Carnival Conquest
7 Day Exotic Western Caribbean Cruise - May 4, 2014
After a fun-filled honeymoon cruise in 2013, it didn’t take long before we starting talking about planning the next one. To celebrate our first wedding anniversary in 2014 we decided to cruise in a balcony cabin on the Carnival Conquest to the Western Caribbean out of PortMiami.
Itinerary
Sunday - May 4 - Miami, FL
Monday - May 5 - Sea Day
Tuesday - May 6 - Belize City, Belize
Wednesday - May 7 - Cozumel, Mexico
Thursday - May 8 - Isla Roatan, Honduras
Friday - May 9 - Costa Maya, Mexico
Saturday - May 10 - Sea Day
Sunday - May 11 - Miami, FL
I had been to Cozumel before (I swam with dolphins on a cruise with my parents), but other than that, these were all new ports for us!
Cozumel
We spent the first part of our day in Cozumel at Mr. Sancho’s Beach Club. We enjoyed food, drinks, and time in the water.
For the second part of our day, we made our own Mayan chocolate from scratch at the Kaokao Chocolate Factory. We had a blast learning about the history of cacao and then tasting our own creation. After our tour ended, we bought some more chocolate as souvenirs and then headed back to the Carnival Conquest.
Belize City
We booked the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins with Lunch excursion through Carnival for our stop in Belize City. We’re pretty big fans of booking independent tours, but when it comes to really long tours or if you have to travel far out of the port city, we feel safer booking through the cruise line since they guarantee to get you back to your ship on time. The Xunantunich Mayan Ruins are two hours away from Belize City. We were the first tour group off the ship and the last to get back on, so safe to say it was definitely worth it to book the excursion directly through Carnival.
Xunantunich is an Ancient Maya archeological site in Western Belize right by the Guatemala border. We enjoyed our time there walking around the site and learning about the Mayan culture. One of the best parts was being able to climb to the top of Xunantunich. Many Mayan ruins are roped off and you’re not allowed to climb them to prevent damage to the site.
After our time at Xunantunich we got back in the buses and headed back towards Belize City. We stopped at a local place for lunch where we had chicken with rice and beans. The rice and beans were phenomenal! Belizean rice and beans use coconut milk in the recipe and it really elevates the dish. After lunch we loaded back into the buses and left for port. We were the last tender boat to get onto the Carnival Conquest before leaving Belize City and sailing to Isla Roatan.
Isla Roatan
For our time in Isla Roatan we reserved a Best of Roatan private tour through Victor Bodden. Unfortunately, the Carnival Conquest made several attempts to dock, but due to strong winds and large sea swells it made docking unsafe and they had to cancel our call. Instead, we had a fun day at sea as our ship sailed on to Costa Maya.
The port fees for Isla Roatan were refunded to our account and Jay suggested using the credit to make reservations for dinner at The Point Steakhouse for that evening. This would be the first time we had experienced a specialty restaurant on a cruise ship. We definitely enjoyed our meal and have made at least one specialty restaurant reservation on every cruise since then (except for one ship that did not have a specialty restaurant, the Carnival Sensation).
Also, can I just take a moment to say that I hope everyone reading this finds someone that looks at them the way Jay is looking at his steak!
Costa Maya
When we got off the ship in Costa Maya we headed directly to the taxis and took a short ride to the beach town of Mahahual. We made ourselves comfortable at Tropicante, one of the many beach bars, and enjoyed lunch and drinks in between dips in the refreshing water. We had a couples massage on the beach and once we were good and relaxed we headed back to the port area of Costa Maya for some shopping. Then it was time to get back on the ship and head back home to South Florida.
As the sun set on another wonderful cruise, we knew the post-cruise blues wouldn’t be so bad, because we already had our next cruise booked for 2015! We had previously heard about a pretty unique stateroom category on some of the Carnival’s conquest class ships, the Scenic Grand Ocean View. These rooms have floor to ceiling windows and are just above the bridge at the front of the ship. Excited to experience a new stateroom type, we contacted our Personal Vacation Planner at Carnival and she found us a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Valor out of San Juan, Puerto Rico for May 2015. Until then, happy cruising!
