In 2013 we took
the second of our two Caribbean cruises with the kids. We love Carnival cruises and while the original time we were a
little skeptical as their reputation as a party boat, we actually found them no
different and even better in some ways for our kids. We chose to cruise out of the Port of New
Orleans on a five day cruise that would hit Honduras (the island of Roatán), Belize, and back to Cozumel. This time, we went with our friends Mark
and Joey and their two kids Ali and Audrey.
We chose the last week of summer break in Texas and missed all the
Louisiana kids who went back to school that week. We went on the Carnival Conquest - a medium to large sized ship. (Ship Map)
We stayed the night before at the New
Orleans Marriott Metairie at Lakeway which is just off the south end of the
Lake Pontchartrain bridge. It had a nice
indoor pool, a running track, and a workout room. The price was very good too. Since we drove from Austin to New Orleans, we
didn’t really need to stay near the port.
We went to dinner at the Acme Oyster House, We like the one in the French Quarter, but this one was less crowded and near the hotel.
The next day we drove to the port early to get on the boat
early. We like to take advantage of the
less crowded ship and take care of lunch (included) and the kids’ club
sign-ups, etc. We parked at the covered
Fulton garage and pre-bought our tickets online. We waited for the shuttle to take us to the
port, but it was really slow, so we just walked around the north end of the
terminal (about two blocks) and then found the place to enter the
terminal. Boarding was smooth and we
made it through in about 20 minutes.
Leaving Louisiana
I was shocked at how long it took us to get from New Orleans
to the Gulf of Mexico. I had always
pictured New Orleans as being on the coast, even though in the five or so times
I’ve been there, I’ve never tried to find a beach…. Red flag… So I tracked our movement on my cell which
got pretty decent reception until late the first night. There are hundreds of islands surrounding the
delta of the Mississippi River and we passed through these largely unsettled
areas for a long time.
Day at Sea
On the first night we had a dance contest at the teen club and both families won over the other families.
This ship had an Apothecary Bar where they had an old timey Pharmacy and made unique drinks that were super strong. Mark and I didn’t discover the Apothecary until the second to last day which is probably for the better.
Honduras / Roatán
As we docked in Roatán, you
could see the lush green tropical hillsides and you knew you were on vacation. Our shore excursion for the day was to go to
monkey town at Gumbalimba
Park!
The park is a good 30 minutes
from the dock so we got to see a lot of small villages and the Honduran way of
life which is very different from our own. At the park, it was like a multi-part tour,
with a botanical gardens tour, a pirate cave, huge lizards and brightly colored
macaws. But he highlight was MonkeyTown where
we got to feed and touch monkeys. One
stole Mark’s water bottle, took it way up in a tree, opened it up, chugged all
the water, and then spiked it down to the ground. We got several pictures of monkeys on our
shoulders and heads.
Belize
Joey and
Mark took another tender into Belize City to go shopping and they got back just
in time for dinner.
Cozumel
Joey wins the balloon toss game |