Western Caribbean Cruise

Last August, my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary! And because my family didn't take their usual annual summer trip to visit family California, my parents wanted to do something fun with the whole family over Christmas break to celebrate. After some deliberation, the family decided that they would like to cruise somewhere warm for the holidays. No one had been on a cruise before, and the fam wanted to get out of dreary, cloudy Washington. And that is how we ended up going on a cruise through the western Caribbean during Christmas break! Thank you parents!

8 Day Western Caribbean Cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line

We left Seattle to fly to Tampa (where our cruise ship was docked) late the night before our cruise left. We flew through the night with a short layover in Houston. Though the flight was a little last minute--thank goodness we didn't have any delays--we didn't have to worry about booking a hotel in Tampa for the night, which was a plus. This trip was the first time we utilized Uber, which we are now huge fans of. We took an Uber from the airport to the cruise ship port on Sunday morning, December 18th. After some hassle of checking our bags in, checking passports, etc. we boarded our cruise ship and began our adventure! We stayed on the cruise through Christmas, returning back to Tampa on Monday, December 26th. Below is a map of all the stops we made on our cruise, and I'll just write a little bit (or a lotta bit) about each day on the cruise.

Day 1: Embark in Tampa, Florida

We went straight from the airport to the cruise ship after an all night flight, boarding around noon that Sunday. We were happy to learn that our staterooms were ready for us as soon as we walked on board. We were sharing two tiny rooms between the seven of us on the trip. My parents shared a room with Leah and Michael, while Dustan and I shared one with Sam. It was nice to drop off some of our things before we grabbed some lunch and began exploring the ship.

A little bit about the cruise line and ship we were on. We booked our cruise through the Norwegian Cruise Line, and we were on their ship the Jade. Norwegian Cruise Line is known to be more laid back (they don't have any of those required fancy dinner nights) and more family oriented (unlike Carnival, which is basically a party boat). It is cheaper that other family oriented cruises like Disney or Royal Caribbean, but that is probably because there are less activities on board. The price was right for us, even during the peak season. The Jade can accommodate up to 2,402 passengers and has 1,037 crew members (isn't that ratio crazy?!). The Jade is one of the smaller cruise ships having less floors, shorter length and width, less passengers, and less amenities on board. You can read more about our ship here, on the Norwegian Cruise Line website.

The very first thing we did after getting into our staterooms was figuring out which restaurants on board were complimentary. We immediately went up to one of the top floors to the Garden Cafe buffet to eat some lunch. This was where we ate most of our meals throughout the trip. We were impressed with the quality of food for a buffet! It was delicious.

Dustan, Sam, and I went up to one of the top decks to play some games and soak up the sun while the cruise ship was sailing away from the port. It was fun to watch us leaving Tampa. In no time, we couldn't even see land anymore!

We hadn't made any dinner reservations on the ship, but we decided to try our luck with the fancy (you were required to wear nice clothes) complimentary restaurant on board, Grand Pacific. Oh my goodness, it was delicious! Everyone ordered an appetizer, main dish, and two desserts. The steak I got there was one of the best steaks I'd ever had, weirdly enough. Everything was great!

We settled in to our little staterooms after dinner, unpacking our suitcases, napping, and taking showers. That evening and each following, our steward Edison brought us a schedule of the next day's events and activities along with an adorable towel animal. Here are a couple from the week:

At night, we went to an introductory show in the Stardust Theater which was introducing all the fun shows and acts we could attend in the evenings throughout our time on the boat. Soon after, we hit the hay--we were exhausted after the previous night of flying.

Day 2: At Sea

Our first full day on the cruise was spent at sea, which gave us some time to relax and explore the ship more before reaching our first destination in port. On the schedule brought to us the day before, we had highlighted and chose a few fun activities to do during our first day at sea. First though, we got some sleep! It felt wonderful.

After the breakfast buffet, we went up to the top deck to go swimming in the salt water pools, relax in the chlorine and child filled hot tubs, and participate in some on board activities. I convinced Dustan to enter the "Sexy Legs Competition" that was happening poolside, hosted by the cruise line. No win for him from the judges, but he won the audience vote by a landslide ;) Sam entered the ping pong contest and got smoked first round, haha.

That evening, Dustan and I attended a lame tango class before joining the family at the only complimentary asian restaurant on board. Somehow though, the asian food was pretty bad--the buffet had better! We never returned. After dinner, we sat in the onboard bar watching people sing karaoke while we played games. Leah got up there and sang, and did great! Sam, Leah, Dustan, and I made an appearance at a dance up in the bar lounge at the top deck. It was worth the 10 minutes we stayed, haha.

That night, a small storm rolled in. The boat was rocking enough to make a few of us nauseous by the time we went to sleep. That was the only reminder that we were on a boat though!

Day 3: Cozumel, Mexico

The next morning, we woke up on the island of Cozumel, Mexico! Cozumel is a fairly small island off Mexico's eastern coast. It is largely undeveloped and the economy is almost completely based on tourism. It is known for it's amazing reef scuba diving--unfortunately, none of us are certified, so that wasn't a viable option. This was one of the port stops we had completely planned out and bought an excursion in advance. For the day, we were doing a dune buggy tour of Cozumel through Cozumel Cruise Excursions. We met up with our tour guide Johnny off the pier where the boat was docked, and off we went! Our tour guides drove a little Volkswagen bug while the family shared two ghetto, manual dune buggies, haha.

Our first stop on the tour was at a nearby private beach, where Johnny took us snorkeling. Aside from Dustan and me, no one in my family had been snorkeling before. It was a blast. Though there weren't many reefs to explore, there were a lot of neat fish and even a small manta ray.

After snorkeling, Dustan let me try driving the dune buggy (only my parents and us knew how to drive a manual, so the rest relaxed). I'd only driven a couple manuals before, and this one was tough! Very non-responsive--but I safely made it to our next stop without even killing it. I let Dustan drive again as soon as we made it to Punta Sur Eco Beach Park, an ecological park on the south side of Cozumel. Here, we first walked out on a dock and checked out the swamp area and observed a crocodile hanging out under the dock. Then our tour guides told us about the little Mayan ruin just up the road.

We drove a little further into Punta Sur to the lighthouse. At the base of the lighthouse, and man had two macaws that we held for just a couple dollars for donations. Then us kids hiked up the many steps of the lighthouse to a stellar view at the top while my parents wandered along the beach.

As we drove to our next destination, we saw beautiful ocean landscapes. White beaches, clear turquoise ocean, blowholes shooting up water from rocky overlooks, the whole shebang. We made one more pitstop at a more rocky beach before heading to lunch.

Lunch was at a restaurant on the beach. We ate fajitas (pork, chicken, or fish), each of us ordered a giant virgin pina colada, and we all shared a side of chips and guacamole. It was a delicious meal! After lunch, Dustan and I walked along the beach a little where I attempted save a hurt bird that was stuck in a tide pool. The usual.

Then sadly, it was already boarding time at the cruise ship. We drove our dune buggies back to the port and boarded. Just beforehand, Dustan and I made it a goal to get a picture at our port with the cruise ship in the background at every single stop!

Soon after getting showered off, we went up to the top deck to watch the sunset. Mike saw a crew member picking up beach chairs on the deck, began helping out, and earned himself a free Coke (which is quite expensive on the boat).

That night, we went to our first real show at the Stardust theater. It was the Blazing Boots country concert, and it was a blast! There is a performance team on board, who performed a majority of the concerts and activities we could attend. They sang and danced popular country songs from artists like Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and more. They were incredible! We were amazed that they could dance so well and not fall with how much the ship was rocking that evening.

Day 4: Harvest Caye, Belize

When we woke up the next day, we were docked at Harvest Caye, Belize. We were a little disappointed to be going to this port in Belize. Harvest Caye is a man made island owned by the Norwegian Cruise Line, used solely by them at the time being (though they may allow other cruise lines to visit in the future). So though there was a lot of hype about this totally private island, we were disappointed that we wouldn't be seeing the real Belize. We had heard amazing things about the culture and lands full of rainforests. Oh well.

Since we pulled in late to Harvest Caye, we had time to try a restaurant for breakfast rather than the usual buffet. We went to the fancy Grand Pacific, and it was delicious as always. Nearly everyone ordered the eggs benedict with a side of bacon, fruit, and a cinnamon roll. Then, we headed to the island!

Our afternoon at Harvest Caye was our only absolutely completely unplanned day. We knew there were some fun activities on the island such as ziplining and kayaking, as well as many restaurants. Once we had walked off the pier, we quickly strolled through most of the island (it was quite small). We visited the free nature center and checked some activity pricing. We immediately decided that $80 was not worth one short zipline across the island, and posted up at the beach to just have a relaxing day.

We alternated between sun bathing and swimming in the warm ocean. My mom and I collected/stole some seashells and coral we found at the beach. Unfortunately, my goggles fell off in the water and were never seen again haha. After realizing that there wasn't any great food on the island, the Nielson boys returned to the ship for lunch, while the girls and Dustan explored the giant pool and sunbathed a little more. We also ended up back at the ship for lunch though. And that was our Belize experience!

Somehow our faces in this one ended up completely black... HILARIOUS

After lunch, the family played shuffle board on deck (it went poorly, we were all awful haha). We played some games, watched movies, or took naps. These quickly became our cruise evening routines. We had dinner at Alizar's that night, the second fanciest after the Grand Pacific. The food choices were very similar, but slightly less delicious. Dustan did try escargot though!

 

That night, we went to another concert in the Stardust, called Uptown. It was a group of three black guys that sang major hits dating back decades from popular artists like the Jackson 5, putting their own spin on the songs. They were really good, and very entertaining!

Day 5: Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala

Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala was our first stop on mainland! It was a little port city on Amatique Bay off the Gulf of Honduras, and our cruise ship was actually in a shipping yard. Santo Tomas was probably the most authentic and not tourism created place we visited (though four cruise ships each month dock there, helping Guatemala tourism). This was definitely one of our favorite stops.

We hadn't bought a guided excursion for our time in Santo Tomas either, but we did have a small plan for what we wanted to do. Though there were neat ruins and rivers we could have bought an excursion to, the only thing on our bucket list was to visit the Las Escobas Waterfalls. We knew it would be cheaper without a bought excursion tour guide, so we just winged it! We walked off the ship and immediately taxi drivers began hounding us. Eventually we were able to find a couple slightly reasonably priced taxis that would take our big group (one disadvantage to traveling with seven people, we had to take two cars) to the Falls.

Reminding me of Jamaica, the roads and homes in Santo Tomas were very run down. The people, even the children, were working hard everywhere we looked. It was really neat to drive through the local town and through parts of the jungle to our destination.

Once we arrived at the Las Escobas Waterfalls, we paid an entrance fee and a young guide took us out hiking. It was a little shy of a mile to reach the Falls, but the walk was wonderful. We were in a dense green rainforest with animals calling out all around us. We heard the falls just before we reached them. They were incredible!

Picture by Dustan :)

There were a couple people swimming. Dustan, Leah, Michael and I immediately got in as well. It was chilly, but nothing like the Pacific Ocean or rivers and lakes in the Northwest. It was very refreshing in the humid air. We did some swimming by the Falls, explored a few caves, and held on to Mike so he didn't get swept away by the current.

Dustan, of course, took our nice camera and tripod into the river to get a few beautiful shots of the Waterfalls. The results were worth it though.

The picture Dustan took is the beautiful waterfall a few pictures above

Once a few tour groups had come and gone (they were in and out so quickly, I'm glad we didn't book an excursion), our guide took us back up the path to another set of falls that the tour groups didn't visit. Though slightly less impressive, they were still beautiful falls. We didn't get in the water this time, just admired the scene.

Taking the picture just above

We continued our trek back to the taxis on a different route that crossed over slippery bridges and by even more falls and rivers throughout the jungle. The taxi drivers were a little peeved with how long we had been gone. We insisted it would take us at least two hours, they argued that we wouldn't be there more than one hour. We were gone for just over two hours. Ha! We won.

We had the taxis drop us off in the small city we drove through so we could walk around the market (Michael really wanted to drink a coconut). It was neat to see everything that was sold and how the people lived. After exploring the market resulted in no coconuts, half the family walked back to the port. Sam, Dustan, and I continued to walk around Santo Tomas, exploring some neighborhoods. As we walked by one home, we saw a pile of empty coconuts sitting out front. With some decent Spanish, Sam was able to ask where we could find some coconuts. The man immediately got excited, showed us a huge pile in his garage, and cut off four for us to have! When we tried to pay him, he refused. Throughout the whole day, we were impressed with how kind the Guatemalans were.

After a little more wandering, we walked through the neighborhoods back to the port, about half a mile. We found the rest of the family in a giant market warehouse right next to the cruise ship, doing some shopping. Michael absolutely loved his first coconut and Sam bought a bunch of musical instruments.

The only family picture in Guatemala. Fail, haha we love it!

We took some fun pictures outside of the warehouse, because we love signs! As you have probably noticed. Some of them failed though, but we love the pictures all the same. Then it was time to get back on board for some lunch and relax for the evening.

Sunset view from the cruise ship

That night, we attended another show! Surprise surprise. This was one of the favorites of the whole cruise. It was a married couple named Dmitry and Ksenia that did an acrobat show for us. It included everything from crazy lifts, ballet, flying through the air on ropes, and roller skates. It was awesome.

Day 6: Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

Our fourth port stop was at the island of Roatan, Honduras, the largest Bay Island off the Honduras north coast. Similar to Cozumel, tourism is the most prominent economic sector, especially for scuba divers, snorkelers, and cruise ships. Roatan is located near the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the largest reef in the Caribbean. The cruise ship docked on the southwest side of the island, and we spent a majority of our time on the northwest side.

This port stop was the first time Dustan and I had plans different from the rest of the family. Everyone wanted to visit Gumbalimba Park, which was a sort of interactive zoo with history about Roatan. There was a paid excursion to go to Gumbalimba Park through the cruise line, but we weren't sure if you could just take a taxi to the Park and just pay an entrance fee. This was pertinent because Dustan and I wanted to go to the West Bay and go snorkeling as well. So the family split up! Everyone but us paid for an excursion to Gumbalimba Park that included transportation and a tour from the boat. Dustan and I would go snorkeling early on, then try to meet the family there.

Dustan and I got off the ship soon after we docked, at about 8:30 in the morning. We were a little concerned about all the rain, but decided we still wanted to try and go snorkeling. We walked off the pier and found a taxi that would take us to West Bay. Our taxi driver, was hilarious, and would be picking us up again later to take us back to the ship. Once we arrived at a public beach at West Bay, we walked west along the beach (it had stopped raining by now, thank goodness) until we reached the Infinity Resort Beach. Technically, we weren't supposed to be on this beach--it was for resort members. But we had read that the best snorkeling on the island was in front of this resort, so we snuck on! We immediately laid down or towels, pulled out or snorkeling gear and cameras, and got in the water before anyone noticed that we didn't have the required wristbands to be there.

We had to swim quite a ways out to reach the reefs, but once we did, we were speechless! They were absolutely incredible. It was the best snorkeling we had ever done. Better than anything we saw in Jamaica, southern California, or Cozumel. There was so much color in the reefs and so many unique and beautiful fish.

There was a snorkeling tour nearby, so we kept an eye on them and visited a few of the areas that they went to, hoping to see the coolest sights. At one point, we reached where the ocean floor and reefs drop off--like in Finding Nemo. Everything just suddenly disappeared into the deep, dark blue/black of the ocean. It was a little freaky, I kept imagining sharks coming for me.

We snorkeled far off the beach for nearly two hours straight. I had no problem with this because I float so easily in the salt water. I can lie completely vertical and without moving, having no air in my lungs, and still be able to float. Dustan has to work more to stay above the surface. At one point, his breathing was getting hard enough that he wanted to swim back to the shore for a break--but that would have wasted time! Instead, I tread water while holding his back up near the surface so that he could just float and take a break, haha.

About an hour in to our snorkeling, it started dumping rain! It was raining hard enough that we knew all our stuff on the beach would be soaked within minutes (before we could even get back to it), so we just kept snorkeling. After a little longer though, the waves began to get bigger so we decided to head in. Once we got to shore, we picked up our dripping towels, backpack, and clothes and headed undercover. We were glad we had checked the forecast beforehand and only brought items that wouldn't be ruined with rain.

How I felt about the rain...

Our towel completely filled with rain water

Once the rain had let up a little, we began walking to Gumbalimba Park. My family had texted saying that there was just an entrance fee, that a paid excursion wasn't required to get in. It was just over a mile away, so we didn't think it was worth getting a second taxi. Lucky for us though, a driver thought we were with the resort and told us that there was a free shuttle to Gumbalimba! Score. Once we arrived, we found that my family had already started their tour of the Park, so we got combined with a couple and started on our own tour.

The entire time we were at the park, it was absolutely pouring rain. Coming down in buckets. The tour was still really neat. We learned a bit about Roatan's history and some fun facts about the island. But we especially enjoyed interacting with the animals. We got to hold monkeys and parrots, and see all sorts of other wildlife, such as lizards and rabbits/guinea pigs. Unfortunately, a lot of the animals were hiding because of the weather.

Eventually, we met up with the family again, and the rain let up. We walked through the park one more time with my parents before it was time to head back to the ship. Here are a few pictures of my family with the animals--their pictures turned out so much better because it wasn't raining when they were with the monkeys or birds!

My family boarded their shuttle, and Dustan and I needed to meet our taxi driver back at the beach (he wouldn't take us in the morning unless we agreed on round trip). We again sneaked a ride from a car going to the Infinity Resort. We had time to walk along the beach for a while before we met up with our driver and he took us back to the cruise ship.

That evening, we did our usual dinner, games, and a show. The show that night in the Stardust was a comedian. His name was Rod Long and he was from Seattle! He was a hoot. We were sad our time on the cruise was nearly over!

Day 7: Costa Maya, Mexico

Our last port stop was at Costa Maya, Mexico, a wonderful stop for Christmas Eve! Unlike Cozumel, Costa Maya is on the mainland of Mexico, but very close to the border of Belize. Again, Costa Maya is a city that has grown due to cruise passengers and tourists. One of the reasons Costa Maya is so popular as a port is because of the close proximity to various Mayan ruins.

We were a little concerned about the weather when we walked to breakfast as the rain was pouring outside. Thankfully, by the time we had walked off the boat, it was only sprinkling a little bit. We had to walk about half a mile from the port to get to our meeting place for our excursion in Costa Maya: we were exploring some Mayan ruins!

We booked our excursion through The Native Choice. They lead tours to various Mayan ruins around western Mexico, the most popular being the Chacchoben ruins. My mom decided that she wanted to visit some lesser known ruins because 1) they would hopefully be less crowded and 2) we could climb on the ruins, which was a total "no no" at other sites. So we ended up touring the Dzibanche ruins. After getting to their office, we hopped in a large bus-like van and drove to the ruins. It was just over two hours to get there, but our guide was giving us information about Costa Maya, the Mayan, and the ruins for a majority of the time. By the time we arrived at the Dzibanche ruins, the rain had stopped and it was once again warm and humid. My mom had made a good choice--there couldn't have been more than 30 people maximum in the whole park at one time.

We were so impressed by the ruins. We couldn't believe that buildings built from 500 to 1,000 AD by the Mayans were still in such great shape! After entering the park, we immediately went to one of the largest temples in the park and hiked the tall steps to the top. It was fun to be above most of the treetops in the area. We even saw a few monkeys with their babies swinging from the trees around us!

We continued to walk through the ruins. Between each site and at the base of each temple, our tour guide gave us information about the history of the Mayan and the buildings we were looking at. Apparently the city of Dzibanche was once the capital of the empire in the area during the Kan dynasty. There are two pyramids in the city, one of which is a temple containing two royal burials. There are many other temples on the grounds as well.

After exploring the Dzibanche ruins, we drove the two hours back to Costa Maya. Once there, we did a little shopping in the fancy port, including swimming pools, restaurants, and stores. We also got a lot of people commenting on our matching Seahawks shirts :)

That evening, we went to eat at the fancy Grand Pacific for dinner after attempting to watch the sunset. Again, we ordered way too much food and stuffed ourselves full. When my mom booked the cruise, they told her to celebrate Michael's birthday while we were there (which wasn't until two weeks later). So we also got some birthday cake!

We went right to the Elements show at the Stardust Theater afterward. This show was a combination of multiple acts from throughout the week. The cruise line performance team, the magicians, and the acrobats. It was an impressive act showcasing the four elements.

Day 8: CHRISTMAS at Sea

Waking up in a pitch black, tiny little stateroom on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean certainly didn't feel like Christmas! But it was a fun day nonetheless. The family got dressed up and headed first to the fancy Grand Pacific for breakfast, which was very delicious once again.

After breakfast, we headed to a small meeting room for a church service. We had met a few members of our LDS Church during our week on the boat, and they had gotten permission to hold a sacrament meeting. It added nicely to our Christmas morning to be able to think a little more about Christ. I was able to convince the family to take a few pictures before we put back on our play clothes!

Around lunch time, we went up the lounge on one of the top decks to play some games a snag seats early on, because Elf was going to start on the semi big screen! We loved watching Elf. It is a Nielson family Christmas tradition, we watch it every year. It is the best Christmas movie!

We ate a late dinner at the Garden Cafe buffet, and we were treated to some yummy holiday treats: ham, eggnog, yule logs, and more. We made sure to get a picture with the "washy washy" lady, who exclaims "washy washy happy happy!" every time you enter the buffet and sprays your hands with sanitizer, haha. We'd brought more games with us up to the Cafe, and we snagged an empty table in the back and played until the last show at the Stardust, the Christmas Spectacular. It was a fun show, but not quite as good as the other shows we had seen throughout the week.

Afterward, we headed to bed, sad to be ending Christmas Day and our fun filled Christmas cruise!

Day 9: Disembark in Tampa, Florida

We woke up back in the United States :( we had packed our bags the night before, so we just headed up to the buffet for breakfast. Michael ate his last pile of bacon before we grabbed our bags from our rooms and headed off the Jade!

We absolutely loved going on a cruise over our long break from Utah--it was the perfect vacation for the Nielson family! We were so grateful to have that time together, adventuring and bonding. Dustan especially enjoyed getting to know my family even better. And right after the cruise, we got another week of constant, quality time together.... Because we headed over to Orlando to hit up Disney World and Universal Studios!! They will be up next on the blog!