Month: November 2023

                   Our third and last Port of Call on this seven-day voyage was the island of Roatan, part of the country of Honduras. Roatan is one of three islands that make up the Bay Islands of Honduras. These islands lay about forty miles off the coast of Honduras and while not isolated, this separation helps explain the fact that English is the first language of the Islands while Spanish is the primary language of Honduras on the mainland. The English language factor is descended from the British Colonial days and is fortified by the American cruise and tourism industry that thrives out on the Islands. The Islands are part of an ancient, exposed coral reef that is close to the Mesoamerican Reef, the one that’s second only to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

                                       I suspect that there is something to lament about the tourism industry and developing countries. While I haven’t had any in-depth conversations with anyone local, our guide yesterday did mention that right now, there are berths for up to five cruise ships per day and that was being increased by one (to six) very soon.

          He did not seem so happy about that.

Even to the uninitiated, it is apparent that the infrastructure of this area is strained at best. The roads are very narrow and pothole filled, there are no speed limits or stoplights. But the Industry does bring steady jobs and social advancement, especially when it comes to amenities that percolate down from the wants and needs of tourists. Who are we to determine whether this is good or bad for the local population? I suspect that we are our own worst enemies here, wanting a “Really Authentic” island experience and then being disappointed by the advancements brought by the very things that we want when on vacation. We all want/need cell coverage, internet access, paved roads, sanitized environments, etc.

                             These are just some observations that come from some extensive travel as of late. The facts are that nothing remains the same and I suppose that it is not supposed to remain the same. Maybe that’s a good reason to travel to the places that we want to experience the way that our mind’s eye has always captured them.

Get while the gettin’s good!

                   We did have another day filled with a few different experiences and the rain did hold off until we were on our way back to the ship!

                   Our first stop was at a Cameo studio. This particular industry is well suited for this region because of the abundance of conch and abalone shells. The origins of this art dates back to ancient Greece, then it was adopted by the Romans whose wealthiest had their features and silhouettes carved by the artisans of the time. Today, Italy continues to be the heart of the trade with about 290 of the current 300 tradespeople in the world residing there. The other 10 or so live on Roatan, brought there by Franco Tammaro, a descendent of a cameo artist who started up in Naples in 1851.

                             The work is gorgeous and the only thing that would have made the visit better would have been to watch one of the artists actually at work. But we got there early, and I suspect that they were still snoozing!

                             After the Cameo Studio we traveled a short distance up the road to the dock where our “submarine” was waiting for us. This was one of those underwater experiences that have you go aboard and walk down a set of stairs to a double row of bench seats running fore and aft with large plate glass ports for viewing. If any of you have every snorkeled or SCUBA dived, you know that the best stuff is in less than 30 feet of water because that’s where the light is. So, sitting primarily on the surface and looking down works just fine.

                             Unless.

                             Unless you arrive in the rainy season and the rivers (like the one yesterday) are swollen with silt and everything else they bring down to the coast with them. Then there is no way for a coastal viewing experience to be exemplary.

                             In realty, coastal viewing is best during a drought, or at least way past a rain event. We were still able to see some good stuff and if this was your first underwater experience it was quite exhilarating!

                             When we were finished beneath the sea, we went to the little town of West Village, a collection of quaint seaside shops, eateries, and galleries. We spent our time in a local chocolate factory  😊.

 We did sample their wares and we did thoroughly enjoy them!

The rain held off until we were on our way back to the ship.

Barb did not accompany us on this excursion, she went out to a National Park where there were monkeys and birds. The results of which are displayed below!

Our next two days will be spent “At Sea” traveling northward from the Western Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Days at Sea are special in their own way. This is the relaxing part of cruising, there is still tons to do, but only if you want to!

                   I cannot stress the next fact enough.

                   Do Not EVER rely on any forecast that you ever hear from any weather service.

These “services” are for advice only! Use them with care! Because…..

Had we relied on the forecast alone even one day before departure, or for that fact, any day so far on this trip, we would have “Canceled” our trip/excursions because of said forecast.

                   Ok, done with the rant.

                   As you will see, this has been far from the forecasted “rainout” that was hovering on our horizon.

                             Cloudy?

                             Yes!

                             Showers (light and infrequent)

                             Yes!

                             Great days?

                             Yes!

                   Yesterday was Belize. Belize is a pretty cool country and we found out tons of great facts on our one-hour bus trip on our way to way to Altun Ha, a fine example of Mayan altars surrounding traditional large courtyards. This particular site was discovered in 1954 and is still undergoing exploration as opportunity and funds allow. By the way, there are over nine-hundred of these “sites” scattered around the Yucatan Peninsula, most just ready tom be uncovered and explored.

                   The Mayans in this area were contemporaries of our recent friends of the Four Corners area, the Ancestral Puebloans, so these sites go back roughly a thousand years or so, but their inhabitance of this area pre-dates that by another thousand years.

                             Back to Belize.

                             Here are some of the interesting tid-bits …..

                   Belize is the only Central American country to have English as her official language.

                   Belize’s central culture is Creole based, illustrating the influx of Africans and Europeans back in the day.

                   Although it is a sovereign nation, receiving its independence back in 1981, it is still a Commonwealth Realm (a term without any legal status) with King Charles as the Head of State. Belize was previously known as British Honduras, a name acquired back in the mid 1800’s. Belize is connected at the hip to the United States, primarily with trade in mind. Boiled down, about fifty percent of imports and exports are USA based. Even their cable TV originates from the States, but a much cheaper price, give or take $35.00 a month (for EVERY channel that you can think of!)

                   The minimum wage is less than $3.00 an hour, but there are obviously other factors at work here, such as every Belizean is given a plot of land for free from the government, where most end up building a house in stages as their family and needs grow. One of their primary industries is Tourism, which we were happy to be a part of. Our Tour Guides were thoroughly engaging and very informative. It was a pleasure learning about their country, culture , and customs from them.

                   After our visit to Altun Ha, we boarded our bus again for a short ride to The Iguana, a restaurant on the banks of the very swollen (and aptly named) Belize River. Here we had lunch before boarding our River Cruise boat for the return back to Belize City and our tender back to the ship. The joke of the day was that were going to be served “Bamboo Chicken” which turns out to be strips of Iguana on bamboo skewers roasted nicely over some coals. Unfortunately Madison could not get that image out of her mind, and it took quite a bit of convincing that the deliciously stewed chicken that we did receive was, in fact, really chicken!

                   After lunch we boarded our river transportation and had some really nice wildlife sightings. Think the African River Cruise at Disneyworld on steroids, complete with the humorous “Guides”! Unfortunately, we did not get charged by a raging hippopotamus, but it was exciting none the less!

                   Our “almost” lunches were apparent everywhere, but mostly up in the trees, which if you were at all queasy about these critters gave you pause about walking around underneath the trees! But they really only eat much smaller critters and insects. They have no interest in eating “Bamboo Peoples.”

                   The crocodile sightings were quite exciting as these are Central American Croc’s, quite aggressive, if not somewhat smaller than their Australian and African cousins. We were happy to stay in the boat.

                   The rest of the flora and fauna were nicely identified and explained by our expert guides including the now (somewhat) rare mahogany tree. Back when this are of the world became known to Europe, these trees were valued pound-for-pound the same as gold.

                   One pound of gold = one pound of mahogany.

                   I’ll let you figure out the outcome.

                   They are now obviously protected.

                   Although we did not get out there, Belize’s coral reef is rivaled only by the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, so as you can imagine, only one day here was not quite enough to explore this great little country. Belize is about the size of Massachusetts, but judging by the attitude of the folks we met, her heart is as big as the world  😊

          You would think that getting back on the same ship would be easy and resurrect some former recollections of where to go and what to do.

                   Nope.

                   In fact we’re more confused than anything.

                   I think the problem is that we spent so much time on the Island Princess at the beginning of the year that that experience is clouding this one. It’s not a huge issue, it’s just that we can’t help comparing things. Good or bad, everything gets compared.

                          Our present home, the Regal Princess, is a gorgeous ship. She debuted in 2014, a full 13 or so years after the Island Princess. Even with scheduled refits, a cruise ship just naturally shows her age, so no matter what one does for upkeep, a thirteen-year newer ship will show better than her older sister.

                   But besides age, there’s size.

                   And this is where the biggest (no pun intended!) difference becomes readily apparent.

          Ok, it’s time to put your Thinking Caps on and remember from your lessons during the World Cruise that ships are measured in many ways, but the one used for Cruise Ships universally is the Gross Tonnage.

Oh no Don! Is this another Lesson? We thought that after the World Cruise we’d be done with those!

Yes, but it’s a short one!

This measurement is the calculated Interior Volume of the ship. It would be silly to try and calculate the cargo carrying capacity of a cruise ship in order to compare it to a freighter, so, the Maritime industry is comfortable rating vessels of different kinds and uses, with numbers that make sense inherent to those uses.

                   So, where, and how do these ships compare?

                   Or, for that matter, how do they compare to the rest of the cruise line industry?

                   The Regal Princess is now of average size at best. At one time, the Regal would have been the 2^nd largest behind the Queen Mary 2. When I sailed on the QM2 back in 2005, she was the largest in the world, coming in at a whopping 155,000 GT! Nowadays, at 143,000 GT (1,083’), the Regal is just average, but she is quite a bit larger than the Island Princess who is a svelte 92,000 GT (964’)!

                   Let’s go to the other end of this “Is bigger better?” conundrum.

                   The Wonder of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship, is (for now) the largest cruise ship in the world weighing in at 237,000 GT! I say “for now” because it was only just a few years ago that her older sister the Allure of the Seas was the queen at 225,000 GT.

                   So…. You can see that the differences among just these few ships is quite a bit! Believe it or not, the difference is much less significant when it comes to the measurement of their respective over-all lengths. There is only about a 200’ difference from the Island Princess to the Wonder of the Seas and when the lengths are already in the 1000’ range, what’s a few hundred more (or less!).

                   For comparison, and I promise that these will be the last ones:

 The QE II is 70,000 GT and 963’ long (1967)

           The Titanic was 46,000 GT and 882’ long (1912)

The Queen Mary (in Long Beach, California) is 81,000 GT and         1,019’ long (1932)  

So…….. you can see that the Gross Tonnage is the number to pay attention to, as the average length of these ships has not changed that much in over a hundred years!

          But there is another number that is quite important when it comes to cruise ships (and I’m going to break my promise here and do one more comparison….) 

          Passengers!

          Or to look at it another way, we are the “cargo” of this side of the maritime industry.

          Here’s a few,

          Titanic – 2400 (Steerage was not very comfortable!)

          Queen Mary – 2140 (accommodations got a tad better)

          QE II – 1777 (as you can see, the “space per passenger is getting better)

          Island Princess – 2300 (we sailed with about 1700 on board)

          Regal Princess – 3500

          Allure of the Seas – 5500

          Wonder of the Seas – Can hold up to 7000 souls when full!

And while I really do not have the desire to set sail with 7000 of my new best friends, it is only fair to understand that these multitudes are not crowded into a tiny ship, that those larger GT numbers are a direct result of berthing more and more passengers and the amenities that go along with them all having a fun time whilst on board.

Back to our ship on hand, the Regal Princess. We sailed on her in 2017 on an eleven-day Baltic Cruise. This was just Paula and I and navigating around ship was an adventure with just the two of us. On this voyage we are a party of six, Besides us, there are Barbara, Paula’s sister, and Danny, Kaitie, and Maddie (Paula’s son and his family) from Texas.

               Hence our departure from Galveston.

This is a 7-day cruise, three ports and 3.5 days at sea. We are headed to Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras for Mayan Ruins tours, some dolphin encounter’s, and submarine adventures! Unfortunately this area of the world does have a rainy season, which double unfortunately, seems to be now. But have no fear, (I will use a variation of an old adage here),

“A bad day of vacation is better than a good day at work”!

          Or something like that.

As I write this we are about an hour away from the first port of Cozumel, which we will be late arriving at because of heavier than anticipated currents between Galveston and Cozumel. It’s like flying in a head wind, there’s not much one can do about it. There are a few Tours that needed to be canceled due to the fact that they were “all day” affairs and now there is no guarantee that they would be able to get back to the ship in time to disembark, which we need to do in order to be  on time for arrival at the next port tomorrow morning.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We are headed down to the gangway now to disembark and meet up with the Dolphin Encounter folks.

          I’ll finish this tonight after we return!

         ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

          So, all I can say about this dolphin encounter here in Cozumel is drop what you are doing and get down here!

          The organization is called Dolphinaris and is one of the best organized and run excursions that we’ve ever been on. This was an all -inclusive type day. We were at their facility for dolphins, snorkeling, paddle boards, “beverages” 😊 and lunch.

          We all know that a good tour guide or facility employee can make or break a day spent with them. These guys went overboard and really bowled us over with their service and genuine friendliness. This facility, what they call a dolphinarium, was purpose built about twenty years ago and was in very good shape. The day itself was just what the weather prognosticators said it would be here in the rainy season.

                   Rainy.

                   And some sun!

                   Just enough of a good weather window was had while we were in the water with Lynco and his trainer, Alberto. Actually, when the sun did peek out for a minute or so, it became rather hot, so it was actually a blessing that it stayed behind a cloud or two most of the time we were in with the dolphins.

          This was event would be better classified as a Dolphin Close Encounter of the Third Kind, as we were in the water with Lynco for over forty-five minutes! Now, to be certain, the dolphin was the most experienced part of this show. He knew exactly what to do when Alberto gave him his commands. And who wouldn’t when your reward was a handful of tasty dead sardines! Lots of sardines! They eat about twenty-five pounds of food every day, and this is divided into five “feedings” which are conveniently wrapped into several encounters a day.

                   We were introduced to Lynco as a group and then each one of us individually got their chance to touch, hug, shake flippers/hands, feel his heartbeat, have him make different noises with his blowhole, splash a bunch of annoying birds sitting right behind us (waiting for sardine scraps). We had anatomy lessons, we learned about their lives in the wild (these dolphins were born here at this facility) and how to identify these almost identical creatures.

          I’ll say that there were really no negatives during this awesome experience, only a few things that could have been more positive. This day ran about $120.00 per person and was worth every bit of that and then some! There were some rules that were non-negotiable, ostensibly for the safety and health of the dolphins.

                   No jewelry, water shoes, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, actually anything that could be dropped, and an inquisitive dolphin scoop up in their enthusiasm. That also meant no cell phones or cameras which would have yielded some incredible up-close photos!

                   But hold on….

                   There was a photographer assigned to each Encounter Group who captured all of the shots that you would want/need! Obviously for a price. Which we were mildly annoyed to find was rather steep. Steep enough to have some wallets stay in pockets. Seems that they want to get their return on their investment with  the “slow dollars vs fast nickels” business model.

                   No matter, it’s their call and they obviously get enough business doing it their way. Danny made sure to grab a few of Madison with Lynco (which is primarily why we went on this excursion). I highly recommend that you at least borrow a little kid if you decide to go on one of these types of experiences.

Their enthusiasm is contagious, to make an obvious understatement!

                   I hope that all of you are almost packed and ready to embark on one more cruise this year.

                   “What?”

                   “Another Cruise?”

                   “Four months on board wasn’t enough for you, Don?”

          Actually, the answer is No , it isn’t.

          Because….. all I need is an additional FIVE sailing days and I attain the ELITE Level of Passenger Status on Princess Cruise Lines!

                   “And what does that mean? Do you get to dine with the Captain? Can you pilot the ship? Are there extra chocolates involved?”

                   The answers to those questions are Maybe, No, and Hopefully.

                   The Backstory.

                   Originally, when I calculated what I needed to attain that ELITE level, I told Paula that I would just get an inside cabin of any Princess ship leaving Galveston for anywhere and it would cost me around $500. I probably wouldn’t even get off of the ship. This turned into Paula coming along for the ride, and then Danny, Kaitie, and Maddie hitching on as they were planning to take a vacation/cruise when Danny got back home from the Mid-West, and then Barb, Paula’s sister, asked if she could tag along (she’s feeling quite spry after her medical issues took a relative back seat). So, my cheap, one person attempt at attaining Elite has evolved just a tad!  😊

                   Like most Transportation Organizations, Princess has its own Loyalty Program (Frequent Flyer miles to use the embedded generalized term for this kind of reward program) and since most of my cruising experience has been on Princess, this program was the easiest to attain the highest level of.

                   Of course, this attainability was hugely impacted by the 111-Day World Cruise at the beginning of this year. Up til then I had 79 days of Cruising spread over several different Lines, but even then, over 30 of those days were with Princess, so that left me with just a handful needed to get to that ELITE Level.

                             “Well, you still haven’t answered our questions, Don. What does all of that get you anyway?”

                   OK, for starters I get free laundry. I can bring a minimal amount of clothes on a Cruise and just have the nice folks in the Laundry Department wash, dry, iron, and fold anything that goes down there. The turnaround on a normal cruise is about a day. So, if you wanted to bring two or three pair of undies, a few shirts, a pair of pants and a swimsuit, you could go on a Cruise with just a paper bag filled with your clothes.

                             Sounds tempting doesn’t it?

                             Until…..

                             Until you embark on a Cruise where the percentage of ELITE Cruisers is higher than normal.

                             “What does that mean?”

                   Let’s take for example your everyday 7-day Cruise in the Caribbean, like the one that we’re going on next week. As a percentage of passengers, those ELITE members are far fewer than what you will find on a longer cruise, say 21, 30, 45, and of course that World Cruise. It just makes sense. Older, more experienced Cruise folk tend to spend more time doing just that.

                   The rub is this. The more ELITE Level cruisers there are on any particular Cruise, the longer it takes for your laundry to arrive all clean, back in your stateroom. They don’t beef up the staffing in the Laundry Department just so your shorts come back quickly. It will just take longer as there is so much more to do including the really important stuff like sheets, tablecloths, and towels.

                   I’m sure that you get my drift here.

                   The scuttlebutt on the World Cruise was about that it took three or four days for laundry to be returned to your room.

Horrors!

That’ll teach you to pack more that that paper bags worth of clothes!

          Anyway, that seems to be the most favorite aspect of attaining that level of loyalty. Some of the others are I get a 50% discount on the Wi-Fi package (which is really good!), significant discounts on the Travel Insurance, early selection of the excursions, early embarkation and disembarkation of the ship, preferred dinner reservations, and complimentary Mini-Bar set-up’s in your Stateroom. This last one would be Highly Significant to me if I were only able to substitute the liquor bottles for Monster Energy Drinks and Chocolate Milks!

                   But…. do you want to know the best thing about the Program?

                             The “around-your-neck-on-your-wrist-or-otherwise-displayed-Medallion”  that has a color-coded indication of your Loyalty Level. Now, on the World Cruise the majority of passengers were in the ELITE category which made it no big deal. But, on these smaller, shorter cruises where ELITE(ists) don’t bother to go, well, now that’s a different story! When the elevator door opens you are greeted with a fanfare worthy of being composed by John Williams and maidens shower you with rose pedals as you walk along the Promenade Deck.

                   The only downside here is that I’ve heard that sometimes a few of those rose pedals get stuck in one of your pockets and don’t get removed by the laundry department.

                             Double Horrors!