Arrival In Limon Costa Rica

We are very excited about this port, We are joining about 21 other people all but 5 roll callers, We are suppose to be the first ship to ever have a tour from the ship to the Jaguar rescue center. The tour is conducted by JJ tours, The tour is to include lunch, and the coco bean plantation, Banana plantation, the National Park and if time the Sloth sanctuary.

Breakfast on the Lido Deck

We dock at 10:00 am and to meet JJ out side the docking area as he is not included in Carnival sanctioned tours.

But first my Sunset and some photo's getting close to Costa Rica, the ship docked on starboard side so there are no port shots.

A couple pages back I talked about rude passengers and debarking the ship, when we are in tight crowded places I hang on to one child and hubby hangs on to the other. Well as we made out way to security with people pushing and shoving hubby became disengaged from lil man and he grabbed on to diva's shirt, When I looked back I couldn't even see hubby, I tried to wait for him before the gangway but was told I needed to move there for no shots of us getting off the boat. I don't understand every one is getting to the same place so a little common courtesy would be nice.

We were to meet the rest of our tour there and walk together as a group to meet JJ from JJ tours.

If you have never been to this port it is dirty, and you have to walk aways to get to any non carnival tour through the shops hut. There are also railroad tracks that run through it. In our group was an 89 year old woman who was a Roll callers Grandma. She lost her footing and took a tumble and landed hard on the ground. Now I will tell you Carnival people came from every direction to see if Grandma was okay. Grandma is a spry young thing. She said she was okay and bless her heart she took my arm and I help Christine make sure she made it to where we needed to be.

We now have made to the meeting area and waiting on JJ, I understand poverty and lower economic factors but I am not use to seeing these things neither are my children so this was an eye opener. The last time I saw things like this I was 9 and we walked across the Mexico Border of Tijuana.

Now you would think being a tour guide you would be prepared, not the case here. We made a stop at a grocery store so he could pick up refreshments, this stop took nearly an hour as we sat on the bus. So of course this put us behind schedule. It was going to take an hour to get to the rescue center.

Now JJ was very knowledgeable about his country and the sites we were seeing and going to see. This help as Diva had to write a report for school on what she saw and did as part of her missing school for 6 day's.

First stop was the Jaguar rescue center where Diva had been waiting her chance to hold monkey's. This child loves monkey's and this was one of the reason's we chose this tour was for her to experience this.

our host at the rescue center

This baby was burned on power lines

The moment this child has waited for

Now on to the two and three toed sloths

in a tree

another sloth and a green tree frog, then the cat and that concluded our tour of the jaguar rescue center. Now I do have a few problems with this tour, although we loved it and it was everything Diva hoped it would be, We were charged 25.00 a piece to enter and the web site states 12.00

And there was a woman by the sloths who was indulging in some marijuana smoking. I would have liked to see a few more animals, and of course Diva would have wanted more times with the monkey's.

Now it is on to lunch for an authentic Costa Rican meal

Lunch was delicious

Moving on now

our next stop

This was a 10 minute stop I would have loved to stay there much longer and explore

Moving on

Next stop Dole banana plant

Now on the way back to the ship

Now granted this tour was not what we expected, and it could have been better, But really if you are that unhappy please keep it to your self, your on a bus with other people who really do not care about your opinion, You booked you are here and you just need to make the best of it. My children didn't need to hear your belly aching or how much you paid as we all paid the same amount. You should have listened to your kids and and JUST shut up. My children were enjoying themselves and didn't need to listen to you as they were trying to listen to the guide.

Now I don't understand why we paid 25.00 a person to get in the JRC when the web site stated 12.00, the hour long refreshment pick up was a bit much, and really did we need a beer stop, and why didn't you ask the rest of the tour if we wanted anything?

JJ did get us back in plenty of time to do a little shopping in port, Bought the shot glasses magnets and a coffee cup, Diva got a stone necklace, lilman got a jade shaped sharks tooth that he lost that night, me I got coffee, hubby bought a tee shirt.

The navy was in port for some R&R and I could see that from my balcony,

We got back to the boat at five, didn't feel like getting gussied up for the dining room so this night we went to the lido buffet, food where we watched sail away saying good-bye to Limon was good but I missed my dining room

We did go to the jump Jive and wail show another good show, the the 1000.00 wipe out bingo, we lost so we decided to call it a night

our towel animal

Sea day and Sun King resturant

So I was up early did the balcony, after a shower and missed my sunrise, But all was okay I still got to sit out there in the piece and quite. Today is a sea day and there is several things I want to do today, But first is breakfast and walk up the one flight to the Lido deck. I must say I loved being on the veranda deck.

After Breakfast the Guys went to play Lazar tag and diva and I headed back to the lido deck for a bingo game ( sunshine Bingo) I just knew I was going to waist 20.00 as If I didn't have bad luck there would be no luck at all. We sat with fellow roll callers who we did met up with a lot and I so enjoyed their company. So I gave the Bingo card to Diva and I told her the numbers they called on the screen. You could have knocked me over with a feather when Diva informed me that we in fact had a small picture frame as this was the game being played. What I won I got a bingo these things just don't happen to me. 500.00 was the pot and never in a million years. Yes I screamed Bingo but alas so did some one else. So still excited with my 250.00 win. It was a great morning.

Then Hubby and I went to register for the Blackjack Torney, He and I survived round one, But playing conservative doesn't put you in the finals.

Met up with the kids for lunch, then to play a little trivia, why is it I am full of useless knowledge all the time but when I need to I can't remember anything oh well no ship on a stick for us. then on to the Love and marriage show where we almost made it up there. Hubby's Tarzan call was good but not good enough Oh well better not to be embarrassed.

I know we did other things but my mind is blanking out, I should have written everything down as I planned , oh yeah hubby won 91.00 in slots so we had a productive day

Now it was time to get ready for our specialty dinner we are joining other roll call members at the sun king restaurant.

Again I am curling hair, you don't know how hard this is, because sometimes her hair curls and sometimes it doesn't and she wants a head full of curls, But I did make an appointment at the spa for her for the last elegant night.

Diva and daddy

entrance to Sun king

these two compliments of the chef

dinner roll

dancing Diva's escargot her first time and she loved it

lobster bisque

Diva's ceaser salad

Dinner salad

Hubby's 14 oz rib eye

Diva and I had fliet Mignon and lobster

The only picture of us dressed for the night we went to go have photo's taken but dinner was so long they were all gone and I didn't think of asking any one on Promenade to take photo's so Dora was so kind to do this

We had cheese cake for dessert but they let us take it to go, This is not a short dinner we were there for 2.5 hours and enjoyed every minute of it.

our new animal

Then it was off to The variety show, and my evening date with coffee and the balcony

Next day Limon Costa Rica and an experience like no other

Dinner and a special treat for dancing diva

So now we are getting ready for our early seating dinner, I so enjoy the dining room, the location wasn't the best upstairs, but it didn't ruin anything for us, just no access to see dancing and the entertainment. Our waiter and his assistant were always there with a smile seemed very happy to be doing their job. Kinda of enjoyed them placing my napkin, I surely wasn't use to that. It's the little things that I remember the most.

I tried to be good at taking food porn, But then I would forget to go to the TV and write down what all we ate, and trust me we ate and ate, so much that I did gain 6 pounds, not to bad but 6 pounds to much. It makes it hard to identify the food. But I will give it the good old college try.

Ceaser salad

Crepes filled with Spinach and Ricotta cheese

lilmans dinner who knows or remembers what it is LOLOLOL

husbands steak

oh I remember now he had what I did Lasagna Bologna

better picture

we are not big dessert eaters must change that next time

then our towel animal

The kids went off to their clubs and hubby and I walked around to walk off dinner, Waiting for 9:30 to meet back up with Diva and surprise her with her private tour. We met Amy at guest services and Hubby went to get Diva who was late and I didn't want to keep Amy waiting, So we the three of us go behind the scenes of the show, Diva was mesmerized and she loved looking the props, and up close with the costumes, and dressing rooms and where the dancers live. Amy told her about what schooling she had and how exciting her life is. How they have port day's off so they get to leave the ship, and why the shows remain the same all the time because the props are built for the ship they are on. All in all it was a wonderful experience and we can not thank John and Josh enough for hooking us up. I had one very happy 13 year old dancer.

Next off to the Punch Liners comedy show then beddie bye

Embankment in Cozumel

After Breakfast we headed back to the cabin to collect the camera,bag with sun screen, towels and change of clothes. We then headed down to zero deck to leave the ship. Now at no fault of the crew of the freedom, People are down right rude and I will get into to more as we leave the ship in Costa Rica. Trying to hang on to my family so we can stay together and not lose any of them as we leave the ship is hard.

We finally get off the ship and on the gangway where we got to take the only photo of us leaving the ship.

Cozumel is a beautiful port, very clean and every one appeared to be friendly and eager to help.

We needed to hail a taxi to start our adventure at Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab Park. The cab driver was very quiet and didn't talk at all, didn't say anything on the ten minute drive, I would have loved to converse a little, but we all just took in the sites. The road at 8:00 am were very crowded but we all felt say in the van we were riding in.

All in all the taxi ride took ten minutes. We saw two other carnival ships ported at the other port that was close by. I believe they were the dream ands the liberty.

Arriving at Chankanaab Park was very exciting, we found the park to be very clean and well maintained. Now because we are doing three encounters we didn't have a whole lot of extra time to explore the whole park.

I did observe that the rest rooms were well maintained and cleaned and that was a concern being in ports, But in all three areas we explored in the different ports I found them all to be clean.

As we signed in to the park I asked if we could move the times up, as I did want to spend a little time in the port and look around, there wasn't a whole lot I wanted to buy, But vanilla was on the top of this list.

So we were one of two other people in the sea lions I can say the show is cheesy but it is the normal sea show, they explain all about the seal lions and they do tricks, there were 4 and a baby that we saw. When the show was over we had our in water encounter. We so enjoyed the sea lions as we were alone in the tank with them. No other visitors and it was early.We spent a lot of time in this encounter and so enjoyed it.

Next came the Dolphins this was to me a rush job, as lilman never got to touch (pet) the dolphin, we did all get kisses, handshakes belly rides and boogie board rides but the one on one was not there. There was also things the program stated they would do and didn't. There is no free time swimming with dolphins, It still was worth the money, but not what I expected.

The Manatees were the last thing we did and my son loved this, we spent a lot of time in there with three of these amazing docile creatures. We petted them, hugged them, kissed them swam with them and fed them. Feeding them is an experience in it's self. No wonder they are a protected species.

Once done we went to look at the photo's, and of course we couldn't make up our mind and they are pricey. But being a most likely once in a lifetime experience my husband said to bite the bullet and just buy them all. I bought a tee shirt for little man, and a dress for diva, Hubby got a head wrap and off to find a cab to go shopping.

Back at the port with in ten minutes and we paid 10.00 plus tip and off to shop. law student collects shot glasses so I had to be sure we got that business student doesn't collect anything and he seems to be out of the tee shirt stage so I decided he should have shot glasses too. I also picked up a pretty pendant for law student and corona bottle opener for Business student. Lilman is into wrestling so he wanted a Ray Mastiro mask. Both dancing Diva and lilman get henna Tattoo's.

I also scored a big bottle of vanilla and a little one. I should have bought more but didn't it's a good thing. Now it's back to the boat to unload as we had to be back on-board at 3:00 pm. with sail away at 4:00pm.

We then went to the Lido deck for pizza, and back to the cabin to see if there were runners back to the boat, When we got off the elevator to go to the cabin, Lilman and Diva ran for the door to see who would open it first. This was the first and last time, as when the got there there was a shoving match and fists flew and the injured party was my vanilla, Lilman threw it on the ground and crack the lid on the big bottle,. Now I did contemplate throwing them over board. But I figured it wasn't worth a Mexican jail over vanilla, Hubby tried to convince me to go back to port as there was a bit of time left. I wouldn't do it. Although I did hand him two empty water bottles and my Vanilla was saved. I think the kids were glad I brought the water and was saving the bottles just in case.

Now as we settle on the balcony to watch for runners, I never did expect to see any, but low and behold here come two, They started to run and then they noticed the pier bike taxis and hailed one. Now we don't know if they were running for the Freedom or the Epic as we were docked side by side but it sure was fun to watch.

Next up dinner and this concludes our day In Cozumel Mexico next day is a sea day on our way to Limon Costa Rica