Hi friends. I’m sorry about not finishing the post last week but it was a holiday week. So here we go!
Day 4
We were not going to arrive in Honduras until a little after 10 a.m which meant I could go on my run. The views on that run were gorgeous. I honestly stopped so many times to take pictures that I don't know if I truly ran 2 miles. Once I saw the dock getting closer I knew I should probably go back to the room to get ready. To my surprise, my fiance was already awake and changed. Once I got changed we ran downstairs to the lowest deck we could go to and joined the others in the little area they had us in. Once they made the announcement for us to get off the boat we were finally off and officially in Roatan Honduras.
Our adventure today consisted of laying on a private beach with a bar in our own cabana. The way to get to this private island was by taking a ski lift and wow the views were once again, gorgeous! Once we were off and on our private beach, we were greeted by our personal waiter who showed us to our cabana and gave us scuba gear and rafts. I will say we didn't use the scuba gear but we did use the heck out of the rafts. The sand was the whitest I had ever seen and the water was a clear as glass. We had also brought our Go Pro so we took so many pictures.
After being in the water we went back to our cabana where our waiter took our drink and lunch orders. I ordered a NON-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri/pina colada mixed drink and a side of chips and salsa. Holy moly you guys, the chips and salsa were amazing!! I still dream about them to this day. After lunch, we decided to relax in our chairs and I swear we must have both been so relaxed because we passed out. Once we woke up we went back in the water for a little bit longer before the big black cloud the was coming our way rained us out. Well, one thing I learned this day is no matter how dark the clouds are, it will only rain for 5 minutes and that's it.
We decided to head back to the main island early so we would have time to shop. After we shopped until we dropped we got back on the boat, changed and we decided to go explore the ship some more. On our exploration, we discovered the best thing ever, the arcade! One thing that you should know about my fiance and I is that we love arcades. We can also get very competitive. One of our competitions was seeing who get the most rubber ducks and turtles out of the claw machine. Needless to say, we had a pretty good size collection by the end of our trip.
After our trip to the arcade, we decided to see if our engagement photos were ready. Well, do y'all remember how windy it was the day we got our pictures taken? Well guess what friends, my hair was in my face for almost all of the pictures and they were only able to get a few good ones. The manager who was overall photography on the boat said he wanted to redo our entire photo session. He also asked if I could wear my hair up this time. So we rescheduled our photo shoot and we ran back upstairs to the hair salon to reschedule another hair appointment for tomorrow since it was our second formal night.
By the time we made our new appointments and got dressed it was time for our fancy VIP Italian dinner. When we walked in you would think we were in Italy. It was beautiful and everything was Italian, the menu, the music, the water. Even the waiters and waitresses were Italian. I ordered a glass of sparkling rose and a glass of sparkling water. Then the waitress brought us this amazing Parmesan bread which y'all can see down below. This bread officially beats all the bread! For my appetizer, I ordered some real fancy Italian salad. For dinner, I ordered the shrimp, Alfredo. I know what y'all must be thinking, Riley you had a cream-based drink and lowkey died when you had a cream-based drink so why are you eating Alfredo. Well, as Olaf once said, some things are worth dying for. After dinner, we both ended up ordering the same dessert which was this crisp cookie thing and holy cow, wow! After dinner, I ended up going to bed pretty early because I was exhausted. We once again we're going to have a busy day tomorrow.
Day 5
So on this day, we were in Belize but prior to our redo photos, we decided we were going to stay on the boat this day and make it a pool day. Well, my morning started as they usually do, I woke up early and went to the upstairs track to go run. Except for this time, the humidity was not playing around today so I decided to go to the gym. I thought the views from the track were nice but the views from the gym were so pretty. The gym was located at the very front of the boat and the treadmill was also located at the front window. As usual, after my run, I went back to the room to wake up my fiance and get ready for our pool day.
Since everyone was in Belize we practically had the entire pool to ourselves. We even ordered drinks. Now I figured out that I should only order alcohol during or after dinner since I discovered that alcohol knocks me out. So when I ordered my virgin strawberry colada, I found out that Carnival doesn't use the word virgin, they use some word like 100% proof or something like that to mean no alcohol. So my "virgin drinks" were not actually virgin. But somehow I was able to handle those drinks better than any other drink I tried.
We stayed there up until lunch. For lunch we went to Guy's Burger Joint and y'all, I recommend every single one of you go to a Guy's Burger Joint because wow. And the fries, wow. I also went to the Blue Iguana and again wow! The best chicken wrap I've ever had!
After our pool day, we went back to the room and I did my fancy photo makeup again and ran back up to the salon to get my hair done...again. This time my hair guy was not ready for me so they had me wait in the spa lobby. There were different flavors of fruit infused water, the smell of the essential oils was so relaxing and the music, ugh. I wish I could recreate that in my own house. Once my guy was ready for me I showed him an up-do that I found on Pinterest. Now mind you I have never got an up do before. My go-to fancy hairstyle is curled. Again, this dude did my hair in less than 30 minutes! He curled it, braided it and did the up style just like the picture. I could not believe how good it looked. When he was finished I swear he used over 100 bobby pins on me and used an entire can of hairspray. No amount of wind was going to mess up the hair.
So once again I ran down the stairs like Cinderella and threw my dress on and we ran down 2 more flights of stairs. This time I did not wear my heels, I just held them until the picture required me to wear shoes. This time around we had not one but 5 different photographers. The main photographer was the manager who had spoken to us earlier. We went ALL around that boat. Upstairs, downstairs and even down these stairs that led to a bar and everyone clapped for me when I made it down the windy staircase in my heels. Our pictures turned out AH-MAZ-ING by the way so every crazy thing they had us do was well worth it!
After round two of our pictures, we ran back to the room, got redressed for formal night and headed off to dinner. Now fun fact, before you go to dinner who can get pictures taken so what did my fiance do? Take more pictures after we just took pictures. Bless him. After all the pictures had been taken we made it to dinner. Once again, it was so good. I ended up skipping my appetizer and I ate the best chicken teriyaki I have ever had. For dessert, I had a lemon mousse and our waiter surprised us with a chocolate lava cake to celebrate our engagement.
After dinner, we decided to wait in line to see the show “Flick”. Now mind you I have been in heels now for almost 5 hours and I know what some of y’all must be thinking, she’s weak! You're darn right I am! I don’t even want to wear heels on my wedding day let alone 5 hours. So y’all ready for another sweet fiance moment? I didn’t say anything about being uncomfortable but I guess I kept fidgeting around in line to make the pain more bearable and he said: “take your heels off, I’ll run to the room and grab your flats.” Do y’all see why I love him?
After the show, we were surprisingly hungry. And ironically for dessert(because the 3-course dessert wasn’t enough apparently). So we got changed into comfy clothes and took a walk to the lido deck and got soft serve and frozen yogurt. As we ate away and our fourth desserts, we walked around the boat. I believe the most relaxing thing that you could ever do on a boat is walking around at night. It’s so calming and the sea breeze feels so good with the warm air. So again, another one of my recommendations, walk the boat at night.
It was also on this night that due to the speed the captain was having to drive? do you drive a boat? steer the boat? Well, whatever, the speed the captain had the boat was extremely fast. There was a small medicinal emergency in Belize which delayed our leaving time to Cozumel so we were a little behind. Our captain said to all of us over the intercom that tonight was going to be a windy night and that the crew was going to rope off certain parts of the boat that are forbidden to go on for safety reasons. I didn’t understand why though. I mean we were at a pretty high deck and yes it was windy but it wasn’t unbearable. So my fiance took my on the 15th deck and okay yes that was a lot windier than the 11th deck but still I didn’t see what the fuss was about. So then he said, “I’ll show the windiest part of the boat but you can’t have your phone out and you need to stay quiet.” So he took me by the hand and we made our way to the very front of the boat or as people who know their boat terms call it, the bow. Okay do y’all remember those hurricane simulator booths (if you grew up going to the Monroe Mall you’ll know what I’m talking about) well, those booths have NOTHING on walking to the front on the boat. When I am telling you I was hanging on the rail for dear life, wow. But y’all that was so so so much fun! I mean it was that kinda wind that makes people’s faces do that thing in cartoons. It was crazy!
Day 6
Today was the day I have been waiting for since we booked the cruise, Cozumel day. For our excursion, we booked a snorkel adventure and then a trip to a private island and the way we were getting there was on catamaran. So when I am telling you we were up and at it for this day, we were. We had to get off the boat, take port pictures and find the spot for our excursion all before 8:30 (I think). Luckily everything went smooth sailing (lol, boat jokes) and we found our destination with time to spare to browse the streets of Mexico. If you haven’t been to Mexico you need to make that your number one priority. It is beautiful! The sounds, the water, the people. Just wow.
For those of you who have been on a catamaran then you already know how huge these boats are. For those of you who have never been on one of these, let me tell ya, these boats are huge! They even have a downstairs bathroom! Our boat even had a bar (filled with free, bottomless margaritas I should add). I will tell y’all know I didn’t even touch the alcohol because we all know I apparently can’t handle it. So once us and it seems like every other family was loaded on, we were off to explore the bluest waters of Mexico. I should also add that I have never snorkeled in my life except for when I was little and my mom bought me a mask and some flippers and I snorkeled in my pool but that doesn’t really count. We were given fins, masks with built-in breathing tubes and the wimpiest life jackets that actually blew up to your liking when you blew it up.
When we got to our snorkeling destination, you literally walked off the boat by stairs fins and all. Considering it was maybe 9 something in the morning this water was freezing but holy smokes were it clear. I think this was the clearest water from all of our destinations. There was something so calming about snorkeling and being surrounded by the biggest coral reefs I have ever seen and being surrounded by so many types of fish. We were allotted about an hour to snorkel and that time went by so quick. Another tip I have for y’all, invest in a go pro! That’s actually all we used to take videos and pictures while we were on our excursions.
So now we were on our way to the private beach island. On our way there our captain passed out the drinks and blasted every song by Pitbull and now that the sun was out, the boat ride was so much fun. Our private beach island was gorgeous! It had such white sand, blue waters and it had every type of water toy you could imagine. Big slides, rolling balls, kayaks, paddle boards, floating mats, you name it, it was there! It also had a beach bar and the comfiest chairs to lay in and I would know because I was there about the entire time. Except for when my fiance begged me to go on the giant water slide. Y’all these things were not easy to climb up. They’re obviously deep enough so you can slide down but because I am so short, any depth of water is a pain for me. So with the help of my fiance, I was able to make it up. Another fun fact about me is that I absolutely hate water in my nose. So when it was time for us to go down I thought I had the best idea of holding my nose towards the end but unfortunately for me, my plan did not work as this slide literally shoots you into the air and I was not prepared when I came down but it was really fun. But I was done and I wanted to lay in the sun before we had to go back. My fiance, on the other hand, was loving life and all the water toys.
When it was time to leave the beach it was honestly depressing. That was our last island visit which meant tomorrow was our last day at sea and then we would be home. Our ride back to the port was so much fun! Again it was endless margaritas which again I did not touch and this time our captain played every type of line dance possible, including my favorite, the macarena! It was so much fun! Once we got back to the port we still had time to shop and explore. Cozumel Mexico is gorgeous and again I highly recommend it!
When we got back on the boat we were both exhausted. So while my fiance took a nap, I sat out on our balcony and watched everything. The way our boat was positioned I could see the whole island which included the speed boat tourist ride that would come by every 10 minutes. I was also admiring with how blue the water was and the gigantic royal Caribbean boat that was docked beside us. After my fiance woke up it was time for dinner. After having 2 formals it was nice being able to “bum” it out. We still had to look presentable but we were able to be a little more relaxed. For dinner, I chose to keep with the Mexican theme and I had steak tacos. Surprisingly I skipped dessert this night. After dinner, we went to the top deck and watched the sunset and there is something so magical about watching a sunset in Mexico. This was kind of a quick night for us because we were both just so tired so we called it an early night.
Day 7
When we first got on the boat we booked a behind the scene tour of the boat. This tour started at 8 am so were up early again. We were both still so tired and I decided it was time to try the wanna be Starbucks. I had the most sugar-coated almond milk white chocolate frappuccino with chocolate sauce and holy smokes it was so frickin’ good!!! It woke me right up because I watched her put a good ol’ espresso shot in it. I also took a small box of special k cereal from the breakfast bar. When we met up with the rest of the people who were also going on the tour they took us in this really fancy room that also had every type of breakfast food, of course, right. They also had hats and VIP passes with lanyards for us. They said it was important for us to wear all these things so we wouldn’t look like regular people. So once we had all of our gear on, a security guard wanded us because we weren’t allowed to have anything on us except a watch, not even our phones.
Our tour we explored all the parts of the boat. We went to the very top deck, the level 0 deck and there were even more decks below that. We explored the entire kitchen and got to sample the oh so famous chocolate-covered strawberries. We also got to watch how much time goes into prepping enough meals for the entire boat. Then we got to go to level 0 and this is the level where everything gets loaded on; the food, the drinks, the trash, and even our luggage goes through this level. We also got to go into the giant fridge room which was freeeezing and into the alcohol section of the boat. I have never seen so much alcohol in my life. After this we went down a few levels to the staff only part of the boat. At this level, the porthole windows were almost below the water and the waves were splashing the window. We then got to see the staff only cafeteria and we even got to see where they sleep. They have such tiny rooms so I give credit to all of the crew members. After that, we got to go back upstairs and go backstage of the big theater area. Being a former theater geek myself, this brought me joy. It was so cool to see how they moved all the props around and also how they secured them when the seas got rough. Lastly, we got to go to the absolute coolest part of the boat. We got to go up to the very top and meet the captain and see how he controls the boat. It was so cool and he was cool as well. He was also Italian so he had that really rich accent. We finished our tour back in another room where we received the recipe to cook the oh so famous chocolate lava cake. Maybe one day I’ll make it and post about it.
After our tour, we went back to the room and we were greeted with a platter of fresh-baked muffins and more chocolate covered strawberries. As good as it smelled I only ate a small bite because word around the boat was that today was a chocolate extravaganza. So when I am telling you that I literally ran to the lido deck for my chocolate, I certainly did. There was every amount of chocolate you could think of; brownies, muffins, cupcakes, cake and there was even a chocolate fountain! Surprisingly I only chose to have a few slices of cake. After the chocolate extravaganza, we decided to go back to the arcade one more time. While we were there we ended up getting more rubber ducks and we basically added to our collection.
After our final trip to the arcade, we got ready for our final dinner. I chose the chicken cheese pie for dinner and I really wish I could eat that again and again because wow. I also consumed my final basket of bread which was pretty upsetting because I knew once I got off the boat it was back to my healthy lifestyle. So I ate as much as I could knowing that was going to be my final boat meal.
After dinner, it seems like everyone made their way to the theater to watch Carnival’s version of Lip Sync Battle. Before the show started, the MC’s (I guess that’s what they’re called) asked for two couples in the audience to volunteer and come on stage. You would think I would dive at the opportunity to be on a stage but I actually sink down in my seat. My fiance, on the other hand, loves the chance to be in the spotlight and actually volunteered us and of course, we were chosen. So we and another couple are now on stage in front of the most amount of people I have ever been in front of. We were then challenged to do a dance-off with the other couple and the audience would vote on who wins. So with some music, I’ve never heard in my life and literally 30 seconds on the line, I did the only thing that at that moment I could come up with, the macarena. Thank goodness my fiance also is aware of that dance so for about 30 seconds we did the macarena. After that, it was time for the audience to vote and amazingly enough, we won! We actually won! We were then given two medals and we were able to go back to our seats to drink the drinky drinks that we had ordered before our debut performance.
The lip sync battle was so good! I don’t think I ever cheered and yelled that much since my high school pep rally days. After the show, we had to go collect our pictures. Our pictures turned out gorgeous and they even put them in this huge book for us. After that, we had to run back our room and pack. You are only allowed to take your carry on off the boat, your big luggage gets taken off and you collect it in the morning. It was the most stressful packing event of my life! I felt like none of my items would fit in my suitcase and actually, they didn’t. It came to a point where I was shoving things in my fiance’s luggage. After they collected our luggage, we realized that we never packed our giant photo album. So we decided to keep it in the bag that they gave it to us in and we were going to hope for the absolute best. So after one more trip the casino after we packed our bags, we called it a night. We knew the next morning was going to start early and it was going to be a long day.
So I hope you guys enjoyed my cruise story! I can’t wait to go on another one and I hope that each one of you get the change to one day on a cruise.
♡Riley
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