Day 1/Monday: We drove to Galveston and found our ship :). Justin dropped me and the bags off and I patiently waited in the COLD and WINDY weather for him to drop off the car and ride the shuttle back. When he finally arrived we began the boarding process. We were quite excited to be using our passports for the first time! It was an interesting process to board and get our room key/on board credit cards, but it really didn't take too long. Of course they snagged us to pose for an embarkation picture (which I thought was lame since we really looked pretty awful and tired after a long car ride to get to Galveston). Finally, we were headed to the boat, I mean ship, as Justin constantly reminded me throughout the trip, it's a ship, not a boat. We explored the ship, got some yummy lunch (and fat free frozen yogurt--one of my favorite things about the trip...fat free frozen yogurt machine available 24/7!) After lunch we were able to get to our "stateroom" and were pleasantly surprised that it was a little bigger than we expected. We got settled in, were happy when all our luggage was delivered, and then got ready for our big safety demonstration. We had to gather at our "Muster" station, which Justin had fun calling our "Mustard" station. We got a lovely safety talk and then got to go outside to our safety boat area. The good thing about this was it was just as we were leaving port, so we were able to wave goodbye to Galveston. After our safety briefing was complete, we went up to the top deck and watched Galveston slip into the distance...our cruise had begun!!! We had the early seating for dinner, so soon we were off to our room to change and get ready for our first awesome dinner experience. At first, we thought we might have a whole table to ourselves, but our table-mates eventually arrived. Gary and Trina were wonderful people from Tyler, TX and we had a great time chatting with them each night. We were in awe of the food (and were appreciative of the nice, small portions, since everything was super rich and delicious!) and even enjoyed dessert (those of you who know me well know that it has to be a really special occasion for me to indulge in dessert!). After dinner, we changed back into comfortable clothes and then enjoyed the first evening show. It introduced us to the Ecstasy dancers (the very scantily clad dancers, I might add), the Ecstasy singers, and the ship comedians. The comedians were the best part, and we were eager to hear more from them on Tuesday! All in all, a great first day at sea!
After boarding the boat, waiting to depart
Ready for our dinner, night 1
Day 2/Tuesday: A day at sea. Ahhh.... This was a very relaxing day in which we basically did five things: worked out (yes, we are those people who work out while on a cruise), sat and read, ate, took a nap, and enjoyed the comedians. It was not especially warm this day, so we did not sit outside for very long, but we still enjoyed the crisp ocean air and the fact that all you could see was ocean and more ocean. It was pretty cool. This evening was "elegant" evening, so I was pretty excited to wear one of my favorite dresses!! They also had tons of portrait areas set up, so Justin and I posed at a few of them, hoping to get a good picture. One of them on the staircase turned out really good, so we'll be scanning that and I'll upload it later. The meal this evening was the BEST of any night of the cruise as well, with Justin and I both enjoying lobster tail and grilled shrimp (yummmm....). After dinner we decided to skip the "Country Music Spectacular" by the Ecstasy dancers and singers and instead enjoyed the two comedians on the ship. They were very funny, and well worth staying up late for!
Ready for dinner on elegant night
Our towel animal, night 2
Day 3/Wednesday--Progresso, Mexico!! This was an exciting day in Progresso! We were up early enough to go up to the top decks and watch as we pulled into port. Progresso has one of the longest (or maybe the longest??) piers in the world, at over 4 miles long. We had chosen to do the excursion to the Uxmal Ruins. It was between that and the Chitzen-Itza Ruins (which are more famous), but we went with the Uxmal Ruins because they still let you climb on them...and we wanted to climb! We met up with our group and guide and boarded our bus (the bus was advertised to have a bathroom on board...the "bathroom" was basically a hole in the middle of the bus that you could use in emergencies....luckily I had no emergencies!). Our guide, "Temo", was awesome and hilarious and told us lots of good history and funny stories on our 1.5 hour ride to the ruins. Once at the ruins, Temo gave us a guided tour for about an hour or so, which was very interesting. The ruins were just so cool to see, and to know that they were built 2000 BC was INCREDIBLE! Wow! Then, we had about 45 minutes to climb the pyramid and walk around on our own. Justin and I went straight for the pyramid and had a great time climbing the 60 or so steps to the top. It gave us a fantastic view, and we were glad we made the trek up. Then, we walked around and spotted a few cool iguanas, and even watched a little one eat up all the petals that had fallen off a nearby tree. We both thought they ate insects, so watching it gobble up flowers was pretty cool. To end our tour, Justin sampled a local beer and I enjoyed a "Coca Cola Light" (aka Diet Coke). Just before leaving I was able to snag us an Uxmal magnet to join our refrigerator collection at home! We then enjoyed a quieter ride back to the port, as Temo gave us "Siesta" time. It was an awesome excursion and Justin and I were so happy we were able to see the ruins and experience that part of Mexico! Upon arriving back we only had a few minutes to look around the shops, then it was time to get back on the ship. We rested for awhile and then it was time for another awesome dinner! After dinner, there was not much going on except some game shows and karoke. I was exhausted, so we decided to turn in early since we knew we had a big day in Cozumel ahead of us!
Arriving in Progresso...windy, eh?
Sunrise while arriving in Progresso
At the ruins, the largest pyramid is behind us
View of the largest pyramid, from the pyramid we climbed
Day 4/Thursday--Cozumel, Mexico!! This was the day I was most excited about! In Cozumel, we picked the Clear Kayaking/Snorkeling adventure and I was super excited to try both for the first time! Luckily the weather was beautiful, and it was warm enough that I did not freeze while snorkeling! After meeting up with our guide, we were put into two taxi vans to head over to the Chankaoob (sp?) National Park. They have kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, tours, and swimming with dolphins at this park. Our guide, "Berto" and his cousin (can't remember his name) led the way to the Clear Kayaking portion of the morning. Unfortunately, it was quite windy so we could not kayak in the normal area (where there's lots of fish), so we really did not see much except water and rocks through our clear kayak. This was a bit disappointing, but it was still a good workout, and made me feel better about the pizza and dessert I'd been indulging in :). After kayaking we got ready to snorkel! Berto led us around the snorkeling area and pointed out cool things like an underwater statue, a yellow sting ray, and rainbow fish. It was SO COOL. I believe snorkeling has to be in my top five favorite things I've ever done in my entire life. Both Justin and I had underwater cameras, so we are hoping that at least some of our pictures turned out! After snorkeling we had a little time to sit on the beach chairs, dry off, and enjoy a coca cola light (this time, I ordered it correctly!). Then, it was back to the taxis and back to port. The port area had tons of shops, and Justin was a great husband and walked around all of them with me. This was good and bad. Good because it was fun to spend time with him, bad because he talked me out of almost everything I wanted to buy (though, in his mind I'm sure this was good, as it saved $$ :)!). Justin enjoyed another local beer (I'm sure this helped the shopping process) and then we got back on the ship in time for a late lunch. I had waited all week to try the chicken tenders, and felt that today was the perfect day since I'd burned so many calories kayaking and snorkeling. They were fried deliciousness. Justin commented that he had never seen me eat chicken tenders before, and I replied that was probably because I hadn't eaten them in at least 7 or 8 years! Man, they sure tasted good!! We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing on the "Serenity" (aka Adults Only/Quiet) deck and then got ready for dinner. After dinner, once again, there was not a whole lot going on, and we were tired, so we called it a night.
Arriving to the port in Cozumel
Ready for dinner, night 4
Our cute towel crab, night 4
Day 5/Friday--Christmas Eve at Sea--Today was our final full day at sea...and it was a rough one. We woke up to a rocky cabin and I was really feeling the crazy motion of the boat. However, I decided I would be fine and I would go work out with Justin. This, in hind sight, was not the best idea. Walking on a treadmill, on a very "sway-y" boat, is just weird and does not help someone with motion sickness :). After walking for awhile, and then attempting to lift some weights, I told Justin I had to get out of there. We returned to our cabin, which was even more sway-y than the gym, and I tried to settle my stomach. After awhile, we moved up to the Serenity deck to have some breakfast. This, thankfully, was a GREAT place to be on the ship. It was less sway-y, and they have awesome padded lounge chairs on this deck. We stayed there until it was time for the Newlywed/Marrieds game. We'd heard this was a very funny show, so we wanted to check it out. It was HILARIOUS. The married for a "very long time" couple (who I believe had been married for 54 years) were crazy and super funny. However, the best part was when the game was over and the cruise director told us about the funniest/stupidest things ever said by actual cruisers. He talked for at least 30 minutes, and we were all rolling the whole time. The only bad part of this was the show lounge was not quite as still as the Serenity deck, so my motion sickness was re-appearing. Luckily, we soon returned to the Serenity deck and spent the entire afternoon relaxing in the sun. It was a beautiful and warm day, so it was a great day to relax on the deck. At 4pm, they had a Christmas carol sing-a-long, which I was really happy about, since it was the one point in the day that it actually felt like Christmas! We then were treated to a quick holiday show featuring the ship dancers, singers, and the kids on the ship who had been going to Camp Carnival all week. The kids were SO cute! Then, we headed to our cabin to prepare for our final dinner, Christmas Eve dinner. We enjoyed one final dinner with our new friends Gary and Trina and then stayed up late for another night of the comedians and the "Dream Voyage" show done by the Ecstasy dancers and singers. Definitely not the Christmas Eve I'm used to, but we did have fun and it was a great last night of the cruise.
Hanging on the Serenity Deck...ahhhhhh
Ready for Christmas Eve Dinner (do we look sun-kissed or what?)
Our waiter, Genner, on the far left, doing the evening dance with the other waiters, they had choreographed moves and everything!
Day 6/Saturday--Christmas Day--Back to Galveston--It was hard to believe our cruise was over! However, as I told Justin, I think the 5-day cruise was just the right length, because I was actually ready to be back on land (possibly because Friday was such a rough day at sea). We disembarked around 10:30 and made it through customs and everything fairly quickly. We were quite impressed with the efficiency of the whole process. Then we headed to our hotel in Galveston where we would spend a relaxing Christmas day. Luckily they had a room ready for us, so we did not have to wait around in the lounge. We then ventured out and discovered Randall's was open (good for us, but kind of sad for the workers!). We got ourselves some Christmas dinner: sushi, crackers, hummus, cheese, and chex mix :). It was quite a yummy and eclectic Christmas meal! We headed back to our hotel where we enjoyed the cable, the comfy bed, and our Christmas meal. We were glad we'd made the decision to stay in Galveston that day and not head home quite yet. However, Sunday morning, it was time to head back to reality. We arrived back home to our very excited dogs and began the process of unpacking and photo uploading. Our dogs were quite well taken care of while we were gone; however, it was pretty cute to have them follow us around all day long as if to say "you aren't leaving again--are you???". We sure do love our furry children :)!
Well, that wraps up this super long post, if you were able to make it this far :). We are so thankful to have had this vacation together and are happy to share some of our memories with you. This week we are looking forward to doing some things around the house, visiting with some friends, and having my parents and sister come for a quick visit. It will sure be nice to see my family since we did miss Christmas in Nebraska with them!
We hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas and wish you a very Happy New Year!!
6 comments:
Well, I made it all the way through the "long post", and I have to say that I was incredibly jealous the entire time! It looks and sounds like you had an amazing trip together. I hope you continue to post more pictures!
Glad you had a great time! Chad and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon...almost 10 years ago and it was awesome!! Thanks for sharing. :)
I'm so jealous!!! Sounds wonderful! Hope you guys have a very Happy New Year! BTW, my 10 year old son sat down with the receipe you sent in your Christmas card, and he keeps asking me when we are going to make it! :)
Thanks Kati! And you should make it soon--it is sooooo good!! Let me know if you try it and what everyone thinks!
How fun! I so glad you had a wonderful relaxing time. You deserve it!
Love the towel animals!!
Post a Comment