Kansas Crimson

I am going on my first cruise in early March 2019. Taking my wife for her birthday. 311 Cruise to Harvest Caye, Belize and Costa Maya, Mexico.

Looking for any general advice and/or pro-tips from any cruisers on here. Just about any information at all will be helpful (i.e. packing, ship navigating, drinks, food, excursions, etc.) as I am a total noob.

Belize-Go cave tubing. Period.
Costa Maya- The stop there is basically just dropping you off to shop.
Take a ride 10 miles south to Mahahual. (oddly, you can't take a cab there, but you can take one to get back) That may have changed . There are busses that take folks down there. Some of the best water and beaches you will ever see.

Oh, pack alcohol in your largest suitcase.
Keep a change of clothes in a carry on, you won't see your actual bags for several hours.
If you drink a lot of soft drinks, buy the soft drink card.
Get as far away from where ever the ship lets you off as quickly as you can.

Sanitize your hands...CONSTANTLY

CAVE-tubing.com

Also, the ships have to drop anchor WAY offshore in Belize, and you have to tender back and forth.
Figure that 20 minutes into anything you do going or coming to the boat.

My advice is to never bring sand to the beach. Just kidding!






Sort of.

141 and counting - down. Enjoy!

jeepinjayhawk wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:27 pm Get as far away from where ever the ship lets you off as quickly as you can.

Thanks for all the info. What's the deal with this one? Is this simply to avoid the crowd, or are there other perils?

cost and people, likely

cruised the inner passage to alaska 20 years ago...would do again

Gutter's Mother wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:34 pm My advice is to never bring sand to the beach. Just kidding!

Lol. Sometimes I think I am the sand.

The pirate ship at Grand Cayman ran into some rocks recently. I’ve seen some great photos of people using the wrecked pirate ship as a background to photos of them coming ashore.
I did the pirate ship thing about 5 years ago and loved it! Rules are lax. The adults were all sloshed from pirate punch. The kiddos had a blast! we dropped anchor and repeatedly walked the plank or jumped from even higher places into the perfect carribean water.
I’ve never been on a cruise, so I can’t help you.

Wifflehead wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 5:05 pm

jeepinjayhawk wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:27 pm Get as far away from where ever the ship lets you off as quickly as you can.

Thanks for all the info. What's the deal with this one? Is this simply to avoid the crowd, or are there other perils?

2 things.

Usually, they drop you where there are nothing but shops to buy stuff. Shops that the cruise lines get kick backs from.

Then, the locals will absolutely HOUND you to buy their " native" hand crafted goods. (CHINA)

DrPepper wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 5:53 pm The pirate ship at Grand Cayman ran into some rocks recently. I’ve seen some great photos of people using the wrecked pirate ship as a background to photos of them coming ashore.
I did the pirate ship thing about 5 years ago and loved it! Rules are lax. The adults were all sloshed from pirate punch. The kiddos had a blast! we dropped anchor and repeatedly walked the plank or jumped from even higher places into the perfect carribean water.
I’ve never been on a cruise, so I can’t help you.

Never been drunker than the drunken pirate ship in Barbados.

And that rope swing is seriously higher than it looks.

We went on a cheap cruise a couple of years ago. Two stops in the Bahamas. We swam with the dolphins for a half day and did a jeep tour another half day. That was our only time off the boat. A total of 9 hours on a 5 day cruise. Hated being on that boat. Just go somewhere and be there. My opinion only. Hope you enjoy it more than I did.

When we checked in, the couple in front of us got busted for bringing in 9 bags of wine that they had removed from the boxes and tried to smuggle on board. Seems they're serious that you can only buy their booze.

jhawks99 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 13, 2018 9:19 am That was our only time off the boat. A total of 9 hours on a 5 day cruise. Hated being on that boat.

What did you hate about it. Just being bored for the amount of time having to be spent there?

Some people like cruises, others don't. I don't. For me, the whole point of a vacation is to get away from masses of people...lol. And being a bit of a germaphobe, I hated it. My GF liked it though, but she is more outgoing and likes talking to strangers. I generally avoid strangers and just want to get to my destination whether it's snorkeling, hiking, drinking, whatever. Also the downtime can get boring, and waiting to get off the ship can suck.

Wifflehead wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:39 am

jhawks99 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 13, 2018 9:19 am That was our only time off the boat. A total of 9 hours on a 5 day cruise. Hated being on that boat.

What did you hate about it. Just being bored for the amount of time having to be spent there?

It was a Carnival cruise and one of their smaller ships. Not a lot to do if you didn't hang out by the pool. One bar that wasn't a pool bar and it kinda sucked. Right in the middle of everything. Food was about Aramark quality. We went to a show every night. Pretty cheesy 50's pop, a comic with socially redeeming values, and another dance thing. If it was bigger with better food/bars/entertainment it would have been ok. Not really my thing. I'd rather go somewhere and be there than on a boat.

I haven't been on a cruise, but it seems an awful lot like all of the bad parts, and only some of the good parts, about staying at a big resort. But I might be discounting the cool factor of going to several different places as opposed to just one.

Tom Cruise was great in the most recent Mission Impossible movie.

If you're gonna go with a Cruise, I suggest Tom.

PhDhawk wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:21 pm Tom Cruise was great in the most recent Mission Impossible movie.

If you're gonna go with a Cruise, I suggest Tom.

Tomahawks are both highly accurate and relatively economical. If you're going to go with a missile, I suggest Cruise.

Yeah I would probably be in the same boat (lol) with you guys if this thing were a "regular" cruise. But this one is a chartered deal, so it's like a music festival on the boat with a bunch of different bands, and 311 plays a few deck shows throughout the trip. So shindig would hate this shit, as its going to be a lot of concert-goer strangers who wanna get wild and interact with each other. As much as I like my down time, I think I would prefer this to being on boat with little to do and a bunch of kids. This one is not kid-friendly, which is right up my alley.