Carnival Triumph or Roatan? You Decide

Yesterday plumbers came to my condo and replaced the valve outside of my unit that turns the water on and off.  It was necessary since I needed to have work done on the inside of my unit and the plumber I had called discovered that he couldn't turn off the water as needed because that valve had disintegrated over the years.  When the plumber turned the water back on after replacing the valve yesterday, I guess the pressure had built up on old pipes and a pipe burst under my foundation.  So I am without the luxury of running water today until yet another plumber can come out determine the exact location of the leak using sonar and the repairs are made.  This means among other things I am working right now on no coffee.  It is not a good situation folks.  I'll probably go to Starbucks later when traffic has died down and get some coffee.  But until then, you will just have to bare with me.

With all of that said, I need to go to my happy place (at least mentally) and my happy place is Roatan, Honduras.  I just ran a query to see what a quick trip to Roatan would cost and there is a somewhat affordable option.  Let me tell you about it.  For this mental trip I decided to leave on April 20th, because that will put me in Roatan on my birthday.  I'll be flying roundtrip from DFW through Houston on United and arriving in Roatan in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday.  Now, I'm doing this booking through MLT and as an agent one of my perks is that MLT gives me free roundtrip airport transfers on air combined with hotel bookings of 3 nights and longer for my clients.  Since I was smart enough to use me as a travel agent, I get this perk.  Yay me!

Oh by the way, I ran this query for two adults and no offense to anyone out there, but I would just as soon take a tall dark and handsome man along with me on this mental trip.  If you are not male, tall, dark and handsome and thought you were coming along, think again.  So in my mind, he is sitting right next to me on the airplane and catering to my every need.  (A girl can dream, right?)  I don't know his name.... it doesn't really matter.  He is handsome, he likes me and he recently showered because he comes from a place with running water.  So for the purpose of this blog entry we will just call my travel companion Sugar.

So Sugar and I get off the plane in Honduras at 3:03 P.M. and our free transfer is waiting for us.  The driver takes us past the cruise ship terminal which is empty today since it is Saturday and on down to West Bay which in my opinion is the best part of Roatan.  West Bay as the name might indicate is located on the western most point of the island making it the perfect place to catch a great sunset and Sugar and I have arrived in plenty of time for the sunset.  Our hotel is the Infinity Bay Spa and Beach Resort and we will be staying for 7 nights.

This is an areal view of our hotel.  Sweet, huh?  I know I've told you all of this before, but it bares repeating.  Roatan is home to the second largest barrier reef in the world with Australia's Great Barrier Reef being the first.  That automatically makes this the up and coming snorkeling and diving capital of the Caribbean.  Now, as you might be able to tell from the photo below, the barrier reef is within swimming distance of the shore.  You will find this to be the case around most of the island.  But what I really like about Infinity Bay is that first of all it is a 4.5 star hotel.  Second, all inclusives in Roatan are few and far between and very expensive. This is not one of them.  But this hotel has kitchens in the rooms.  Now, I know if you are a mom or wife and want to get away on vacation you don't want to have to cook for your family.  But I'm okay with cooking a few meals for me and Sugar.  We will also go out several times.  But we can manage most breakfasts and lunches and one or two dinners right here in our hotel.  Plus to make it really world class, they have running water!  Winning!

Look at the photo below of the pool.  Do you know what they filled that pool with?  Well, let me tell you, running water!  Yes, you could literally be "swimming" in water if you were in Roatan right now.  I know that it doesn't seem fair that someone should have to sit on one of those empty chaise lounges enduring all of that sunshine, warmth and water right now, but that is exactly what is going on in Roatan as I type this.

You can see on the map below that our hotel is in a prime location for those sunsets I told you about earlier in West Bay.  If you look at the photo below this map, you can see exactly how perfectly our hotel is located.  It is the hotel with the big pool in the center of the picture.

To the left is a picture of a kitchen in one of the suites.... Just take a look at that sink.  If I were a betting woman, I'd say that water comes out of that faucet when you turn it on.  But I don't know that for sure.

Below is a bathroom in one of the suites.  Again, I'm pretty sure that when you turn on the faucets in this room, water comes out of them.  And when you push the handle on that toilet I will almost guarantee that it flushes.  Just sayin'.....  It sounds a little bit like heaven to me right now.  And the most amazing thing about it all is that you can fly roundtrip, spend 7 nights, with transfers to and from the airport and even include travel insurance for the rock bottom price of $2,675.32 for two people!  And that includes water.  Infinity Bay has 1, 2 and 3 bedroom villas.  So you can take your entire family, I mean you know, if you are willing to pay for that.

Oh, the one thing I didn't bring up is that I am not including a car rental in this price.  For the week the car would be around $600 and parking at the hotel is free.  So it can be done.  But since you have roundtrip transfers and the hotel is located so well, I would just recommend renting a couple of scooters after you arrive for a day or two.  I mean lets face it.  You are on a Caribbean island.  Why would you want to drive around in a compact Hyundai anyway?

So, if you are like me and you like water but you prefer not to walk through it when you enter your kitchen, this is the place for you to spend your vacation.  By the way, I have also done queries on this same vacation in both June and July when the kiddos are out of school and the price is still below $3k for two people.  So, you know, just drop the kids off at Mom and Dad's house and let me hook you up with a sweet deal in Roatan where there is running water and flushing toilets!

That's all I have for you today from my home on the Carnival Triumph.  At least there is no sewage running down the walls yet.  But I do have a true friend who has volunteered to bring me cucumber and onion sandwiches this afternoon so that I can really experience exactly what those lucky folks did last month.  Have a good weekend.