GregD

Dinner was back at Jamie’s. I have to say, this one has converted us to fans. I still refuse to eat calamari with mayo though…..

I have to apologize, we did not live up to Star Class expectations. We only got two orders of bread, and one order of Bruschetta for The Boss and I to share. 
 

Johnny ate the burger, and Lydia graduated to the adult menu and had the chicken parm. The Boss ordered the same and they both agree that it was very good. 
 

I tried a bite as well, and had a moment of nostalgia. The sauce had a flavor very reminiscent of my grandmother’s homemade sauce. I was instantly transported back to big family dinners at their house on Long Island with all of the extended family lots of laughs and a giant bowl of pasta.

Anyway, I need to move away from the guy cutting onions…..making my eyes water like that….

I got the lamb chops. They were perfectly cooked and very tender. I may have forgone the for and knife, and just grabbed and growled.

Our small appetizer order was a bit of strateegery…because we all had room for dessert!

Johnny loved his banana split, 

Lydia tucked into some gelato 

The Boss had the cheesecake 

I rounded things out with tiramisu 

Fat and happy we finished our meal and headed off for evening activities!

Docked next to us was the Mein Schiff 6, and all I can say is those Germans are a different breed. Yes I know Europeans have a different view on bodies and modesty butttttt…. (no pun intended)

Let me introduce exhibit A 

Then this lady made an appearance…..at least they looked clean….

the worst offender was a vintage male on a lower deck wearing just a robe…..he crossed his legs flashing the twig and giggle berries one to many times for it to be an accident.

As we sailed away the number of people coming out on their balcony in just their underwear was comical. 

After returning to the port, we took the obligatory “we were here” photo.
 

Once back on board, were again met by “light snacks” from Berty.

10 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

C in the drink is supposed to stand for colada not chocolate

Whoops…..cruise brain

More Maya Chan. 
 

Lunch and beverages are included, and are very tasty.

The have a taco bar set up. You have a choice of homemade flour or corn tortillas. Fillings include skirt steak, chicken, a slow roasted citrus pork, and a fish, which was sea bass. There is rice, beans, cheese, pico, guacamole, and a selection of homemade salsas. If you leave hungry, you are doing it wrong.

This was plate #2….i was too busy shoving tacos in mouth on the first round to remember to get a picture. 

After lunch, we continued to make full use of all their included activities. There are glass bottomed kayaks, multiple floats, paddle boards, sand toys. 
 

I love this picture of Lydia and Livi. 

We also tried to make a new friend…he wasn’t exactly cuddly.

Us adults got massages as well….they were just okay. 
 

Eventually we had to head back to the ship. The staff there come around after lunch and ask you what time you want to return, and they arrange your ride. They then give you a ten minute warning so you are prepared by the time your ride comes. 
 

Dan and his family were so happy with their experience I lost track of how many times they talked about how much fun they had. 

Woke up really early today, so let’s get caught up here. 
 

Thursday found us in Costa Maya. Our friends had said they hated this cruise port because every excursion they have ever done here they did not like. I told them to book Maya Chan (IYKYK) with us. It will be a great time, so that’s what they did.

We all met early up in CK for breakfast and then headed off the ship.

If you have not been to Maya Chan, or if it’s been a while, you have to get yourself out of the port, and find their meeting area. This meeting spot has been moved in recent years, but is still easy to get to. Their email instructions are simple to follow, and they send you a map.

It’s a decent walk, but unless you mobility aides it’s very easy. 
 

Once at their meeting location you are assigned a cab, and taken to the resort. All transportation to and from the port is included. Drop off when returning it inside the port gates, so you don’t have to do that walk again.

For the ride over, the road is in shambles so it’s very bumpy in spots, but as they say, getting there is 1/2 the adventure. We were split into two different cabs for our trip over. Dan and his family ended up ahead of us. The whole way over I was thinking to myself, I should have emailed them to say to put them with us. (Each group is assigned their own cabana)

When we got there, we were surprised to see them in our spot, in one of the larger group cabanas. Clearly one of us did reach out to say to put us together.

Pretty quickly, the kids all got together and realized they were going to have fun. They discovered the tree house and made full use of it.

One of the attendants came along for drink orders and said

“Would you like a BBC?”

Dan: “Would I Ever!”

So here is a picture of Dan with an BBC in his mouth. The guys at the firehouse absolutely loved this image, with the above exchange included.

Full disclosure, I ordered one as well. Dan saw me put my phone down after taking the picture and was mad I beat him to the punch. 
 

Now at Maya Chan, their BBC stands for Banana, Bailey’s and Chocolate. There is a whole other meaning that is definitely not appropriate to type out here, but made my adolescent mind giggle with glee as I sent that photo off. If you do not know the double entendre here…..Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT. Google “BBC meaning” from a work device, or with freeloaders around.

Better yet, just send me a private message and I’ll tell you. You don’t want that search in your history, nor the images that will inevitably come up.

Shenanigan meter 8

pretty soon we entered full relaxation mode as you saw earlier.

Just pulled a shirt of the hanger that I had sent down for laundry and noticed this.

New Harmony tag on the left, old Oasis tag on the right

2 hours ago, Va4fam said:

@GregD.........love the shenanigan meter!

Glad you had a good time with Bodden.......zip lines might be more fun than hydrobiking.  How long was your tour?   We are looking forward to meeting the sloths.  ("Meet the Sloths" might be a good t-shirt idea?)  Honestly my wife would be happy if the entire tour was spent holding a sloth.   Great pics.

 

 

 

So the zip line portion was about an hour. We were with a lot of other people, but they had plenty of staff to keep it moving and there wasn’t a lot of waiting around. Going through the animal sanctuary was also about an hour. There were 4 ships in port that day, so everything was very busy, but didn’t really detract from our day at all. 
 

The sloth holding was brief just due to the number of people. Each person got about a minute or two of sloth interaction. 
 

One nice thing to see was that within our group of 30+ people, there was a collective understanding to make sure all the freeloaders got time with the animals before any of the adults did. There was no pushing and shoving, everyone did a great job taking their turn.

shenanigan meter….0

credit Lydia…..current situation 

After dinner, we all went to the ice skating show called iskate showcase. We have the Journey Through Time show scheduled for later this week. 
 

Berty got us seats right on the ice. The show was quite enjoyable. 
 

Afterwards, the freeloaders went back to the room while The Boss and I went to the love and marriage game show. Always a good time!

we actually turned in pretty early last night. We were a bit tired.

Wonderland:

Dinner last night was at wonderland. We actually really enjoy dinner there. The kids like the novelty of the food and the whole thing. 

Johnny really loves the green paper. And the cotton candy for his drinks!

we got a mix of the small plates. Not pictured was “The birds nest” which are basically smoked deviled eggs.

For entrees, Johnny got the chicken tenders, and Lydia the burger skewers 

The Boss got the short ribs, and I got the pork belly. Johnny tried mine and loved it, and maybe next time around will graduate from the kids menu.

We all shared The World for dessert and left with VERY full bellies.

I forgot to mention, that earlier we had the kids run down to Johnny rockets for us to bing back some onion rings and chili cheese fries for a snack. Apparently the portion sizes were much bigger than I remember…….

25 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Exactly the kind of place I need when we're in Roatan in June. Wife needs American food (like the kids menu) but she also loves fried yucca. I'll try anything but dunno about iguana stew. Gator also tastes like chicken so that part checks out.

This is right outside the port. You can throw a rock at the ship. I forgot to post this. This will help you when you go.

As far as the menu, they have things that will cater to every taste. The also had stewed oxtails, seafood platters, salads. 
I failed as a travel blogger, and only took this menu picture 

After those adventures, we went for some lunch. We went to a place the driver recommended. The food was tasty. The Boss got garlic shrimp, the kids got chicken tenders, and I got to cross another weird thing I ate off the list, Iguana. 

Shrimp with plantains, coleslaw and red beans and rice.

Chicken tender and fries for the kids. 

stewed iguana, aside from the multiple tiny bones to pick through the flavor and texture was reminiscent of chicken. I had potato salad, fries and yucca sticks as sides. 

After lunch we had considered shopping, but were ready for naps so we headed back to the ship. 
 

The freeloaders decided to stay in the room. The Boss and I braved the people soup, then Stock Pots that you read about earlier.

Roatan: 

So we started the day as a big group in CK for breakfast. Berty met us there and escorted us off the ship.

Our tours were with Victor Bodden. We each got assigned our drivers and off we went. We got to their property and got suited up for the zip lines.

The zip lines are lots of fun. They have a whole course set up and you go from tree top to tree top. Lots of fun was had by everyone. 
 

Once we were through that, we went through their animal park.

We started with sloths. We have been on this tour multiple times over the years, and all of their current sloths were born there, including one in the last photo that is six days old. 

We met some monkeys, Lydia had to make it awkward by smelling its butt….

Lots more animals were seen after but we will move on for the sake of making easier reading.

15 hours ago, GatorCruiser said:

Well in fairness all us parents know how satisfying potty training is 

While I do know the satisfaction…..not sure if that’s how you open the conversation. It went just like this.

So the over sharer who was a fluffy vintage with mobility issues starts with

”hopefully I don’t fall down these steps, (then proceeds to crash land into the seat) my granddaughter in the potty and we want the song.”

me:greaaaaaat

afterwards, it got even weirder. She kept creeping closer to this other couple and “falling off the seat” almost trying to land on the guys lap. The whole time, they are shifting away from her and she kept following. 
 

Eventually she either got bored, or her timer popped because she left and we all had a good laugh.

shenanigan meter 7.5 for awkward conversation and attempted groping 

On today’s episode of I stumbled into an oversharers anonymous meeting….

While sitting in one of the the solarium stock pots….an overly friendly vintage proudly exclaimed that her young granddaughter “went on the potty last night! We were so happy and we all want the song”

I am not sorry….if my ears had to hear that, your eyes needed to see it too.

Larger update on the day to come

10 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Are those MORE bags of chips or were those quarried from the existing stash ?

Those are more!!! The collection is growing!

Today we are hitting our first port, Roatan. We are using Victor Bodden again. We will be visiting with sloths etc, and doing the zip lines. After, we will be playing it by ear. 
 

Our friends are also with Victor Bodden, but doing some different activities. We are all meeting at CK for breakfast. Berty said that they could walk off with us when we get off the ship which we thought was very nice of him.

Other random thoughts from last night. Our friends were really grateful for being able to watch the show from the balcony. It’s also not lost on us that we are fortunate enough to be able to do these things ourselves. Their kids (and ours) had a blast. Earlier in the day, we had heard that Livi had been wanting chocolate covered strawberries this whole trip, so of course we had to make that happen.
 

This is her first big trip away from her parents so she has frequently been getting homesick. To see her eyes light up and truly enjoy herself last night made my night. Sure star class is amazing with the beverage package and all the dining etc, but it’s the intangibles that really do it for me. To be able to make someone’s day with just a simple text message is what it’s all about. 

32 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We love the spinning guy! I have no clue how he goes for so long. Most impressive.

Hahaha, he definitely was impressive at how long he was able to keep that up, but then in the middle of the show the whole….now watch me whip….(make sure you sing the song in your head, you’re welcome for that ear worm) was a bit strange and also added to that disjointed feeling for us. 

1 hour ago, Va4fam said:

How was the Aqua Show?  If Aqua 80 is a 5 out of 5, what would this one be?

So, the show is entertaining, and the performers are incredibly talented so my critique is purely on the production. 
 

To us, the show felt disjointed. The way Aqua80 was done, you could almost follow a story. It also helps that all of the songs were familiar, so you can easily jam along. This one we didn’t get that feeling. The music is mainly instrumental, mostly drum beats. 
 

They do follow similar formulas, some dancing, synchro swimmers, aerial work, more dancing, slack line, diving, tightrope rinse and repeat….though for those who have seen the show, what the heck is the spinning guy with the whips? 
 

There seems to me more aerial work in this show, and she is phenomenal. 
 

Overall, while the show is entertaining, and the cast is strong, it’s just not as fun as Aqua80. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. 

Aqua show snacks

3 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I had to look twice because I was like why would Genie Berty bring them a bowl of ketchup .......then I realized there was a giant bowl of mozz sticks. I should have put my glasses on 

We didn’t even touch the ketchup. We like our mozz sticks with marinara 

I’ll just leave this here

The Boss was completely unaware 

#starclassbehavingbadly

Today was a low key day. Lunch was CK, nothing too exciting. Caprese Salad and the lamb loin for me. The boss got the sausage flat bread. She liked it. I thought it was okay. 

One highlight, the freeloaders got warm apple pie for dessert, NOT A RAISIN TO BE FOUND!!!

After lunch, The Boss and Johnny played some bingo. He won $8 so he was thrilled. I found my relaxing spot, saw some dolphins while there which made other people really happy when I pointed them out. 
 

Soon we are off to Izumi. We have the Aqua show at 9 on our balcony. Our friends are joining us. We’ve placed a snack and drink order with Berty. Feeling to food coma coming!

12 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

I can't stand these poses - why I will never get a photo package again! I much prefer candid shots...

Us too. We will have photos taken, and usually just get our free diamond ones. The last time I actually bought a package, all the pictures were crappy quality and out of focus.