Day 12: Belize

Belize:  The northernmost Central American nation, Belize hugs the eastern coast with Guatemala its neighbor to the south and west and Mexico to the North.  There are many micro-climates in Belize.  Rainfall varies from 50 to 177 inches, with year-round temperatures from the mid-70s to mid-90s.  The coast is pleasant with the best season stretching between November to May.  Belize is the only nation in Central America where English is the official language.  The currency is the Belize Dollar (BZD).

Next to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Belize Barrier Reef is the second largest in the world.  It is part of the Mesoamerican system and runs for 560 miles along the Atlantic.

Belize City has a port, but tenders are used to get ashore.  The tender ride takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

We have our first Princess excursion on this cruise.  A snorkeling adventure to Water Caye.  No need to get ready until 11am, so we enjoy our morning on the ship.  We meet in the Explorer’s Lounge along with the 50 or so fellow cruisers.  No need to tender ashore as a snorkel boat will be coming to our ship and we can board right off the ship.

It’s a 45 minute ride via the speedboat to the snorkel site.  The guides try to break us in to several groups.  Since Hubby and I are experienced snorkelers we basically slip off a small platform on our own and get into the water:  


The water is a bit rough and typical for Belize:


Once we peer into the water, we see a lot of coral including this Elkhorn: 

More Wrasses including a Bluehead and several juvenile Clown Wrasse:

Beautiful Fans:  

A young Parrotfish (left) and French Grunt (right):

A Stoplight Parrotfish (initial phase):  

A Filefish:  

We snorkel for about an hour and head back to the snorkel boat which then takes us back to our ship.

In Belize, it’s best to take the ship’s excursion.  I was trying to avoid this as we enjoy the freedom of going on our own in each port.  The snorkeling here is great, but I did not like being on a schedule and also “herded like cattle” to get into the water.

I guess I should point out that I am no longer a beginner in snorkeling.  My Hubby has pointed out to me several times that I'm getting comfortable and staying in the water longer.   He also used the word "tenacious"  when describing my habits in the water.  I suppose my lack of patience is because I want to get into the water as soon as I can and see what new underwater adventure awaits us.  :)

Snorkeling in the Caribbean and The Second Barrier Reef

Hubby and I have been fortunate to visit some of the most beautiful islands and beaches in the Caribbean.  We've been to the Eastern, Southern, and Western parts of the Caribbean.  They include:  Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bonaire, Cayman Island, Cozumel, Curacao, Dominica, Eleuthera Island (Bahamas), Grand Turk, Grenada, Isla Margarita, Jamaica, Martinique, Nevis, Puerta Rico, Roatan, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Kitts, St Thomas, and Tortola.

For many years, we thought the Southern Caribbean was the most beautiful and that included the three Dutch ABC islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.  Aruba for its beautiful beaches.  Bonaire for its beautiful underwater marine life.  Curacao for its beautiful buildings, historical rich heritage, as wells as marine life.  Of the three, Bonaire is my favorite island.  Mostly for it's untouched beauty.

Bonaire is also known as a diver's paradise.  I have to agree, more so from a snorkeling perspective.  I've been told that most areas you can walk off the beach or pier and snorkel and see some of the most beautiful marine life.  That's my cup of tea.

Here's a map of Bonaire:

Bonaire

There's a small island off the west coast of Bonaire called Klein Bonaire where Hubby and I have often drift snorkeled.  The island/beach is so peaceful.

In recent years or more like the last two years, we've uncovered another part of the Caribbean where the marine life was just...outstanding.  That would be the Western Caribbean and the world's second largest barrier reef called the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.  It passes through Mexico, Belize, and Honduras.

Here are some maps of the three islands we have visited on our recent Western Caribbean cruise:

Belize where we've snorkeled at Geoff's Caye and Sergeant Caye

Cozumel Island, Mexico where we've snorkeled at Planacar Reef

Roatan Island, Honduras

For snorkeling, my favorite place so far is Maya Key in Roatan.  That says a lot since we've visited over 20 islands.  Close behind Maya Key would be Bonaire.

Next year when we go back to Roatan, I hope to visit Tabyana Beach (near West Bay) where I've heard you can snorkel right off the beach and the further you go...well it should be pretty spectacular!  Can't wait!

Wednesday (01/22): Belize and It's Sunny!

I've been fortunate to have access to WiFi from our cabin. I have a strong signal in the bedroom area, in the sitting room area, and on our balcony. That's a big thumbs up and improvement from last year where I had to sit by the cabin door to get a lame signal.

The first few days into our B2B cruise, I could get the strong WiFi signal but no login screen. I figured out the trick and it's been working like a charm!

We are in Belize today. The weather is so clear that we can see Belize City in the distance (4 miles away). That's how far we are anchored along with the Carnival Glory and NCL Norwegian Jewel ships.




Belize is an unusual tender port. Many of the cruise lines have to use the Belize taxi tenders to come ashore. One, the ship's small tender boats are not powerful and would take a long time to get from ship to shore. Two, the Belize taxi tenders are much more bigger and powerful. They can carry a large amount of cruisers to their port in a short amount of time.

Hubby and I decided not to tender into Belize today. Our daily Princess Patter forecasted a partly cloudy day with showers. Boy, were they wrong! It was a beautiful sunny day to be on the ship. We decided to go work out in the gym while other fellow cruisers where lining up on deck 3 to take the Belize taxi tenders to the port. We practically had the gym to ourselves.

Back in our cabin, we freshened up and went to the dining room for breakfast. Our first time in years. We were curious. After spending 1-1/2 hours in the dining room, we decided that wasn't our cup of tea. The breakfast buffet is more our speed and the selection is better than in the dining room. I can get my oatmeal, fried egg, smoked salmon and capers, and pineapple and be done in 20 minutes.

Since we were one of the few on the ship, we decided to check out one of the many pools. This was the first time we've used a pool onboard since we've been cruising with Princess. There's a first time for everything. The pools onboard Princess are filled with freshwater. Many of the other cruise lines use saltwater in their pools. We ended up at the Calypso pool which is also where the Movies Under the Stars (MUTS) is located. There were a handful of fellow cruisers lounging nearby. The pool water was cold! Hubby and I sat at the edge for awhile and then took the plunge. It was bone-chilling cold! We did a few quick laps and then headed to the hot tub nearby. We watched and listened to the Barry Manilow concert on MUTS. The sun was intense up on the Lido deck. Between the hot tub and the sun, I was sure I was hot flashing.

We enjoyed our quiet time on the ship. It was one of those days that should not be spent inside. So, we spent a lovely afternoon out on our balcony:

Wednesday (01/15): Belize!

We were in Belize today! It was a balmy 75 degrees and lots of showers! Brrrrrrr! I know. Many of you who are reading this post are saying "at least it's warmer in the Caribbean". So true. I'm not complaining.

Our excursion group was scheduled to meet in the Explorer's Lounge (deck 7) at 11:45am. It's was a late excursion for us and we were one of the last groups who arrived back before our ship set sail.

We ate an early breakfast and came back to our cabin. Hubby went back to sleep while I spent some time reviewing hundreds of pictures taken the last two days. After Hubby woke up, we went up to Skywalker's Lounge on deck 19 so I could access the Internet. It took me awhile to get online. I saw several others with their laptops on the network. So much for my secret hide-a-way.

I noticed that the Satellite connection comes and goes. Probably explains why I couldn't get a consistent and ongoing connection. I was able to post to my blog here without too much effort. FaceBook (FB) is another story as I burned through so many minutes and no results and no pictures there. For now, you get to enjoy my posts and pictures here on my blog.

Now onto our port day. Belize is a tender port. We are anchored offshore about 4 miles from Belize City. Belize City uses high speed water taxis to transport cruisers from the ship to the main pier. The ship's own tenders are not fast enough to transport large numbers of cruisers. We noticed half the cruisers left the ship for their excursion and the rest remained onboard. Here's a picture of three other cruise ships anchored in Belize: Norwegian Dawn, Norwegian Jewel, and a Carnival ship coming in.

We met up with our group at Explorer's at the required time. Another group who shared our lounge had their excursion cancelled due to the weather. They were scheduled to go to a beach instead. Nice of Princess to have quickly switched gears and have something else in place. Our group was called to head down to deck 3 which is used to exit an awaiting tender/taxi. We were happy at this point! Our excursion boat picked us up on deck 3! We did not have to tender to the pier, get on an excursion boat, and head back out to sea. Sweet!

Looking back at our Caribbean Princess:

We were on our way to Sargeant's Caye!

It took us 45 minutes to get to the Caye. A hurricane had come through and swept away what was on this tiny island including the palm trees. Now, it's just a sand bar.

We didn't dock on the sand bar, but dropped anchor a few hundred feet away. We were divided into 4 groups and had an hour to snorkel with our guides. The water was initially cold, but after swimming for awhile the water felt good. The water was also quite choppy.

After an hour, we were back on the boat. It was just plain cold. Then it started to rain. I hunkered down with my Princess towel wrapped around me. It didn't help. On our way back to the ship, the Caribbean sea water was sloshing all over the place on the boat. The rain was pelting us. Hubby mentioned that the swells were about 4 feet. Did I mentioned it was downright frigging cold?! Thirty minutes later we were back on the ship...shivering like crazy. I dropped Hubby off in our cabin and I picked up my Coffee card and headed down to deck 5 to the International Cafe. Rhea was ready to take my order of Decaf Mocha and hot chocolate. Yummy!

Thank goodness our room steward had cleaned our room early. We're hunkered down in our cabin for the evening. Okay, Hubby was under the covers keeping warm while I typed away for this blog post.

Tomorrow should be a fantastic fun day in Cozumel. Looking forward to some sunshine!

Other pictures from today's activities:

A Few More Pictures

While in Belize....

Wednesday in Belize!

I really need to stop getting up so early.  I think when I tell myself that I’m going to “sleep in” the next morning, I end up doing the opposite.  I’m on vacation!

This morning I was up around 4am.  I did a little Kindle reading.  I stayed awake as our alarm was set for 5:30am.  We had a 7:15am excursion we had to get ready for.  That was way early. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect in Belize.  I had heard that we anchor quite a bit away from the island and had to take the Belize tenders into port.  We anchored around 6:45am along with the NCL Spirit.  The HAL Ryndam arrived next, followed by the NCL Star.  It was unusual for us to see four ships anchored at sea at one time. 

We met at the Princess Theater and sat with our appropriate groups.  We were called around 7:30am to board our Belize tender/water taxi.  We sped across the water at high speed over huge swells.  We arrived into port about 25 minutes later.  Now, that was one long “tender” ride.  We are gathered again into a group at the pier and we waited for our speedboat to arrive.  It was late.  I had to remind Hubby that we were on “island time”.  “Chop-chop” is not in the island vocabulary. 

Our Reef Rocket arrived and carried us back into open water towards the cruise ships at a high rate of speed. 





We passed the cruise ships and continued on and on…to out in the middle of nowhere.  We finally saw a tiny island.  This is where we docked.  We were at Goff’s Caye:




We snorkeled here for about an hour or so.  I tried to follow the experienced group, but the waters were rough.  I was also swimming near the beautiful reef and got a warning from one of the snorkeling guides.  I had thought we were here to see the reef and abundant fish life.  I swam around for awhile and then headed back to the beach. 

Some of the elderly cruisers had a problem of getting out of the water.  I tried to help one older lady and a good thing I was in soft sand…she fell on top of me.  I’m sure we were someone’s entertainment for a few minutes. 

Hubby took lots of underwater pictures of his adventure here:  

It took us an hour to get back to the pier.  We did a little window shopping and decided to head back to the ship.  Another tender and 30 minutes later we're onboard the Crown.

Overall, we enjoyed snorkeling at Goff's Caye and enjoyed the beautiful beach.  On the other hand, the crew was less than professional and we felt it was unorganized.  The crew made a few comments about our group that we thought they should have kept to themselves.  Really?