Royal Caribbean Cruise, Navigator of the Seas, to Costa Maya, Mexico, Roatan, Honduras and Cozumel, Mexico

I went with my son Rick and my brother Jared, who are about the same age, on this cruise in May. It was a lot of fun. The first night they met and became friends with a group of kids their age and it worked out really well for all. I would spend the day with the boys and then after dinner and a show, I would go back to bed and they would go hang out with their friends. They spent the evenings hot tubing, playing board games and just talking. I knew I didn't have to worry about them since they are such good kids and I know they had a blast. 

On the last boat day, I was visiting with the mother of Madi who was also in charge of the two Norwegian exchange students (Lina and Sara) and she told me she was so glad that the girls found these good LDS boys to hang out with because then she knew they wouldn't be out drinking and carousing etc. and she didn't have to worry about the girls. They became great friends and I know there were a lot of religious discussions. There were also two girls from Texas, Angela and Leah who hung out with the group. There were also a couple of other LDS boys, Jake and Tyler that hung out with them. Tyler was friends with Taylor Cook and said I had taken prom pictures of him at my house way back when. Jake said he knew Rex from Mountainridge Jr. High. That was cool.

The Navigator of the Seas is a fun party boat

Andi told Rick he had to try the Escargot and he did! Jared had some that first night as well

The boat has a cool promenade in the middle with fun shops and stuff. The boat had been newly refurbished and was very nice

This is what a room looks like with three or four people. They pull the beds down from the ceiling each night

Rick and Jared checking out the boat and going to meet their friends

Here is some of them L to R- Tyler, Sara, Angela, Jared, Rick, not sure, F- Leah, Madi and not sure

Rick and Jared learning a new dance

Go Jared!!!

That first formal night we ate with Sara, Leah, Angela, Madi and Lina (Sara and Lina are from Norway) Leah and Angela came on the cruise alone and are from Texas. Madi was with the exchange students

They had fun taking pictures

Then I took my own

I even got in on one

The first port was Costa Maya. There was really nothing there except a nice beach at the fisherman's village

They had this fake  ruin but there really wasn't even shopping yet. They are still building it.

Loved, Loved the beach! Mahahual Fisherman's village

Rick and Jared got cheap massages. Think $20 for an hour? Something like that

I bought these earrings from Maria. She was fun to talk to. I even tried out some of my spanish and surprised myself. Of course Rick was right at home talking to her

Mahahual Fisherman's village beach

There wasn't much there, but what there was was awesome

Costa Maya has a state of the art Port with swimming, shopping, dolphins etc.

We took the jeep tour which I would not recommend. All we did was drive along the coast to another beach which wasn't as good as the first one. The terrain is flat so there isn't much to see

We stopped at Mahahual on the jeep tour

They did feed as a decent lunch

And the beach did have hammocks

We got a flat tire on the way back and had to jump in with on of the tour guides. They had these ropes that had steel cores that we were driving over all the time. It was a little obnoxious

But very pretty

Love those aviators Jared!

Getting off the boat in Roatan, Honduras

We went zip lining on Roatan and loved it

It was basically zip lining back and forth down one long canyon

We could haul

Sometimes people were coming in as we were leaving and vice versa

I brought tennis shoes but forgot to change them but it worked out fine. I didn't lose my sandels

They had a cute little monkey there that liked me. Maybe it sensed that I wasn't afraid

After the zip lining we had enough time to rent a taxi to take us around. And look who we ran into! The missionaries. They said there were only 6 missionaries on the island. Rick and Jared being recently returned missionaries loved talking to them. And Rick really related since he served in Guatemala and had a mission president from Honduras

They wanted to get some Latin food so we had our driver take us to a supermarket

They also wanted to visit a little Tienda. Boy does that bring back memories for me and Ecuador

The Roatan Port

I can't resist buying stuff from little kids or old ladies

The ice show was pretty good. Some of the costumes though I just can't figure out

The Port in Cozumel- We got on this ferry for our excursion to Tulum which is on the mainland

The bus took us to a store that had jacked up prices

Rick brought lots of these masks home from Guatemala

Tulum was amazing

The ocean here was incredibly beautiful and bright blue

There were iguanas all over the place

We had some fun swinging through the jungle!

Had I known I could hold one, I probably would have gotten a little closer to get good pictures

Apparently coconut milk is really good for you so I tried it. I am surprised I never had it in Ecuador

The last time I was here was just months after Hurricane Wilma and all these buildings were either not built yet or destroyed

Rick ate four lobsters on the final formal night and Jared had just as many

They sang to me for my 50th birthday and gave me some cake

They had a ballroom dancing show that was really good with a couple of professional dancers from the Ukraine

There was dodge ball tournament that the boys played in with their friends. Tyler played on Rick and Jared's team and they ended up playing a team that consisted of Tyler's family. He took them down single handedly and ended up with just him and his mom. He tossed her a high ball and while she was trying to catch it, he tossed a ball at her legs. It was pretty funny

Angela and Leah from Texas. They were a couple of really nice, Christian girls

The ride home through Texas might have been long, but it sure was pretty