Also I failed to mention, in Roatan, we did a tour and zipline thru Victor Bodden and our group of 8 had a great time. They offer various day packages of the island.
They meet you near the cruise terminal area and you can customize your day with them. We got a great tour of the area and did a tour of their small zoo and 5 of our group had a ball doing the zip line there. The van was very comfy and we got to see some of the small town beach areas and walk the villages nearby after the zip. The driver stopped on several occassions to allow for some great shots of our ship anchored in the bay from a high vantage point. I would recommend this company as they have a great web site and are very accomodating.
We're headed back to the Western side on the Dream in October. When we went to Belize we booked our cave tubing excursion through this site Cave-Tubing.Com. They did a great job and were right at the docks waiting on us.
We did the X-rail adventure in Cozumel through these folks, Cozumel Tours, Activities and Excursions, the tour was fun and dirty. The xrails are in decent shape, but they're a bit of a test to keep 'em straight if you're not paying attention. It wasn't just our xrail but after talking with a few others they too said the alignment and some breaks were a bit stiff. No accidents and no injuries, so that was a plus.
On the xrail you get to visit places where the "regular" cruiser doesn't get too. Which is nice. Take a little bit of USD and eat from one of the roadside carts for the local flavor...good food.
We still had time to get in a little shopping as well.
We're planning on going to the zoo in Belize through Carnival because the prices are nearly identical to others offering the same excursion. Costa Maya and Roatan we're scratching our heads as what to do. Mahogany Bay wasn't open the last time we were there. And Costa Maya was still recovering from a hurricane.
Just finish my cruise, overall, I love it very much.
Cozumel - we joined the dolphin swim through carnival. This was my first time to try dolphin swim, but I think it was a bit disappointing. We were not swimming with dolphins, but with a dolphin. We just stood in the pool and did the belly ride/kiss one by one. And I am not sure if I should call swimming at all, the trainer just asked us (bunch of people) to float in the pool and ordered the dolphin to swim back and forth in front of us, so we could touch it. I don't think we had been floating there for 30 minutes. I originally thought we had 30 minutes time to stay in the pool and play/swim with dolphins freely.
We were not allowed to take pictures anytime, and buying 8 pictures cost us $99 (and it was discounted already)...well I am not sure if all other dolphin swim are like this, but I won't be joining again if we are just touching the dolphins....
Afterwards we went to paradise beach, but again, a bad experience. We paid $2 for the entrance fee and then an hour later the server came and said we had to spend $10 each for food/drinks. I don't mind spending, but should they have told me before I enter the beach right? I felt like being robbed.
Because of these, I don't recommend the paradise beach, there are bunches of beaches anyway, just pick somewhere else.
Belize - I enjoyed here the most among 4 ports! It was awesome!
We booked the shark ray alley snorkeling and caye caulker tour through coral Breeze tours. The tour guy were very nice and showed you throughout the snorkeling and we could swim with the nurse shark and rays. Afterwards we could stay a little while in caye caulker where we could really see the local people/buildings there, something we could hardly see near our ports. I highly recommend this one.
Isla Roatan - we joined an island tour through victor bodden. It was very nice too. The Eagle Rays Restaurant is a must try! We ordered the curry rice with lobster, it was the best dish I had throughout my trip!
We went to the monkey place and took some pictures with monkeys. Then we had no idea which beach to go, so the driver dropped us at west end bay. The beach was very small, but we randomly picked the wonderful restaurant, so we enjoyed it very much.
We later get back to the beach next to the port, it was pretty nice.
Costa Maya - We went to Mayan Ruins through Native Choice. Our tour guide, Ivan was the best tour guide I ever met! His dad was the one who discover the ruin, so he knew everything about the site, when you were to buy any Mayan calender or something, go find him and he would explain you what each symbol means.
Then we asked Ivan to drop us off at Fish village (or market, i forgot the name), but the beach was the best among all 4 ports.
You have to be careful with Dolphin excursions and read the description very carefully. There are "Dolphin Encounters", "and Dolphin Swims". What you describe almost sounds like an encounter.
Mine was a dolphin swim.
The dolphin encounter group is in the same pool but just opposite to us. The difference is they cannot 'float' in the pool and do not have belly ride/ dance.
jamesksf, it sounds like you had a good cruise. Sorry you didn't enjoy your swim with the dolphins, I thought it was fantastic. We did ours in Cozumel at Chankanaab Park. If you go back to Cozumel, I recommend Chankanaab Park over Paradise mainly because of the snorkeling. They have raised the entrance fee to $19/pp, might be more by now, though. I also recommend The Money Bar, they don't charge, but I think you have to buy 2 drinks per person. Good snorkeling there, too.
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