DAY 4: BELIZE CITY, BELIZE

This was my husbands birthday and I figured why not "go out" with a bang right? So I decided to take him swimming with the sharks! YIKES! I had him so freaked out prior to the cruise and a lot of teasing went on about "You've had a good life right?" "You can still work with only 1 arm right?" (He didn't realize they are only nurse sharks and I made the most of it).

We were originally going to do this excursion with a private vendor. I was looking into doing one that took you over in a small plane (which freaked him out even more) and then swam with the sharks. I knew that the cruise excursion took you to Caye Caulker (which I had never been to before) and if you did a private tour by plane you would actually get to head over to Ambergris Cay (which seemed a little more exciting to me). Plus Ambergris Cay would included a snorkel at the barrier reef, which they say that it's a lot better over there than by Caye Caulker. However, we were doing this trip with the Ma'ams (had such a wonderful trip with them to Stingray City in Grand Cayman the year before) and some of the sisters wouldn't do this unless it was by ship excursion. I also knew that a lot of the ship excursions would pick you up directly from the ship (instead of having to tender over to the port and then on to another boat), which saved time. I have done this before when we went to Bannister Island (which is now called Starfish Island I believe). So we booked with the ship.

I had the alarm set for 7am and of course I was up at 6:45am. I don't know what was wrong with me this cruise. I'm not a morning person. I showered and got the family up and we headed to the buffet for breakfast.

I thought we were supposed to meet in the Stardust Lounge at 8:30am and I was rushing the family to get there only to find out that our meeting time was 8:45am in stead. They were thrilled with me.

I didn't notice until I took this picture that Sakari still had her war paint on from the night before. Oops.

When it was time for us to leave for our excursion, they took us down and out to the tender.

I would soon realize that we were actually on the TENDER to the port (ugh) instead of on our way to the excursion...the one thing that I had hoped to avoid.

They tell you that it's a 20 minute ride over to the port. I didn't time it, but we have done this several times before and that seems about right.

I do know that the boat they took us over on had seen better days and was smoking pretty bad. The fumes were really getting to everyone in the back of the boat.

When we arrived at the port, they gave everyone a few minutes to go to the restroom and then meet back on the boat pier to board our boat for the excursion.

I did notice these new trellis. I guess it's good for keeping most of the sun off of you when there in line.

 We had our pictures taken with the staff

Had I known this lady was posing the way she was I would have gave the "that's my man" look on my face to go along with the picture.

Somehow I ended up with a Belize Brochure. I figured it might be good in future planning.

We were soon ready to start our tour and everyone piled on the boat. The tour operators did their little speech about what was going to happen today and then told us that it was a 1 hour and 15 minute ride. YIKES! I swear I have read it was around 45 minutes. I wasn't too thrilled with this, but figured I would make the best of it with taking pictures.

So today we are celebrating the hubby's birthday by....throwing him to the sharks...literally. We are swimming with the sharks and stingrays. We are also going to Caye Caulker as well. To see both of these tours...click the tab below:

We made it back to the ship around 4pm (all aboard was 4:30 with a ship depature of 5pm).

We headed back to the room to shower and get ready to eat again. 

Sakari checked out her collection of shells

This is Sakari's conch shell from the day. I forgot to tell the story about this. When we got on the boat leaving Caye Caulker the tour lady approached us and told us that the ship would not allow us to carry the conch shell back to the ship. I sat here for a minute and thought about this knowing that I had done it before. She went in to this VERY long detailed explanation that they don't allow conch shells to be brought back because, by law, you have to purchase them from a vendor and the vendor is supposed to write on the shell the date it was caught from the ocean and their name on it proving that you did not take it from the ocean yourself, which is against the law. She kept on and on about it and...of course, Sakari thought she was going to take her shell from her and started tearing up. Here we go again...

So in the end, she said she had brought some markers just for this incident and could write something on it, like Sakari's name and the date and she should be ok. She wrote it on there and once we arrived back to the ship, they didn't even look at it or take it out of our bag. I'm still not sure about this, but did see a huge overflowing box of conch shells under the security scanner desk as we walked in. I only noticed them taking the shells when people were actually walking onto the ship with them in their hands. So, I'm not sure of what this story is all about and if they would have taken Sakari's shell if she had been carrying it. If anyone knows, please inform me for future reference.

This is Sakari's shell that she decorated on her dresser when we returned home:

I checked out my coins from Belize:

Then we were left with another VIP "treat"

More "junk mail"

We headed to the buffet to get something to eat. There wasn't much there and not much interested me, but it was all that was open. They didn't open up the Sports Bar or the Outdoor Cafe until later and I wanted something to snack on now and to feed the munchkin so we could take her to the kids club once we pulled out of port.

We left on time and once again, there wasn't anyone missing. I'm telling ya, it was an entirely different vibe this time around cruising.

We dropped Sakari off at the kids club and headed to the casino to try our luck again. 

Tonight was Pirate night, so we knew that they always did a parade around the ship with the kids and we didn't want to miss it. They told us their "maybe" route and about what time and we made sure to watch our clocks.

I was scolded by one of the staff for taking a picture of Sakari from the round windows this time. They stated it was a privacy issue and I wasn't allowed to do it. I told them she was the only one in there at the moment so who's privacy was I invading? Then she told me that it was ok since no other kids were in there. What is the difference if there are other kids in there when they are all over the ship and I can guarantee that they end up in other peoples photos when they take pictures...just like anyone can end up in others photos around the ship. More about this later...

We stopped by the Customer Service desk to pick up my ship pins. I'm not sure why I NEVER get these in my room when I cruise. I ALWAYS have to ask for them and I don't always remember. Then I'll have to come back to this forum and beg and plead with you fine people for an extra pin you may have laying around. Sigh*

We walked through Dazzles at one point tonight and they were playing a game. It was quite funny to watch. They had competing people, who's name was called from the audience. The game was something like 55 and under. You had to do various things that involved the audience member and a staff member on each team. The winning person won something from each round.

Hey at least it was killing some time and not killing our pockets before hitting the casino right?

Once at the casino, I sat down at the slot that kept me playing for hours the other night. It did the same tonight as well and I played on $20 forever and actually ended up ahead. There was a lady in the next circle of machines beside me that stuck in money as she was walking by it, while still standing, hit the high bid button and hit for the jackpot in the machine...$6700. She had a crowd after that and half of the casino staff was there for the next hour or so waiting for the machine to count up her money. Lucky her.

When it was about time for the Pirate Parade, we headed up to the buffet area, which we knew they would be passing by there, and waited with someone from our roll call (who had grandchildren in there too). Finally they came...you can't miss them, or at least their sound of singing.

However, they move way too fast for my camera to focus on them and I always forget to change the setting to sports mode.

Wait, look at all the people taking pictures of their kids as they walk by...do you see anything wrong with this? Parents taking pictures...of kids in the parade...who has other peoples kids in that parade and in that picture! Why is this ok now? It's not ok to do it one time, but ok the next? Makes no sense to me.

A little video of the kids singing...um stinky feet? LOL

Then on to the pool deck...notice all the flashes from the pictures being taken as they walk by? Yea, people once again taking pictures of their child with other children in it...which I was just told wasn't allowed. Geesh. LOL

We decided to head up to the Sports Bar. I was craving some wings and artichoke dip. YES! It was open this time.

Now I have to say that their artichoke dip is way different than what I have had on the other ships. It was good, but just different. The soup tasted like some type of cream of potato soup or something, which was odd, but yet still good.

The wings were yummy, the fries were yummy...or I was just extremely hungry from not really eating at the buffet earlier.

After that, we headed up to pick up Sakari. When I picked her up, one of the staff told me that Sakari was complaining and not feeling good because of her sunburn and didn't want to participate in the games they were playing. They said they didn't know where to reach me. (I figured since they were having their parade, I would just go to get something to eat at the Sports Bar really fast and who would know right?) <--of course they would. I told them that when I checked her in, I told them we were going to the casino, then coming upstairs for the parade, then would be going to eat. They then informed me that they can only put in 1 thing at a time. Well, I didn't know that and the guy that checked me in certainly didn't say anything about it when I gave him 3 places. I was told next time to call when we switch locations and they would just change it in their system. heh heh heh..done in my evil laugh. Yep, that's what I would be doing from now on. They would be sorry that I will be doing this from now on because they will spend a majority of their time answering the phone and changing the location because I change location A LOT. I walked out like a scolded puppy again with my tail between my legs.

We took her to go eat and one of her favorite things on this cruise was the ice cream. She had to have her ice cream fix every day. Who was I to say no? But for some reason she only wanted ice cream and the hubby says "well she's on vacation, so let her have ice cream instead". He always gives in to her. LOL I told her she would be hungry later...and I was right.

Does this face look like a face of someone who doesn't feel good or complaining of a sunburn? Really? Nope! She was perfectly fine after we picked her up.

We got back to the room and watched a little t.v. 

Sakari started doing her drawings for the day.

Daddy did a little work on the computer...you know, the one that not as slow as everyone makes it out to be???

Meanwhile, I notice just how dusty my hair curler is. I would wipe this thing off every single night and it would be all dusty again by the following day. What's up with that? Are we just sleeping in a room full of allergy filled dust? Yuck

After awhile, like I said, Sakari decided she was hungry. We headed out the door, to the buffet area, to get her a late night snack while daddy continued to work. Girls night out I guess.

When we arrived at the buffet, it was closed. So we headed back to the Sports Bar and got her a hamburger and fries to go. However, it was really warm outside and she decided to eat it outside and warm up.

Tonight was Latino dance night at the pool deck and when we were walking back to the room on deck 10...we discovered this....(and had to stay for awhile).

So Sakari and I head back to the room and we are at the pool deck and she spots....the furries again. She just had to stop and dance with them. She absolutely loved these animals and they were oh so nice every time she was around. Hopefully the people in these costumes like kids because if they didn't, you would never be able to tell.

They gave her plenty of time to interact with them, take pictures and even danced with her. She loved every minute of it.

She was so excited I couldn't even get her to pose.

At this point and time, I knew nothing about the

"Furries". I had ask about them to someone that I was sitting by once and I was told their name (Furries), but they also told me that "Instead of having Sponge Bob and the Nickelodeon on this cruise, they have the Furries. So maybe I misunderstood them to mean that this ship had them on it all the time. I kept thinking..."now this is way better than Sponge Bob" and they were always around. PLUS, you never knew which one you'd see. I swear as the cruise went on, there were more and more.

I would later find out more about them...and I will tell more on that later. :) 

After awhile, I was able to convince Sakari that the Furries needed their "me" time and we needed to say goodbye to them and head back to the room.

We got back to the room and daddy was already done working and watching his new favorite show...The Profit. :D

We headed to bead about midnight knowing that tomorrow would bring another early morning day in Costa Maya.

So many people have ask about Sakari's drawing skills, so I'm just going to add this in here:

She has been drawing since she was around 4 (I believe that's when she took interest in it). I watch her skills improve on almost a weekly basis. I use to be the same way growing up and into my teens. I could draw anything, including portraits...as long as there was a picture in front of my face. I could not draw anything 3D (like if it was sitting in front of me), but give me a flat picture and I could draw it. Sakari is the total opposite. She draws from memory and has nothing in front of her. She'll see something that day and remember all of the details of it.

People always tell me I need to get her into art school. There are some local community colleges that offer art programs for elementary children, but it's expensive. Maybe some day if this is what she wants to do.

I can tell you that when she sits down to draw, it's not a long process. She can draw these pictures in less than 2 minutes. She can draw an extensive picture in about 5 minutes. She can draw anything you ask her to draw...just don't let it be people. LOL She was still drawing stick people up until about 6 months ago. I tried and tried to get her to give them a body forever. It just wasn't her thing. LOL

Here's a few others that I have posted over the last few months on my fb. They are just doodles that are done in about 1 minute. She's that fast...and if you notice, she does them in ink pen, so never any erasing involved.

I have a friend that has a chameleon. After Sakari holding it, she came home and was obsessed with drawing chameleons.

A lot of her drawings consist of birds

Of course recently she has discovered teeth. So a lot of drawings have teeth. She said she loves her "teeth drawings" LOL

She went through a period of drawing nothing but dolphins and whales...every type of whale possible (yes, when she looks at a whale, she can not only tell you that it's a whale, but what type...humpback, sperm, beluga, blue, orca...and so on). <---she watches a lot of National Geographic and of course Shark Week. LOL

So when I get a different type of sea animal, I get excited.

We were at my husbands store the other night and she sat down and starting scribbling. I had no clue what she was doing and it just looked like scribbling to me (it actually started with the feathers and then she worked her way up to the body). It took about 5 or 6 minutes and then she came to me to show me her "fancy peacock".

Yesterday she came home from school and gave me a picture. I ask her if she had art today and she said "No, I just did this real fast in class after I got my work done." It rules her life I'm telling you. LOL

I forgot to show our "mini" towel animal from last night...a cute little turtle. (I have to admit, I love the mini towel animals. They are just so cute).

Up next is our day in Costa Maya, Mexico