To celebrate my in-laws 60th Anniversary, their 4 kids and spouses took them on a cruise. Five of us had never cruised before. Embarkation was quick and easy. We all had cabins on the Lido deck next door to each other. We loved being on this deck since it was on the same level as swimming, pizza, buffet, hamburgers and hotdogs and usually some sort of entertainment. We could open the doors between our balconies which was fun. Let me begin with saying that our rooms were wonderful and clean - comfortable beds and luxurious bedding. We slept very well! Noel was our steward and he did an outstanding job keeping our cabin tidy and stocked. We learned that in order to keep the room cool, keep the balcony door shut! We loved sitting on the balcony in the morning and having our coffee & croissants & fruit. We rarely ate lunch on the ship. If we did it was usually a quick bite at the Horizon Court - fruit, salad, cheese & sliced meat on a roll, dessert. Dinner is an event! Most nights it took 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Most nights we ate at the DaVinci Dining room and the food and service was outstanding. With a party of 10 we always had to have a reservation to sit together and we usually requested table 120 with Adrian as our waiter. He and his helper Daniella took very good care of us. We took wine or champagne with us and paid the corkage fee of $15.00 per bottle. The dining rooms frown on seating you until your whole party is there and with 10, that was sometimes hard! We ate at Sabatinis one night and that took 3-1/4 hours. It was an adventure in eating and was well worth the $20.00 per person surcharge for all the different foods we got to taste. We also had Lemonchello after dinner - yummy! The only shows we saw were the comedians and they were very funny.

Now on to the ports! We didn't book any excursions through the ship. We didn't have a plan for Costa Maya except to go to a beach. We ended up buying the Plinka Beach Party for $15.00 per person which included open bar and snacks. Getting to the beach was $5.00 per person round trip. "You get what you pay for" is the perfect example of this beach! Open bar meant beer in a plastic cup poured from a large bottle. Snacks meant chips and salsa which was really pretty good! Also advertised was bathrooms with shower. There was one bathroom with a sink and shower in it for everyone. However, we did get a table for 10 in the shade and 6 lounge chairs in the sun and they have free lockers for your bags. We ordered a special drink in a coconut shell that was $5.00 and was VERY good! Some of us walked out in the ocean quite a way and saw a couple of sting rays. Very cool.

Our next port was Roatan, Honduras. We had scheduled a 1/2 day snorkel with Sail Roatan (www.sailroatan.com). Mario and Lori have a wonderful setup and took very good care of us. Lori met us at the dock outside the parking lot and it took about 20-30 minutes to get to their place. Open bar and lunch on the Lady Calypso of pita sandwiches, homemade hummus and pumpkin bread and fresh pineapple. Delicious!! We went to 2 different snorkeling sites. The water was beautiful and we saw some fish although not as many as we had hoped. I would highly recommend Lori & Mario at Sail Roatan. We had a memorable day. Read more