Temperature: 77 degrees
Princess Patter-Today's Activities: Bible Study/Acupuncture Clinic/Zumba Gold & Fitness/Cards & Board games/Singles & Solos Get-together/Salon Hair Showcase/Chess lovers get-together/Knitters & Natters/Ping pong challenge/Quiet Room (Skywalker's)/Brunchtime Trivia/Party Bridge play/Scattegories Challenge/Darts competition/Best 10 Basketball Challenge/BOGO Happy Hour/Afternoon Tea/Water Volleyball/Top Deck Tunes/Brainbuster Trivia/Spanish @Sea/Spa Seminar: Relieving Back Pain & Walking in Comfort/Music with Sugar Cane/Art & Life of Thomas Kinkade/Mexican Fire Opal event/Crab Shack (Cafe Caribe)/Runway @Sea/Ballroom Favorites/70's Warm Up with Atomic Party Band/Blackjack Tournament/Majority Rules Gameshow/Comedy Magician Gary Carson/"Who Sang What?" 70's Music trivia/Music & Dancing/That 70's Night/Karaoke: Princess Pop Star/Dance the Night Away
Cruise Life: We are up early again. Which is fine by me. I have some camera tasks to accomplish this morning. I have to wait for the underwater cameras to dry overnight before I can open them and swap out depleted batteries for newly charged ones. I also download pictures from the media cards. Once the battery and media card are back in the camera, I place the camera in their waterproof case and lock the case. I check the rubber seals to make sure there is no lint/dust or sand. If I find something, I have to reopen the case and remove the debris. A three minute spot-check on the camera/case saves hundreds of dollars to replace the equipment because of a water leak.
We have a later excursion this morning. We're heading to Maya Key, a private island not too far from the pier.
I forgot to mention the weather. It's been raining. It started last night after we left Grand Cayman. Dark gray clouds. This morning as we slowly backed into Mahogany Bay Pier, it began to rain cats and dogs. I grabbed one of the waterproof cameras and took pictures of our arrival as well as the water that was puddling on our balcony. Standing in the rain wasn't too bad until I had to go back into the cool cabin. Brrrrr.
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| Water puddling on our balcony |
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| Backing into the pier with Costa Luminosa already docked |
As we were looking at the sky and seeing no breaks in the dark clouds, Hubby and I were less inclined to go to Maya Key. No, it's too late to cancel our excursion. No refund at this point. Maybe the tour guide will cancel? That's a slight possibility. We skipped putting on the sunscreen, but took the tubes with us. Apply later, if needed. We gathered our bags and headed off the ship. Much to our surprise, there were a lot of fellow cruisers leaving the ship. Like us, they had excursions they could not cancel. Several groups were forming in the shopping plaza. Oh my, we waited 30 minutes for everyone to gather in our group. We were herded like cattle and walked out of the security area to awaiting mini-vans. Hmmmmm...this was a different way to get Maya Key. Last year we took a short walk over to a small dock area and were picked up by boat for a 5 minute ride to the private island.
As we rode past the security gate to leave Mahogany Bay, I saw two guards armed with rifles. I wasn't the only one. Fellow cruisers were making comments about the rifles.
After a 20 minute ride, we were dropped off at a makeshift pier where a boat was waiting for us. Have I mentioned that the rain had not stopped? My fellow cruisers tried to cram themselves in the dry areas of the boat. It didn't matter because the sides of the boat was open to the wet weather. We took a 3 minute boat ride over to the island to find other cruisers from the Costa Luminosa (sp) and NCL Sun ships already there.
We docked at a small pier in Maya Key. Our guide did a 5 minute presentation on activities available on the island, lunch logistics, and scheduled guided tours. During this time, a lady pulled out her bug/mosquito spray and sprayed all around her body as we were all standing close together. The guide put her hand out and stopped the lady. Some of us, including myself, started coughing uncontrollably. Apparently, the lady, did not comprehend what was going on around her and she proceeded to spray her hubby. Really? I leaped from the boat to get away. This wasn't the only time we've been sprayed on this cruise. Other times have been with suntan spray. People, learn to spray into your hands and apply.
The rain had let up and I could see the dark clouds breaking up a bit. We dropped our bags on two lounge chairs on the beach (near the snorkeling pier). We decided to eat lunch first while the rain had stopped. Lunch consisted of salad, BBQ chicken, lightly fried fish (yum!), rice and peas, and plantain chips. Like most island lunches we have, we cleaned our plates. We sat at a table with a couple who was on the NCL Sun ship. They were far more adventurous than us and sailed with many different cruise lines to different parts of the world. I enjoy conversing with fellow cruisers and exchanging cruise stories. Sometimes we learn about cruising tips from each other.
After lunch, we gathered our snorkel gear and walked to the end of the snorkel pier. Hubby was chatting with one of the locals about college football. I immediately climbed down the ladder, put on my fins, and launched myself into the water. I had to laugh because Hubby is always the first one to jump into the water while I lag behind. It didn't take him long to realize what I had done. He followed me as we made our way out between the coral reefs. It's beautiful here underwater. Even though the sun was not out, we could still see the beautiful marine life. After a dozen pictures taken, I realized I forgot to switch my camera from P-mode to Underwater-mode. So, being the photog geek that I am, I went back and tried to recapture the dozen images I took before. Of course, the fish has changed or moved to a different spot. I think at this point, Hubby stopped following me and went about his merry way.
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| Reef at Maya Key |
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| So many fish! |
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| Fan Coral |
Hubby has been a great snorkeling partner. We do the buddy system well. He's always on the look out to make sure I don't get into trouble. I'm always keeping an eye on him especially when he dives down deep to get a Kodak shot. I'm getting better at snorkeling and most recently have been able to keep up with him. We tend to stay away from the snorkeling groups. This is how I avoid getting run over (or snorkeled over). Plus we get better pictures of the marine life without someone's fins or someone's rear-end/tushie getting in the way.
We spent about an hour in the water. We saw groups of fish. Snap. Snap. Beautiful fan coral. Snap. Snap. Hubby. Snap. Snap. We had snorkeled quite a distance from the pier. I signaled to Hubby that I was heading back. It was quite chilly once we got out of the water. Some dark clouds were looming in the sky.
We were walking around the beach when the rain showers started again. We quickly gathered our bags and headed over to one of several huts for cover. It poured. Now this was a first for me. I saw puddles of water developing in the sand. Small puddles quickly became large puddles. We decided to make a run for the main building which houses the locker room, bathroom, and changing area. That was a great move as we found out the tour guide was allowing us to get back to the ship an hour early.
Hubby and I wandered around Mahogany beach and sat at one of the restaurants:
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| Jerk chicken meal |
When we got back to the ship, fellow cruisers were talking about the rain and how uncomfortable the excursions were. In all our trips to the Caribbean islands, we've never encountered several hours of heavy rain. It might rain for an hour and then the sun would come out. Not here.
Here are a few pictures as we're leaving the island of Roatan:
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| Mahogany Bay area |
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| Mahogany Bay Beach |
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| Cabanas and private beach area |
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| Costa Luminosa leaving Roatan |
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| Fishing boat at sunset. Look how calm the water is.... |
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| A storm is brewing ahead |
Movie at MUTS tonight: Get On Up
We hunker down for the evening and try to stay warm. No need to catch a cold when we still have a few more days on the ship and another port day tomorrow: Cozumel!
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