2015 Cruise, Cozumel/Belize City/Roatan/Grand Cayman

 Saturday Feb 7th my wife and I arrived in Tampa FL. Once the Hilton shuttle picked us up shortly after landing(11:59pm) we learned that there was a plumbing issue in our room that they were not able to fix in time. As they did not have any other spare rooms they comped us the room and put us up in a very nice hotel for the night. The hotel's checkout was at 11am so we headed to the Carnival port earlier than we had planned. Check in for use was suppose to be at 1pm but because the lady at the front desk noticed that my birthday was the day after her sons, she upgraded us to priority boarding. My wife and I were to the port, through security and onto the ship before 11:45, a nice/lucky start to our vacation. For dinner aboard the ship that night I enjoyed a cold tomato gazpacho soup, braised brisket with mashed potatoes and a slice of chocolate cake with black cherries.
                                         

My wife and I on the Lido deck of the Carnival Pride

 Port of Tampa as well of a picture of us going under the last bridge before heading out to sea. We would spend all day Monday at sea on our way to the first port of call, Cozumel. There was a lot to do the first day at sea as Carnival Pride did their best to keep every occupied. After breakfast and some time in the sauna I sat in on a sushi demo (really I was there for the free sushi samples), followed by a cooking demo where they made a mushroom soup, blue cheese salad, beef stroganoff and a cheese cake (again got to enjoy samples of each).

 After enjoying the cooking demonstrations and enjoying all of the samples, we went off to enjoy some Disney trivia. We lost by one point because we didn't know the name of the panther in the movie the Jungle Book, I now know its Bagheera.
For some reason, after eating all day I found my self ready for dinner and more food. For dinner I ordered stuffed mushrooms, alligator fritters, lobster with shrimp and cherries jubilee. With an overly full belly and heavy eyes we called it a night and slept well with pleasure of waking up in Cozumel Mexico.

Cozumel
                                         
Linds and I had signed up for a Jose Cuervo tequila tasting and made our way to find our guide at the end of the pier. We had done lots of research with TripAdvisor before booking and had read great things about Arturo. Linds was very excited to learn that Arturo would be our guide and drinking buddy throughout the sampling process. We learned that tequila can only come form one region of Mexico, if it comes from other regions it has to be called Mezcal.

 We learned how to sip and check for quality using three different aged tequilas, Blanco, Reposado and Anejo. Blanco is aged in oak barrels for 6-8 months, Reposado is aged 1-3 years and Anejo is aged 5+ years.

 We were back on the ship by 5pm and on our way to Belize City by 5:45, only 15 minutes late due to a few stragglers getting back late.

Belize City

The waters in Belize City are not deep enough to allow the ship to tie up to a port so a 15 min boat ride is taken from the cruise ship into town. While in Belize, Linds and I thought we would give cave tubing a try. We took an hour and half bus ride from Belize City out into the jungle where we were given a tube, life jacket, helmet and head lamp. Our guide led us on a 30 min walk through the jungle educating us about vegetation until we came to the river and opening of the cave.

                                     
                                     
 The water was not cold but "shockingly refreshing". Tubing underground and through the cave lasted about 45 minutes. As there were many other groups at the same location we had to come up with a team name, some how it was decided that we would be Edwardo's Nuts. After tubing we were fed a lunch of beans and rice with chicken.

Roatan

                                          
                                          
 Our day in Roatan was short compared to the other ports so Lindsey and I just decided to relax and have a beach day. We left the ship early enough to bet the rush and were able to get a front and center beach lounger. While Lindsey soaked up the sun, I went off in search of a good snorkeling spot. I got a good hour of snorkeling in before the rush of fellow cruisers found my hidden gem and decided to stir up the water causing many of the fish to go into hiding.

                                           

   

Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was our last port city before we would head back to Tampa. The whole trip I had been looking forward to swimming with stingray's and now was my chance. Our guide took a group of us out to Stingray City to feed and swim with the friendliest stingrays ever. We learned that for ever four females are is only one male. The males only read the size of a dinner plate by the time they are 65 years old while a 65 year old female will measure 5-6 feet across form wing tip to wing tip. I had a blast swimming with the stingrays and even got to hold one.                                       

Sea day back to Tamp

We started the day off by sleeping in and enjoying a nice brunch in the dinning room. Lindsey had an egg white omelet with raisin bran crusted french toast. I opted for huevos rancheros and frosted flake crusted french toast. We then went up and took part in US state trivia (lost) and odd law trivia (we won a piece of ship on a stick). Once again Carnival does a great job offering many activities to keep guests busy if they so choose on the sea days. We spent the day doing trivia, looking at towel animals and watching ice carvings. I found it saddening and difficult to say goodbye to our AMAZING dinner servers Adnan, Angel and Uan. Soon it would be time to leave the ship for good and make a mad rush to the airport to catch our flight back to the frozen north.