We exchanged our mountain views for sea views in September. We departed Loveland, Colorado on September 10th for the 600 mile trek back to Emporia, Kansas to visit our family. In the RVing world, there is an unwritten 3/3 rule: Drive no further than 300 miles and arrive at your destination no later than 3:00pm. We try to follow the 300 mile rule but we have yet to pull into any destination, other than a campground, before 3:00pm. We always take our time driving (usually 62-65mph) as we tend to make several unexpected stops along our routes if we see something interesting.
Our first leg of the trip ended at Hays, Kansas (613 miles) where we enjoyed a nice steak dinner at the Whiskey Creek Steakhouse for Tracy’s birthday. After dinner, we dry-docked at the Hays Walmart Supercenter for the night.
We finished up the next day at Emporia, Kansas (213 miles) and spent the next four days with our family. On September 15th, we parked the Grizzly at Lana’s moms house, said goodbye to our family and fur babies, and drove down to Galveston, Texas (735 miles) where we boarded the Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas for a two-week, back-to-back Eastern/Western Caribbean cruise to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.
We had not been on a cruise for a couple of years and were looking forward to spending time on the seas. The Liberty of the Seas is part of the Freedom class of ships, our favorite fleet.
Our first port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. It was our first time in Cozumel so we chose to window shop, have a nice lunch at Mr. Sanchos Restaurant, and stop at the local Starbucks for free Wi-fi in order for us to chat with our family and catch up on emails.
Our second port of call was to the Grand Cayman Islands. We booked an excursion to swim with the stingrays and it was the best excursion we had ever been on. The tour operator met us at the port and we were loaded into an open air van and driven to a smaller inlet where we got onto a small passenger boat. The boat ride was approximately eight miles out to sea to an area referred to us by the locals as Stingray City, an area surrounded by wave breaks and the water ranged from 3′ to 5′ in depth. During our excursion, we had more than fifty stingrays swimming around us, between our legs, and on our backs:-)
Our third port of call was Falmouth, Jamaica, where we elected to stay on the ship to play golf and catch some sun rays.
We spent a couple more days at sea and arrived back at Galveston, Texas on September 23rd. We kept our same cabin for the second week of the cruise, which was the Western Caribbean.
On September 24th, we celebrated our wedding anniversary with a wonderful dinner at Giovanni’s Restaurant aboard the ship.
Our first port of call was Roatan, Honduras. Roatan Island is part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world and has some of the clearest waters and pristine white sand beaches you will see in the Caribbean. It is located approximately 40 miles off the northern coast of Honduras. Five months earlier, a large cruise ship MSC Armonia crashed into the newly built Honduran dock at Coxen Hole, destroying the pier in the process.
We booked a ZIP-N-DIP excursion in Roatan through TripAdvisor. The tour operator picked us up at the dock in an open transport truck and off we drove into the jungle. The roads in Roatan were narrow and busy but we had a great driver. After arriving at our destination, we were whisked into groups and given our safety instructions. The tour comprised of eleven zip line platforms that soared over the native jungle.
After the zip line concluded, we were taken to a wonderful, pristine white sandy beach called West Bay End. We were supplied with beach chairs, an umbrella, and our personal waiter for an overall great experience.
Our second port of call was to Belize City. The shallow water surrounding Belize City did not allow our ship to port so we were tendered and used water taxis to get to shore. Our day in Belize was rainy and overcast so we decided forego any excursion and conduct our own walking tour. We ended up having drinks and lunch at The Wet Lizard located in the Fort Street Tourism Village. After lunch, the rain began falling more steadily so we decided to head back to the ship, calling it a day.
Our third port of call took us back to Cozumel, Mexico. This time around we opted to rent a dune buggy and tour the jungle. The tour started out at the port and traveled to the undeveloped, eastern shoreline of Cozumel. The tour guide had a nice lunch stop planned but Lana and I skipped it and headed for the pristine, untouched white sands along the beach for an hour. We concluded the tour by driving through the city proper of Cozumel and along residential streets. I must say we were quite disturbed learning about the deceit living conditions in Cozumel. What we saw as tourist along Rafael Melgar Boulevard was a facade and not an accurate depiction of how life was actually lived in the city of paradise.
We attended a cupcake making class on board…
…and on September 30th we docked back at Galveston, Texas, got into the car and headed back Kansas.
