Babymoon Cruise — Blue Hole, Belize

The first stop on our Caribbean adventure was in Roatan,  Honduras.  I was able to do a little SCUBA diving, while Anna snorkeled.  Then, a massage for each of us … all of this on a private resort.  Heavenly.  But, alas, no pictures sorry.  The next destination was over to the tiny country of Belize.  They are also world-renowned for SCUBA (thanks to people like M. Jacques Cousteau).   Since we had just been diving in Roatan, we decided to trust TripAdvisor on the number one activity.  Cave tubing.  It was a lot of fun, but the tour company, Explore Belize Caves, left many things to be desired (we would NOT recommend that company).

Anyway, since there was a little time in the afternoon, we decided to see the most talked about dive site in Belize … The Great Blue Hole.  There are two ways to see it:  dive it, or fly over it.  We opted to rent a Cessna 172 and fly over.  Unfortunately, the plane had a pilot included, but it’s always fun to be in light aircraft and even more fun when you fly over something as spectacular as the Great Blue Hole.  This is the site of M. Cousteau’s expedition.  The reef surrounding the hole is relatively shallow, but the hole itself seems to plunge to an abyss.  It wasn’t until M. Cousteau brought in the famous Calypso that the true depth was discovered (124 meters).  It is strikingly symmetric and 300 meters across.  M. Cousteau declared it was one of the 10 best dive sites in the world.  I’m not sure about that, but here are the aerial pictures.

The Great Blue Hole, Belize.

Getting ready.

Enjoying the ride!

A little perspective.  Although the hole is massive, it is dwarfed by the rest of the reef system.

We circled the Great Blue Hole a few times at various altitudes to see it from all angles.

The reef line.

Anna captured this image of a boat going up the canal.

Looks like a nice place to live, huh?

Yes, this is in fact the airport.  I’ve never landed at such an austere airfield … right next to the sea!

A view from the tender taking us back to the Norwegian Jewel.  Since this was our third cruise, we’re getting a better idea of what sort of things we like and what we don’t.  The Freestyle Cruising that Norwegian advertises is great for some people, but not us.  Why is that, you ask?  Well, it’s varies by cruise, but the biggest difference at Norwegian (that we saw) was the dining.  Normally, cruise lines seat everyone at the same time, and your tables are assigned for the duration.  That is nice because you can make friends with your table mates and the wait staff gets to know your preferences.  However, at Norwegian, they don’t have a set meal time.  You just show up at one of the main dining rooms or make a reservation at a specialty restaurant (steak, sushi, French, Italian, etc).  Seems like a great concept, right?  Well, in practice, the quality of meals is sub-par at the “regular” restaurants and there is a cover charge at the specialty spots.  Plus, on top of that, you’re always anonymous at meals.  It’s not a huge deal, but something we observed and have decided will point us toward other cruise lines when we take our next cruise.

Up next are the Mayan ruins at Costa Maya, followed by some time in Miami at the conclusion of the Baby-moon.

Until then…

–Jim