Monthly Archives: February 2026

We got up just before 5:00 and got around for the day and finished packing. We went for breakfast at the buffet and then headed back to the room to complete the last minute items to pack and disembarked the ship. We took an Lyft to the airport where we had almost a 5 hour wait before boarding. We met Gail Salmen sitting at our gate but she had an earlier flight to Dallas and then back to Little Rock. We chatted with her for a few hours and shared more stories about travel experiences. We also got her email address to write to her in the near future. We boarded close to on time but then got on the taxi ramp about 5-6 in line to take off and they closed the airport for about an hour and 40 minutes due to weather. We originally had a 4 hour layover in Washington DC but it turned into an hour and 40 minutes. We boarded our final leg on time and departed just a few minutes late. We got through the airport quickly after we landed and were one of the last ones on the shuttle to head to the green lot to pick up our car, so we didn’t have to wait for another shuttle. We got home right at 10:00pm. We had greetings with Zoey, Loki and Bella and then went back to bed after a very long day. This trip was amazing and checked off several boxes on our bucket list as far as places to see and activities. Nikki and I can’t wait for our adventure!

We woke up at 5:00 and moving the clocks forward an hour overnight. Nikki went and got her coffee and then we both went and got breakfast. We then went back to the room and relaxed after three days of wonderful long physically draining excursions. We left the room to allow our steward to clean up and watched a cha cha dance class and then headed to lunch and wandered around the ship for about an hour before heading back to the room. We are not used to the 80+ degree heat. We ended up taking a nap and started to pack for tomorrow’s disembarkation. We then got ready for dinner which was prime rib for me and scicillian shrimp for Nikki. After dinner we headed to the theater for our high energy entertainment We got back to the room and finished packing what we could and got ready for bed

We woke up around 6:00 which included a 1 hour time change forward. Nikki got coffee and had some quiet time reading her book. I got ready and when I came out into the room Nikki was enjoying the sunrise from the balcony as we approached Isle of Cozumel. We then went and got breakfast and headed back to the room to pack our day bags for another long day. We got lots of messages about the violence on the west side of Mexico, but there was none reported on the Gulf side of Mexico. But, there was none reported on the Gulf side of Mexico. We felt safe since our excursion was out in the water. We met as a large group for excursions in the main dining room and then walked off the ship and had our bags checked for fruit and food before heading to the water taxi. We took the 35 minute water taxi to Playa Del Carmen and split up again into even smaller groups for our specific excursion. Santi was our tour guide and was wonderfully informative on the entire trip and was able to answer all the questions every guest had. We stopped and swam at Akumal beach which means place of sea turtles in Mayan. We saw several colorful fish and two sea turtles. It was amazing to watch them eat and the cone up for air. After we rinsed off the salt water we got back in the cramped van and drove to the Suelo Cenote and were blessed by Mayans in their native language with water and incense. We then swam in the Cenote which is basically a water filled cave. We were not allowed to take our cameras in though which was disappointing. Also the water was very cold, but after a few minutes of hugging each other we warmed up. There were bats on the cave and guppy’s in the water. After we got out we drove to where lunch was served on the beach. I had the beef burrito and Nikki had something with chilled shrimp and fruits. We then took the van for the last time back to Playa Del Carmen and then a water taxi back to Cozumel and directly boarded the ship. Nikki took the day bags back to the room and I got strawberry daiquiris to enjoy in the room. We both took showers and then went out to eat at the main dinning room. After we ate we were totally exhausted and went to bed.

We woke up at 5:30 and Nikki got coffee from her favorite coffee stand. We then waited to get tender tickets as there was no dock in Belize. We got breakfast and went to the room to pack our day bag. We got on the tender to Belize City and then had a short wait where we bought a beach tote before catching our bus to the two minute ride to the dock. We got checked in and had a short wait u til our excursion boat left shore. It was about a 50 minute boat ride to Caye Caulker, Belize where we ordered for lunch after our excursion. We then took the 2 minute boat ride to the reef and went snorkeling for almost an hour. We saw Morey Eels, plenty of colorful fish, and a sea turtle. We then went to a second place and there were rays and nurse sharks that swam all around us and touched us. It was absolutely wonderful and an incredible experience. We then stopped back at Caye Caulker and got the lunches we ordered earlier. We spent exactly 1 hour for lunch and then boarded the boat for the 55 minute return ride to the dock. We walked to the tender for Majestic Princess at terminal 1 and then took the 25 minute boat ride back to the ship. Nikki got drinks from the bar and I took the day packs upstairs and rinsed off the salt water in the shower. Nikki did the same after I was done. We decided to have dinner in the main dinning room as tonight’s menu was surf and turf. We ate dinner and both of us were exhausted and went back to the room and were in bed by 8:00.

We had to switch our clocks back an hour and even with the late night we were up at 5:00. Nikki went to get coffee and I got ready she came back to the room about 5:40 and we went to breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the room and grabbed binoculars and watched our approach to Roatan. We then went down to the shore excursion desk and booked a shore excursion for Gumbalimba Park. We sat on the balcony while the ship docked and just watched the beautiful scenery. We then got ready and disembarked the ship around 10:00 and took the chair lift over to Mahogany Bay beach where we lounged for about an hour sipping on strawberry daiquiris. We took the chair lift back to the main shopping are at port and got in line for our main shore excursion. We got on our bus and the seats on the bus are not made for someone over 5’10”. Let alone an overweight man who is 6’3”. I was sitting in my seat and one of a group of three older ladies from Boston was hanging off her seat over the 6” isle gap and sitting partially on my lap while complaining loudly to her blind friend that I was the one taking all the room. I look over and there is about 8 inches between her and her friend. We couldn’t get to our destination fast enough and it was about a 45-50 minute bus ride with this lady that looked her make up artist was Tami Faye Baker. As soon as the bus stopped I stood up which threw her off my lap and we got off the bus. Our tour guide was Javier and he was great. He would say things like this is the only place in the world where you can find this bug, tree or animal and then before he could take a breath one of the three Boston ladies would ask where else in the world those were located. Or he would say we have to wait our turn for the group in front of us to clear so that they can come out the way they came and all three Boston ladies would cut off the previous groups exit and complain loudly about how the previous group was for not getting out of their way. This went on for several hours. The tour was informative thanks to Javier if you would listen to him, and we got to see lots of native trees including cinnamon, almond and many other species. We got to see an insect collection that was huge and fascinating. And we got to see iguanas, macaws and monkeys in the wild. We even got to convince the capuchin monkeys to come out of the trees for pictures with the guests by bribing them with treats. We finished the 4 hour tour and Javier had to load the bus with his group but the 3 ladies from Boston were too busy heading in 3 opposite directions and being unable to follow directions took Javier about 30 minutes to get the group together to load on a bus. Then one of the ladies walked right in front of bus trying to leave when it wasn’t our turn to be loaded. Javier said it the first day he was working as a tour guide and the worst experience of his life. Everyone from our group felt bad for him. We did meet a nice couple from Wisconsin who were on the other Princess Cruise in port at the same time and went on the excursion with us. We hung out with Tom and Shelly for most of the 4 hour tour. After the tour we were hungry because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and walked for several hours. We went to the room to drop off our packed day bag and I went down to reserve a seat at O’Malley’s while Nikki did something with her hair after wearing a hat all day. We watched the Whiskey Martyrs and ate dinner and called it an early night as neither of us had the energy to stay up late. We went to bed early and woke up the next morning late for us.

We woke up around 5:00 am the ship was still rocking pretty good. Nikki went to get coffee and read and I got ready in the room and met up with her and then we got breakfast at the buffet. We then got back to the room and Nikki got ready for her message we scheduled the previous day for 8:00 am. While Nikki had her massage I showered and shaved, which was difficult with rough seas. We attended a shore information seminar with several raffles, we didn’t win anything. We headed up for lunch and met a couple, Richard and Sharon from Montreal and talked about different travel taken and future plans. We talked for about Two hours with them. We then headed back to the room and ended up taking a nap.
After a good, rolling, snooze, we headed back to O’Maley’s pub for dinner and more music by the Whiskey Martyrs. We meet Gail and Zai. Two wonderful women who love traveling together. Gail from Alabama and Zai from Perth, Australia. Both recently lost their husbands. Zai’s husband was from Ireland. They traveled often, all over the world, by motorcycle. Now, she and Gail travel together, all over the world, mostly by cruising. Entertainment for the evening was the theatrical performance of Encore in the Main Princess Theater. This show was singing and dancing accompanied by a live band including brass members and a violinist. The show was entertaining and well done. We then attended a stand up comedy show in the Vista laugh lounge at the aft of the ship on deck 7 with AJ Jamal

We both were up a couple of times during the night, but then slept in until shortly after 6. We showered and then went down for breakfast we started watching the men’s Olympic hockey gold medal game. We only got to watch the first two periods before we had to checkout from the hotel and take a Lyft to the cruise port and terminal. I think the entire process of security and check and get our medallions took about 20 minutes. We then boarded the ship and took our luggage to our room. The room wasn’t prepared yet so we went to explore the ship get some drinks, since.we have a drink package, and get lunch at the buffet. We watched some live music and then went back to the room which was prepared by then. I thought sail away was 5:00 but it turned out it was 3:00 and we spent some time out on the balcony enjoying the sights and intense sun. We explored the ship some more and then decided to havedDinner at O’Maley’s pub with Entertainment by the Whiskey Martyrs. They were a guitar and violinist performing Irish music and it was awesome. We had fish and chips for dinner. Afterwards we attended our evening entertainment in the Main Theater which was the comedy from The Mighty Quinn. Afterwards we went to bed and the weather took a turn and the ship rocked us to sleep all night into the morning with some rough seas.

We left the house around 9:45 and headed to the airport. We parked in the green lot across the street from the airport and took the shuttle in. We parked way in the back and were able to park next to a bus terminal so that worked out great. We used our TSA pre check and skipped the line, although the line really wasn’t long. We got to the gate about 40 minutes before boarding. The flight was uneventful and we flew to DCA in Washington DC and had about an hour layover. We had to change terminals but it really didn’t take that long. We grabbed a Ceasar chicken wrap and split it. We boarded for the next flight but were delayed by maintenance for about 40 minutes. Once we got in the air the flight was quicker than expected and landed only a few minutes late. We grabbed a Lyft and were taken to Four Points by Sheraton in Dania Beach fairly close to the airport. We ate dinner there which was just bar food but surprising very well done. It was about 7:30 and we decided to read and write today’s blog entry before going to bed.