Crusin: Cozumel, Belize and Honduras

I got my nails did! It’s been a while so it was a fun treat to get them done. I wanted something bright, summery and glitter for vacation. 

That day was just filled with random things we were trying to get done before our friends Mike and Jordynn flew in. We met Mike and Jordynn in Rexburg we Dan and I were newly married, we were in the same ward and apartment complex. They quickly become good friends of ours! We saw them when we initially drove down to Texas. We stopped in Las Vegas for a couple days and spent a day with them. So it’s been about a year and Dan and I booked our cruise and told them if they could, they should come with us. Somehow it worked out and we cruised for a week together!

When they flew in they only had 1 request, to eat at Rudy’s. I haven’t been there but it’s a smoke pit BBQ place and it’s delicious! We were totally stuffed. We talked and caught up then came home and played some games. We tried not to stay up too late because we had a 4 hour road trip early the next day.

We started out drive to Galveston at 7am. Long car rides just put me to sleep so I slept for a good hour or two. First, we HAD to stop at Buccee's! We stopped and had lunch in Houston at Lupe Tortillas, it’s a place Dan goes when he’s working in Houston. It was so good! We all split the fajitas and we all agreed they were so good! Our next stop was the port of Galveston. We went through security, checked in and got our cruise cards fairly quickly. I remember waiting in forever lines when boarding for our honeymoon trip in Long Beach so it was way better this time.

Dan got to go on stage and be apart of a trivia game. He was smoking the competition that they made him stand in the corner for 4 rounds. When they let him come back he still beat them all and won! They gave this fantastic, and very plastic, trophy.

Mike wanted to go up for the next round and they were calling the craziest people up. This is what he did and THEY DIDN'T PICK HIM. Obviously they don't have eyes. I also love Jordynn's face on the side. 

Our room. We got a window this time!

 and a couch!

The first day was a day at sea (no ports) so we explored the ship, did fun activities, played mini golf, rode water slides, enjoyed the sun, ate lots of food and went to the shows.

This is the first ship to have a ropes course at sea. This is the only picture I got of it but it was pretty fun! We tried being American Ninja Warriors...some of us failed.

Blurry picture of the dining area

Fancy dinner on Monday night

We tried to get as many goofy photos as possible, obviously

First port: Cozumel

We didn't have anything set in stone planned for this port. Jordynn and Mike had been here before so we were in good hands. We decided to rent scooters, tour the beach side roads then find a free beach. Mike speaks Spanish so he was able to get us a great deal on scooters for the day.

This was also DAN'S 27TH BIRTHDAY!

We saw this birthday cake and had to pose with it for Dan's birthday!

This scooters were kind of scary for the first 5 minutes because there are no rules in Mexico. So Dan was trying to 1) Get used to driving the scooter and 2) Not fling me off the back. He got it so quickly and it was much nicer when we got away from the other cars.

We ended up spending our day at Playancar Beach. Free to get in... but you have to buy food or drinks which is understandable.

Snorkel time! Dan's first time 

  

Then he tried to throw me in!!

We found this in our room when we got back, how cute!

I ordered a birthday cake for Dan that our dining crew brought out for dinner and sang to him. I'm sad I didn't get a picture but I was having too much fun to remember to carry my phone around! However, this is what it looked like:

Second Port: Belize!

This pictures from this day are kind of blurry. I think water got in my worn out waterproof camera so they're bad but you can get the jist of it. This port we did an excursion because the city we port in actually doesn't have a lot to do. We went Cave Tubing and Zip lining!

Cave tubing was first. We got our gear and tubes and hiked for 15 minutes to get to the top of the cave

Then we got to the mouth of the cave

And we're off! Our guide was really great and it was a fun experience! Then only down side is that you are tubing with 200 of your cruise ship-mates

I tried to hard to get pictures of all the cool rock formations inside the cave but non turned out good. Here's a picture of the mini waterfall inside the cave!

Bats!

Zip lining!

Third Port: Honduras!

This was my favorite stop. We paid for a shuttle pass to go to West Bay in hopes of seeing some amazing snorkel sights.The beach is a free beach so you'll have lots of local merchants trying to sell to you. But we spent most of the time in the water and loved it!

 

 

Cheap and local tacos, yum!

We paid this guy to take us out to the reef on his boat and snorkeled around. It was so beautiful and was the best snorkeling I've ever done! They have a large living reef there and it blew my mind! Because I'm not a strong swimmer I took a floaty with me and I'm glad I did because the ocean is DEEEP (No kidding right?) I never needed the floaty to swim, but it helped my anxiety.

I didn't take any underwater pictures because I was afraid of ruining my camera so here's what we saw off of Google!

After snorkeling we relaxed on the beach and in the water (and got burned). Played with the millions on little fishies, found a couple star fish and jumped off the pier. Jordynn took some cool pictures and videos of this that I'll hopefully get a hold of from her. It was paradise!

Pirate ship right outside our window! This is what we woke up to!

Pictures we got of Isla Roatan as we set sail

We spent our evenings watching shows and playing games. They had a lot of good shows. I was impressed by the talent.

Friday morning Dan played in the dodgeball tournament

Here are a few pictures of our ship

  

Twins. Love this girl!

2nd formal night, photo bombed by the towel monkey

   

  

The gang!

Dan playing Family Fued

We had to get a picture with our dining crew the last day. These tree waited and served us every night. Dante (Far right) was especially hilarious and made every dinner side splitting!

I can't even begin to describe how much fun our trip was! Other highlights on the ship include; the AMAZING food, ice cream whenever you want it 24/7, playing games until early hours in the morning (catch a phrase was a personal favorite), laying out by the pool, watching the Dive In movies by the pool, falling asleep to the sound of the ocean, our dining crew dancing for us, 24/7 pizza. Cruising on it's own is fun but it is 10x more fun when you go with friends! I would do it again tomorrow!