Roatan is an island off the coast of mainland Honduras. Both Carnival and Princess Cruise lines use Mahogany Bay in Roatan; other cruise lines use Coxen Hole in Roatan. Mahogany Bay is so much better than Coxen Hole, especially for beach lovers. The private beach is right there! While we love Roatan and we love the West End - snorkeling is absolutely amazing there - we chose to take the freebie Mahogany Bay beach day instead. While you could rent clamshell loungers or cabanas or snorkeling equipment or kayaks or a slew of other things, we stick with the free loungers.
To get there you can take a $14 flying chair (think chairlift) or walk on over to the beach.
It's a bit of a jaunt to the beach. Hubby had to do some walking today anyway. He called today his redemption day. Several years back he tripped and fell on the cobblestones on our way back from the beach in Mahogany Bay. He was wearing shorts at the time and hit the ground hard. Even kind of skidded a bit. He tore up his knee and lower leg terribly. He wound up having to go to the medical center onboard to have them pick out all the gravel that had embedded itself in his leg. They had him going back to see them day after day for treatment and bandage changes. It took months and months for his leg to heal. He still has big scars from that fall. So he was going to make sure he walked over those same cobblestones today without a fall.
And he did. Good job to my hubby!
The beach was packed with the two ships in port. We know from having been there before that the farther you walk down the beach the less crowded it gets. So that's what we did.
See the yellow loungers? There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. Skip them.
Then come the blue loungers. Skip them.
Then the path curves past the cabanas and it looks like it's the end. But it's not. Keep going.
Once you round that curve you come to the end. At the Hideaway bar and restaurant.
At the Hideaway take a right. And find a beach that looks like this.
Or if you like crowds go back to those yellow loungers and find a beach crammed with people like this. No thank you.
We like the less crowded area. A server from the Hideaway delivers drinks.
Here's the menu.
It was a good great non-fall day, the umpteenth perfect day of our umpteenth cruise.
I've combined my updates to make the progression of the roll-out more clear.
August 18-25 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here.
Sept 1-8 updates can be found here.
Encouraging Word Money Pocket Drop Off:
At the restroom on the way to the beach.
Tomorrow we're off to Belize.