Wow! We are two for two on amazing shore excursions. Today we were in Paradise…also known as Belize. Ships are unable to dock and must anchor offshore and tender to the shore. I had researched the different options and numerous reviewers were frustrated that passengers booked on Carnival excursions were able to tender first. The cave tubing sounded interesting but the hour long trip to get there didn’t. We learned from our last cruise that long bus trips should be avoided. We booked a Carnival tour that left directly from the ship so we didn’t even have to tender.
The excursion was a “Barrier Reef Snorkel with Beach break”. A 65’ two story, high speed catamaran picked us up right at the side of the ship. From there we took a 30 minute ride directly to our snorkel location. Sam wasn’t interested in being in the live version of an aquarium again and opted out of the snorkel portion. Jason, Mike and I had a blast. Unlike Cozumel, we were out in the middle of the sea without shore in sight. Even though there were plenty of guides, both in the water and in kayaks, I still felt better having Jason close to me so I spent most of the time snorkeling with one hand on the tail of his lifejacket. The coral was beautiful and we saw lots of fish trying to hide as well as a couple of little stingrays.
After an hour of snorkeling, we took a quick ride over to Bannister Island. It is a tiny private island with chairs, tiki huts, restrooms and a bar. As soon as we disembarked from the catamaran, we found some chairs in the shade. I had read that it could be quite crowded but today it was just our boat and a handful of others so it wasn’t crowded at all. We had a large breakfast so we weren’t ready for lunch before we left. I had gone to the deli on the ship and got sandwiches for all of us and stored them in the zip lock bags to bring with us. Snorkeling worked up an appetite so we took a few minutes to enjoy lunch under the shade of our cabana.
There were some complimentary kayaks on the shore that we decided to take for a spin. Sam was Mike’s passenger while Jason and I teamed up to row together. We we’re far from shore when Jason and I flipped. It was hard to get back into the kayak and laughing didn’t help. Luckily Mike rescued us and we were back on our way. Jason did a great job and we made quite a team.
Back on the island, Jason went to explore the rest of the island while the three of us swam. It was absolutely perfect. Delightful temperature, beautiful scenery… Mike and I enjoyed imagining a life here. We don’t consider ourselves a sit on the beach family but I had never been to a beach like this.
Sadly we had to head back and we boarded the catamaran for our final trip back to our ship. The rock and roll music with the unlimited complimentary rum punch set just the right tone to end our amazing trip.
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