Day 03 - Monday - 3/17/25 - Roatan, Mahogany Bay, Honduras

 This Monday found us arriving at Mahogany Bay Roatan, Honduras. We had a later arrival at 10 AM so we were able to get up and have breakfast and then watch the sail in from up on deck 18.  The ship pivoted and then backed in alongside the pier. As the ship was backing in, I watched a small turtle surface and swim alongside the ship before diving down. I also was alongside an Australian couple and we enjoyed a wide range of discussion topics, including current politics.  It's always interesting to gain a perspective of someone who doesn't live in America on our situation. 

With the ship safely docked, we gathered up our snorkeling gear and headed off to our meeting point where we met our guide for the day Darrell. He was a enthusiastic man of African heritage and he was with us the whole day, including leading the snorkeling adventure. Our bus to the historic venue was totally full, and the center aisle was really narrow. It took about a half an hour to get to the snorkeling site and we made one short stop at a viewpoint and souvenir stand before reaching the snorkel dock.

Another group had been out snorkeling before us and so we had to wait for them to come in and get checked in before we could leave our backpacks and the like behind. We bring our own masks and particularly I need mine because it has prescription lenses built in. We then proceeded out the channel and at the drop off point Angela was the first one in the water and I quickly followed her by jumping in. Our guide then led the group on a long snorkel where we saw the most starfish that we've ever seen on a snorkeling trip. There were also numbers of fish, including barracuda and many other varieties.  The boat boat then met us at the end of that track 40 minutes later and we all reboarded and were taking to the next snorkel track.

At the second snorkel track, we repeated the process of getting in the water and then followed our guide zigzagging above the coral. The tide was out and so there wasn't much distance between us and the coral so you got a really close view of it. And the coral looked really nice. It was not dead, but it was very much alive with all different kinds and varieties. Once we reached the shipwreck which is been there for over 100 years, it was really interesting to snorkel around it. Most of the superstructure is gone, but the lower framework is clearly visible along with parts of the boiler. We returned to our boat and reboarded it and headed back to the snorkel dock where we were fed a snack of a couple empanadas, one beef and one fish. They were quite good and it was nice refreshment after being out on the water for about an hour and a half total.

Starfish

Conch

We then headed back to the port, which took about a half an hour and once there we wandered through the shops see if there's anything of interest. We were here previously last year about the same time on the Regal Princess so we were pretty familiar with the shopping area. Originally, I was going to try snorkeling at the free beach alongside the ship, but I changed my mind and we headed back to the ship where we showered and got ready for dinner and enjoyed nice dinner with Emily and Kate in the sole dining room.

Our evening entertainment was a magician from Los Angeles, Jason Bird, and he was quite good. It was the first time I've seen a performance that involved use of a drone. Following this performance, we went to the Irish music trivia in  Princess Live. It was extremely hard trivia. We only scored one point. This was followed by comedian, Don Friesen, who was quite good and clean. Given that we had to be up around 5:30 the next day for early arrival into Belize elected to  head back to the stateroom.

Tomorrow in Belize, we have a visit to a Mayan ruins which we are looking forward to.