Mexican Medley Cruise on Thomson Dream, 10-17 February 2015

A series of articles covering a week's Caribbean cruise called Mexican Medley which we took on the Thomson Dream cruise ship in February 2015.

Click each picture below for the associated article and join us!

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Gigging In The Caribbean

Saturday 14 February 2015. We are aboard the Thomson Dream which is moored off Roatan, an island about 30 miles off Honduras in the Caribbean.

Towards the end of the afternoon just before we sail we go up onto the rear of Deck 10 where Tomas and Maris are playing.

Now it's not often that this happens, but I had gone prepared with a memory stick with some of my backing tracks from the keyboard so I was happy to be invited up and played a couple of songs, Concrete and Clay and Gerry and the Pacemakers' I Like It. They went down well and Tomas and Maris said they enjoyed how my guitar solos sounded part of the backing (they weren't - I hasten to add...!)

Then it was time to sail away. Tomorrow would be a full day at sea as we crossed the Caribbean from Honduras back to Jamaica. Mahogany Beach, now that all passengers were back on the ship, was deserted and just a few staff could be seen closing the bars and shops.

The tide was in again and the wrecks in the harbour mouth were less in evidence as the water rose. We left Roatan behind and sailed off into the seeming vastness of the Caribbean. Once the ship is moving and at sea there is always a strong wind blowing from in front. In reality those two larking about on the front of Titanic would have been plastered against the superstructure... There's no way Kate Winslet could have dragged herself to the pointy bit with a full skirt acting like a sail...

The following night in the restaurant was the Parade of the Baked Alaska and the chefs traditionally come out of the galley to enjoy their one night a week in the limelight. I have the utmost admiration for any member of ships' crew - they work tremendously hard, all of these people.

And then the waiter brought round the baked alaska, flaming erm... flames... coming from them! This is ice cream baked into a sponge and covered in meringue. The bake is such that the ice cream remains frozen - have a go and watch the liquid ice cream ooze out...

Kahia shows me how to rid myself of unwanted nasal hair!

And then the feats of derring do - one of the waiters balances two bottles together at the neck.

As if this wasn't amazing enough, he prepares to do the same whilst blindfolded!

Success! Cue huge applause which he acknowledges by giving the game away... Cue laughter and more applause!

We make our way to the Tides Bar where Tomas and Maris are starting their first set of the night. Four sets, each 45 minutes every night, seven nights a week which take them to 1:00am.

As their first set finished this trio - Tunesmith - came in. They are an acoustic trio and moved from table to table asking for requests. When they came to our table I said "Let It Be Me" and as the second verse started I joined in with a high third part to the harmony, causing heads nearby to whiz round and the trio's grins got a lot wider! When it came to the middle8, they gestured for me to sing it and we finished with a final flourish to a warm applause!

Tomas and Maris came back for their next set and Tomas whispered that I could do another couple of songs if I wanted.

Unfortunately I left the flash down on the camera and Miss Franny wasn't sure how to turn it on. Someone had asked previously for some rock and roll and whilst I had no rock and roll backing tracks on my memory stick, I played Cliff Richard's Move It whilst accompanying myself on Tomas's guitar - which has a much wider neck than my Fender and caught me out a couple of times with strings being further apart than I was expecting! I also played Joe Brown's Picture of You and came off to a roar of applause and shouts for more! I should do this more often ha ha!

Mexican Medley Cruise Index

Roatan, Honduras

Saturday 14 February 2015. We sail into port on the island of Roatan, about 30 miles off Honduras. There's a small village and a beach area right by the ship and we will spend the day there, lazing, looking around the shops and enjoying the walk from the shopping village to the beach which is on another tiny island joined to the main one by a footbridge and also crossed by a chair lift.

We were up early to watch the ship come into dock and there were a few wrecks in rather poor condition in the water. Subsequent investigation has showed that some of these were sunk deliberately to form reefs for tourists to dive.

This one though appeared during a storm in 1984 and has been slowly disintegrating ever since. I haven't been able to find out what it was or what it was carrying, though a few sites seem to think it was involved in smuggling. And of course I am thoroughly ashamed of my first thought that it might have belonged to a not-to-be-identified cruise line...

We tied up at one of two jetties and were to have the place to ourselves for the day. This was taken just after breakfast, whilst we were in search of an early morning coffee which we took on the open deck whilst we watched a few specks circling over the mountains. Some sort of raptor, but we would get a much better look at them later in the day - which we'll come to in the next article.

In this first article about Roatan we'll have a look at the shopping village of Mahogany Bay. This was specifically developed to cater for cruise ships and so has been planned as a whole and as such is very pleasing to the eye.

The immediate area around the jetties has been landscaped and planted with some suitably exotic blooms. Regular readers will know that apart from appreciating the colour and shape, plant life is wasted on me. I know enough to say if it's green it's a plant and any other colour and I'll call it a flower...

Set some of these colours against a vivid blue sky and it makes for a very pleasant environment.

There is a small shopping village with touristy bits and pieces and some bars and other more specialised shops. Again you will be invited but not coerced into the shops.

We had a wander around a few of the shops and came away with the inevitable magnets. I made a note to buy another fridge to hold them all...

We approached the bottom end of the shopping village and found a chair lift - one of those that comes up behind and sweeps you off your feet. I didn't notice anyone with skis on but it was that sort of ride... We decided to walk to the beach and get a ride on the chair lift to come back. Wrong decision in the end but not that it mattered too much. We'll see why in the next entry!

Mexican Medley Cruise Index

Mexican Medley Cruise

There have been a few days without an article I'm afraid. We were erm... researching(!) for a new series of articles set around the Caribbean Sea!

I'd like to finish off the London holiday articles before launching properly into this one but just as a taster, this shows where you can expect to go for a few days.

We joined the Thomson Dream for a week at Montego Bay, Jamaica.

After a day at sea we spent a day in Cozumel, Mexico where I was lusted
over by a female prisoner and a Gay Cruise docked alongside...

Then a further day in Mexico at Costa Maya.

The following day saw us on Roatan, an island of Honduras where we visited a glorious tropical beach at Mahogany Beach...

...and got buzzed by some large raptors as we rode a chair lift!

After another day at sea we visited two of the slave plantation mansion houses on Jamaica.

One of which contained this bed on which the White Witch of Rose Hall was murdered!

We enjoyed exotic drinks and calypso singers in cellars.

And I made a new friend in a craft market!

We met up with some old friends from several past cruises...

...and I joined them to play some music!

Come back to see the full details of what we got up to on our Mexican Medley cruise around the Caribbean and to hear the full story of the White Witch. We had a fabulous week and had a really great relaxing time catching up with Tom and Maris and several other staff that we remembered (and remembered us - how do they do that???) from Thomson Celebration and a previous trip on Thomson Dream.

Ok, for now I must put my scanner back on and finish my London pics from 1995!