December 22, 2015 (Isla Roatan)
Today was our second day that we could leave the ship. Isla
Roatan is an island off of the Honduran coast. Mahogany Bay, where the ship
ported is an invented city that has been created by Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival constructed an outdoor shopping center and partnered with every shop
to split the proceeds. The same is true for every business along the beach.
After eating breakfast at the buffet, we entered the line to
get off the ship. Despite hundreds of people leaving at once, it was a fairly
smooth process. As soon as we got off the boat, we could see that another
Carnival ship was docked and had people getting off at the same time. Everyone
was forced to walk through a duty-free shopping center before entering the
‘city’. It appeared that there were only three things to do at the port: Shop,
go on a zip line or go to the beach. We opted for the beach.
Each of us wore our swimsuits and I had beach towels and the
kids’ cheapie snorkeling gear in my backpack. Along the trail to the beach,
there was a hike that I noted that I wanted to go along once we were done with
the beach. The beach was partitioned into two parts. A smaller, more private
section that cost $65 or the free section. Of course we chose to go the free
route. At the free section, people could rent a private hut for the day for
$200. For $45, one could rent a covered two-seated area. Then there were two
rows of free chairs the spanned the length of the entire beach. We were early
enough to have our choice of free chairs. We chose to sit under trees in a
naturally shaded area. The beach itself consisted of soft white sand and the
clear blue water that has accompanied the trip.
It was with our beach gear that we finally identified the
inevitable thing that we forgot. With the kids’ snorkeling gear, each set came
with a set of goggles and an attached breathing tube. When unpacking, we
couldn’t find a second breathing tube. It was pretty much a non-issue because
Emery made a friend to play with on the beach as soon as we got there. She
played in the sand and built a castle with a girl. Emery ran to us, excitedly
and told us that the girl lived on the same level as us and she lived just
around the corner on the odd side of rooms. While the girl played with sand,
Tate floated along the surface of the water, snorkeling.  |
| That is Tate Floating in the Water |
I was perfectly happy to sit on the beach and read a book.
Leigha was perfectly happy to relax in the sun. Tate was perfectly happy to
snorkel. Emery was perfectly happy to play with another little girl. Until she
got hungry. The kids are accustomed to eating in the eleven o’clock hour due to
school. Emery is the only one that hasn’t learned to adapt her eating schedule
when she isn’t in school. After giving Tate another half hour to swim, we left
the beach. As we walked back, we decided to take the hike, which was really an
alternate to walk back to the ship, but through the tropical foliage. Emery
complained the entire time, until we realized that it was actually a shortcut.
After lunch, the kids both decided that they wanted to go to
the kid area and play video games. We told them that they were more than
welcome to go there, but they had to be aware of the possibility that we may go
zip lining without them and that we wouldn’t pick them up until dinner time.
They were fine with that and off they went to play without us.
After looking down at the make believe city from the ship,
we decided to walk around and look at what they had to offer. Leigha wanted to
look for a visor. These serve several purposes: to protect people from the sun,
to make you a better gambler and to prepare you to work at Starbucks. After
five
or six shops, Leigha was ready to concede that visors weren’t popular
enough to be able to find one when magically, three different choices appeared
from a rack of hats. 
After looking at each of the stores in the shopping area, we
made our way to the zip line are. Leigha’s parents had been to Isla Roatan
several years prior and told us that there were reasonable deals to fly through
the jungle. When we got to the zip line station, we were told that they had two
deals either $85 or $120 a person. We agreed that we would both probably have a
lot of fun doing this, but not enough to justify the cost. After walking the
remainder of the shopping area, it we decided to sit down for a drink at Fat
Tuesday’s.
At the bar, they advertised that they had free samples to
any of the many flavors of daiquiris that they had churning away in machines.
It reminded us of New Orleans. We opted to get some Honduran beers. They tasted
similar to a Corona and a Budweiser, nothing worth buying a second. As we sat
at the bar, we wondered what the locals thought of the fact that a big company
came along and developed a jungle area to create a fake city. On one hand, this
was providing a shot in the arm for the local economy. On the other, a fake
city is the only image that thousands of foreigners have representing the
country of Honduras.
After we finished our beer, we went to the ship. We explored
the twenty-one and above adult deck at the front of the ship. Being kid-free
(and directly outside the kid area), it was quieter and filled with nicer
chairs and private hot tubs. We sat in a round wicker seat that had pillows and
was partially covered. It was comfortable except the fact that the sun was
positioned to shine down on us despite the covering. We chose to get some water
and move to the back of the ship. It was nice to sit down and talk about
anything and everything for hours. We talked about other vacation destinations
and imagined our kids as teenagers.
When we picked up the kids, we went to dinner. By this
point, the meals had cycled around and there were few things that were new on
the menu. However, Tate made me proud once again with his food choices. He
opted to try the slow-roasted Ox tongue and enjoyed it quite a bit.
The only event that I circled on the daily social calendar
that is provided to us was the Hasbro Family Game Night. I believe that this
may be a game show that I’ve never seen, but it looked like something that the
kids would enjoy. Emery was really excited when I told her that it was possible
that we could participate. After dinner, we went to the room and waited for the
show. As is often the case, Tate had a difficult time removing himself from the
cable cartoons that he isn’t able to watch at home. When it came time to go to
the show, Tate repeated over and over that he didn’t want to go. We told him
that because the rest of us were going, he didn’t have the option to stay in
our room and watch cartoons.
As we walked down the stairs, I told Emery that if she
smiled big, they may choose cute kids to participate. As she loves this type of
attention, she held my hand and worked on her gameshow smile. We walked ahead
of Leigha and Tate and found seats in the audience. When Leigha arrived, she
was by herself.
“Where’s Tate?” I asked.
“He’s lying down on the stairs,” she said. I couldn’t get
him to come. I walked to the stairs and as I approached him, I saw a small
group of adults standing around him. I could hear that they were concerned that
he may have fallen or had a seizure because he way lying on the ground,
unresponsive and holding to the railing, stiffly.
“Tate,” I said, “what are you doing?” He didn’t respond, but
it was enough to put the group at ease and disperse them. Unlike Emery’s
tantrums, Tate’s are generally silent. When he doesn’t have a bed to crawl
under, he buries himself under something and hold on as tight as he can when
you try to excavate him. I picked him up and pulled his hands away from the
railings. After I moved his hands away from grabbing anything else to tether
himself to, he buried his face in my shoulder hiding his tears.
“Those people were really worried about you,” I told him.
“They thought that something was wrong with you. Why are you so upset?”
Silence. “This gameshow will be fun for everybody. I really think that you’ll
like it.” Silence. “You don’t have to say anything, but we are going to the
show and you aren’t going back to the room and watch t.v.”
In the audience, Emery clapped and cheered as loud as she
could. She loved the show before it even began. Tate was less enthused. When
the show started, they were looking for kids to play the first game. The cruise
director, Jase asked questions and randomly picked an enthusiastic kid from the
audience to answer it. Every time, Emery jumped up, waved her hands and
screamed with excitement, but she wasn’t picked. The first game was an adapted
Connect Four. Each team had colored basketballs that they threw into a giant
game board. By the end of the game, Tate was cheering on the kids and was happy
again.
For the second game, they were recruiting adults. They
flashed a trivia question on the screen and Jase picked people to answer the
question. If you got it correct, you got to play. Emery was equally excited for
this, convinced that I would be selected. While I knew the answers to the
questions and waved my hand each time, I wasn’t selected. This next game was an
adaptation of Simon, the color matching game. Each person had a box strapped to
their chest with a color on it. On a screen, they flashed the color sequence
and each team of four had to get in the correct order. When the show was over,
I leaned over to Tate and asked him if he had fun. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Don’t give me that,” I said and pushed him. “Grumpy
McGloomy doesn’t want to admit that it was more fun than he thought it was.”
No comments:
Post a Comment