Trin1103

We were there 10 years ago on a Norwegian excursion, no way would I take an independent company to Lamanai. It was too far, and too much room for error. But it was a really cool day and I felt like we had plenty of time at the ruins, even with all the travel. The boat ride there was beautiful also, you can get some nice shots of nature along the way.

Thanks Michigan - yeah, if we do a Mayan ruin in Belize we would definitely go with our cruise line. I've done other research since posting this thread originally and I for sure understand that now.

Still undecided about what to do in Belize. The significant Mayan sites are so far away (Lamanai and Xunantunich) and with such long coach rides that I just don't know if it'll be worth it for us. We may end up doing a more "fun" type thing in Belize. Plus I don't know if I feel all that secure venturing out towards Guatemala..... :-/

It sounds like you are trying to weigh very similar choices to my husband and I - this past May we decided to book the Freedom for a 7-day cruise in late February next year.

To be honest, it's pretty hard to compare ships - especially in this case where they aren't even in the same class (Dream vs. Freedom) - but in saying that we tried to do the exact same thing. To be honest, each and every single cruiser is going to have their individual preferences etc. - but you should know that both of these ships are top-notch and really beautiful vessels in their own right!

We ended up choosing the Freedom for various reasons - mainly, it has the nicest atrium area we saw. Yep - believe it or not, that is one of the biggies for us when choosing a ship. We also decided we had never sailed out of Galveston and decided to give it a try this time.

I would say choose the ship that leaves out of the port you want, followed by itinerary, followed by available onboard facilities! Apart from all of that, you're going to have a wonderful time regardless!!

Trin

Have NOT been to Lamanai. A ruins too far, IMO. But folks going there rave about it. I hear there's been some additional excavation and it's not so much "Indiana Jones" type of site anymore. But reports I've read say that the ship sponsored excursions don't get as much time at the ruins as some of the private excursions. So, I'll leave that to those who've actually used private excursions.

 

While, as in any port, private vendors will work diligently to get you back to the ship or tender pier in time, there's always the risk of a delay. For longer excursions, it does make sense to use a ship sponsored excursion just as insurance against missing the boat, even though you may have more time at a ruins site with a private vendor.

 

Adding: Why is this your only ruins choice? You can do Altun Ha in a half day or less. And Xunantunich is just a bus ride--long but plenty of time to see the site and climb the temples.

Thanks for the input Crewsweeper! :)

We have looked at all three - Lamanai, Altun Ha and Xunantunich. Lamanai is the one that seems the most worthwhile to visit. My dh is a photographer and we are really looking to see some of the best-bang-for-the-buck Mayan ruins on our cruise next Feb/March. Altun Ha doesn't have any of the really nice taller structures or anything that's too visually impactful - so that is ruled out. Xunantunich is a very small site and the majority of your day is spent on a bus ride - although its Castillo is very impressive admittedly. Lamanai seemed to be the one that had the most going for it - the High Temple, the British sugar mill being reclaimed by the strangler fig, plus the boat ride which seems neat.

As you can imagine, from a photography point of view there's not much else worthwhile doing in Belize - everything else is beach breaks or snorkeling (my dh doesn't swim).....so Mayan ruins are about the only thing that stands out as worth doing.

I sure wish I felt confident enough to take a non-Carnival excursion to Lamanai and perhaps get more time there - but with it being a tender port and the ruins being so far out, I just don't. :o

Trin

It's $115.99 per person to do Lamanai with Carnival. This was the Mayan ruin we HAD settled on for our cruise next Feb/march - but I'm looking for a bit more advice.

Is it really worth it? With Carnival, how long do you actually get at the ruins? OK I understand about the bus ride, followed by the boat ride.....no need to explain that to me. I am just subtracting all the travel times, plus the HOUR for lunch/whatever (that we don't really care about) at the new oasis-style facility that you catch the boat from......six hours minus time for all of that sure doesn't seem to leave you with much time AT THE ACTUAL RUIN SITE.

My husband and I really want to be able to go to Lamanai, and also to get to see the well-known British sugar mill ruins that are on-site there also. But - will we have time? I've heard (I think - need confirmation) that the sugar mill is about a 12 minute brisk walk away from the Mayan ruins.....so factor in heat and humidity and you could conceivably take 20-30 mins just walking to and from the sugar mill, let along seeing the Mayan temples as well. Is any of this even remotely doable with a Carnival tour or would we be better of looking for a private company (which we really don't want to do due to it being a tender port etc.)?? Any advice on private tour companies?

Thanks,

Trin

If you want to see McCaws and other wild animals close up , we did a tour in Roatan called Wild ON Wildlife tour our kids loved it as you got to hold many of the animals.

 

Belize is pretty hot and humid. You may want to look at a snorkeling tour or Altun Ha which is a shorter maya ruins tour.

 

From Cozumel, we once did a Tulum Ruins tour, but we had to take a ferry to the mainland but I think we had a lot of time. That tour did include a cenote stop as well, which was lovely and cooling after the Ruins

Thanks to Crossfitmama and all who have replied here. Y'all really help with my decision making and we are so lucky to have such a helpful community here! :)

Well, I THINK we have decided we are going to try and do Lamanai while in Belize. We really are Mayan ruin people and my DH doesn't swim and we don't party it up big or anything - so something like snorkeling or a beach break wouldn't work for us.

I did look at Altun-Ha as you kindly suggested, but to be honest I don't think that that site has what we are looking for. The large pyramid at Lamanai really interests us and will make for some great photography. Plus the boat ride up the New River also seems pretty cool.

Speaking of that boat ride to Lamanai - has anyone ever swam in/cooled off in the New River there at Lamanai?

Trin

Hi, the second booking was removed automatically by the system after about 1 hour!

LOL yeah - thanks for the reply Stefanos!! The same thing happened to me. The second booking just disappeared after about 20 mins. I THINK it's either got something to do with the system having to create "another"' booking to process individual payments (then getting rid of them once the payment is verified by their system), OR it had something to do with using links from the payment screen to update passenger info, phone #s etc. These were the only two things that I did before I suddenly spotted our duplicate booking #s.

Trin

Aaaaand now it's disappeared LOL. Strange!

The very same thing has just happened to me. I now have TWO bookings on My Cruise Manager - both with the very same booking #.

For what it's worth, this seems to have happened after I logged in to make an interim payment on our cruise.

Did you ever find a solution? Did it ever revert back to normal?

Trin

Respectfully, I would like to resuscitate this thread if nobody minds...... ;)

So it's been a few years since the last post on here and I would really like to get some more current feedback from folks who have been to Roatan. We have booked a 7-day cruise on the Freedom out of Galveston on Feb 24th, 2018 - and one of the ports is Roatan. In doing my usual (WAY OCD) research about all of the ports we are going to visit (Cozumel, Belize and Roatan - only one we've been to before is Cozumel), I became somewhat alarmed at some of the stories of bugs in the Roatan area. I found this strange, because prior to our first cruise in 2012, the issue didn't really crop up at all and we never even worried about it.

Anyways - it seems in doing thorough research and reading plenty of forums on the topic that there is a common misconception between sand flies and sand FLEAS.

Sand FLIES seem to be pretty much your common-or-garden-biting-fly-that-isn't-a-mosquito. They don't worry me too much. We live in Arkansas and routinely have to dodge mosquitoes, gnats (which do bite), fire ants, chiggers, moths, stink bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, cicadas and katydids while going about our routine business. I will apply Off Deep Woods and not worry too much.

However - I need to know if sand FLEAS exist or are a problem on Roatan. I'm talking sand fleas, also knows as jiggers (not chiggers!), the chigoe flea, chigoe, nigua and - by its latin name - Tunga penetrans. This parasite (stop reading here if you have a sensitive stomach) is apparently found everywhere from Mexico south, but particularly in lesser-developed nations. It lives a few centimetres below the surface of the sand on beaches, and is the smallest flea in the world (basically invisible). These parasites attack humans and cause a terrible parasitic disease called tungiasis. The female flea enters the human host through the skin (usually of the foot), and embeds herself there. She proceeds over the course of a week to 10 days to grow, engorge, and reproduce inside the human host, resulting in a very painful and totally vomit-inducing condition whereby her massive body has to be surgically removed.....hopefully before her eggs start spilling out onto the skin's surface.

Yeah. I know. I'll stop there. Anyways..........common sense dictates to me that if insects of this genre were common around Roatan, that everybody who ever cruised there would be coming back with nightmare stories and it would NEVER have become a popular beach port. But........if there is anybody out there who knows differently - please share! Because if these things exist and attach themselves to humans on Roatan....I may not get off the ship.

Cheers.

I am actually very tempted to purchase FTTF for our Freedom cruise next February. I know it's money that some regard as wasted - but now that we aren't having to skimp and scrape up every penny to be able to afford our cruise in the first place (i.e. we are earning more nowadays), and the fact that we have booked a balcony cabin - yes, I am actually seriously considering FTTF for our cruise. The ability to get onboard ASAP and KNOW that your cabin and luggage will be ready for you......THAT is worth its weight in gold for me. Not having to sit around on Lido and moo with all the other cattle while you protect/hoof around your carry-on luggage sounds absolutely wonderful to me. We don't have kids, but we DO vacation fairly seriously. My DH is a photographer and invariably had tripods, cameras and various assorted bags of lenses/equipment dripping from his (and MY) appendages on any trip. So......

Plus, debarkation. That was the most painful wait when we got back the last time. Would like a guaranteed exit time.

Just my $0.02.

Hi all,

So we are booked on the Freedom next Feb, and our ports are going to be Cozumel, Belize and Mahogany Bay.

I know next to nothing about Belize and so this week I have started researching the area pretty thoroughly. I of course am aware that there are several Mayan ruin sites that are available as excursions, along with a lot of snorkeling/beach-related stuff.

So I have some questions.

1. Is there a place relatively close to the cruise port that you can go in Belize to see Macaws in the wild? I wouldn't even know where to start.

2. My second question is about the Mayan ruin sites that are available through Carnival - specifically Xunantunich and Lamanai. It seems that most who have done these excursions have thoroughly enjoyed them, although some do say they are a bit gruelling. My (very specific) question is this: Is there ANYWHERE at all at either of these sites where it is possible to cool off? This could be a cenote, or it could also be an air-conditioned visitor center/museum, or heck even just your idling tour bus. It should be noted that simply sitting under a shade tree will NOT work for me, I will continue to get sicker and sicker even if sitting in the shade and getting fanned/covered in water. I feel really pathetic saying all of this because I don't generally admit it - but this is a fact of life for me. (As a general rule of thumb, I can do yardwork and spend a few hours outside in temperatures up to around 86oF before I begin to experience problems.)

My husband and I desperately want to do a Mayan ruin visit while in Belize, but my only problem is that I have a very, very hard time with the heat. Like - I am OK up (and until) a certain point out in it, but after that point (and this point is always reached) I need to have a way to cool down or I risk passing out and becoming very sick. We did Dzibilchaltun while in Progreso during our last cruise back in January 2012, and I can honestly say that had Cenote Xlacah not been there, I would not have managed to get cooled down enough to reach the Temple of the Seven Dolls. This is really unfortunate for me, because I INTENSELY enjoy and am very interested in Mayan ruins and culture.

If anybody has ANY insights into the Carnival trips to Xunantunich or Lamanai - and the availability of any place at these sites to cool down adequately - please share so as to help me plan our excursions! (In Cozumel, we are going to do Tulum as we missed it the first time. I have the ocean there so I should be good! ;p)

Thanks all!

Trin

We just booked our cruise for Feb 2018 on the Freedom today - super excited!! :-D

However - when I went to shop for shore excursions, two of our ports (Belize and Mahogany Bay) have very little excursions right now. Like - Mahogany Bay has two. TWO!

I am assuming that this is normal - for shore excursions to not show up this far out?

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all who have replied here to my post!! :*

We did it! We are officially booked!! 2/24/18 out of Galveston on the Freedom! Room 1038!! Looking forward to joining the Panorama Club!! :cool::cool::cool:

Thanks all,

Trin

-_-

To be honest, this thread should probably be re-named "Humans, what happened?"

There doesn't seem to be much saving the human race anymore from becoming a mob of uncouth morons who are going to just destroy the world. I'm almost 40, I am officially jaded. Nothing will surprise me anymore.

We have had cabins on Lido deck many times and have never had any pool or water slide noise. I really think you are safe!

 

 

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Thanks for your input!!! I think we are going to aim for a port balcony cabin on the Freedom Panorama deck!!!!

Hey cdavid - thanks for your reply! :D

Yes - I must admit the lack of thru-traffic is VERRRY tempting, as opposed to our other option which is Empress just aft of midship. On those all-residential decks you do get quite a bit of thru-traffic, and not everybody is considerate etc.

My main concern is whether or not you can hear all the goings on from the pool/twister water slide/Lido deck from your cabin and/or balcony. If anybody on here knows the answer to that - please share!! Love these boards!! :cool::*

Looking at staying on the Freedom on Panorama deck - cabin # 1031, 1035, 1030, 1038 etc.

REALLY need pros and cons of these rooms ASAP. I see that below and above you are also staterooms so that is good. Are the balconies relatively private? How about sound? The thing that scares me is being up there on the same deck area as a pool, waterslide, Lido open-air etc. Do these Panorama rooms suffer from noise from the pool/Lido/bands at all?

Thanks!

We are looking at cruising on the Freedom next March, and we are really curious about the two balcony rooms on Empress deck at the very front - 7207 and 7208. Does anybody have any experience with these rooms?

We have researched them online, and so far we haven't managed to find too much except a single video on Youtube of 7208.

We are looking for a balcony room, and we've never sailed in a balcony room before. We are going to be on Empress deck, but can't decide on aft balconies (I know they are the darling of most on here), regular midship balconies, or these funky forward-ship balconies in the form of 7207 and 7208.

We like the idea of being right up front, because you only have one neighbor as opposed to two, although on your other side IS the public space at the bow of the ship on Empress. We also like the idea of being right up by the bridge and watching the motion of the wake beneath us - however we are wondering about just HOW much motion you feel up there. We are OK with *some* motion, but if it's literally rocking around all the time that might deter us. :o

We WERE considering an aft balcony, but the SIZE of the balcony we have doesn't really bother us. It also troubles us that we might be stuck at the back with a lot of others who utilize their extended/attached balconies for parties. Is that common? Also heard of some occasional issues with soot/debris from upper decks on the aft balconies. :confused:

Anybody with any input would be much appreciated!! Thanks!

It's quite simple really but I'll explain it to you - it's about having a little piece of home with you in unfamiliar settings. It's also about having fun, brightening your days, and not being clinically depressed.

..Trin..

I had a aft facing main deck on Triumph and it was awful.. not even a full sized OV. The vibration was terrible.

 

You would think I learned my lesson, but Nooooooooooo, I had a cabin assigned that was the last inside on the bottom deck. I swear it was next to the engine the way things thumped and bumped agsinst our back wall and ceiling.. beyond anything I would pay full price for.

 

Let me put it this way .. the noises and vibrations were so loud in this cabin it is usually used for storage. You had to double the volumn on the tv to hear it.

Hmmm - you're worrying me. :(

Although I do note from research that the Triumph is not equipped with the Azipod propulsion system. Do you think that perhaps magnified your engine vibration misery? I have heard that on azipod ships the noise/vibration is almost zero - even in aft. Do any others agree with this statement?

......because if not, now I'm getting forced into the boring mid-ship, LOL.

..Trin..

Hi all!

So I'm looking at the possibility of booking next Jan 2012 on the Elation out of NOLA - we're getting down to the nitty-gritty things such as what cabin to book, what part of the ship to book etc. We have NEVER CRUISED BEFORE. I am unsure whether either mysel or DH will suffer from motion sickness. I am a pretty light sleeper and can't sleep for any length of time without earplugs. Having daylight in our cabin is very important to us.

All that being said, I would like somebody to help me with final cabin selection. The rooms are being snatched up and there's not much in the way of selection (or time).

We are looking at booking an oceanview room on the Main deck. We don't care how far we have to walk to get places.

So - aft, midship or forward? I have read many, many forums and many, many reviews from all different areas of the ship. I am still none the wiser.

I have been eyeing up some of the rear-facing cabins on Main deck - the ones that actually face out the back and you can watch the propeller wash. However, I am very worried about engine noise/vibration in the very aft of the ship. Can anybody help me with that?

I had originally thought forward ship would be nice, but after having read about the motion problems up front now I'm not so sure.

Regarding midship - wll for one it costs a little more, and I am also worried about noise from the public decks above. Also - midship just seems so......so.......so nondescript!??

HELP!!! :(

..Trin..