The Cruise

I am finally blogging about one of the big events that happened this summer. I have several things I need to document, the most important, of course, being Christopher’s birthday. BUT, back in May, Stephen and I went on a 5-day cruise with him mom and stepdad. Since it’s been almost 5 months since we did that, I’m going to go ahead and try to get that post taken care of before I forget everything we did.

We headed to Galveston on a Sunday morning. We drove straight there and stayed in a nice Best Western. I was feeling sick so we ordered pizza to eat at the hotel and then we walked across the street to a Walgreen’s so I could get some medicine. I was so worried I was going to be sick and miserable the whole cruise. Thankfully, I woke up the next morning feeling just fine!

I think I took a bunch of pictures at the beginning of the vacation, then slacked off over the course of the week. Oops.

This was my boarding outfit. I love this shirt. I wore it with white shorts.
On our balcony. We LOVE having a balcony on our cruises. I don’t think I could cruise without a balcony room!

My mother-in-law, Deanna, and step-father-in-law, Leonard. Their room was two doors down from ours. There were several times that they didn’t answer their room phone and we would go out to the balcony and they would be out there enjoying the atmosphere and view! Deanna was anti-balcony before this cruise…now she says she can’t imagine having an interior room ever again!

Goodbye, Galveston!

Towel Animal. I think this would have been Night One? I think this is a lobster. Sometimes it’s hard to tell!

Dinner – “Cruise Elegant” Night Two on the ship.


Towel animal… Night Two. I have no idea what this is… any guesses?

Day Three of Cruising (Wednesday)
Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico

This was our first port of call. We chose to do a Mayan Ruins Excursion. There were two we could choose from – one that was a bus ride several hours away – Chichen Itza – which you may have heard of, and the other was just 30 minutes outside of Progreso. We chose the one that was closer. Deanna had been to Chichen Itza before and we didn’t really feel like going on a long hot bus ride.

This name of this ruin city is “Dzibilchaltun”

That building you see waaaayy back there in this picture does something really neat at each solstice… or something like that. I could look it up but I’m too lazy today. I mean, at least I’m blogging, right? Anyway, important people in the field of something have tried to figure out how on earth the Mayans knew to build this certain structure where this really neat sunrise/sunset thing happens twice a year… or something. Sorry. It was really interesting in person, I promise.

Mayan Pyramid. Later you’ll see a picture of me at the top of it.

This is a fresh water pool. It actually has caves underneath it and divers have explored where the water comes from but they have never been able to find the source. I think that’s what our guide told us. Only the higher-status Mayan people were allowed to bath in this pool. It is also believed that this is where the Mayan civilization in this town got their fresh drinking water. Hopefully they took it from the opposite side of the pool from where the other people bathed. It was very pretty, but I didn’t get in. I’m really a swimming pool kind of girl. I’m not a fan of lakes, creeks, or even swimming in the ocean.

Stevo at the top of some giant wall thing. The steps up there looks like maybe it was some gathering place where people might sit and watch something below…?

View from the top of said giant wall.

Yours truly.
Please don’t hate on my white hat. I get “sunsick” very easily and I was super concerned that I might get overheated and get a headache from hell and lose my yummy cruise breakfast all over Dzibilchaltun. So, I made sure to wear an awesome white hat, light clothing, Frogg Togg Towel, and big huge bottle of cold water. Better safe than sorry.

Me at the top of the pyramid.

Towel animal, Night Three. What is this? An armadillo?

Our next Port of Call was Cozumel, Mexico. This is my third time to visit Cozumel. All three times have been cruising. When Stephen and I went on our honeymoon, he really wanted to find a beach. I wanted to shop. So… we shopped. This time we beached. We went to a resort beach where we could snorkel, drink, paddleboat, water slide, (like a big inflatable water slide in the middle of the ocean… yeah.) …a bunch of other things. Want to know what I did? Parked myself under a coconut tree in a secluded area of lounge chairs and read Fifty Shades of Grey. Oh, yes. I had woken up that morning with some sort of horrible back pain that hurt so bad I had trouble rolling out of bed. I had brought along the Fifty Shades trilogy for the pure purpose of reading pleasure (pun intended. haha) and I think by this day I was near the end of the second book. So for almost four hours I read under a coconut tree in Cozumel. They were among the best four hours of my life. Right before we needed to leave to head back to the boat, Deanna paid for a twenty-minute back massage for me. Heaven! I loved it!

One of the best things about cruising is the room attendants. Your two room attendants take care of you. Make up the bed while you’re at breakfast. Clean up the bathroom. They always fold the toilet paper so that it’s all fancy schmancy with a tip at the end of it. (Sorry, I didn’t think to take photos of the toilet paper. Next time!) They vacuum, take out the trash, re-stock your mini fridge… you name it, they’ll probably do it! My favorite part of the day is coming in after dinner or the late show and finding the room with only the dim lights on, bed folded back, towel animal and chocolate mints waiting on you, with an itinerary of the next day’s events… I need a room attendant at my HOUSE to do all of those things!

Night Four towel animal. Our chocolates were in his mouth. I don’t know what this is supposed to be either!

Towel animal, Night Five – final night. Again, I’m not sure what this is. It’s something holding a baby.

Over the course of the week I read Fifty Shades, listened to Adele, napped, ate, tanned, relaxed, drank Carnival’s signature “Kiss on the Lips” mixed cocktail (which I immediately re-created once coming home. YUM!) …slept more… It was my third cruise but it was by far the most relaxing and enjoyable cruise I have ever been on. It was a wonderful way to decompress after a semester of internship. It was a perfect way for Stephen and I to spend time together. We love cruising and if we ever win the lottery… well, we would probably go on two or three cruises a year!

 

I did miss Christopher SO SO much, but – in my opinion – cruising is just not the best vacation for kids. I want to take C to Disney World, snow skiing, water parks, adventure lands, theme parks, etc. But cruising is a “parents-only” trip for Stephen and me. At least until we have teenage children where I am not constantly needing to worry about where they are, who they’re with, and what they’re doing. It wouldn’t be the relaxing, care-free vacation that it is now if I took a toddler with me.

We did make two calls home from the ship. Halfway through the trip, on Wednesday, I called my brother because it was his birthday. I wanted to wish him a happy birthday from Mexico! I also asked him to let my parents know that I would be calling at 5:30 to talk to Christopher. When I called my parents later that afternoon, my dad told Christopher – “that’s your Mama calling!” and he immediately started saying “NO! I want to stay at Geegee’s house!” Umm… hello, he’d been there since Saturday evening! I told him he could stay at Granny’s but that I just wanted to tell him hi and I missed him. He talked to me (grudgingly) for just a minute and then hung up the phone, thankful that I wasn’t there to pick him up and take him home. (Thanks kiddo… I love you too!)  But, by the time we headed home on Saturday, he was ready to see me.

Note to self for next cruise: take more pictures.