Let me tell you about the excursions I took while on my cruise. They didn’t disappoint.

Truth be told, I usually look forward to doing a lot of reading and relaxing on a cruise, but on this particular trip, I traveled with my friend, Robin, who had never been on a cruise before. “I want to experience everything,” she said, so we planned to do an excursion at every port.

Even though I’m young at heart (we danced every night while onboard until the wee hours), the thought of also taking part in super-adventurous explorations at every port was daunting and, yes, would have been impossible. But all major cruise lines offer a vast and varied list of shore excursions and, luckily, there are any number of things one can do without nursing a cartload of aches and pains the next day. The excursions we chose were a perfect fit for both of us.

• First stop–Cozumel, Mexico for our adventure on the Atlantis Submarine. The dive went down to a depth of 125 feet. The water was crystal clear, and our pilot pointed out the different coral formations and fish we encounterd. A most excellent voyage.
• Our next port was Belize, where we toured a Mayan Ruin known as Altun Ha. We had a knowledgeable guide who explained how the site was discovered, where certain bodies were unearthed, and what the archeologists surmised each time something new was uncovered. Robin climbed to the top of the tallest temple. I was happy to be the person on the ground acting as the photographer.
• Our last and most physically challenging excursion was a Catamaran & Snorkling Adventure off the coast of Roatan, Honduras. The underwater beauty of the reef with its inhabitants was astounding.

Of course, a cruise wouldn’t be a cruise without a little shopping. We bought the obligatory t-shirts and a few souvenirs.

Possibly the best part of any cruise, which I touched on briefly in my last post, is the people that you meet onboard the ship. Robin and I shared dinner with a lovely group of people each night and one evening after dinner, at Robin’s suggestion, we all shuffled up to Deck 5 to have our picture taken in Western costumes. The perfect memento for a perfect cruise.