Carnival Legend

Revisiting the adventures of the past week makes me appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to travel and to have such a great travel partner. A little over a week ago, Logan and I left for our first cruise together from Tampa. As we left that morning the forecast for Bradenton that night was going to be in the twenties (now that's really cold, especially for Florida). We were very much looking forward to the warm sunshine waiting for us in the Carribean but little did we know we would have to fight eighteen foot waves while voyaging south. We made it through with happy spirits, some seasick pills and the awesome movies on in our cabin. Our first port of call was Grande Cayman which we woke just in time to watch our ship drive right on by, followed by an announcement from our Captain that it was too rough to tender and we would be proceeding on to our next port with arrivial the next day. I think you could hear the entire boat sigh with dissapointment because not only were we looking forward to a new place but everyone just wanted to get off the boat. But needless to say, we made the best of it and enjoyed the ships ammentities and had an early night to bed.



Dressed up for dinner



Although at this point the trip sounds miserable, which it was slightly, we woke up to bright blue clear skys in Isla Roatan, Honduras. The ship docked at Mahogany Bay which is Carnivals new port and after exploring for a little while and enjoying some sun with a fabulous view we headed off on our first excursion which we decided to book after saving money by not visitng Grande Cayman. We took a looong but scenic bus ride up into the rain forest and were very happy to be accompanied by a friend and his new wife from Bradenton (he was on his honeymoon). We arrived in the canopy of the rain forest where we would listen to a safety briefing ("Don't be stupid") and then decend to ground via Zip Line. We covered over 2.5 km of zip line in stretches from 100ft -600ft. The speed was incredible and the views were amazing. The final zip line landed us in a national park, Gumbalimba. We then took our bus to Tambyana Beach were we enjoyed a brief snorkling adventure as the clouds rolled in. Just a side note: my mom was very excited about the fact that my brother and sister-in-law recently vacationed to Isla Roatan and rode the same ziplines we did, she thought that was pretty cool.



I couldn't Belize my eyes at our next port which we had to take a 15 minute tender from our ship to the dock. Belize, surprisingly looked a lot like Florida in vegetation until the limestone formation became visible off in the distance. Logan and I decided to book a tour through cavetubing.com (If you ever go book through them). Our tour included a VERY entertaining air-conditioned tour via bus which lead us to the national park which we would be equipped with tubes, life vest, helmet and head lamp for our excursion. We hiked for about 30 minutes through a cave while given a lesson on plants and trees native to Belize. When we reached our destination it was time for the chilly water (well it was 70 degrees). We linked together and headed for the cave. Inside the cave it was imaginably dark which was why we used our head lights but we were able to see stalagmites and stalactites, crystalized rock and even a bat. One of the best parts of booking through cavetubing.com was that we got an additional twenty minute open water tubing expereince which lead us back to the begining where we left our equipment and proceeded for a delicous meal of stewed chicken, yellow rice and coleslaw prepared by an amzing Belizian woman. After a refreshing Belikin beer we boarded the bus to head back to the port where we explored for a short while and boarded one of the last tenders for our ship.

 

We didn't think it could get any better after our last two ports but we proceeded on to Cozumel, Mexico. In Cozumel we took quick look around the port and then headed downtown where we wanted to depart for a tour of the island. We met two awesome travel mates who shared a taxi with us for the next 3.5 hours. The first stop was San Gervasio Myan Ruins which we explored for an hour. We then made our way to Coconuts bar where we had some of the most amazing views I have every seen. We had a snack and some drinks and then casually drove back to the port stopping along the way at photo op spots and the Bob Marley bar where we shared another drink with our new friends. The day was truly amazing and we could not have been more fortunate to have met such wonderful people whom we shared lots of entertaining conversation with throughout the day.

The last day of the cruise was spent at sea, with clear sunny blue skies. Logan and I went out to the pool around 9 o'clock in the morning and didn't leave until 3 in the afternoon. We played miniture golf on the top deck although it was so windy the ball never stopped rolling and relaxed watching an ice carving and eating chocolate covered fruits. Although, the cruise started out rough, we could not have asked for a better vacation and we look forward to our future travels together.

<3 I love you <3