7 Day Western Caribbean Cruise

It seems like forever since my last trip out of Kansas City. In fact it was last November when I went with the kids to Vegas. So you can imagine my excitement when my cruise through the western Caribbean finally got here. My friend, Sonia, and I headed out of MCI to New Orleans. Limo service all the way. We planned to spend a day in New Orleans before our cruise. Everyone in New Orleans is planning for Mardi Gras so the streets at night were jammed packed with people and traffic.

Sunday afternoon we boarded the Norwegian Dawn - a 965' ship built in 2002. There are approximately 2,300 passengers and 1,000 crew members. I could definitely tell the age of the ship since on our last cruise we sailed on a brand new ship. But our room had a balcony and seating area so it didn't feel too cramped. I did have a bit of trouble sleeping at night. The bed is twin size and I swear I almost fell out of bed each night. I'm used to sleeping in a king size bed.

Our cabin steward made up for any inconvenience we had to endure. He was always greeting us and anything we asked for he made appear. Each night he would leave chocolates and towel animals on our beds. I'm not exactly sure what type of animal we had each night. I recognized the elephant and the frog but I'm a little foggy on the other two.

Our first day at sea we spent time in the spa. This is the view from the spa window at the back of the ship. I was hoping the rest of the cruise wouldn't have such awful clouds but once we hit our first port the sun was shining and temperatures were in the low to mid 80's.

Dining on the ship is always an experience. There is the buffet and main dining room which is provided in your original cost. There are also several different restaurants you can go to for a cost. Our casino host didn't waste much time is giving us a choice of restaurants and a bottle of wine each night.

Our first night we went to Teppanyaki - a Japanese Hibachi restaurant. We sat around a shared table while skilled chefs diced and chopped and grilled steak and rice on a large steel grill. The chef saved part of the scrambled eggs he added to the rice to flip into our mouths after the meal. Very tasty.

The next night we went to Cagney's - an American style steakhouse. Next we tried Moderno - a Brazilian steakhouse. You start with an impressive salad bar with imported cheeses, cured meats and specialty salads. Then the waiters come around to your table serving all types on meat on these giant skewers. We sampled beef, pork, lamb and chicken. Not my favorite restaurant but different and unique.

Our last restaurant choice was La Cucina - which of course by the name is an Italian restaurant. By this time we'd gather enough bottles of wine to open our own winery so we passed on the wine and got beer to go. Not the type of thing you'd see in a fine dining restaurant but it worked for us. Our last night on the ship we decided to go to the buffet - they were serving prime rib. The buffet opened at 5:00 so we decided to beat the crowd and go early. What was I thinking! This ship was loaded with blue haired blue plate special diners. The line was long and slow. I swear the person in front of me was picking olives out of the salad one at a time. When I started to go around her she had the strength of an elephant to hold me back.

The salon and spa is another highlight of my cruising adventure. It's about the only place I let strangers touch me. Maybe it's because I know I'll never see these people again. I love the hot stone massage but I let them talk me into a Thai herbal poultice massage. They use muslin wrapped balls filled with Thai herbs which are supposed to gently steam away achy and tired muscles. Everything was going okay until the lady started beating me with the balls. Not like swinging them over her head type beating but a little more than a gentle tap. My back did hurt a bit the next day. I was able to take advantage of an in port special and got my hot stone massage but it wasn't as good as the one I received on an earlier cruise. I also won a $50 gift certificate so I decided to get a facial. It was very relaxing but all that massaging around my sinuses made my nose drip for the next 2 days. Did I say I love massages?

We also saw a few shows which I didn't think were nearly as good as the ones we saw on the Carnival Cruise line to Cabo. But the seating was extremely comfortable. They also had a special White Hot party. The upstairs pool deck was decorated in ice sculptures and everyone wore white and danced to salsa music.

It really was enjoyable.

Our first port was Cozumel. Besides the pier shopping, we did a little relaxing at Senor Frogs.

Even the ports on cruise vacations is getting extremely commercialized. Our view from Senor Frogs was none other than a Hooters.

From Cozumel we headed to Belize. Belize is a little nation-state on the eastern coast of Central America. We were going to do the city tour but we didn't get off the boat early enough. But they did have Coach, Michael Kors, Burberry and more designer purses - not real, of course, but if you don't look real close who would know. I loved this outdoor bar which was literally full of men whose wives were out shopping.

Then it was off to Roatan, Honduras a small island in the Caribbean Sea less than 5 miles wide.

It's not very safe to go venture off on your own so we stuck to the port shopping and people watching from the outdoor café. Most of the excursions are either sitting at a beach for 5 hours, snorkeling or port shopping.

Our last stop was Costa Maya. Another Senor Frogs was the main attraction. I was going to buy souvenir shirts for the kids but if you look on the left of this picture you'll see the only selection they had.

Most of the pier shopping was tents with Mexican handmade crafts. I passed this booth of this guy finger painting. These don't look quite like the pictures Violet produces but I thought Michele might enjoy seeing this and try her had at it. This guy was amazing.

All too soon it was time to pack and go home. We did stay an extra day in New Orleans and got out just before all the Mardi Gras celebration began in full force.