#VE2023: Costa Maya, Honduras, and Cozumel

If you missed Part 1 of #VE2023: A Pre-Cruise Visit To New Orleans you can read it here <—

If you missed Part 2 of #VE2023: NCL Breakaway you can read it here <—

When I booked the Vlogger Extravaganza Cruise, it was 100% for the group and not the ports.  I wasn’t excited about visiting the Western Caribbean ports and if it had not been for this group cruise, I don’t know that we would have sailed this itinerary.  Upon our return, I won’t be going again.  If for some reason I find myself in any of these ports in the future, we will either hang out on the ship or book an excursion.  My advise to anybody traveling to the ports is to book an excursions.  There isn’t much to do at the port.  Sadly, we missed our stop in Belize.  More on that later.

NCL Breakaway left New Orleans with a sea day to start us off.  Our first port of call was Costa Maya.

Costa Maya has the best port area of the three cities we visited.  It has shopping, a beach, and pool.  You have to partake in eating/drinking to sit in the lounge chairs around the pool and after wondering the port area for a while, all the spots in the shade were taken.  We popped into a restaurant to grab a bite to eat but the prices were so expensive.  Our group shared some chips and guacamole along with a beer before getting back on the ship to save money.

A really neat part of this stop is the Mayan hanging guys that twirl around a pole.  I have no idea what they are called but it was really neat to see.  

There is also a dolphin exhibit and a bird exhibit.  If you want to take a taxi to the nearby townsite, Phoenix and Stacey said there wasn’t much to do but food and drinks were a lot cheaper.  The taxi ride was just $4.

Since we wanted to save money and neither of us were prepared with our beach attire, Kenyon, Wanda, Michael, and I boarded the ship and spend the afternoon by the pool watching the beautiful blue water and drinking blended drinks.

Our next port of call was Harvest Caye Belize, which is NCL’s private island.   Due to 35 mph winds, we were unable to safely dock and thus, we ended up with an impromptu sea day.  The biggest bummer was that it was my only opportunity to have a beach/pool day and the only reason I would try this itinerary again.  The plus side is we had beautiful weather for our sea day and the drinks/foods were included on the ship which they are not at port.  So in hindsight, we saved some money.

The third port of call was Roatan, Honduras.  This day I wasn’t feeling well and the nearby townsite was…gross.  I hear Honduras is beautiful and has some of the best beaches which is why booking an excursion would be worth the money.  The port area has shopping, food, and drink and with a Royal Caribbean cruise also in port with us this day, it was packed!  

We set out on foot and it was just bad.  There was so much honking with everybody wanting you to take a taxi and if they weren’t honking at you, they were hounding you for a tour.  It was a mess.  We parted ways with Phoenix and Stacey who took a cab to a beach and enjoyed their day.  Wanda, Michael, Kenyon, and I went to a restaurant we could see from the ship when we ported for a local beer and some food.  I just wasn’t 100% so we left Michael and Wanda to spend time the room to rest.  

It was a total bummer being sick on vacation!

Our final port of call was Cozumel.  This is the only port that had an entire town right off the ship with lots to see and do including a ton of restaurants.  The port area is huge with tons of shopping.  Once you exit, you are right in town.  I got a Mexico Starbucks mug for my collection and we walked around town in search of local tacos.  

We found a town square with shopping and art and stopped into Woody’s for their epic margaritas.  We said goodbye to Wanda and Michael and the four of us continued to wonder finding a restaurant right on the water with 2 for 1 drinks.  Afterwards, we left Phoenix and Stacey in search of more tacos and made our way back to the ship in the rainstorm.

In hindsight, I wish we had booked the #VE2023 group event at Paradise Beach because it looked like they had blast.  I wasn’t feeling the best so I’m not sure how much fun I would have had but it sure sounded like fun and I was sad I missed out.

We had a final sea day before porting again in New Orleans.  By then, Kenyon and Michael had some down with the intestinal sickness I was experiencing so we hung opted to hang out in the outlet mall area before we caught an Uber to the airport.  

And that wraps up our cruise.  I wish I could back and do a few things differently and of course, I wish I didn’t get sick.  That would have made the last half of the cruise a lot more fun.  I also wished we had spent money on group excursions so I would have mingled with the Vlogger group more.  Maybe next time!

#VE2023: NCL Breakaway

 If you missed Part 1 of #VE2023: A Pre-Cruise Visit To New Orleans you can read about it here ß

 

Boarding the NCL Breakaway was a tiny bit chaotic, partly due to having a group of six and needing to split up into two different Ubers and partly due to the number of passengers on cruise ships being back at full capacity following a global pandemic.  This is the busiest it has been since in a long time and I expected it to be busy with it being the Vloggers Extravaganza Cruise 2023 (#VE2023).

 

This was the first cruise for Kenyon and I since reaching platinum status and even though our other four traveling companions were not the same status, I figured it didn’t hurt to ask.  I’m glad I did because we were all whisked through check-in together through shorter lines and all able to board before general boarding due to our platinum status.  WhoooHooo!  We were finally on board the NCL Breakaway.

 

The first item on my agenda was to book our entertainment and get my dinner reservations swapped around.  It just so happened we boarded right by the theater so the girls and boys split up so they could start in on the food and we could book our shows.  Despite the long line, we got it all booked with ease.  Dinner reservations were also sorted out and I needed a Starbucks coffee and an alcohol drink ASAP!  I love the NCL now has Starbucks on board.

 

Our free at sea promotion came with the drink package which is a must when traveling with a group of friends.  We also had a $100 on board credit as part of the cruise partner booked and a $100 on board credit from our NCL stock.  We enjoyed drinks at various bars around the ship including Shakers Martini Bar and Maltings Whiskey Bar.  Oh man so many delicious drinks.

 

Our platinum status came with a free Wines Around The World tour, which I took Phoneix along.  We tired eight different wines and had an enjoyable time.  They were bringing back the Behind the Scenes’ tour the cruise after ours.  DOH!  We were so close to seeing what goes on behind a ship so I’m dying to get onto another ship soon.  I just have to convince The Hubs.

 

The travel partners had a few pre-planned events as part of #VE2023.  First up was a meet and greet at Spice H2O.  It was surreal to see these celebrity-type people I’ve been following on You Tube for so many years.  It felt like when you are walking around Disneyland when you spot a character.  I don’t think it got any less weird the entire trip.  They were all just so nice and I wanted more time with them!  The main group of four that put the event together were:

Sharon and Jamie from Sharon at Sea

Jason and Alisa from EECC Travels

Tony and Jenny from La Lido Loca

Josh from Cruise with Josh

 

We also had the pleasure of meeting so many other cruise content creators including Don from Don’s Family Vacation, Jared andJordan from JJ Cruise, and Dee and Jay from ParoDeeJay, just to name a few, and many others.

 

I attended two very early Q&A sessions, a travel talk, a photo opportunity, and the BIG final group photo.  It was a very memorable experience that I will never forget!

 

As usual, the food on NCL is THE BEST!  We had four specialty dining perks, two from the free at sea promotion and two from our platinum status.  We even got an included bottle of wine which was a great extra perk.  We redeemed that at Cagney’s on our first sea day with the entire group.  I love the food and the OMG cheesecake for dessert is amazing. 

 

We actually reserved Cagney’s a second time during this sailing and since Kenyon came down with the same intestinal bug that I had in the day prior, I took my friend Wanda to dinner on our last night of the cruise.

 

We ate with Wanda and Michael at Teppanyaki for the first time on NCL.  Sadly, I got sick after so I’m not sure we would eat there again.  Even if it is unrelated, the grill butter and oil was quite heavy.  We spent our fourth free specialty dining at Moderna Brazilian Grille.   Again, I wasn’t feeling 100% the day we dined here but I prefer our local Tucanos so I don’t think we would dine here again.  We ate in the main dining rooms Taste, Savor, and Manhattan and also in the included O’Sheehans.  Breakfast each day was in the buffet. 

 

As far as entertainment on NCL Breakaway, we saw the Broadway musical Six two nights, rocked out to the dueling pianos one night, saw a hilarious comic one night, and after standing in the longest line possible to get into Syd Norman’s, we saw the Fleetwood Mac tribute for their album Rumors.  Syd Norman’s was packed pretty much every night.  We attempted the 80’s Party, but that was the night I had way too much to drink, and the Glow Party, which the rain had just let up and everything was sopping wet.  We also visited Bliss night club one night.  As with most cruises, everything feels so late so it is hard to stay up all night.

 

We captured one beautiful sunset.

 

And one beautiful sunrise.

 

I will for sure plan to catch the sunrise again on a future cruise.  It was great.

 

The only critique the entire trip was this weird smell coming from all public bathrooms and the lack of interaction with your cabin steward.  I really like being able to mingle with our steward/ess but with the reduction in staff/pay, you can feel it all over the ship.  Oh, I guess one more…laundry!  A perk of our platinum is a free bag of laundry each our first bag got lost in the shuffle so it took an extra few days to return.  None of these things will make me not sail NCL again but was a bummer.

 

I’ll wrap up our travel with our ports of calls.

#VE2023: A Pre-Cruise Visit To New Orleans

I am finally sitting down to re-cap our travel adventures in New Orleans pre-cruise, our time on NCL Breakaway for the Vlogger Extravaganza Cruise 2023 (#VE2023), and the port of calls we visited along the way. 

 

Today, let’s kick it off with New Orleans.

 

This the first time visiting for Kenyon and I as well as Phoenix and Stacey.  Wanda and Michael have been before several years ago.  In hindsight, I am glad we stayed in the French Quarter and experienced all that is within the vicinity of Bourbon Street.  I am also glad we flew in on Thursday instead of Friday as it was so much busier once the weekend rolled around.  I mean, there was also 800+ people in town for #VE2023.  Although I enjoyed my visit, I probably won’t be visiting NOLA again anytime soon.

 

The flight east was not bad with a quick layover in Denver, CO where we enjoyed a local beer while waiting to board.  Once we landed, we hit the ground running after taking a Lyft to the hotel coordinated through our travel partners Jason and Alisa with EECC Travels.  The Wyndham French Quarter was a nice hotel with a comfortable bed and a view of the Mighty Mississippi.  We had great weather although chilly at night it was much warmer than Boise.  We had tickets for a free tour at The Sazerac House but needed some food in my belly ASAP beforehand.  Since we were short on time, we spotted a Café Beignets with zero line, and I knew I could not wait to try beignets.  I had the jambalaya which did not hold a candle to The Court of Two Sisters which hands down that the best jambalaya I tired the entire trip.

 

The beignets also did not disappoint, and this was my favorite beignet since most say Café Du Monde is the best, which we also tried during our stay.  I think Café Beignets wins and we made sure to try each location once more…just to be sure!

Our visit to the Sazerac House was fantastic and so fascinating.  This is a free tour with cocktail samples along the self-guided tour.  We were also told the cocktails change so even if you’d been it is worth another visit.  We for sure wanted to buy the whole wall of alcohol they had to offer.

We made our way on foot through New Orleans visiting Bourbon Street and as top into Pat O’ Brien for the dueling pianos show and an iconic Hurricane drink.  Oh man it was good.  Our night ended with a visit to the oldest bar in New Orleans for a “purple drink”, a recommendation from the flight attendant I made friends with on the second leg of the trip. 

 

Our second day in NOLA started with a city tour via the St. Charles streetcar to the Garden District and the famed Magazine Street.  We also met up with Beatrice, whom I met during our Europe Viking River Cruise in 2018.  We booked a tour of the NOLA Distillery and Roulaison Distilling Company via Groupon with a stop at Port of Orleans Brewing Co. for a beer flight and some tacos.

 

The bus stop back to the French Quarter was right next to the King Cake Hub and you had better believe I needed to try some king cake.  We booked it on foot right at closing and the next day enjoyed the fruits of our labor.  It was delicious!

 

We ended our night on Frenchman’s Street listening to jazz and eating NOLA food.  It was a great first full day!

 

On our second/last full day in NOLA, Kenyon and I went in search of the outlet mall connected to the cruise port to see if we could walk there in a reasonable fashion lugging our suitcases behind.  We stopped off at Harrah’s Casino where we won some money again after having a big win the night before.  We visited the WWII Museum and tried a Muffaletta sandwich that was massive.  We made our way to Beatrice’s apartment on Decatur to watch the Krew of Chewbacchus sci-fi themed parade.  I made friends with the young Oregon crowd next to us and although we enjoyed the parade, it was sort of lacking the appeal.

 

We said our goodbye to Beatrice, it was sooooo good to see her again, and grabbed a Lyft back to the hotel.  My feet were plum worn out from all the walking. 

 

Up next…embarkation on the NCL Breakaway.