Cruise Destination: Roatan, Honduras Port

Roatan has been my favorite cruise stop since I first went there, and it still is my favorite to this day! The water is beautiful, the shore is soft, and it's been a great stop every time I go. The water in Roatan is beautifully clear, there's lots of small fish that will swim with you even in shallow parts of the water, I've never seen a seaweed/seagrass infestation, and the water is the perfect temp. My last trip to Roatan was through Royal Caribbean, and Carnival stopped at a differ part of the port. I think I like the Carnival stop even better! 

There's a lot you can do in Roatan, so I wanted to create a place listing what we've done at each stop here over the years. I'll update this as we come back here again and again. 

Mahogany Beach

The "excursion" we booked for this stop was just a clamshell, which essentially just guarantees you 2 beach chairs that are fully shaded. The staff at this port was AMAZING! We had to navigate finding where to give our tickets once we were off the ship, and the staff not only helped us get to the right person, they helped us find a clamshell that was near a tree for extra shade for our baby, and was near the sidewalk so we didn't have to carry our stroller far. Later, when our daughter fell asleep in Ryan's arms, the staff came over and propped a table under the clamshell to angle it down more to better shade us since the sun had moved. 

There was a huge bar/restaurant right behind the beach so you could easily get food and top off your drinks. They offered souvenir drinks that had a lid with a straw and a foam koozie to keep your drink cold, and refills were at a discounted price. We saved our cups and fully intend to bring them back the next time we stop here.

As for the stop itself, what I love about it is that you don't have to do an excursion, so you can walk right off the ship and onto a beautiful beach in a couple minutes, and spend $0 the entire stop if you bring snacks and water with you and don't drink any alcohol. There is a chair lift like at an amusement park that can take you to the beach faster and save you the walk while giving you a unique view, but I don't think there were many other options that I'd consider. 

Cruise Destination: Belize City, Belize Port

To get to Belize City, your ship with dock out in the water and you'll take a tender boat to get ashore. The tender boats are small, so be prepared to wait for a boat and not have a lot of room for your items. Our boat going to Belize stayed fairly dry, but on the way back to our ship the boat was hit with a lot of spray from the water and our shorts got wet. 

I was really excited for my first trip to Belize, but I wasn't as prepared for their port as I should have been. I've been cruising for almost 20 years now, and this was the most under-developed port I've been to. While the water was beautiful, the port isn't as established as Cozumel or Grand Turks. I'd describe the shopping there as closer to a flea market than your typical cruise shopping, most of what we saw were bad designer knock-offs and Female Body Inspector-quality shirts. There also weren't a lot of restaurant options, maybe 2 small restaurants, and that was about it. There are no beaches near the port where you can play in the water, as they all are rocky shores. 

I think Belize is a stop that's best if everyone in your group is 12 and older, and likes adventure. The most popular excursions are river tubing through the cruise, zip lining, off-roading, and snorkeling and scuba. I wanted to create a place listing what we've done at each stop here over the years. I'll update this as we come back here again and again. 

Kukumba Beach 

We hadn't heard of Kukumba Beach before we got here, but luckily Ryan heard about it from a taxi driver when we were at the port trying to figure out what to do since we didn't have an excursion booked. Our driver was great and he took us to Kukumba Beach and figured out what time our ship left and planned to pick us up exactly an hour before it left so we wouldn't be rushing to make it to the ship on time, but he gave us his phone number so we could call him if we wanted to go back earlier.

Kukumba Beach actually worked out really well! There were high-top tables set up that had bar stools around them and were covered, and there were a lot of beach chairs. You could get a bucket of beer for like $12 and there were several food options which were pretty cheap. The place itself is sandy, but it's not on a beach. It has a man made salt-water and sand pool that has a huge slide and floating trampolines to play on. Our daughter really liked playing in the sand and in the water. 

And it had free wi-fi! The one con was that the beach chairs were wooden, so they weren't exactly comfortable. I had packed a sandproof beach blanket with us, so I just laid that down and then a camping towel on top of it on the sand for our daughter to have a softer place to nap. 

We were talking to a family that showed up about an hour after us, and turns out that they were on one of those city tour excursions and that this was a stop on their tour. They were really jealous that we got to go straight here and back, because they felt that the tour was just meh and would rather spend more time at the adventure park than taking the tour to get there and then more of a tour to get back to the ship. We also paid significantly less than they did to get there. 

If we were to go back to Belize again, we might look in to going a little further out of Belize City and try Starfish Island, Caye Caulker, Ambergris Caye, or Goff's Caye. 

Cruise Destination: Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Port

Turks and Caicos is obviously a beautiful destination to go to, and one that I was most excited to go see. It's a great port stop because, like Cozumel, you can just dock and walk right into a very tourist-friendly well-planned port that has food, shopping, and swimming all right when you walk off the ship. 

The pier from the ship to the port is also pretty short, so it's a great port where you could save some money and do a quick return to the ship for lunch. It also would be a great stop if you have napping-aged kids, because you can easily go back to your stateroom for a nap and then come right back to the port without much time or effort. 

There's a lot you can do in Nassau, so I wanted to create a place listing what we've done at each stop here over the years. I'll update this as we come back here again and again. 

Grand Turk Cruise Center

Honestly, the port has so much to do, I think you're fine not doing an excursion. We didn't have an excursion planned for Grand Turk, and it worked out for us. It's a pretty established port that has shopping and restaurants with a big pool surrounded by free lounge chairs or you can rent like a mini house. 

We grabbed lunch at Margaritaville, did some shopping in the cruise center, and then headed to a chair by the pool. We were only there for about an hour before it just started downpouring on us with no end in sight, so we went back to the ship early. There was also a beach that looked really well-kept, but we didn't make it in time to see it. 

Cruise Destination: Nassau, Bahamas Port

I think Nassau is probably the most popular cruise stop since it is just so close to Florida. It's very easy to get to and has beautiful water. It used to be one of my favorite spots, but unfortunately is just seems to be getting more and more dangerous. When we stopped there in 2022, our cruise was delayed leaving because a couple had been mugged and the ship was working with the local authorities to help the couple out. It's just sad that there's so many people who go there, which has apparently turned it into a target for criminals. I don't think it's quite so bad that you should avoid getting off the ship at this port; it's generally safe if you stay near the port, so that's what we try to do. 

There's a lot you can do in Nassau, so I wanted to create a place listing what we've done at each stop here over the years. I'll update this as we come back here again and again. 

Blue Lagoon VIP Adults-Only Excursion

We booked this excursion through Carnival, and I thought it was pretty good. It's a private beach that comes with lunch and unlimited Bahama Mamas. It's on a small private island that has other excursions, show you take a tender with everyone else who has an excursion at Blue Lagoon, and then once you're there you are divided into which part of the lagoon you have access to. The tender was great, there was plenty of seating and you didn't feel cramped. They did have a concession bar where you could buy snacks, water, sodas, and beer. We thought this would be included in the price of our ticket, but it wasn't. The prices weren't necessarily cheap, but they were cheaper than on the ship. 

The lagoon itself if very clean and well-maintained. It has a walkway for you to tour the area, and there's some shopping and plenty of bathrooms. The adults-only part of the lagoon was roped off, had plenty of chairs (though not all of them were covered), had a bar, and had staff coming around to take food and drink orders. We were a little disappointed that the only free alcohol was the Bahama Mamas, and you had to pay for anything else at the bar. I was pregnant, but Ryansaid they were a little too sweet started to give him a headache after a few drinks. They did have non-alcoholic punch and water that I thought was pretty good. The cups they use are tiny 8-ounce plastic cups that had no lid, so I would definitely recommend bringing your own insulated tumbler with a lid. 

The food was actually really good and there was a good amount of options. I really liked the chicken wings and rice, and Ryan went back for seconds. They only offered lunch, so if you wanted more food you would have either needed to bring your own or to buy it on a different part of the lagoon.

There was a pier you walked down to the beach which did a good job of separating the adults-only side with the family-friendly side. The adults only side was just the beach and water, with 3 few anchored floating rafts for everyone to share. We had each brought our own snorkel gear to use here, but there was hardly any fish to look at, so we didn't end up snorkeling and I wouldn't recommend you expect to get to do that. Instead, I would've brought my whale tail float to sit on in the water or an inflatable pool floats to relax on. Like I said, there was just the 3 rafts for the entire excursion, so we spent most of our time in the water just standing around waiting for something to become available. 

They did do a good job of kicking any kids out of the area, so there was no screaming or splashing on our area. However, our wristbands did give us access to the family-friendly side of Blue Lagoon which has big inflatables that you could play around on. 

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good excursion. If they would have included a larger variety of alcohol, heck even just some cheap local beer, I think it would've been really great. This is a park-it-in-the-sand excursion, so it might not be for you if you're wanting to be more active for your stop. Also, the shopping was pretty minimal and seemed to mostly just be for things you forgot (hat/sunscreen/sunglasses/coverup), so if shopping is all you want to do, this excursion might leave you disappointed. 

Cruise Destination: Cozumel, Mexico Port

If you go on a Western Caribbean cruise, there's a really good chance that you'll stop in Cozumel regardless of what cruise line you're on. It's probably the most popular Cruising port west of the Bahamas. Your ship will dock right at the port and you can walk down the pier, through the duty-free shop, and be free to go and do whatever you want, and come back to the ship whenever you want. 

It's a great port because there's lots of tourist-friendly restaurants like Senor Frogs and Margaritaville, but there's also authentic Mexican restaurants as well. There's really no language barrier and they even accept American dollars and usually credit cards as well, so you don't have to bring any foreign currency with you. It has an established shopping center that is well thought-out and feels similar to shopping back home. Most importantly, it feels safe! The people in the shops aren't overly pushy or sketchy. 

There's a lot you can do in Cozumel, so I wanted to create a place listing what we've done at each stop here over the years. I'll update this as we come back here again and again. 

Carnival Dock

International Cruise Terminal Cozumel

For our 2023 Carnival cruise, Cozumel was our last stop of the trip so we decided to have a chill day and just walk around the cruise terminal. Ryan grabbed us some drinks and we just walked around and shopped. Ryan was begging to get our daughter a sombrero because he has an obnoxiously giant one from a prior cruise, so I told him if he could find a baby-sized one then he could get it. Really, I thought it was a fool's errand, but of course the very next store had one! 

We also stopped into Cariloha and ordered some sheets. What's nice is that they ship your purchases to your home for free, so you don't have to worry about packing what you bought when you go home. This is exactly why I always throw a foldable backpack into my beach bag on port days, so that we have a way to carry all our port purchases back onto the ship.

Our daughter fell asleep in her stroller while we were shopping, so we stopped and had a long lunch at Fat Tuesdays while she had her nap. We ended up deciding that this was enough for one day, so we didn't go to the beach on this stop. But, if we come here again we'll probably just take a taxi to Paradise Beach on our own. 

Royal Caribbean Dock

Nachi Cocom

The Royal Caribbean dock is actually 2 miles away from the Carnival dock. So although you can see the other ships, the shops are a long walk away. For our 2024 Royal Caribbean cruise, we couldn't find an excursion through Royal that was toddler-friendly, but we knew we didn't just want to walk around the port again, so we booked Nachi Cocom on our own. We paid $69 per adult and $0 for our toddler to again get all-inclusive food and drinks. The reason we chose Nachi Cocom over other Cozumel options like Paradise Beach or Mr. Sanchos was that they limit the amount of guests per day. Having a toddler, it was really important to me that she felt she could run and play without getting trampled by a huge crowd. It also didn't have any big water inflatables that attract big kids who can run around and run over my daughter.

Navigating the Cozumel port to get to Nachi Cocum was an easier experience than navigating the Costa Maya port to get to Maya Chan. We again brought our Doona trike and this time remembered the trike backpack, but my husband thinks our daughter could have made the walk.We just followed the signs that pointed towards the taxi pickup. The one sus part was at the end there was a sign pointing to go to the right to get to the taxis, and then right behind that was a store with a sign pointing to the left down a hallway to get to the taxis. We thought this was a scam and went right, but actually you do go take a right until you get to the store and then take a left and go down the hallway to the taxis. What I appreciated about the taxi pickup was that they had a board with prices to the major tourist areas with a flat rate per 4 people. Whereas in Cancun all the taxis are white with a green stripe, here all the taxis were white with a red stripe, so you could feel comfortable knowing you're getting into a legit taxi. The trip was only about 20 minutes to get to the beach. 

Once you get there, they have you take a welcome photo and then later they offered us to buy it for $12. It was a cute photo, and I'm glad we bought it because with the chaos of a toddler we completely forgot to buy photos from our ship until after we got home, so this was our only professional photo of the trip. They then will take you to complete your payment and then give you paper wristbands and let you know who your waiter will be and then your taken to your beach chairs. There's actually a QR code that you need to scan to connect to Wi-Fi that we missed and had to go back, because the waiter we asked for the Wi-Fi code either didn't know it or wouldn't give it to us, so don't forget to scan the code before you leave. The Wi-Fi worked much better at the pool than at the beach. We were seated by the beach bar which made me nervous at first for nap times, but thankfully they didn't have the music too loud. 

What was the only con of our Nachi Cocom experience was that the beach area they brought us to initially had a big umbrella covering 4 beach chairs and a table, but as we were setting our stuff down, they took away the 2 beach chairs, leaving only 2 beach chairs for the 3 of us. I know that our daughter was free, but she still deserved to have her own chair and I wasn't a fan of this. At first I was just thinking they were rationing the chairs so that later-arriving guests could have a seat, but the chairs just sat out in the middle of the sun unoccupied for the rest of the day. The table they left us with was small, so I was very happy that I brought my baby Bogg Bag with my little tray insert to have an extra table so not everything had to go in the sand. 

The beach was also large and didn't seem to have a lot of sea grass, but I do recommend water sandals because there are a lot of shells. I'm glad we brought a little mesh bag for our daughter to collect shells in. There was no beach toys or floats offered, so make sure you bring your won. They have showers at the bathrooms to the right of the beach bar to wash off ocean water, and they have a food wash station near the pool to wash off sand. 

Nachi Cocom isn't a resort, but it does have a resort-sized pool. It was huge with a very large shallow ledge for adults to sit and talk or toddlers to play, an adults-only hot tub, and a swim-up bar. This was were my toddler wanted to spend the majority of the day, and we were just fine with that. 

Around the pool was a bunch of outdoor dining tables, so we had lunch by the pool. There was a good variety of options, and I really liked the food. The mixed drinks weren't the strongest, so we just stuck with beer to save on the empty calories. I never saw water sitting out like at Maya Chan, so I was glad we brought several bottled waters with us off the ship.

Regular menu

Kids menu

When it was time to go, they ordered a taxi for us and it was there about 5 minutes later. Overall, I think this would be a great sit and read a good book with a drink in your hand excursion. They specifically have signs saying they don't allow "spring break" behavior. Like Maya Chan, it seemed to be the perfect place for early elementary kids and younger to just hang out and enjoy the beach or the pool. We'd definitely come here again, but next time I do want to talk to them about having 1 beach chair per person rather than 1 beach chair per paying adult. 

10 Things to NOT Pack for A Cruise

It can be really easy to overpack for your first cruise because you don't know exactly what you'll be doing and what you'll need. There's a lot of generic "cruise packing" lists going around, and I wanted to share my thoughts on some of these as someone who has been cruising since jr. high and is planning her 9th cruise:

Related: Cruise packing favorites

Laundry soap

You'll see a lot of packing lists recommending you bring a small thing of travel laundry soap for your cruise so you can do a load of laundry in your sink. I'm convinced that anyone who includes this on a packing list has never actually used it. Cruise bathrooms are small and the sinks are not deep at all, so I don't think you'd be able to actually wash your clothes and get all the soap out. Instead, bring a Tide To Go pen to spot-treat stains. You also likely won't even need to wash your clothes on your trip, unless it's longer than a week cruise.  If you really need to do a load of laundry, the ship will usually have a wash and fold service for about $30.

Clothes line

Another thing I see recommended a lot is a clothes line to air dry swimsuits and wet clothes in your room. While this is a great idea, and even I air-dry my clothes on a clothes line on cruises, you don't need to bring your own. The shower in your bathroom will have what looks like a little bell, but is a retractable clothes line. 

The only time I would recommend you spend your hard-earned dollars and take up precious packing space in a suitcase by buying and bringing your own clothes line is if you have a balcony cabin and only 1 swimsuit. If you only have 1 swimsuit, then the wind and sun from being outside will dry your only swimsuit fast enough for you to wear each day. But, if you bring at least 2 swimsuits, yours will dry in plenty of time on the shower clothes line. Personally, I prefer to bring a swimsuit per day on my cruise, because it's my main "outfit" each day. 

Hidden document or money holders

Unless you're traveling to Europe, you just won't need an under the clothes document holder or a money belt. First of all, these are actually really impractical to use. My dad took a money belt on our first cruise, and it seemed like his money would go everywhere when he'd try to pay for something. I've also seen people struggle to get their passports out from their under-the-shirt document holder, and it's not a pretty sight watching them fish that out from under their shirt, half flashing everyone as they do.

I don't get off the ship with my passport because I personally feel that at each stop I'll have a larger risk of losing my passport somewhere at the port than missing the ship or having some other emergency where I'm stuck at the port without a passport. I do have a scanned copy of our passports saved in a Goggle drive that I've made available offline, just in case. 

Instead, I recommend a waterproof travel wallet. These zip up to keep money/cards from falling out and to keep it waterproof. It's perfect because all you need at port is your ID, your ship card, a credit card, and some cash for tipping/bartering/buying things from merchants on the beach, so you can leave everything else in a regular wallet in your stateroom safe. If your wallet gets lost/stolen, then you didn't just lose all the cash you brought for the trip and all of your credit cards. Or, if you need a safe place to store your passports or other large items, you can get a crossbody bag that keeps your stuff right on you so it can't get lost/stolen, but is much easier to access.

A ton of shoes

If you're just going to the Caribbean, then you actually only need 3 kinds of shoes: closed-toed shoes (like sneakers) for on-board activities like basketball and the ropes course, and for shore excursions like parasailing and horseback riding; sandals/water shoes for the beach, and heels or dress shoes for dinner. That's it! 

One of my favorite packing tips for cruises are Pasion Footwear shoes! You might have seen them on Shark Tank, but they are sandals that can convert to heels, and the heels are interchangeable. So, I just wear them as sandals around the ship during the day, and then I have the 3" espadrille heels for most dinner nights,  and 4" rhinestone heels for formal night. 

Black tie formal wear

Formal night is a lot less "formal" than you'd expect if your only experience with a cruise is Titanic. You don't need to rent a tux or bring a ballgown for formal night. On our first cruise, I wore a prom dress and felt way overdressed. Most people wear suits and cocktail dresses for formal night. 

Printed out deck plans

There is no need to print out and laminate the deck plans before your cruise. At each elevator there will be a display of the ship showing what is on that particular deck, plus a list of what is on each floor. The deck numbers in the elevator will also have the main stops listed out by each deck. And, your cruise will have an app that will have detailed deck plans, so there's no need to carry printed plans around with you.

Binoculars

The only cruise that you might need this is Alaska. Every other cruise, these probably won't be used.

Camera

Unless you're really into photography, it's just easier to stick with your phone. Remember, some days you'll be getting off the ship at 7am and not returning until 3pm, so you'll be stuck carrying it around (and watching to make sure it's not lost or stolen) all day. Plus with a camera you'll need to bring extra cords to charge it and other accessories that will eat up space on the tiny desk you have in your room. 

Any iPhone 7 or newer is waterproof, and basically any Android will be waterproof too, so you can take your phone with you anywhere and get really good pictures. If you're worried about holding onto your phone when you're in a swimsuit and don't have pockets, or if you want to swim around in the ocean, you can put your phone in a waterproof phone pouch and just wear it. 

Same goes for a digital clock or night light, even if you're in an interior cabin. Instead, I would bring a good smart watch. Not only will this also will this have the time and a built-in flashlight, but you can use it all day long. I add our daily activities and itinerary to my calendar, and then my watch lets me know what's up next and where. It's also really helpful if you're traveling through time zones on your cruise. Ship time is always the time zone of where you embarked for your cruise on day 1, but your phone will likely switch over to local time when you get there. There's always someone on each cruise that gets in a bind because they don't realize that the time on their phone is different than ship time. With a smart watch, you can have 2 clocks on one watch face, one for local time and one for ship time, and it will keep you on time all day.

Guidebooks

Maybe if you're going to Europe and you don't have an excursion or tour planned, this might come in handy. Other than that, I don't think you would need this. Many of the ports are not in the main city in the country, so a lot of the recommendations might not be geographically feasible for this trip.

Physical books

Not only are books heavy for you to carry and keep up with all day, but cruises are often wet. Kids splash in the pool, it inevitably rains intermittently, the deck is often wet from being recently cleaned, the waves will spray water towards the beach, drinks get spilled... you get it. There's just too many chances for your book to get ruined. I only bring a waterproof Kindle with me and it's great because it's lightweight to carry and I don't have to worry about it getting wet. I just make sure to pre-download 2-3 books before my trip so I don't have to worry about trying to connect my Kindle to the ship wi-fi and waiting forever for the book to download. 

Honeymoon in Punta Cana for Free

Ryan and I got our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic for (basically) free, and it was actually really easy and required no crazy sweepstakes giveaways to enter. I knew that I wanted to have a really luxurious trip for our honeymoon, but I had just graduated law school and we weren't exactly in a financial spot to contribute towards both a wedding and a honeymoon, so credit card points and miles was our best option. We knew we wanted to take advantage of credit card points for a free trip, so as soon as we got engaged, we became hyper-focused on credit card points and miles. 

A few years before we were engaged, I had signed up for the Capital One Venture card, and was getting miles with every purchase because it was the only credit card I'd use. What I liked about the Venture card is that you get 2x points on every purchase, and you don't have to keep track of certain categories to get the most of your points. I also added Ryan as an authorized user to my Venture card so he could put a lot of his purchases onto the card to help us build up points faster. We were able to use my Venture points to book a week-long stay at an all-inclusive 5-star resort in a swim-up suite. 

Related: All about Luxury Ambar at Bahia Principe in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Once we got engaged, I signed up for the Chase United Explorer card to get miles to cover our flights. Although the Chase United card doesn't give you as much miles per purchase, the miles were a good value for us. I referred Ryan for his own Chase United card and got each of us a 10,000-mile referral bonus, on top of the sign-up bonuses that we hit by putting all of our wedding purchases onto our Chase United cards. We flew business class on a direct flight from Houston to Punta Cana, using my miles for the flight there and his miles for the flight back. We also got a free checked back each for our trip and two United Club passes to use on our flight.

Both cards also give you a statement credit to get Global Entry or TSA PreCheck! I already had TSA PreCheck through my job, but we got Ryan signed up through my Venture card statement credit. What's nice is that TSA PreCheck lasts for 5 years, so we're still using it now! 

Traveling for free using credit card points and miles is now something that Ryan and I love to do! We're actually going on our anniversary trip for free by using the Chase Sapphire card points to book our hotel and our Southwest card miles to book our flights.