Belize 2024 on the Regal Princess

 We have two sea days on our way back to Galveston.  We took advantage of this to sleep in before enjoying a leisurely breakfast in the Horizon Court buffet.  Fred the Astronomer gave two enrichment talks today.  The first one this morning was on the stars (Cruising Through the Cosmos) and other items beyond our galaxy and it was really interesting.  My big takeaway was how using light spectrums one can determine the chemical composition of items without having a physical sample to test.  He's passionate about his astronomy topics and is a very good presenter.  In the afternoon, he spoke on the history of telescopes, and it, too, was super interesting.  We also took the opportunity to enjoy a pizza lunch at Alfredo's. The evening entertainment was the performance of the stage show, Fiera, which was an elaborate musical set in a circus theme.  The costuming was spectacular and super colorful, and it was a very nice show.  Tomorrow, the singers and dancers are performing a 3rd st

 After a pleasant overnight sail, we arrived at Roatân just after 9am and the ship was backed into our Berth in front of the Carnival Spirit at Mahogany Bay.  Mahogany Bay is a cruise terminal owned and operated by Carnival Cruise Lines.  It was opened in 2011 and includes a very large plaza with lots of shops of not only the high end Diamond International and Pirhannia Pete, but local artisans as well.  Additionally there are food venues.  Adjoining the plaza area is a very nice beach area which can be reached by walking down a paved pathway or using the overhead ski lift type chairs ($15/day).  The beach area has a huge swimming area and snorkeling could be done there.  The whole complex is sort of like a private island and is principally only used by ships under the Carnival brand umbrella. The beach area Not sailing any more As for us, we had booked a shore excursion that would take us snorkeling off of a catamaran and included transportation, food, beverages, & gear. We met ou

 Today was our second port stop and it found us anchored off Belize City in the country of Belize.  While we had an 8am arrival, our planned snorkeling trip did not start until 10am, so we didn't set an alarm.  We were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast before gathering our gear for the day's snorkeling trip.  When we got to the meeting point at the Princess Theater at 9:25am, they told us there was no room and we were asked to return at 9:55am.  So we sat in the Piazza and checked our emails, etc.  I observed during the 1/2 hour sitting there that there was only one tender ticket called and I spoke with a fellow who had an Octopus tender ticket and he was advised that it was at least an hour wait.  The whole Piazza area was packed with people and my observation was that Belize is a poor destination if tender tickets are so hard to get.  Most of one's time is spent waiting for a tender plus the ride to shore is 45 minutes.   We joined our shore excursion group in the theat

Today found us backing into our berth in Cozumel which is an island about 45 minutes off the coast of mainland Mexico.  We arose early in order to eat before we were supposed to disembark at 8am and get to our meeting point by 8:10am. The Lido restaurant area was pretty wide open at 7am and easy to find a seat.  However, it was pretty slow getting water and hot tea delivered timely.  We finished breakfast and went back to our room and watched the docking maneuver before heading down to deck 5 to wait to disembark the ship which happens on Deck 4.  8am came and went and it wasn't until 8:20 that the ship was cleared for us to leave.  So much for the front deck person's assurances that we'd be ready to get off by 8am. We scanned off the ship with our medallions and found Princess representatives at the end of pier.  We were instructed to turn left and turn left again.  When I asked where we were to go, the instruction was repeated until I asked what was our destination which

 Today was our first full day at sea.  I slept the best I have in a long time at 5 hours.which put me awake at 5am.  I was first to rise and get ready for the day, so I ate breakfast by myself in the Lido area.  Angela later joined me and we first attended the Port presentation by the Destination Expert, Veni Shykin on Belize. He's a part of the entertainment team so it wasn't a selling job for Princess Shore Excursions.  Afterwards we attended the Cruise Critic meet and greet which was held in the hidden Club 6 venue.  It was poorly attended (less than 10 people) and there were 6 officers there including the Hotel General Manager and the Cruise Director.  But we enjoyed a nice conversation with Craig and Dixie from Sacramento.   After a nice TexMex lunch, we watched the Deal or No Deal game show.  It was interesting but was essentially a bingo game with a low chance of winning.  Afterwards, Fred presented an enrichment talk on the Solar system with pictures of items in our sol

 This past week I've not slept well, and last night was no exception.  I was awake from 3am to 6:30am and fell back asleep until 8:30am. After showering and dressing. we headed down to the ballroom for breakfast.  We ate with a couple from Florida and a lady detective from Portland.  All of us were excited to be boarding in a few hours. The hotel elevators were not working well so we ended up carrying our luggage down 3 flights of stairs and out to our waiting transfer bus.  The trip was about 1.25 hours and arrived at 11:30am.  For the most part it was one strip mall after another between Houston and Galveston.  Check in was smooth and efficient since we had our Princess Medallions (electronic key card).  It took about 1/2 hour to do the whole process. Our stateroom was ready so we dropped our carryon luggage and watched the safety video and checked in at our muster station before visiting the buffet for a nice but crowded lunch. Drop down bunks We spent the rest of the afternoon