunch of people, the difference could add up. Some people were confused and felt deceived by their driver because the difference wasn’t clear. The buses are absolutely fine for getting to the beach, turtle farm, hell, etc. They also go East out to Bodden Town.

Cozumel
Because we visited family in Cozumel, I don’t really have much to say here that would be of interest to others. We went straight to the ferry to the mainland, which costs $9.per person each way, no matter which of the ferry companies you use. Both companies keep the same schedule, and Cozumel is one hour behind ship’s time. On the mainland one can go to the ruins in Tulum, or to one of many beautiful cenotes, which are natural spring ponds that you can swim in, normally found in shady woods and next to caves. Often the caves can be explores. Cancun is about 40 minutes north of the ferry dock. If you are prone to sea sickness, watch out because the ferry is really wavy. Sit toward the center (looking forward to back) to minimize the sway. On Cozumel if you want a one stop shop for activities, consider Chankanaab Park. I think it is about $20.-$25. for foreigners, but it has nice beaches with neat snorkeling, including a sunken ship. There are also dolphins to watch, a botanical garden path, a little museum, a small collection of ruins, and all the beach facilities and palapas. The sea lion show is a small extra charge, and they have dolphin swims too. If you don’t pay to swim with the dolphins, you can still watch for free (unlike some places). I have heard about some interesting activities around the island, but I don’t remember them.

I hope some of what I have included here has been interesting or useful to you. I cannot say enough about what a wonderful vacation a cruise can be!