MITSUGIRLY'S birthday cruise on the JADE review/pictorial

You should for sure download them for Future Sakari! That way she re-lives all the good times regardless if you are here or not!!!

 

I can't wait for the cruise. Though I question my logic in booking it for early May. I'm not sure the water will be warm enough to thoroughly enjoy. I'm going to go through the review and copy and paste your itineraries. :) It will for sure be helpful...

 

Of all the beaches you went to there, which would be the ones your run back to first?

Maybe I'll have time this summer when I get a break in June. We'll see. It would be the perfect time. But then again, I will have 3 scrap books I need to get caught up on too. :p

I also questioned booking in May but it was so much cheaper than the summer and it was SO NICE. It was hot, but not so hot you couldn't stand it and I thought the water was nice. We had perfect weather. We did beaches every day and didn't have any issues getting in the water. A little cool for the first few minutes and you were use to it. I thought it was warmer in May than when we went in October. WHEN I return (because I know I will) I wouldn't definitely head back to any of the places in St George. They are just my favorite. The beautiful beaches at St David were by far so pretty. I definitely want to head back there. We loved Tobacco Bay as well, St Catherine was absolutely gorgeous! Everyone loves Horseshoe, but when I return, I will probably head back to some of the more secluded beaches along the walking tour we did to get to Horseshoe. I probably won't return to Horseshoe for awhile. Been there done that twice now. I will definitely be checking out some new beaches for sure and I WILL rent another boat. It was the best day ever.

Hi, Kim, I'm finally all caught up! How nice to see another review from you before your Breeze cruise! You know I am waiting for that one and hoping you enjoy Breeze as much as I did. :D Once again, your pictures are great and I love seeing your "Little Mermaid"; how cute is she?!:)

I hope if you do another behind the scenes tour you get to see more action in the kitchen area. I did one on Pearl and we had someone explaining things to us and cooks were actually preparing things for lunch. I don't remember what now, but it was German day at the buffet and later we saw food we recognized. :cool: We also saw where the liquor is locked up and were able to go in the freezer and the fruit and vegetable storage areas. I was also fascinated by those laundry machines.

Heather

See, that's what I was hoping to see on the tour (the cooks preparing, freezer, storage areas and so on). Hopefully every ship is different and I'll see more the next time. I'm looking forward to it.

You can choose to view the thread under "Thread Tools" near the top of the page to "Show Printable Version". This takes the majority of the formatting and full size photos, which are replaced by website links, out and replaces with an easier format for reading. You could then probably copy and paste into either Excel as text or Word and then get rid of anything you don't want.:)

Whoa, really? Thanks for this. I may be able to do it quicker that way. Is thee a way to take out all the comments? Or is that asking for too much? :D :p :o

My mind is blown!!!! Woo hoo!! Thanks so much!! :)

Mine too

Funny you mention Weeki Wachee! I used to live very close to there, and when I was in high school, some of the "cool girls" in my grade were mermaids there. Definitely a unique attraction for sure (and the water park, Buccaneer Bay, is still open seasonally).

That's super cool. I will have to check this out again and maybe take a short trip some time this summer. :)

DAY 4. BELIZE CITY, BELIZE

We were up by 7am and headed to the buffet for some breakfast. I was smart this time and decided to get an omelet because I noticed the eggs were runny once again. I did managed to find crispy bacon, so that was a plus.

Once breakfast was over, we headed down to get our bags and ....no beach towels. UGH. I ended up calling Guest Services and they said they would have them delivered. Sigh...another delay on this beautiful island. Thanks Rasfah you jerk. As we waited for the towels, I double checked that we had everything and we did. So it was a waiting game.

Once our towels arrived (Rasfah brought them and I took great pleasure in answering the door, snatching them and slamming the door in his face. Well, not really...the doors are heavy and slam themselves anyhow when you move, but I would like to think I did it and it made me feel better in my own little warped mind). He did NOT say sorry I missed those, my bad, or anything. Not even a "Here are your towels ma'am" I just opened the door, he held them out, I took them and tried my best to give the stink eye without a smile.

We headed down to go toward the tender line. No tender ticket needed, just flash the platinum card and we were let by. We walked down and got right on immediately.

The locals on the tender gave the speech about their beautiful place and tried to be funny (well, actually they were funny but we have been here enough to hear this several times that I just smile now instead of laughing out loud). He did say that it was a 15 minute tender ride to port.

I took this opportunity to try to get some good pictures of the Jade.

She was so big I couldn't quite fit all of her in it.

RC and Carnival was "docked" with us.

Giving us the life jacket talk

Getting closer to port and we were watching the birds who were watching all the fish get stirred up from the boat I imagine.

I can't believe this next picture even turned out. I was on the total opposite side of the boat, zoomed in a little and with the bumpy waves of the boat, it still managed to focus.

Pulling up to the dock, we see more pirates. Eekk...we tried to hide Sakari but then told her we would have to get our picture taken with them when we got off the ship. She wasn't happy about it and got another worried look in her eye and said "They are waiting on me. I know they are. They are going to take me mommy".

As the sword came up to Sakari, I poked her in the back and said "SMILE!"

We had directions on where to meet our group for the excursion we had picked out. We had to walk down to the end of the pier to the last building, turn right into the building and you would see all the vendors lined up and down the hall.

(I can remember the first time coming here to Belize and they didn't even have these little things about the walkway to shade the hot sand. This is a very good improvement since most of the time this is where you will stand to wait on a return tender and it gets very hot).

We have been to Belize several times now. We have done the cavetubing a few times and so over that, we have done Bannister Island (now Starfish Island), and last time we did Shark Ray alley and Caye Caulker and loved that. So, I thought it was time to check out some beaches at this place. Now this is not a port that you can simply catch a cab and head to a beach. You must get a little more creative...by boat.

I have always wanted to go to either Goffs Caye or Rendezvous Caye. The cruise ship does not offer an excursion to either so we were on our own. I did a few days research prior to leaving and found a vendor, who seemed to be the cheapest, and booked.

WE ARE GOING TO GOFFS CAYE!!!

We contacted Island Marketing. They seemed to be the cheapest and someone else I was talking to had booked with them and were happy. They were $40 per adult and $30 per child. Most of the vendors I had checked out wanted up to $55 for an adult and similar price hike for the child. Now if I'm doing something that is "toury" like swimming with the sharks or cave tubing, then I would really do some research and pick something based on reviews of the interaction with the tour operators and how good or bad they might have been. However, I just needed a ride to the island and small talk was not really required. So, cheapest works for me as long as you get me there. I'm totally fine on my own after that.

Now I knew ahead of time that this was an extremely small island, very primitive with little to nothing on it. I knew they did have a restroom, very little shade and a building. I knew they had someone that did a grill cookout and you could purchase food there. That's fine with me. I can rough it and knew I would be roughing it IN the water, so no big deal. hehe

So we were booked with the small deposit of $22, printed paper in hand and followed a guy to their desk that said they were Eco Tours.

We were checked in with them, given arm bracelets and were told that we had a little bit of time before they would be leaving and we were welcome to wait around or shop. (We had a hour). We should meet them back here at 10:30. So off we went.

I really wasn't interested in getting anything so it was just a browse-killing-time-typeo-thang. But Sakari shopped as if she was on a hunt for something. She went into every store and was frantically looking as if she had lost something. We followed her as if we were the children following our mommy. Finally I got tired of winding in and out of the stores and told daddy he was on his own. I was going to find a drink and sit down.

After awhile Sakari told me she had found the perfect gift. She had found this beaded peacock. They had several different ones and when I inquired on the price, he told us it was $40. This thing was small but it was very beautiful and beaded with a long tail. The guy in the store said it was "hand made", but yet there were several of them and they were all different colors. I have a tendency to ask "Hand made from where? china?" but I was polite. Although there wasn't a tag. I told him we'd have to wait until we returned from our island to see if we would have enough money left over. He immediately told us that we could have it for $30. Once again, I assured him we would come back if we had money left over after the tour (and I really meant it). I knew how much Sakari wanted it and it would symbolize her day with the peacocks in Cozumel.

We met back at the desk around 10:20 and people were starting to return. They ask us to form 2 lines and forming lines is what we did. We were close to the front in one line and by the time we marched out of the building and made it to the boat, we ended up second to last to get on. How does this happen???

We pulled away from the port and were told it was a 30 minute ride there.

Since we were almost last on the boat, we managed to get one of those sideways seats. I absolutely HATE that because once the boat starts going fast and the front raises up, you end up sitting in a leaning position all the way there which gets uncomfortable.

Messy hair, don't care, with a little redness on the face makes a happy mermaid knowing that she would get to morph again today.

The guides were sitting around talking to everyone and telling them about their life and so on...but in the seats we were in, we were too far to hear what was going on and join in on the conversation.

They passed out water, which were in little plastic pouches and the lady that passed them out said they were the exact same thing as the plastic bottles, with the same amount in them, but they could easily pack more of these and they only cost them .25¢ so that was interesting. They ended up being 12 oz.

Me not being a water drinker, I still took it because it was cold and there was nothing else to drink. Yes, I suffered. But...the look on Sakari's face when we bit off the end of hers and she took a drink...she immediately turned around and spit it out in the ocean. Whoops. It was still hilarious though.

THEN WE COULD SEE IT...GOFFS CAYE WAS WITHIN OUR SITE!!! Ahhhh...I couldn't wait.

Our first view of the beautiful small little island we would spend our day at.

I know people in the past had said this island had 5 palm trees on it, but I think there were a little more than that. Just saying...maybe 12.

The guides told us that they would be taking us out, by boat, to snorkel after we arrived...if we wanted to. They said to get settled in and meet back at the dock in 30 minutes and they would leave. Of course it was your choice. They said they would be going to the opposite side of the island to snorkel and that you would swim around out there, then around the island, and come back in from the beach area. Quite honestly, I was a little worn out from the day before still and with these hour changes back and forth, I just didn't think I had it in me to snorkel this time around...at least not for that distance. They said it would be about 1 hour total in time and I just wasn't willing to do it. I bet it was wonderful though. Maybe another time.

We headed down the dock and knew it was going to be a beautiful day.

There were already a few people here. I would like to know what tour guide they had because it would have been nicer to spend more time here and get here earlier.

We managed to find a spot in the shade and put our towels and bags down. There are no chairs here...when I say primitive, I mean primitive. This is something that I was already aware of and it's fine with me whether I'm sitting in a chair or a beach towel. It really doesn't bother me. There was someone over on the Belize forum that stated that they had chairs for rent there the day they arrived, but I didn't see any and it was the first time I had ever seen any chair rental mentioned before. We did see 1 elderly lady with one of those hard "wooden looking" chairs. She was the only one and I'm not sure where she got it. She was sitting in the shade close to where we were.

Of course after arriving, Sakari stripped her clothes and down to the water she went.

There were small little fishes everywhere. She was super excited.

Just like the last time, I told her she had to wait for me to get in the water and check it out before she was allowed to morph into a mermaid again. I like to check the depth and determine how safe it is before allowing her to do anything like that.

Now I have to mention this...this water was CLEAR!!! LIKE SUPER CLEAR. I'm not sure I have ever seen water this clear before. You could see everything from the fish to the coral to rocks...like everything was so crystal clear at this place. It was simply amazing. I just couldn't get over it. Had the water been perfectly still, it would have been as if you were just starring at the ground. See the fish in this picture. Normally a fish that color would be fairly hard to see by the rocks.

In this picture, you can see Sakari with her bright pink bathing suit on standing by daddy under the tree. You can see the lady in the to the left in the picture. As the day went on, this lady would continue to move her chair closer and closer to us to the point I'm pretty sure our bags were moved and she was almost on top of them. grrr

We kept seeing these things in the water all day. At first I thought they were maybe "parts" to a jelly fish that was floating in the water. After a closer examination of several of them during the day, I noticed that they weren't just floating in and out with the water and they actually propelled and swam...slowly, but you could tell they were swimming.

Looking at it from above the water...yep, you could see it good up there too.

I told Sakari to stay away from them because they resembled a jelly fish and I didn't know if they would sting or not. Of course it was easy to avoid them because the water was just that clear.

I would come home to google this creature and find out that it was called a Fragile Combjelly.

They are about 2-4" in length. The Combjelly has unique front lobes that open and allow the animal to consume prey. Comb rows run the length of the body. They have iridescent comb rows, which are used to propel the animal up and down in the water column. Despite the locomotion capability, the fragile combjelly is relegated to a life of drifting on the currents, as are all other jellies. Comb jellies don't sting or bite human skin. They eat animal plankton, eating up to 10 times their weight per day. Most comb jellies catch drifting prey by squirting glue on them, thus making them immobile. Comb jellies have adopted a totally different means for getting around. All possess 8 comb rows (hence the name for the group). Formed by multitudes of cilia fused into rows of plates, the comb rows serve to move the ctenophore with sometimes surprising speed. Look carefully at the comb rows and you'll see shimmering waves of color as the plates beat in sequence to act like tiny oars.

Holy cow that is so helpful!! I have copied and pasted parts of reviews to a word document for research purposes and it was so time consuming. Thank you so much, I am making a note of it for the future.

Whoa, really? Thanks for this. I may be able to do it quicker that way. Is thee a way to take out all the comments? Or is that asking for too much? :D :p :o

 

Mine too

I think you could delete the boxes the comments are in. I'm going to save one of your older reviews and take it to work and run it though the converter and see what happens. We've got a converter program at work that can take a file and convert to Word, Excel, and several other options that I don't remember. I mostly convert to Excel but this would be perfect to convert to Word. I'll let you know what I come up with! :)

I decided it was time to do some snorkeling and see what was out there from the shore.

I had some friends that wanted to follow me. I guess it was the welcome committee and they would follow me for quite some time showing me the sites.

Yep, they are still following me.

I have to say I have never seen so much Elkhorn Coral than I did at this place. It was amazing and plentiful. There were some really HUGE pieces as well...like bigger than me.

There was also a few pieces of fire coral so beware.

I also have to say that I seen more Christmas Tree Worms at this place than I ever have before at any other place. I run into them here and there, but usually only one or two. This place was loaded with them and all different colors.

For the most part, they usually aren't too scared unless you get a little to close to them, they they go back in their hole and disappear. But if you sit real still for a few seconds, they will come back out. It doesn't take long.

I did see quite a few 4 eyed butterfly fishes this day. They were a pretty nice size compared to most I have seen in the past.

My friends still along for the ride...or is that swim?

That nasty fire coral Sakari knows to stay away from after getting stung once in Cozumel

It was weird when you got into these areas with tons of coral (there was a path beside all of it so you don't go over it and get stuck...it's the path they use to swim back from the snorkeling tours) and the water in this area was SO WARM...like bathwater warm. It was really weird. Then once you got away from there, you could feel the temp of the water instantly change. Now I know there wasn't anyone peeing in the water, I was the only one out there at the moment. Just saying...

This elkhorn coral was HUGE

Here is a "regular" worm (like the Christmas tree worms). I use to have a bunch of these in my salt water aquirium back when I was in my 20's. My mom use to live in Myrtle Beach, right on the beach, and we went for a visit one summer and ended up walking along the beach gathering some rocks. We ended up with an entire trunk full. I brought them back and put them in my 125 gallon tank and made the coolest display of caves and rocks with them. About a month later, I had TONS of these little worms all over the rocks and it was neat to see since something like this would cost you hundreds if not thousands to purchase at the pet store because they charge by the pound there.

Yep, I still have my personal escorts...

So I was getting a little tired of snorkeling and decided to head back and see what the hubby and Sakari were up to.

By the time I returned, the lady in the chair had pretty much forced us out of our "spot" on the beach. Sigh.

One good thing about this excursion, they did provide free punch and rum punch. All you can drink, all day, the entire time you were there. So, you did not have to worry about buying drinks while there.

The hubby said he was getting hungry and we decided to purchase 2 of the bbq meals. They were $8 each. They included chicken, corn and beans and rice.

You got the entire leg and thigh and the rice was good, but the corn was maybe a tablespoon of corn. I shared my meal with Sakari because I wasn't super hungry. She absolutely LOVES corn, so she pretty much ate my corn in 2 bites.

After eating, I wanted to explore a little bit of the island and get some additional pictures. I told the hubby I was going exploring and to come looking for me in about an hour if I didn't return...because this island was so huge I might get lost. He gave me "that look" and I was off.

Now only part of this island can be used for swimming. It's mainly the side that the boats come in on. It's mostly all beach other than over where all the coral is located to the left side.

These are the 2 bathrooms. Womens and mens and only 1 of each.

I guess they were nicer than I expected for such a small primitive area.

There was a lady that took care of the bathrooms and kept them clean by restocking toilet paper and sweep the sand out.

This is looking over at the other side from the beach side. There is plenty of room over there as well, but most of it is rocks along the water, but there is a small area that is sand and beach as well.

This is located on the other side. It was very pretty over there.

As you can see, lots of rocks and unable to swim at this spot. Right in front of this is the snorkeling area and you can see the boats out there with people snorkeling. It doesn't look far. Maybe I should have went after all.

A pelican was having a feast in the water. He was there for quite some time.

This is still the other side and as you can see, the rocks are starting to go away the further you go down (heading toward the docks).

The shelter where the cook was at with the food and also where the tour operators were at with the drinks.

Still the other side and now there's an area for swimming as well.

The dock with people heading back. I'm glad it wasn't time for us to go back yet. I was enjoying the view way too much. I could stay here all day.

Looking down toward the beach side we were on...

I will say that one thing I noticed about the other side of the island (where there was mostly rocks) is that there was a super nice breeze blowing over there. It felt really good.

I returned back from my walking picture tour to find Sakari had found a new friend. A sea cucumber.

I took a picture, she showed some of the people in the area explaining what it was and talking as if she was Bindy Irwin and then she swam back out in the water to release her friend.

I ask her if she wanted to go out and snorkel with me before we left and she did. So off we went and she was in the lead with me trying to keep up with her most of the time.