Stormy Seas on Our Last Day of the Cruise! - Friday, February 21, 2020

It was a dark and stormy night in the Gulf of Mexico. Our cabin was toward the front of the ship and near the waterline. The ship was like a roller coaster and went not only up and down, but side to side. 

This morning, Peri and I had reservations for the Cat in the Hat Brunch which was an additional $6.00 per person. Both of us like Cat in the Hat and it sounded like fun. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. and were shown to our seats. The restaurant was decorated with a Cat in the Hat ice sculpture, cardboard posters of the Cat in the Hat, centerpieces, and each place setting had a Cat's Hat red-and-white layered parfait. 

Our brunch menu.

Photo op that didn't cost extra.

Cat's Hat Parfait.

Menus were out, and we met the family that shared our table. It was fun to read the food descriptions.

I had to have Green Eggs and Ham! Plus, the Red, White, and Blue Waffle sounded good. In addition, for the beverage, I ordered orange juice. 

Centerpieces.

Cat in the Hat walked by.

Thing 2 came by to
create mischief.

The Green Eggs and Ham were good.

The waffle, on the other hand,
was cold and soggy. Blah.

Because the ship was rocking and rolling so much, the family across the table did not last long. The mom was looking a little green. They stayed long enough to see the characters come out and got their food but then left quickly. After we ate, we watched as families paid extra to get their photos taken with the characters. When brunch was over we retreated to the cabin. Peri wanted to rest. I sat in the window seat and read. Peri told me not to wake her if I went out. 

Sitting in the window well.

Very active sea!

Wow!

We were invited to play cards with the ladies. After I read for a while and watched the waves splashing up past our window, I headed out to look for the card game. Peri was napping, so I didn't wake her. It was about 1:30 p.m. 

We were supposed to meet in the big buffet restaurant. I found Angie there eating lunch, so I got a burger and joined her. About 20 minutes later, three others showed up.  

The table Angie and I were at was too small to play cards on, so we moved across the aisle to a bigger table. Unfortunately, it was right by a door and a cold wind was blowing in. 

We went in search of a better place to play. The library sounded like a good idea. However, it was so windy and cold outside, the library/game room was full to the brim with families playing games. We finally found a very small bar table near the piano bar and dragged some heavy chairs over so six of us could fit around it. There wasn't a whole lot of room to spread the cards out like we needed to for "Pyramid." 

Next, we played "Seven," I think it was called. That also took up a lot of room on the small table. We had a good time anyway. We were there for about 1-1/2 to two hours. 

Peri caught up with us later and wondered we had been. She woke up and came looking for us but couldn't find us. I told her at first we were a moving target and that where we ended up was a little out of the way. 

Dinner was good and, because it was our last night, the waiters did a Baked Alaska parade with our desserts. 

Baked Alaska. Mmm.

After dinner, we went to the big theater for a good-bye from the crew. The boat was moving around so much that the crew was swaying on stage. After the crew's good-byes, we had one more show. 

Time to say good-bye.

The finale show had to be taken down a notch. They couldn't put up their stage sets and decorations for the safety of the crew. The heavy sets could fall because of the active seas. No big dance numbers, just the entertainers singing while sitting on stools. It was a much quieter show tonight. 

After the early show in the theater, Peri, BettyAnn, Luann, and I went to the Comedy Club. It was fun because of the comedian. He parodied famous songs and singers. 

Luann and BettyAnn.

Me and Peri.

Decor in the Punchliner Comedy Club.

And then it was time to pack. Our debarkation from vacation is tomorrow. We hope for NO FOG when we head into port!! Good night, all.

Cozumel - Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Cruising into Cozumel.

Four ships were in port already. 
We made #5.

The shops at the end of
the pier in Cozumel.

Norwegian Escape streaming
in made ship #6.

Our original arrival time in Cozumel was supposed to be 9:00 a.m. Due to our fog delay on embarkation day, the new arrival time was noon. People who had shore excursions booked in Cozumel were told we would be in port until 7:30 p.m. instead of 6:00 p.m. and their shore excursion times had all been rescheduled. Even that had unforeseen consequences.  

Some of the ladies in our group had a shore excursion in Cozumel to swim with the dolphins and other activities at the same location. Originally, they were supposed to go from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. With the re-scheduling of their tour, they did not have the same amount of time at their destination. The locale closed at 4:00 p.m. and they had to catch either a 3:15 or 4:15 p.m. shuttle back to the ship, thus cutting off almost 2-1/2 hours of experience time at their destination. They were thrilled to swim with the dolphins, but they didn't have time for anything else!

Peri and I and a number of other ladies in our group decided to stay on the ship. I think a couple of them got off just to walk and shop in the area by the ships. 

A popular activity on the day in port was a day pass for the spa. There is a Thalassotherapy pool, saunas, beauty workshops, places to relax, showers, and a workout room. Wait, what? A workout room. Well, I guess if you are indulging in the buffet and every other food joint on the ship, it would be good if you exercised. I don't think anyone in our group did, though. I mean, we ate, but we didn't exercise (except walking all over the ship).

Our dog towel.

Our oceanview stateroom
looking toward the window.

Looking toward the door.

Angie, Peri, and I did a ladies' tea in the afternoon. They had a string quartet playing classical music, tea, a dessert tray, and cucumber sandwiches. It seemed like they ran out of cucumber sandwiches, you know the ones I'm talking about that are triangles. We only got one small triangle each. I thought that was pretty skimpy.

At the Ladies' Tea before
Angie joined us.

After the tea, we walked around the ship. I took photos, and Peri and I did some of the games. They had a "Carnival Tower," which is like Jenga only it was hard rubber blocks (instead of wooden ones) stacked on the floor up to about four feet in height. Once the blocks were set up, we had a big die that we rolled on the floor. Then we had to do what it said. For example, "Any Two," "Mid," "Side," "Wild" (when you got "wild," you could only use your elbow or foot to remove blocks).

The next game was a facial recognition logic puzzle. There were two teams of two. Each team had ten pictures of the same people (cruise director, bartender, steward, captain, etc.). By process of elimination using questions, the goal was for your team to be the first one to guess who the other team picked as their person. Peri and I won three rounds and the other team won two.

We spent time reading on the Serenity Deck, but it was too hot and humid, so we ended up in the library and then back in our room. It was a laid back day.

At 6:00 p.m., we had our early dinner in the Scarlet Restaurant. Our waiter, Yugi, was lots of fun. He had us up dancing next to the table a couple of nights. 

Yugi, our waiter, danced a lot.

After dinner, we headed to the Encore! Theater for the evening show "America Rocks!" It was right up my alley because I love rock 'n' roll. I was singing along, clapping, and dancing in my seat. 

Encore! Theater's America Rocks!

Later in the evening, Peri and I went to hear two comedians in the Punchliner Comedy Club. The lady we saw first was funny, but you had to get past her incessant swearing. Not my thing. The guy who came on second was really good. He had insightful, intelligent humor. Being a former musician, he used music and lyrics in his humor repertoire.

Then it was time for snacks. We spent about 1/2 hour in the buffet area eating soft-serve ice cream. They had a chocolate strawberry swirl that was pretty darned good. 

Time to head back to our room for sleep.

Prelude to Carnival Dream Five-Day Cruise to Mexico - Monday, February 17, 2020

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go. We're leaving on a cruise ship and it's time to update you on our journey. Twelve ladies from Traveler's World RV Resort are heading out and we'd like to thank Pam Emberton for organizing this getaway. Our group was divided into three vehicles.

Barb, Me, Peri, and Jyl at the Escape pod.

Saturday, our travel day to the Port of Galveston, was a disaster. We braved heavy fog the morning of our journey from San Antonio to Galveston. Breakfast at Schobel's Restaurant in Columbus, Texas, was the best part of our drive. All 12 of us met for breakfast. Next, we stopped at Buc'Ees in Katy and filled my gas tank for $1.75 per gallon!! 

As we approached Houston, we had an update from the cruise line. Due to fog, our ship was delayed coming into port. They asked everyone to arrive at the cruise terminal two hours later than their originally scheduled embarkation time. 

Our car full of ladies decided we had plenty of time to stop and shop at Walmart in Galveston before making our way to the terminal. We had until 3:30 p.m. to get there and board. All of our group of 12 made it to the terminal on time (apparently at the same time as 2,400 other cruisers). 

Let me paint a verbal picture as to what happened next. Picture two big cruise ships waiting to dock, both having been delayed for hours by the fog. Both ships docked about the same time and disgorged their passengers. Anyone who drove had to get to the parking lots and retrieve their cars. Meanwhile, two cruise ships worth of people were arriving to embark at approximately the same time, even though we had been told to wait an extra two hours.

Chaos ensued. It took us a while to get to the terminal due to the long line-up of cars. Peri and I dropped Jyl and Barb off at the terminal and we went to park. They took care of our large suitcases which we left with them, along with tips for the porters. We kept our overnight bags with us. Jyl and Barb got in line and we would call to let them know when we were on our way back to the terminal.

Peri and I were gridlocked in front of the terminal. There were parking lot attendants (?) directing traffic and allowing people to cross the road from the shuttles to the terminal. The wait to get out of the terminal drop-off area seemed interminable. 

When we got to a point past the people streaming across the street, we were directed into a very small line of cars in the middle of the closest parking lot/ terminal drop off. To our left was a full line of cars, to our right was all the traffic streaming out of the terminal. We were at the front of our line so we thought we'd get to go soon. Boy, were we wrong. 

The parking attendant out in the main thoroughfare from the terminal kept that traffic moving, but he wasn't allowing any of us from our line to merge, not even one car. The line of cars to our left was merging regularly. People in our line were getting testy. Someone tried to go around us and cut in front. I didn't let them, nor did the shuttle for one of the hotels, who also wasn't being let out into the main flow of traffic. It was about 15-20 minutes before we were allowed to move.

At that point, I asked one of the traffic directors how to get to Parking Lot A. He told me we needed to go onto Harborside Drive and turn right. But, when he finally directed us to move, he forcefully told us not to go on Harborside Drive and directed us on a side road away from Harborside Drive. Now what?? Signage for Lot A was non-existent on that back road. We saw the backside of the lot he had told us to go to, but no entrance was there except for shuttles to the parking lot. 

We drove through what looked like a train yard and finally found a way to get back to Harborside Drive. We turned left and found Lot A; however, they had the left-hand-turn lane blocked into Lot A and security wouldn't let us turn there. I rolled down my window and asked how we were supposed to get in and she told us to go to the END of the line. No way, Jose! We would have already been in that line if the parking attendant in the cruise ship lot had sent us the way he told us we needed to go in the first place.

I was very frustrated by this point. Lot A was only about 1/2 mile from the cruise terminal. There was a break in traffic going the other direction to Lot A, so I made a quick three-point turn and inserted myself in the line. It still took us forever to get to the lot. Once there, a parking lot attendant scanned our ticket and told us to drive forward and check in at the blue canopy. I tried to do that but another person directing traffic told us to turn through the middle of the lot and go back to park farther away from the terminal. Arrgh! 

From there, Peri and I decided to walk to the cruise terminal. It's a good thing we didn't just take the shuttle (which had a line that looked like we would have to wait for four more shuttles to come before we could even board one). As we were walking through the parking lot, I stopped at the blue canopy, like the lady at the entrance gate told me. Apparently, I needed to put a hangtag on my mirror to show I had paid for parking. If we had boarded a shuttle, I wouldn't have known that. I walked all the way back to the car and put in the hangtag.

All that being said, it took 1-1/2 hours from the time we dropped off our passengers until we made it back to the terminal to join them in line and it was only about 1-1/2 miles roundtrip to Lot A. We made it just before our friends entered the terminal building. 

Once in line, we filled out a health survey to let the cruise line know we didn't have a fever, sneezing, or coughing. Then we slowly made our way through the maze of people (moo) to the embarkation station where we showed our tickets and were given our stateroom keys. 

Oh, the lines! Wow.

From there, we were sent to have our belongings scanned and, finally, allowed on the ship. Whew. That took forever. I needed a glass of wine! And lunch. The wine had to wait because I couldn't get the top off the bottle.

Because of fog in the Port of Galveston, we could not leave at our scheduled time of 5:30 p.m. We finally moved out at 11:15 p.m. This, of course, put us behind our originally scheduled arrival time in Cozumel. Luckily, we had a day at sea to make up time. 

Next up: A day at sea.

Incommunicado - Monday, February 17, 2020

Well, I just got back in the groove of writing blogs and now I'll be off for a bit. Tomorrow, 12 ladies from the RV park are off on a cruise to Mexico. This is to let you know you won't hear from me until at least Sunday, February 23.

Today, Peri and I got manis and pedis. That was a treat!

I'll be taking three people in my car. Their big suitcases are already in the car and in the morning, they'll bring their overnight bags. On our way to Galveston, we'll stop for breakfast.

Our concern in the morning is a forecast of dense fog in Galveston, Texas. If that is the case, our ship will arrive in port late from the cruise before us. They will have to debark and then the ship will need to be loaded. We could be late getting out tomorrow.

We'll visit Cozumel and Progreso (on the Yucatan Peninsula). We're pretty excited! Talk to you later!

Debarkation from our vacation - Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015

All good things eventually come to an end. We sailed into the port at Houston around 7:30am. Our debarkation time was 8:30am.

First we had breakfast in the Grand Pacific Dining Room again. Then we headed to our room to wait until our time to debark. From our stateroom we had a great view of the port and the cruise ship terminal.

A freighter heading out to sea

Cruise ship terminal

Ship on left, cruise ship terminal on right

We were off the ship, collected our bags, and were through customs in about an hour and 15 minutes. We then headed back to San Antonio so Bob could pick up his marathon packet. Nothing like running a marathon the day after returning from the cruise!

I can't say enough good things about Norwegian Cruise Lines. Our vacation was immensely satisfying.

All for today.

Last two days at sea on our cruise - Dec. 3-4, 2015

All of our shore excursions are over and we're on the ship at sea for two days before returning to Houston, Texas. Even the days at sea are enjoyable. However, we had quite a rough crossing of the Gulf of Mexico. High winds and swells caused for some rocking of the ship. Thankfully we did not get seasick!

The ship is abuzz with activities day into night. You could choose from:

• fitness classes
• dance instruction
• yoga
• team Trivia
• Bingo
• sports
• poolside music
• Wii
• casino slots or blackjack
• lectures
• wine tasting
• ladies' Pamper Parties
• crew talent show
• arts & crafts
• Name that Tune
• NFL football on big screen TV
• Karaoke
• read in the library or your stateroom
• parties with dancing
• Evening entertainment shows
• art auction
• shopping

Thursday, December 3: We spent time on our balcony reading and listening to the ship cut through the water. Mid-afternoon we went to the Stardust Theater to hear our comedian, David Naster, give a humorous lecture about the importance of laughter during difficult times. He showed a video about Patch Adams and people who were going through serious illnesses and how laughter helps them cope.

Beautiful sky as seen from our balcony

Afternoons spent reading on our balcony

Getting comfortable

At night, we went to Stardust Showtime: Elements - Earth, Air, Water, Fire. This is considered an NCL mega-production show which incorporated a magician, aerial acrobats, singers and dancers. Our entertainment on this ship has been wonderful.

Dressed for dinner and Elements show.

Grand Pacific Dining Room

Me and Bob

Frog towel tonight

 For the cruise, I bought four new dresses, a pair of black suede boots, and a cute jacket.

My new "sassy" boots

Bob couldn't resist a photo of my legs.

These boots are made for dancing

After the Elements show from 7:30 to 8:30, we went to the Medusa Lounge, listened to karaoke, then danced to Twice as Nice who sang songs from the 70's and 80's. We then called it a night.

Friday, December 4: For breakfast we went to the Grand Pacific Dining Room which, along with the buffet, was our favorite place to eat. In the photo below, the hall is REALLY that long. There is no mirror there.

Grand Pacific Dining Room

My breakfast: pancakes with blueberry compote and
two eggs over medium

Bob's breakfast: Salmon Benedict

The decor on the ship is decidedly Hawaiian because this ship initially sailed between the Hawaiian Islands.

Bob by the King Kamehameha statue
(in his Hawaii shirt)

After breakfast, we walked around the deck a few times until we had walked a mile. It was chilly outside and a strong wind was blowing.

Today was a mellow day with lots of reading. We did see David Naster again this afternoon in the Stardust Theater. His topic today was "Beating the Bullies." Another educational hour with the ship's comedian.

For dinner, we ate at Jasmine Garden, a complimentary Asian restaurant. It was okay. The service was slow and the food was mediocre.

Jasmine Garden Asian restaurant

After dinner, we decided we had made the wrong choice and should have gone to the buffet where they were having a "Fisherman's Buffet." We know because we went and looked at it after our tummies were full and saw some delicious fish dishes. (Say "delicious fish dishes" six times fast.) If I wasn't so full, I would have had salmon en croute from the Indian buffet line. It looked amazing!

We decided not to do any of the evening entertainment because we'd be getting up early to debark the ship. As we entered our stateroom we were greeted by a mouse.

Isn't he adorable?

Good night all.