About a year and a half ago my dad came to me with an idea. He wanted to know what the cost would be if he were to take me, and all of his nieces and nephews, on a cruise. I priced everything out and came up with an estimate, and my dad told me to reach out to my cousins to see if they would be interested in going on an all-expense paid cruise with the family. Everyone was thrilled, and the date was set for March 3rd, 2019. About six months after booking, NCL chartered our ship and we were forced to change dates. As an alternate I picked March 17th, 2019, which had special meaning for the family since it was my late Uncle Gary’s birthday. Several months after that, NCL made another change, this time swapping Harvest Caye for Belize City. Two weeks after that, NCL made one final change, reinstating Harvest Caye, but reordering the ports. Since I was organizing travel plans for a group of 15 people, the repeated changes made arrangements more difficult than they needed to be. Anyway, that all aside, plans were finally set, and we would have our family reunion cruise to the Western Caribbean. The guest list would include 1) me, 2) my husband, Dave, 3) my stepson, Jared, 4) my dad, 5) his companion, Sue, 6) my cousin, Lori, 7) my cousin, Cheryl, 8) Cheryl’s husband, Aaron, 9) Cheryl’s daughter, Emma, 10) my cousin, Michelle, 11) Michelle’s fiancé, Michael, 12) my cousin, Jennifer, 13) Jennifer’s daughter, Emilee, 14) my cousin, Ryan, and 15) my dad’s cousin, Dee.
Saturday, March 16th, 2019
I had made arrangements for everyone (except my dad, Sue & Dee) to fly into Tampa, and to stay at the Tahitian Inn for the night. Dee would be flying into Orlando and spending the night at my dad’s house in Kissimmee, then driving over to Tampa together the next morning. Anyway, the Tahitian Inn is a family-owned boutique hotel with a tiki bar by the pool. It’s nothing fancy, but it did include shuttle from the airport to the hotel, and the hotel to the port, so it worked out great for our group. Everyone’s flights landed within 20 minutes of each other, but the shuttle van only held 11 so we split into two groups. The rooms weren’t quite ready upon arrival, so we put our luggage behind the desk, and all hung out at the tiki bar. Since my cousins are from a mix of Connecticut, Texas, and California, we don’t get to see each other often, and it was great catching up. I had arranged a dinner for everyone at the hotel restaurant at 6pm that night, so once the rooms were ready we all checked in and met up for dinner. I went over a few items before the food came (shuttle times, cruise paperwork, etc.) and then we all had dinner. Lori actually got me a couple of cute “travel agent” gifts: a heart pendant with a blue gemstone pawprint on it, and a sparkly dolphin keychain, both of which I loved. By the time we finished it was about 7:30pm, and most of my family decided to call it a night. I went to the pool bar for a bit, but headed to the room around 9ish.
Sunday, March 17th, 2019
Around 4am I got up to use the bathroom, and the toilet wouldn’t flush. Now, since it’s 4am, it’s not like I can call maintenance to come, but the five minutes I spent trying to fix it fully woke me up. I tried to go back to bed, but could no longer sleep, and actually needed a second bathroom visit. Since mine was inoperable, that left the lobby restrooms, so I quietly wheeled my suitcase into the bathroom, got dressed, and headed downstairs. After using the facilities, I was super thirsty and spotted a vending machine off the lobby. I put in my two dollars, but it was out of water, Dr Pepper, and Sprite. The front desk happily refunded my two dollars, made arrangements to send a repair person to the room after 10am, and replaced my room key (I had been unable to find it before I left the room). They also told me that there was a 24 hour gas station store about a block up where I could buy some water, so I ended up walking up Dale Mabry Hwy at 5:00 in the morning. It was exciting, but luckily they had crosswalks with signals, so I made it there and back safely. It was still super early, though, so I decided to read in the hotel lobby for awhile before I could go to breakfast at 6am. I had breakfast, and then went back to the room around 7am. Dave had fixed the toilet in my absence (hooray!), and Jared was just getting up. Dave got up shortly after, and I joined them for breakfast (I did not eat again, but did have some juice). Because the shuttle van only held 11, we again split into two vans, one at 11am and one at noon. I went in the first van with Cheryl, Aaron, Emma & Lori (also known as the Connecticut crew), and everyone else took the noon shuttle (we’ll call them the Texas crew). Now, I’ve sailed out of terminal 3 in Tampa before, and it’s always gone very smoothly, but today we would be going out of terminal 2, and it was a total fiasco. First, there is massive road construction surrounding the port area. You’d think they would wait till the off season when ships aren’t in port, but apparently not. At terminal 2 it was a seemingly never-ending series of queues, and it took us an hour and twenty minutes to get checked in. Since I had done all the paperwork for everybody, once we were checked in, I waited in the terminal another 40 minutes for Dave and the Texas crew to make it through the line. Finally we had everyone checked in, but it was too late to go to lunch in the sit down restaurant by this time, so the only option was the buffet. Unfortunately, by the time we had checked out our rooms and headed to the buffet, it was just closing in prep for the muster drill. I did grab an apple, but would have to wait till dinner for anything more substantial. After the muster drill we all met up at Magnum’s and got a round of drinks so we could toast to my late Uncle Gary (today would have been his birthday). My dad gave the toast, and everyone got a bit misty-eyed. While there, those of us who had cruised from Tampa before mentioned how cool it is sailing out under the Sunshine Bridge, and several of us decided to meet up at the Sky High Bar around 6pm to check it out. I grabbed a quick bite in between, and then met with everyone up top. From there I went to the Welcome Aboard Show, and then had a couple of cocktails at Magnum’s, while Peter played the piano. He was a great entertainer, and really knew how to get the crowd involved. Eventually I decided to call it a night. Sea day tomorrow!
Monday, March 18th, 2019
I got up around 7ish, and decided to head to breakfast. I ran into my dad and Sue there, and learned their regular breakfast schedule for the week (I ate with them most mornings). At 11am we were all scheduled to attend the Cruise Critic meet & greet in Bliss, and the majority of my family made it. All the officers, as well as the Captain, made an appearance, and they told us that on this ship they did something a little different. In addition to today’s meeting, we would be invited back on Saturday to share any feedback we had from the rest of the cruise. It was a nice touch, and one I’ve not encountered before. After the meet & greet Dave, Jared, Emilee & I decided to grab some lunch at the sushi bar, which was amazing, and then I headed to the theater for Deal or No Deal, which was unfortunately canceled due to technical difficulties. I spent a little time in the casino, but then I headed back to the room to get changed for the family photo, scheduled to be at 4:30. We had run into a bit of a snag in trying to schedule the photo, but my dad mentioned it to the hotel director at the meet & greet, and he assured us there would be a photographer there for us at 4:30. The photographer did a great job, and we were all thrilled with the final product. After the photo was taken, I hung out in Magnum’s for cocktails, and then we all headed up to La Cucina for our 6pm dinner reservation. Dinner was excellent, and everybody had a great time. They split us into two table for eight, but back to back, which worked out perfectly. At 9pm Jeri Seger would be performing in the theater, and I convinced Sue, Dee & Michelle to join me there. I had seen Jeri before on a previous cruise, and she is an amazingly talented Broadway performer. She was just as good as I remembered, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the show. From there we found my dad listening to Peter in Magnum’s, and then one by one we headed to bed.
Tuesday, March 19th, 2019
I woke up at 2:45am and my stepson had not made it back to the room yet. I woke his dad, and he went out to look for him. The last I had known he and Ryan had been heading to the bowling alley around 11am, but I had not seen him since. Dave walked the ship but did not find him, so I told him to notify guest services. Guest services notified security, and they were able to track Jared and Ryan’s movements through the previous few hours, although they lost sight of them around 2am. Dave walked through behind the scenes areas with security, and while waiting in the room for news I remembered that Ryan had the social media internet package, so I sent him a message through Facebook. Three minutes later, Jared showed up at the room, and I notified the front desk that he had turned up. They had been sitting in the cigar lounge. The whole thing was the result of a miscommunication between Dave & Jared, but it was pretty impressive how security sprung into action. Anyway, today we were scheduled to visit Harvest Caye. Dave would be ziplining in the morning, and then he and Jared were doing the parasail in the afternoon. As it turned out, Jared would be ziplining as well, although he was unaware of that until he got there. Anyway, I went to the beach with my dad, and despite being in the shade the entire time, ended up with a minor sunburn. I did try to video Dave on the zipline, but there was no way to recognize him in time to catch him on video going by the beach. He did have a GoPro camera attached to his helmet, though, so he got amazing video without my help. He and Jared found us after the zipline was done, and I hung out with them for awhile before deciding to hit the shops on my way back to the ship. Harvest Caye, while nice, is incredibly expensive for food & drink, so heading back to the ship for lunch was advisable. Once back onboard I grabbed some lunch at O’Sheehan’s, where I ran into my dad, and then we headed back to our rooms for awhile before hitting up Rock & Roll trivia in Spinnaker. After trivia I changed for dinner, and then met up with everyone at Magnum’s for pre-dinner cocktails. After dinner we headed back to Magnum’s for some of Peter’s piano playing entertainment, and then after a quick casino stop I said goodnight.
Wednesday, March 20th, 2019
No early morning shenanigans today! I woke up around 7am, and headed to Summer Palace for breakfast. We would be tendering today in Roatan, which was a first for me for that port, so we had to meet in the Stardust Theater at 8:50 for our excursion to Maya Key. It was a fairly short tender ride to the dock, and then a five minute water taxi to Maya Key. Due to holdups in the theater and on the dock, we didn’t actually get to Maya Key till 10am. I opted to do the ruins and animal sanctuary tour at 11:30, which Dee joined me for. Everyone else was either at the beach or in the pool. After the tour I grabbed lunch, which was as excellent as I remembered, and then around 2ish I decided to head back to the dock for a little shopping. Everyone was mostly done by that time, so the majority of us left together. Emilee had the most entertaining comment of the day, when she read a price tag that said USD on it, and exclaimed, “Why would I want to buy a used souvenir?” Everyone got a good chuckle out of that, and we quickly explained the actual meaning of USD. Dave & I would be dining at Le Bistro that evening, while Jared ate with my dad and Sue in Summer Palace. Dinner was very good, although my duck was a bit different than I pictured (it was shredded duck, with mashed potato on top, almost like a shepherd’s pie). We had a truly ghastly painting above our table, which Dave & I had differing opinions about. After dinner we stopped at Magnum’s briefly, and then headed to the casino for a bit before calling it a night.
Thursday, March 21st, 2019
Cozumel today, where Michael and I would be doing the Jose Cuervo Tequila Tasting Seminar. Dave & Jared were doing the speedboats, Cheryl, Emma & Aaron were doing Dolphin True Connection, and Jennifer, Emilee & Ryan were doing the Dolphin Ride & Swim. Oddly, the tequila tasting was the earliest of anyone’s excursions, so Michael and I headed off around 9am to the meeting point, where we quickly met Bou, our guide/host for the day. There were about 24 of us taking that excursions, and we were split into 3 taxis for the transportation to Discover Mexico Park. Upon arrival they brought us over the blue agave plants, and gave us a brief overview of how tequila is made, before bringing us into our nice, air-conditioned classroom for the tasting. Full disclosure, I was a bit hesitant, mainly because I think Cuervo is rotgut, but I was really impressed with the whole thing. I learned many new facts, and while the 1800 series that we tried wouldn’t be my first choice, it was palatable for our purposes. After the tasting we went through the gift shop, where they told us they would hold any purchases for us till the end of our tour. Then we saw a cultural show, called the Papantla Flyers. It was very cool, and I took quite a bit of video of it. From there we went to the bar for our complimentary margaritas. They were mango, and quite delicious. Once finished with those we were able to take a leisurely walk through the dioramas depicting the history of Mexico, on our way to the taco buffet for lunch. Overall I would give the whole experience two thumbs up. There was one little hiccup, when a lady in our group who used a walker had one of the wheels detach and she took a bad fall. The people at Discover Mexico Park, including our guide, jumped into immediate action to take care of her. It was so fast and efficient, you would have thought you were in Disney World! Truly, the responsiveness was impressive. We took taxis back to the port, and while Michael decided to shop a bit, I wanted to bring my “Tequila Aficianado” certificate to my stateroom before I damaged it, so we parted ways. Once back onboard I looked for anyone else from my group, but didn’t find anybody right away so I headed up to the Sky High Bar to read for a bit. Within 5 minutes, several of my family members turned up, and we all had cocktails until Health & Medical trivia began. This was by far the worst trivia of the cruise, as we ended up with a whopping 3 correct answers, despite having three team members who actually work in medical facilities. The questions were just absurd, and the answers even more so. We still had a good time, and about ten of us made plans to have dinner in the Lotus Garden, which serves Asian Fusion style food. Dinner was great, and we even had some more of that amazing sushi! That night was the White Hot Party, so we switched into some white attire after dinner and headed up to Spinakker. I am not sure why it was held there instead of on deck, but it was a hopping party even inside. That said, it is not my scene, so I headed to bed about 30 minutes later.
Friday, March 22nd, 2019
Costa Maya and our last port day! Ten of our group would be spending the day at Jaime’s at the Blue Reef, and the rest were going to enjoy the day onboard. We were slated to meet in the atrium at 9am to head into Mahahual, and while I was waiting I ran into the lady whose walker broke at the prior day’s tequila seminar. She was very nice, and very appreciative for everyone’s care and concern. Other than some cuts and bruises, she was doing very well, and NCL was wheeling her around the ship wherever she needed to go. Anyway, once we all met up we disembarked and made our way to the taxis. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions of the port, to get a taxi you need to weave your way through the entire shopping area. There is a shortcut through the bakery, which will save you about ten minutes, but still, it’s a long walk. Anyway, we split into three taxis and headed to Jaime’s. Jaime’s is a day all-inclusive beach club. Jaime was not there when we arrived, but he got there about 45 minutes later. I knew him from his previous beach club, Nohoch Kay, which went downhill after the left. I am happy to report that his new space is wonderful! They had ten chaise lounges setup for us upon arrival, as well as a table with four chairs in case anyone wanted to sit to eat. Kayaks and snorkel gear were included in the base price, as well as all you can eat or drink. They could not have been more pleasant or accommodating, and in the afternoon they even had a band! My only complaint would be the number of vendors on the beach, but a quick “no” sent them away promptly. Everyone who went there agreed it was the highlight of the trip. After a few hours of eating and drinking on the beach, Jaime came to us to see if we were ready for lunch. Lunch? Okay…so I got everyone up to the restaurant itself, and they served us this crazy huge platter of food. It had a bit of everything on it, and everyone was stuffed by the time we were done. Around 2:30 we all decided to head back to the ship, so Jaime called a taxi bus that would hold all ten of us. We all shopped our way around the port on the way back to the ship. On the way back I mentioned that my sunburn was likely worse than I thought, because the feel of the sun on my shoulders was actually painful. Some random guy walking by heard me and said “I’m not gonna lie, it doesn’t look good”…lol A note on the sunburn: I did use sunblock, and reapplied at the recommended intervals, but apparently it was some sort of defective batch, because I had an extreme burn, as did Jared, who used the same sunblock. I did go to dinner that night in Summer Palace, but I was incredibly uncomfortable by the time dinner was over, so I headed back to the room for a bit. My intention was to go back out for Legends in Concert, but I did not feel up to it and instead called it a night.
Saturday, March 23rd, 2019
Sea Day! I missed my dad & Sue at breakfast, but I caught up to them at the morning trivia. From there we checked out the Officer’s Q&A. The first question ended up being some idiot who scalded himself in the shower, and was full of “suggestions” as to how they could fix their water temperature problem for the entire ship. Suffice it to say he was an idiot. All other questions were reasonable, and they cut it short before he could interject with anything else exceptionally stupid. From there I spent a little time in the casino before meeting my dad & Sue for lunch at O’Sheehan’s. We ran into Jared, Dave & Emilee there, so they joined us, which was nice. At 1:30 was the follow-up cruise critic meetup, which my dad, Sue, Dave & I attended. It lasted about 30 minutes, and elicited some useful feedback, in my opinion. I did go to the crew talent show immediately afterward, but it was super chilly in the main theater for some reason, so I left about halfway through. Midafternoon was Movie Kiss trivia, at which we did pretty well. We had our final family dinner that night in Summer Palace, which gave everyone a chance to say goodbye, since we would all be leaving separately the next morning. Lori gave my dad a cute Mickey and Minnie figurine as a thank you gift, which was very nice, and everyone agreed it was a fantastic week! Some of the group decided to go to Bliss after dinner, and while Dave & Jared joined them, I was coming down with the start of a head cold and just wasn’t feeling up to it, so I crashed early.
Sunday, March 24th, 2019
Sadly, our last morning onboard! I was up first, and I headed to the buffet for a bite, where my dad found me and joined me. Sue was back in the room, and we both headed there for a bit after eating, since I had told the boys they could sleep till 8am. I ran into Emilee in the hallway and offered to let her wake Dave & Jared, but they were already up. The Connecticut crew was disembarking the latest at 9:30, while Dee and the Texas crew were all scheduled to disembark at 8:30. My dad and Sue could leave whenever, and since they had priority disembarkation they were off first, and home before I even checked in for my flight. I did see everyone except Dee that morning, albeit briefly. When we got off the ship, the porter we grabbed was new and gave us bad directions to the NCL shuttles, so instead of just turning right when we came out of the terminal, she brought us across the street to the underside of the parking garage. We waited there about ten minutes before figuring out that it was the wrong location, and then we had to re-cross the street to get back to the shuttle buses. Due to the construction, and the cop directing traffic, crossing the street was not as easy as you’d expect. Anyway, we finally made it to the airport, but since our flight wasn’t till 2:55 and regulations won’t allow you to check your bags more than four hours in advance, we had to kill 25 minutes before we could even check in. Dave, Jared & I all have TSA PreCheck, and while the lines were equal, it took my cousins about ten minutes longer to get through security, and with a lot more hassle. Dave, Jared & I decided to grab some lunch, and I texted Jennifer to tell her where we were, since she was in the same terminal awaiting her flight. She and Emilee joined us for one last bite, and then we had to see them off for their flight. Our flight had a connection through Baltimore with a two hour layover, and by an unfortunate stroke of luck, the second leg to Hartford was delayed by 30 minutes. Anyway, we finally made it to Bradley, picked up Dave’s truck, said goodbye to my Connecticut cousins, and hit the road, making it home around 10:30pm. Long day! But it was a great trip. We got to spend lots of time with each other, but not in an overwhelming or nonstop way. It truly could not have worked out better overall, and I think I will wrap this up here. If you’d like to see the video I recorded on this trip, here is a link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCvlRAw4Lkc. Good night!