Carnival Paradise 5-day Western Caribbean Ports of call: Mahogany Bay in Roatan, Honduras and Cozumel, Mexico

 January 2023

This is a brief post, as I have already shared information for both of these ports in several previous posts. I am sharing some new information here, and you can click on the links at the bottom of this post to find more details about areas you are interested in.

Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan from Carnival Paradise

Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM

We had a casual day at this port; we walked to the port beach after lunch for a few hours. We were the only ship in port, so there were plenty of loungers available in the shade without having to rent an umbrella. Wifi is available for the day for $5. You can purchase with cash at a booth, or online with a credit card. I suggest purchasing with cash, as the credit card purchases were not working correctly. After I agreed to the terms and payment, the page reloaded and told me to pay $5 [again]. When I went to the booth to get this corrected, I waited behind another passenger being helped who had had the same trouble. The staff member got her account signed in, and then she fixed mine. If you purchase wifi at the booth, you are given a one-time access code to sign in with (which is pretty much what the staff member did after confirming we had actually made the purchase). Local beers were available at the bars for $5. Wine and mixed drinks were available too; however, I do not know the cost, since we did not purchase any. We have previously gone on the Tabyana Beach shore excursion at this port, which I recommend, if you are looking to get away from the ship dock. 

Iguana in the Cozumel port shopping area

Eastern Upper Peninsula in Michigan: Cedarville, Sault Ste. Marie, Drummond Island

June 2021, Weekdays - weekend

Following is information about some of the places we visited during our stay at DeTour State Forest Campground.

Displayed at Les Cheneaux Distillers

Cedarville

We had a fabulous visit at Les Cheneaux Distillers just south of M-134. Great beers, spirits, food, atmosphere, gift shop, and service. Everything was impressive! We were lucky to find the place mostly empty when we arrived in the afternoon after lunch time, because it was filling up fast before we left. 

Some of the delicious items we had at Les Cheneaux Distillers:
Bloody Mary, beer sampler, pretzel knots

We learned about this location because they are listed in the HopPassport, and they were happy to honor the discounts (unlike Tahquamenon Brewery in another recent post). 

There is a decent grocery store in Cedarville on the corner M-134 and M-129, which met all our needs for a few items we needed to restock. 

Photo taken from Rotary Island Park in Sault Ste. Marie

Grand Traverse Bay, Michigan: Suttons Bay, Traverse City, Marion/Power/Bassett Island, Northport

August 2020, 8 nights 

I have previously written several posts about all of these areas with information, so this post will not have as much detail. You can click on the labels at the end of this post for areas you are interested in for more details.

Sunset from our slip at Suttons Bay facing west and east (below)

Marinas: Suttons Bay, Duncan L. Clinch (Traverse City), G. Marsten Dame (Northport)

We stayed at Suttons Bay marina for four of our eight nights, as this is our favorite marina. Great staff, great rates, well maintained, and nice beach/park next door. The rate was $2 higher per night than previous years, which is still reasonable. COVID-19 protocols were in place, and we did not encounter any issues. 

Sunset in Traverse City from our boat slip on the walkway
at Duncan L. Clinch Marina

Alabama: Dauphin Island & Mobile Bay Ferry

November 2018

We learned about Mobile Bay Ferry when we were deciding upon our route to Orange Beach, Alabama from Mobile, Alabama. Since we had previously traveled around the top of the bay, and also visited USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, we decided to take the ferry from Dauphin Island across this time. We always like to try new things! Taking the ferry added less than ½ hour to our travel time.

Bridge to Dauphin Island

Dauphin Island 

Getting to Dauphin Island from Mobile was easy. The traffic was minimal, and the drive was less than 45 minutes from the Renaissance Riverview in Mobile. The island is not very big, and we walked around for a bit after we paid and parked for the next ferry departure. There is a paved trail, which goes as far as Fort Gaines at the east end, and almost to West End Public Beach at the opposite end of the island. There is a bicycle lane for a short distance where the paved trail ends before the beach.

Entrance to Fort Gaines

A private campground is located near the ferry dock, and there is a short trail across from the campground on the north side of Bienville Rd. called Magnolia Park. I was surprised there were not any businesses or tourist type shops near the ferry dock.

Visiting Savannah, Georgia & Tybee Island / Historic Squares, Forsyth Park, Downtown, Savannah Bells Ferry, City Market, Fort Pulaski, Tybee Beach, and more!

November - December 2016, Weekdays

We spent four nights in Savannah, Georgia at the Homewood Suites. I am sharing information from our experiences to assist future travelers to the area. One the first bits of information I want to share is about parking. All of the hotels downtown charge rates of $20 or more per night for parking. You can purchase a 24-hour parking pass from the city for $8, and you can purchase a 2-day pass for $14. More information is available in my Homewood Suites blog post (link above), and at the City of Savannah website. We purchased two 2-days passes, so our total parking cost was $28.  Much better than the $104 we would have paid at our hotel (not counting valet tips). We did not have any difficulty finding a parking spot in Bryan Street parking garage located directly behind Holiday Inn Express, or in Whitaker Street garage.

View of City Hall from Johnson Square

Savannah Historic Squares, Colonial Park Cemetery, Forsyth Park 

There are many narrated tours available to learn about Savannah history--trolley tours, walking tours, group and private tours. There is also considerable information available online and elsewhere, if you want to visit Savannah Historic Squares at your own pace, which is what we did. Here are a few online resources to assist with planning: Visit Savannah's Historic Squares, free Visitor's Guide, Historic Squares with descriptions, and my favorites: Squares and Parks and Self-Guided Walking Tour. I had prepared a rough draft of our walking tour plans before our trip, and then I left the folder of maps and info at home! We easily got new maps and information from the Visitor's Center  on E. Bay Street, our hotel concierge, and from various booklets around town.

Wright Square

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina / Coligny Plaza, Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, beach, trails, shopping restaurants...

November 2016, Weekend-weekday, 3-nights

Following is information about some of the places we visited during our stay at Marriott Resort & Spa on Hilton Head Island. 

Restaurants, dining options

We had a late lunch at Joe Loves Lobster Rolls in Ridgeland, SC on our way to Hilton Head. If you are arriving from the north, this is right on the way on N. Okatie Hwy. My husband had the Smoked Wild Boar sandwich special, and I had the Lobster Mac 'n Cheese side special. The sandwich came with a side and drink, which are not visible in the photo below. The food flavor was excellent, although afterward, we wished we had ordered the largest lobster roll and shared it instead. Yes, we wanted more lobster!

Joe Loves Lobster Rolls

We dined at two locations in Palmetto Dunes, which were less than a half mile walk from the Marriott: Palmetto Dunes General Store and Big Jim's BBQ, Burgers, and Pizza. Our breakfast from the General Store was not what we had initially planned that morning; however, it was very good. We had a freshly made bagel egg sandwich and sausage egg burrito. The portion sizes were good, and the cost was around $5 each. There is a sitting area outside the store. Other breakfast foods were available, as well as deli/lunch-type sandwiches. All of the foods looked fresh and appetizing.

Palmetto Dunes General Store

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina / Hilton Head Marriott Resort & Spa

November 2016, Weekend-weekday, 3-nights, 2-Queen beds oceanfront guestroom

Sunrise from guestroom 710

Gold perks and arrival/check-in

Our GPS was pretty accurate with the Marriott location; however, we were mildly confused about the resort location when we arrived, as I know there are several Marriott properties on Hilton Head, and the entrance sign did not exactly match the property name on the website. The website says, "Hilton Head Marriott Resort & Spa," and the entrance sign says, "Hilton Head Marriott Beach & Golf Resort."

Beautiful sand sculpture in lobby

I had checked in online the day before our arrival because I received an email that said, "check in now to access your Elite benefits! ...as one of our most loyal guests, you'll jump to the top of the list for: Priority Room Assignment, Priority Upgrades - Get notified of a room upgrade before your visit, Priority Late Checkout - Find out how late you can sleep in … right when you arrive." I entered 2:30 p.m. for our arrival time, and 1:00 p.m. for a late checkout time. Check-in time is 4:00 p.m., and checkout time is 11:00 a.m. I did not receive any notification before we arrived around 2:45 p.m. The agent told me our room has just become available. He said we had been upgraded to an oceanfront room with 2 queen beds. He said there were no king oceanfront rooms available. This hotel has 10 floors, and we were assigned a room on the 7th floor. My profile is set for a king bed on a high floor, and I always request the top floor. I am not complaining about being three floors down; I am merely sharing this information for other elite members who may want to know what to expect. The agent did not mention my late checkout request, and I did not ask about this.

Guestroom 710

This was a typical Marriott guestroom. The property showed a bit of wear in some areas; however, the room was comfortable and clean. 

Just inside the entrance

Two closets were located outside the bathroom near the entrance. The closets contained two robes, hangers, and a folding luggage rack. The bathroom was spacious with a decent size vanity. The bottom of the mirror behind the vanity was slightly deteriorated from age. Thann bath amenities were provided, along with good quality towels, a hairdryer, and glass glasses. I do not recall for sure if there was a makeup mirror in the guestroom. Extra amenities, like mouthwash and cotton swabs, which are provided at most Marriott hotels, were not provided at this hotel. The tub/shower combination was located across from the vanity, with the toilet between the two.

Mackinac Island, Michigan / LakeView Hotel

We had visited Mackinac Island a few times before this visit--for the day, and we have stayed at a slip in the marina overnight with our boat. This was the first time we stayed in a hotel on the island. Before we decided upon LakeView Hotel, we had also considered Murray Hotel, Mission Point Resort, Bicycle Street Inn, and Grand Hotel. Because we were visiting early in the season, we were able to stay for only one night instead of two; many of the hotels on the island were not even opening until the week after our stay. 

We decided that the rates at the Grand Hotel (starting at $707, including dinner and breakfast) and Bicycle Street Inn (starting at $190, room only) were not worth the extra cost. Bicycle Street Inn is a great looking new hotel, and they posted a discounted rate online right before our trip; however, we had already made plans to stay at the LakeView Hotel by the time the special was offered.

The rates I found were: LakeView Hotel: package with 2 round-trip ferry tickets, $119; Murray Hotel: Grand Opening weekend special for any room except king whirlpool, $74.95; Mission Point: main lodge queen room $115. I thought the large outside whirlpool tub and sitting area looked nice at Murray Hotel, and my husband liked the inside pool at LakeView Hotel. The cost was about the same, since ferry tickets were included at LakeView Hotel. It was a tough decision, and the professional and quick responses from LakeView Hotel won us over in the end.

May 2014, Weekend, 1-night, King guestroom #4--

Check-in
We had canceled and then rebooked our room at the hotel since the ferry did not start running from Mackinaw City until the day of our arrival. There was some confusion with the re-booking, so we had a brief wait for our guestroom when we arrived. Our original reservation that we had canceled was for Friday night. When Shepler's announced less than 24 hours in advance, that they would begin ferry service on Friday, Manager James contacted us to see if we wanted to rebook our room. We checked to make sure that we could change our new Friday night plans to Saturday, and then we told him yes. He must have misunderstood my comment about making sure we could change the other plans we had made, because when we arrived, the hotel had us down for a room on Saturday instead of Friday. Since this was the first night the hotel was open for the year, our guestroom had not been rented Friday evening. After a brief wait and calls to correct this, we had the keys to our room around noon.


Guestroom
I forgot to write down our guestroom number. Our room was on the top floor in the NE corner next to the exit/stairway hall. It is a room without a view.

The room was comfortable and clean. It contained a king size bed, nightstands with lamps and a clock, desk and chair, second chair, armoire, folding luggage rack, flatscreen TV, safe, and a clothes rack with hangers.

A coffee maker with supplies, and an ice bucket and glasses were provided on the armoire. The safe was located on the shelf with the hangers next to the bed. It was attached at the far end, so it was kind of difficult to reach.

The bathroom and vanity were located to the left of the entry door at the foot of the bed. There was plenty of counter space on the long vanity, and the bathing and toilet area was sufficient. A hairdryer was mounted on the wall next to the vanity, and bath amenities were provided. I loved the recyclable shampoo and conditioner containers!

Good quality bath towels were provided in the bathing area.

shampoo & conditioner

The Internet connection did not work properly during our stay. I could see the signal from my laptop; however, the sign in page would not load. Occasionally, I have had this happen during my travels, and it can be corrected by calling the provider and giving my IP address, or, if I know the URL for the sign in/agreement page, I can manually type it in to connect. I do not know why this happens. I did not take steps to correct it while we were there.

The bed was comfortable, and the sleep quality was good. The entrance into the guestroom from the hall was not even at the floor. The difference was not enough to notice or be considered a step, although there was just enough difference for me to stub my toe almost every time! I suppose if we had stayed longer, I would have remembered this after the first few times.

Food & Beverage
The included continental breakfast did not include much. Cold breads and beverages were about all. My husband upgraded his breakfast to include an omelet at the omelet station. The employee said his omelet was the first one of the season!

Goodfellow's Restaurant and wine bar is adjacent to the hotel. The food and wine tasting were both good, and the service was excellent.

Pool area
This is one of the few hotels on the island with a pool. The pool is located in the center of the building, with the guestrooms around the perimeter. The whirlpool tub was nice, although the pool water and the air temperature in the area was kind of cool.

Washington Island, Wisconsin

 Arrival and Kap's Marina

Kap's Marina

We traveled to Washington Island by our own boat, rather than the ferry. We had planned to anchor in the harbor, as we had done a few years earlier; however, after a great ride across Lake Michigan, it started raining, and then the wind picked up. We made an uncommitted effort to set the anchor before deciding to stay at Kap's marina for the night. 

Kap's restaurant & gas dock

Our main reason for stopping at Washington Island was that we needed fuel before continuing to Fayette. Since the water was becoming rough, and Kap didn't want to explain the fuel dock entrance in the wind that was blowing when we arrived, we decided not to continue that day. The fuel dock at Kap's is a bit tricky to pull into. It's not well marked, and you need to make a loop around from the channel to avoid the shallow water. The channel into the Detroit Harbor anchorage is also shallow in spots and not very wide. There were several sailboats anchored when we were there in 2009, so they did not have any trouble navigating the channel. Ferry boats frequent the beginning of the channel, so this area is plenty deep and wide until you get past the ferry docks. We usually prefer to get fuel when we arrive so that we can depart at any time; however, it worked out fine the next morning.

We thought the slip cost of $2 a foot was pretty steep, since it did not include much except a basic dock with electricity. There were flush toilets and a shower in both the Men's and Women's side of the bathhouse. We opted to shower on the boat since the facilities didn't look that great. There was a restaurant and bar on site, which we would have visited, if the slip rent had not been so high. The person checking us in, had to check with Kap to see how much to charge us for the night (after filling out the slip with our boat size and details). This made us feel like he did not have a set rate, and charged whatever he deemed appropriate at the time. We had not asked before this, and I wish we had. I suggest inquiring about the rate beforehand in case it's negotiable.

After this visit, two acquaintances asked us if used Kap's cadillac to tour the island while we were there. We did not know this was an option before we visited, so we did not inquire about this during our stay. That would have made the high priced slip rent a better value. Kap did not offer the use of his car or anything else. In fact, after I saw Internet service was available after turning my computer on, I had to go find someone to ask about the password for use. Fortunately, there was not an extra charge to use the Internet.

Viking Train Tour                              

Since the weather was lousy, and my husband wanted to see the island, we decided to check into the Viking Train tour of the island. Transportation was not actually on a train--it was aboard a covered trailer/wagon, pulled by a motor vehicle. We liked the fact that it was covered--in case the rain continued--and the cost was reasonable ($12 per person), so we made a reservation on the telephone, and then walked the few blocks to the Island Clipper dock to board the train. There were only four of us on the tour, so the service was great! Our guide provided excellent narration and a wonderful ride. She was friendly, upbeat, and personable. We thought this outing was a great value--including the tip we gave at the end. 

The stops we made were slightly different than what was posted online. We stopped at the Ostrich Farm, which was amusing and cost us each an additional dollar. I observed a higher price posted on a sign when we entered, so I assume it costs more for walk-ins, who are not on the train tour. This stop was basically just a farm tour, which we could have done without. We did purchase an Ostrich meat jerky/stick to try, which had good flavor. The second stop was Mann's Mercantile and Uptown Den Norske Grenda. There were a couple stores at this stop, and a nice restroom open to the public. We were not planning to shop, so we spent our time taking photos of the grass covered log buildings from Norway. We did not observe any goats on the roof (or even nearby), as touted on some of the Washington Island ads. The third stop online said that it would be at the Farm Museum, which we were interested in; however, we stopped at a church instead. This was a nice stop, although I do not recall the name of the church. The last stop was Schoolhouse Beach, which we thought was worth a visit. The bay was perfectly calm--quite different than Detroit Harbor on the other side of the island where we had tried to anchor.

 Our guide made the trip worthwhile by pointing out many additional facts and points of interest along the way.