Western Caribbean Cruise: Dan & Lupe
(Feb 05)
Day 1 (Embarking)
The Watt Family has enjoyed multiple vacations this year. Dan and Lupe went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean this year. We went with some friends from work and from our ward in West Jordan. Lupe and Dan flew first class to Miami Florida (Thanks to frequent flyer miles). We spend the night in a Miami hotel and then we embarked our ship around midday. It was fun to see the various members of our party arriving to register and embark.
We basically toured the ship, unpacked and then went to dinner in one of the formal dinning rooms. The ship did not leave until late the first day. There were a few passengers whose plane was late. The captain explained he would make up the time since the first day was sea day anyway.
Day 2 (Day at Sea)
Our first day was a day at sea and we sailed around the western tip of Cuba. Most of the afternoon Frank Knight and myself were waiting and watching to see if we could get a glance of Cuba, since that would be as close as we would probably ever get in our life time. The map shows our route from Miami Florida to George Town, Grand Cayman. Unfortunately, as close as we got to Cuba (with in 20 miles) we could not see land, although there were a few spots that we thought that we saw some land.
Since it was Sunday, Lupe and I spent the day reading scriptures and enjoying a relaxing quite day on board.
Most of the day we spent with friends, relaxing on deck but keeping the Sabbath day holy.
Day 3 (George Town, Grand Cayman)
Our Third day aboard the ship was spent docked at George Town, Grand Cayman. We enjoyed several activities while there, even though our plans were canceled and we had to adjust to fill out time with interesting things to do. We had planned on taking a tour that would take us to a place called Stingray City, which is a sand bar off shore where there are many stingrays. According to the tour director on the ship, the weather was to bad causing large waves with forced them to cancel the tour. We were planning on visiting Stingray City and then snorkeling on the reef near by. As soon as they told us that they had canceled our tour together with the Knights we disembarked to see what we could do on shore. As soon as we got off of the boat, we found tour guides advertising their wares. Several were offering tours to Stingray City. We were cautious because of what the ship told us. They reassured us that all would be OK and that the weather was fine for seeing the Stingrays. So we booked a tour for $40 dollars each, which was a substantial savings over the tours offered by the ship. We had a wonderful time swimming among the stingrays. After visiting the Stingrays we spent some time in downtown Georgetown Cayman islands . We found the island was ravaged by hurricane that previous year . None of the palm trees had any leaves, and many of the homes had damage.
Here are some additional photos taken of our day in Grand Cayman islands.
Day 4 (Rotan, Honduras)
On day four we went to Rotan Honduras . In Rotan we decided to sample scuba diving, so we took a tour that was titled "discover scuba diving". As part of the tour they took us to a classroom on the far side of the island. The tour consisted of two parts, the classroom and then the actual diving. As part of our classroom experience, they taught us some of this basics of scuba diving, cleaning, compression underwater, surfacing, clearing masks, using a regulator, and other things. After we had finished the class we boarded a boat to go to a nearby reef. At the reef we put on our gear and preceded into the water to do some more training prior to diving. We practiced several underwater skills which included, doing a regulator sweep to find a loss regulator , clearing our masks , and other things . During this time Danny was feeling very uncomfortable. He did not feel like he was able to breathe and get enough air . And after much consideration and trepidation, he decide that he would not continue with the dive experience. Lupe, who was doing fine and was simply going through the experience because Danny wanted to, decided that she not to continue without him. The instructor tried to encourage him to go but he felt too uneasy. Meanwhile, June and Frank went horseback riding on the island. Despite the fact that we did not go scuba diving, we did spend a beautiful afternoon on a beach which was called Tabayana beach . There we had a meal and snorkel around the reef that was a short distance from the beach. Below are pictures of the beach, the reef, and of time that we spent aboard ship. We finished the day with a fine dinner and then we went to a show "Peter Pan". Lupe got a picture with the actors after the show. See below.
Day 5 (Belize City, Belize)
On day five we went to Belize City Belize. We booked a tour to go and see Altun Ha Mayan ruins which are about an hours bus ride from Belize City Dock. We found Belize to be very hot and muggy. When we went to get on the bus, it was full of mosquitoes, that the bus driver was shewing them out of the bus. When we got on the bus somehow we missed June and we could not see here coming, so Frank got off of the bus to wait on June. They showed up on the bus after ours. The ruins were spectacular, but I was hoping to see glyphs of some type. Unfortunately to my disappointment there were none. We did however climb to the top of one of the temples.
Day 6 (Cozemel, Mexico)
On Day six we stopped at Cozemel. We did not plan on any particular tour this day, we simply wanted to grab a Taxi and go out exploring on our own. We got to shore and there were timeshare vacation vendors wanting to give us a day free at their resort if we would sit through a 1 hour presentation. We passed on the opportunity and found a taxi instead. We went to a local park which had a beach and a reef. We tried snorkeling but it was some of the worst snorkeling we had experienced, because the ocean was filled with pieces of Jelly Fish (A kind of Jelly Fish Soup). The soup made it hard to see very far under the water and what you did see was all blurred by the refraction of light through the pieces of jelly fish. So we spent time relaxing on the beach and walking around the park. We did see some iguanas that were moving in and out of bushes along the side walk.
After spending the morning and early afternoon on the beach we then went back to the ship and got cleaned up. We then went out to go shopping in the town where the ship was docked. We walked past all of the tourist shops and went to the local market instead where we got better deals. There we bought a very nice hammock which was built for two and was 7.5 feet long for $40 dollars. It was a good deal. We also purchased a hammock chair and some maracas for each of the girls. We walked back to the ship late that evening and we where completely wiped out. Dinner was excellent and we had a nice evening with Lupe and Frank.
Day 6 (Day at Sea, Returning)
The six day was our day at sea and the return trip to Miami Florida. The seas were very rough and it was probably the roughest day at sea we had ever had. But neither Lupe nor I got sea sick. I have no pictures from this day, but it was an uneventful day. We did activities on the ship. Played UNO with June and Frank, and watched the shows of the day. We even hoped to see Cuba but on the return trip the ship went to far north around the point of Cuba then we did on our way down; therefore, it was too far away for us to see it. That evening we put the bags that we wanted carried off the ship out side of our cabins for pick-up.
Day 7 (Disembark and returning home)
On day 7 they woke us up early to eat breakfast. I think that this was the first time we go up for a formal sit down breakfast during the entire trip. Most of the time we went to the buffet.
I had a later flight out of Miami than most of those departing the ship, so we ended up as one of the last ones to leave the ship. While we were waiting, I went up on deck to get some pictures of Miami. It was a beautiful sunny morning.
Overall the trip was very enjoyable and Lupe and I had a great time. We would do it again any time.
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