25th Anniversary Caribbean Cruise

This cruise was better than I could have anticipated!  My husband and I just celebrated being married fro 25 years, and this was a little gift to ourselves for our anniversary.  We were traveling with 4 other couples, so we had plenty of friends around to hang out with. This cruise made stops in Roatan Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel Mexico, and all of the ports were awesome! This was my 3rd cruise, and I must say, it was may favorite so far!

First lets talk about the food, because let's face it...we all like to eat well on vacation! As always with Royal Caribbean, the food was excellent.  We dined every night in the main dining room (my time dining) and every meal was fabulous...lots of selections, even for my husband who tends to be rather picky. We had lunch one day in Giovani's, the Italian restaurant, and I would highly recommend it. If you enjoy Italian cuisine, you will love Giovani's. We also had lunch in the Promenade Cafe a few times, and breakfast in the main dining room 2 times. The food in each venue was really good.  We skipped dinner in Chops this time, but from previous experience, we know it is really good. We visited the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch most days, and there were always lots of choices...from salad, to pizza, to soup, sandwiches, grilled food, etc.  The food in the Windjammer tends to be a little simpler than that in the main dining room, but very tasty nonetheless, and there is always something for everyone.

As for the entertainment on this cruise, it was, for the most part really great.  The Royal dancers and singers were excellent, and we enjoyed the many shows they put on.  We also loved the ice dancing show. The various musical groups that performed on the ship were, for the most part, really great. We especially enjoyed the reggae band, the southern rock band, and the Latino band. There was 1 performer, however, that left a little to be desired.  He performed most evenings in the 2 Poets Pub, and his name was Papa-T. He actually has a very good singing voice, but he tended to play music that was unfamiliar to the audience, and he didn't like to take requests so much, even though the song being requested was on his play list. He liked to do his own thing, and we got kinda tired of it. Other than him, the musical performers were top notch.

As for the daily activities on the ship, to be honest, we didn't participate in too many of them, but there certainly seemed to be a lot going on. My friends enjoyed playing Bingo every day, and we played trivia a few times, which was great fun. The pool activities (World's Sexiest Man, Belly flop competition, etc) were a lot of fun. Mostly, we enjoyed laying in the sun, drinking cocktails and listening to the various music on board. We also enjoyed the on board duty free shopping.  They had some great sales throughout the week, and we picked up some nice gifts at very good prices. (I got a $500 watch for my husband on sale for $149, which I thought was a really good deal).

As for the ports on this trip, we enjoyed them all.  In Roatan we spent a relaxing day at one of the beaches, and did some shopping at a location recommended by one of the locals.  For this, we didn't use the ship's excursion, we simply hired a guide right at the port. They provided van transportation for the 8 of us that went. The guide was very knowledgeable, and she stayed with us all day. In Belize, we took a cave tubing tour, which I would highly recommend.  It was a very relaxing afternoon, and the guide provided was excellent.  By far our favorite excursion was the Snorkel with the Sea Turtles in Cozumel!  Sea turtles are a favorite animal for both my husband and I, so we signed up for this with great anticipation.  We were not disappointed!  We saw maybe 7 or 8 turtles during our snorkel session, as well as some sting rays and other sea animals.  We were so close to the turtles we could have reached out and touched them (however, touching the animals is a no-no)!  We got some great underwater photos.  After the snorkeling, we were driven to a private beach for lunch and time in the sun. Everything about this excursion was awesome, from the guides we were with, to the snorkeling, to the lunch on the beach.  This is a must do if you are a fan of sea turtles!! Afterward, we did some great shopping in downtown Cozumel.

As always with Royal Caribbean, the staff and crew members on board were excellent!  I don't think I encountered 1 crew member that was rude or unhelpful! In short, I would highly recommend this cruise to anyone. Aboard the ship there are activities for all interests, and the port excursions that we participated in were awesome!  Go....and have a great time!!!