JB and I found a great deal on a cruise to the Caribbean and celebrated our 22nd anniversary the second week in November.
It sailed out of New Orleans on a Saturday-Saturday schedule, so we flew in the day before on Friday, Nov. 7, and walked around the city.
We ate Po Boys and Beignets.
I did not like Bourbon Street that night -- very loud and flashy and disconcerting. Felt like "Pottersville" in "It's a Wonderful Life." But our cab drivers and such were nice.
Our ship was the NCL Escape.
We always made it to the dining room early to sit by a window and have plenty of time to eat all we wanted before the first show. Here's some Caribbean humidity in my hair.
His hair looked curlier as well.
I tried to do every activity to get signatures on my activity card and win prizes. For all my work, all I got at the end was a NCL branded plastic phone holder. Here I am trying the bean bag toss.
Our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico. We came before
in 2016 and went to the beach most of the day.
Didn't like the Tequila sign, but everything else was colorful. I think JB stopped to take someone's picture for them, and then they offered to take one of us.
We rented this cool car with no windows and drove around the island. It rained a bit but we didn't get wet.
We stopped at a beach on the north end of the island.
And I had a Mexican Fanta Naranja.
These guys were fun at a ruins in town.
The second stop was
Roatan, Honduras. We also had been here in 2016 but had a different experience this time. It rained ALL DAY. But, the tour JB found with some research (not through the ship) was great. The tour guide made sure we got to do everything, even with the rain. It's funny that we were prepared for rain in Alaska last year and didn't get any. But at least we had our rain jackets with us in the Caribbean.The first place we went on the tour was to see sloths. YOU GUYS. These were amazing!
Same location had these monkeys that climbed all over.
And then the guide took us up from the animals to the zip line. I did not participate in this part of the tour (
see my experience in Costa Rica 17 years ago) but JB had a blast, even in the downpour.
We grabbed this picture at the site.
Then our guide took us to snorkel. We heard that all the other tours canceled their snorkeling, but our guide was determined to help us have our money's worth. There was an hour or so break in the rain and we snorkeled!
Our boat captain ("capitan" JB called him). He told us he plays in the band at his church. "Son cristianos? Somos cristianos!" ("Are you Christian? We are Christian!" he said about himself and his helper)
The third port was Harvest Caye, Belize. We had been here before in 2019 and loved it then and loved it again this time. It's basically just a tiny little islet owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Clean beach, orderly chairs, and volleyball! JB and I played with a group from the ship for more than an hour.
The fourth stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. We had been here on our honeymoon cruise in 2003 and again on that cruise we took in 2019, but the port felt bigger and busier this time.
These Mayan actors were so very funny. "Family! Come take a picture!" Then they would hold a knife or spear up and when the lady held up JB's phone to take the picture they said, "Say SACRIFICE!"
This old jeep was fun to pretend to drive.
I thought Millie would love the pink flamingos just hanging around the shops.
We walked into town a little ways.
The kids did great without us but I missed them all tons. We would Facetime in the ports or through our WiFi package and each time they said they were fine.
