Ft. Lauderdale, FL → Marion, MA

Ft Lauderdale: fast ferry to the Bahamas

The ship was docked by 7:00 a.m. We were one of six cruise ships, including Nieuw Amsterdam, taking a cruise in 2026. 

We were scheduled to disembark the ship from 8:30 to 8:45 a.m. 

At 9:25, I said, "Well, that was easy!" When I estimated we would be en route, we sat in a lounge at the airport.

They announced our disembarkation group early. We had no delay in getting off the ship. We immediately found our bags. We went through customs and immigration nonstop. Right at the terminal entrance was the LuggageForward representative waiting to ship our bag home. 

Continuing our good luck, as we queued up for a transfer bus to the airport, a van driver contracted by Holland America told us to come with him. Eight of us got in the van, and away we went. Traffic was congested (and the line outside Southwest Airlines was insane), but the van driver was a pro. Next, we cruised through security when we got to the Delta terminal.

We should have bought lottery tickets today because we were on a roll.

A round of applause for Pam. I had read that the deal between AMEX and Delta on accessing Delta lounges expired on March 1. What I had read offered exemptions. Pam forged ahead anyway, and our cards got us in.

We were now so far ahead of schedule and surrounded by amenities we had not expected to enjoy that we had to mentally regroup. This was a welcome necessity.

Being merely on time, the rest of the trip home was uneventful.

Arriving there, we immediately went to work, procrastinating about dealing with luggage, mail, and anything else that smacked of getting back to reality.

Nassau

Funny, this did not look like Key West!

Today was supposed to be a port call in Key West. A few months ago, they made the change. The announcement came with no explanation. So hi-ho hi-ho, it was off to Nassau we go.  

Hopefully, the derelict lighthouse at the harbor's entrance was not symbolic.

Three large cruise ships were already docked and spilling people onto the piers. It was a pleasant surprise that we got the pier closest to the land.

large costume at Junkanoo Museum
(clip picture for more info)

After allowing some time for those aboard Eurodam who were anxious to visit Nassau to disembark, Pam and I went to shore to stroll around for a while. By not straying from the cruise port area, we knew we were condemning ourselves to be swallowed by the tourist trap's maw, so we set our expectations accordingly.

Nassau had recently rebuilt its cruise port, creating a clean, attractive combination of visitor area and events venue. With some notable exceptions, most shops carried the same items found on Woodes Rodgers Walk (the street parallel to the piers), but without the hovering hustlers, hawkers, and street performers.

Of course, we could not resist diving into the craziness outside the fence. It was unrewarding. We looked in a few stores but swerved away from the (formerly) famous Straw Market. Every last vestige of old Nassau was stripped away, leaving only floor-to-ceiling flotsam and jetsam, much of which was likely of South American and even Asian origin. We nevertheless had some fun and stretched our sea legs.

When we decided enough was enough, we didn't have to return to the main gate to enter the cruise port again, but it didn't let us escape the additional shops inside.

There was a distinctly impressive big-screen presentation at the port center. Check out the first two minutes by clicking on the above picture and waiting until you can SKIP after the first 5-second of the ad that precedes it. 

While waiting for the ship to depart, we watched people swishing down the waterslide on the ship next to us. 

Sometimes, watchers watch watchers watch.

Departing, we found this an interesting color for a cargo port crane. 

We turned our attention to packing everything we did not need into our suitcases so they could be out in the passageway by 10:00 PM. While an unwelcome task, it is so much easier than packing for the trip. The only requirements are to not overlook something in a drawer or closet and to be able to close the bags. Once we were within comfortable range of the goal, it was off to our last dinner aboard.

Sea Day

While this was a relaxing day in many ways, the need to start thinking about packing niggled its way into our thoughts periodically. When it did, we would do our best to push it aside, but some packing did, in fact, get done. 

We concluded our day with a nice dinner at Pinnacle Grill, including a Cherry Garcia ice cream Baked Alaska. Getting back on my diet is going to be ugly.

 

Cozumel, Mexico

Another day, another pilot boat.

We based our plans for the day around statistics: seven cruise ships would be in port, disgorging 30,000 passengers. If 2/3 of that number went ashore within the first 4 hours, that would be over 80 people every minute. 

In addition to that number, many crew members went ashore in this port because it was set up with a crew center. Among the amenities are specialty restaurants for some larger demographic and ethnic groups. The KFC there is also very popular. 

We have been to Cozumel before, exhausting the tour options that interested us. Today, we got off the ship, having tried to plan it strategically. 

We waited until the initial rush from our ship, and two others already docked had worked their way up the pier. Before the next ship docked, we took an orbit around EURODAM, along the pier, past the shops, back along the pier, and then aboard EURODAM.

Walking down the pier, we saw three moored catamarans with something floating in the water near them.

They were the heads of snorkelers. Seeing the swimmers that were densely packed, all I could imagine was catching a flipper in the face.

We were intrigued by a boat that is transparent from gunwale to gunwale. It took the 'glass-bottom boat' concept to the next level.

Back aboard, we settled into a cabana for a relaxing afternoon. The ship next to us -Carnival Conquest - made that problem. For a while, the giant screen on its top deck scrolled through various things while playing tropical music. This was mildly distracting but relatively easy to tune out. Next came a full-length movie, even though no one was on the deck to watch it.

The movie was far more difficult to ignore. I found myself starting to watch it. Once I was committed, Conquest activated some system that created a loud venting noise. This made the movie's soundtrack unintelligible and just part of the noise pollution. You have to love noise-canceling earbuds. We controlled the audio situation by putting them in and launching music.

A while later, on the other side of EURODAM, on another cruise ship, we spotted one of the more interesting attractions - a climbing wall.

As departure time came and went, the dock workers were relaxed about the situation. It comes with the job...and being paid by the hour.

Watching the precision of four large cruise ships clear their piers and get underway was interesting.

We had a nice dinner at Pinnacle, but it was served too slowly. This was not a major setback, as tomorrow is a sea day.

Belize City, Belize

Today began with Eurodam wiggling through some islands and shoals, then churning up a lot of bottom as she anchored 4 miles off Belize City. This was the closest she could get before the water became too shallow. As a result, ferries had to be used to take people ashore, about a 25-minute ride. 

Pam and I had been here last year when we did an interesting tour from a short list of options. This year, no other tours intrigued us. 

We spent a delightful day relaxing aboard. The high was 91°, the sky was blue, there was a light breeze, and the staff was attentive.

We looked out at Port Coral. This project, located a few miles off the coast of Belize City, was intended to be a cruise ship hub. Whether it was COVID, capital, bureaucracy, or some combination thereof, the project collapsed, leaving a ghost town with no indication that it has been resurrected since we were here last year.

Getting in and out of the Belize City anchorage area was a challenge for a large cruise ship.

We could feel the ship heel over as it made a couple of turns.

We had dinner in the main dining room, wandered around the ship briefly, and then called it a night, anticipating the need to set our clocks ahead an hour and wanting to be up early enough to watch the ship's approach into Cozumel.

Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras

Today, we sat on the beach.

Mahogany Bay was developed as a cruise ship port by Carnival Cruise Lines, the parent company of Holland America. I am generally skeptical of such destinations, but this was an exception.  

It did not have zipline towers, a bar that resembled a pirate ship, tethered hot-air balloon rides, or other such attractions, and the food was not complimentary. However, the beach was only a short walk from the ship, so there was no inconvenience of having to ride a tender to shore. We had two chaise longues and a beach umbrella on a clean, sandy beach with a direct path to the water. The water temperature was perfect. The sun was warm. The sky was blue. There was a light breeze. It was the simplicity of everything that made it so good.

We spent a lot of time in the water, had some food, and eventually, we wandered back to the ship.

Shortly after the ship had cast off its lines, it blew one long blast on its horn and started moving forward.

About two minutes later, the horn sounded five short blasts. To use the more extended and polite definition, this is asking another vessel to clarify its intentions. I was where I could look out over the ship's bow. A sports fishing boat was sedately towing a dock's float across the channel. 

I presume the boat operator smugly thought that they since they were under tow, they had the right of way over a massive cruise ship navigating in a tight channel. I'm going to guess that the local pilot who was helping to navigate the vessel along the channel made a radio call to the boat, assuring them that local authorities would be giving the boat operator a refresher course on nautical rules of the road and maybe a souvenir of the encounter in the form of a citation.

Eurodam continued out to open water. With only about 125 nautical miles to Belize City, where it will arrive tomorrow by 8:00 AM, the ship just dawdled along.

We had dinner with a couple from Alberta, Canada, who were extensive travelers. It made for a fun conversation that accidentally resulted in the four of us being the last ones to leave the dining room. 

Sea Day

 

Today, we continued west towards Honduras at a sedate 14 knots. The seas were calm. The temperature was in the mid-80s with a higher feel-like temperature due to the humidity. 

This is the mid-day location of larger vessels in the Caribbean.

Eurodam is the big blue arrow.

The vessels identified in red are oil tankers.

While the United States was springing forward an hour, aboard EURODAM, we set our clocks back an hour.

We turned the clock back an hour because...

1. We moved west into a different time zone.
   
   
2. Honduras and Belize do not use daylight saving time. 

It wasn't pretty. Many passengers forgot that their device was set to implement DST. They set the device back an hour, only to have it at 2:00 AM advance an hour. 

We are now on the equivalent of Mountain Daylight Time.

Falmouth, Jamaica

We reached the inner harbor at about 7:30, at which point the captain spun the ship around and backed up the channel to the pier. 

Our tour pulled out at 8:45, winding through downtown Falmouth and then on the main road to Montego Bay. About 15 minutes later, we turned onto a very bumpy side road. The bus crawled its way up the side of a mountain to Greenwood Great House.

Since their website provides considerable information for anyone interested, I will limit my remarks about the house to the fact that it was used primarily for entertainment. The family lived most of the time further up the hill.

This is a large music box

The terrace was 71 feet long and had a commanding view so broad that the earth's curvature could be seen by looking at the horizon.

After what refreshments, including a rum punch Pam described as the weakest one she ever tasted, it was back on the bus for the return to Falmouth.

Along the way, we had a photo "opportunity" when the bus stopped on the side of the road at the high school that Usain Bolt, the famous Jamaican Olympian, attended. It was an opportunity, but given the pride everyone in Jamaica has for him, taking a picture was obviously something we, of course, wanted to do. The fact that what you see is the best view we had of it demonstrates how deep the pride runs.

Back at the port, we agreed that nothing outside the gates was enticing enough to lure us to wander in that direction. Security issues aside, it is much like many other Caribbean islands. Instead, we ambled around the large port shopping area, inching towards the ship. 

After our shopping was completed and with little to show for it, we went back aboard for a leisurely afternoon before the ship departed at 5:00.

After leaving Falmouth and going straight enough out to see that the casinos could open, Eurodam turned to an easterly course and headed for Honduras, where we would arrive the day after tomorrow.

This evening, we had dinner with a Catholic priest, which is another story for another time. We checked out some of the performances around the ship before returning to our stateroom for the night. One relatively minor problem with remaining on board a vessel that swapped out 90% of its passengers a few days ago is that the same performers do the same acts in this segment that they did in the last segment.

Tonight, the United States goes on daylight saving time. We had thought that the Caribbean would do the same. If it did, we would have to do nothing to our clocks to be at the right time when we got to Honduras. No such luck. The Central American countries we will visit will all stay within standard time. As a result, we get an extra hour of sleep tonight; however, we have to pay the piper on the return leg of our cruise by advancing our clocks an hour twice before we get to Nassau.