We didn't spend much time in Tampa, but liked what little we saw. After the cruise we had time to kill before our flight back home. So, we checked out the aquarium, which is right next to the cruise terminal.

We checked in our baggage in a Terminal 2 holding room and headed over to the aquarium. The exterior looks huge, but the interior is smaller than expected. We went through and saw everything in about an hour. They have mostly small exhibits -- fish, birds, alligators, meerkats, etc. The largest exhibit was a massive and impressive shark tank. If you're a scuba diver you can pay to swim with the sharks.

If you’re in the area and need to kill time like we did, this is worth a visit.

The second stop on our cruise was NCL's private island off of Belize, called Harvest Caye.

The ship docks at the pier and you take the long walk to the island. The island is fairly small. You can walk from one end to the other in about 10-15 minutes.

The beach area is 7 acres long, full of lounge chairs so you don't have to worry about not getting one. The sand was rather course and full of shells so it wasn't the softest to walk on. The water wasn't that clear but good enough to swim in.

Next to the beach is the amazing pool. It's large with a zero entry area on one end and a swim up bar at the other. It's shallow, I think the deepest it got was about 4 feet or less. Plenty of lifeguards around, too. Lots of lounge chairs around the pool. There's a restaurant attached to the swim up bar, but we didn't go in to check it out. We did order food from our lounge chairs, though. The chicken wings were the tiniest little wings we've ever seen. Covered in a sweet sauce. The chips were like nachos. Very crispy and completely covered in cheese and other stuff. The kids order of chicken tenders was plenty big. The food was expensive, $40 before tip. If you have a dining package or drink package on the ship, it doesn't include anything on the island. You can use your keycard to charge everything, however. They also take credit cards and US dollars.

There are some stores on the island but everything seemed overpriced. T-shirts go for $16. There's a spot that sells chocolate. It looked great but each bar was $7.

There were other activities and amenities we didn’t try, like the rope course, zipline, the kid’s splash pad, or the private villas that you can rent for the day. My son and I tried kayaking in the lagoon for $25 an hour. It was a closed path around some mangroves, but still fun for both of us.

Overall, it was an enjoyable stop and we loved our time at the pool and beach, but it’s unfortunate we didn’t actually see any of Belize other than the private island.