[784caroline]

Regarding NOROVIRUS.....hopefully you and your ship will take many precautions like washing/sanitizing your hands before you enter a dining facility or lunch buffet, boarding the ship itself etc. BUT be forewarned if you go to the ship Dr, AND you have what they consider symptoms of Norovirus, you WILL be confined to your cabin..and if you are caught out of your room they will in essence throw you off the ship at next port. This is one of many reasons why you should get travel insurance.

[LindaL]

We just returned last week from a cruise on RCCL. They had hand sanitizers everywhere on the ship. They had crew at the doorway to each dining room ensuring that everyone used the sanitizers.

We book a lot of our private excursions online months before we sail. We have had great experiences. At least you can kind of check them out before you go. We got off the ship once and hired a private excursion in Jamica. It ended up ok, but it could have turned out badly. We were young and foolish and would never do that again.

Last time we were in Hondouras we hired a private sail boat that took us out snorkeling. I think they fixed us lunch on board, but can't remember for sure. I think there were 8 couples total.

[swrinfla]

The cruise lines are petrified of the potentially bad publicity when the whole ship contracts norovirus. In the last couple of years, I have seen a quadrupling of hand sanitizer stations around the ship. On my most recent cruise you couldn't enter any public venue without seeing a dispenser in your path.

Use them. And, of course, wash at other times. There is really no other way to prevent viruses.

And, for your own peace of mind, do not obsess about the possibilities. Just be prudent and take precautions.

Otherwise, have fun!

SWR

[dadspet]

Have been on many cruises and almost always get our tours off the cruise ship on the dock. Usually we save a 30% to 50% and the tours have been very good. If you wear suspenders and a belt you should book your tours on the cruise ship to be sure. To be honest if my wife was writing this she would say the opposite but again I usually win book on the dock unless there is some tour we really don't want to miss out on since often the only cruises they have on dock are the tour of the island type cruises and may not have the specialty type tour. You can also have better stories to tell if you get back the ship; Our favorite is when the little boat we booked start filling with water and the Captain (yea right - and his name was George Bush) told us not to worry he would bail it out when we jumped off to look for sting rays (true story). On that same trip the cruise ship tours didn't get to swim with the sting rays due to rough water but our Captain was braver then their captain ! Life is full of little gambles - decide what you want to bet !

BTW I highly recommend an off cruise ship tour of St Petersburg Russia It was great and don't believe the ship telling you that you need a VISA if you don't tour with them!

[another Linda]

Well, we are going to do it! A 7-day western Caribbean cruise stopping in Key West, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. I've waited to book the shore excursions and I've bought stock in Purell hand sanitizer. I'm excited but I think I would just as soon spend a month in TV being the timid soul that I am. Thanks for your input everyone.

[cybermuda]

I have cruised for 20 years and, in my opinion, ships' tours are over-priced, limited in choice and don't pack as much in as independent tours - getting 40 people on and off the bus at every stop wastes a lot of time - and the cruise lines play up the risk of missing the boat in order to sell their tours.

But If you'd spend the whole time worrying, then take the ship's tour. You might never visit that place again, so while you will spend a bit more and do a bit less, at least you can relax and enjoy it.

However, if you visit Belize, you MUST take the local bus to the zoo :-)

[another Linda]

Thanks, Cy. Still not sure what we will do about the extra tours. I was hoping that someone else with lots of experience would indicate they were going on this particular cruise via the roll call feature of Cruise Critic. Alas, no one else yet. Any of you experienced people interested in the Holland America sailing out of Tampa on March 21 stopping at Key West, Puerto Cortes, Honduras, Santo Tomas, Guatemala, and Costa Maya, Mexico?

hi...we always take the ships tours, mainly for the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong you will get back to the ship. that said, i know many people that have had terrific adventures just 'winging it' when they get off the ship. my brother just hires a taxi on the dock and off they go; of course there was that time in the yucatan when their driver got lost, and then it got dark....or their luggage was in one taxi and the people were in another and someohow everyone got seperated on the way to the airport in rome.....
but isn't travelling supposed to be adventurous?

jeff

[swrinfla]

another Linda:

My personal rule of thumb:

Being somewhat challenged with breathing difficulties, I start with excursions where a single walking person image/icon is shown. I have done those where the image/icon is two people, but I study these much more carefully, before booking. I have done these with mixed results: sometimes too energetic, sometimes not so much so.

I always look for excursions where the local culture is featured. If lunch is a part of the excursion, that's an incentive.

As far as your particular itinerary is concerned, the last time I was in that part of the world was in 1995, and the ports weren't the same!

A cursory look at what Holland America offers for your cruise tells me that you have good options. Take my caveats into account, and you should have no problems, at all!

SWR