When Ship Happens

Thanksgiving Cruise - Part II

So here goes Part 2 of our Thanksgiving cruise.  We always get Your Time Dining and eat early.  Thanksgiving night was no exception so the ship was really just getting under way as we were finishing up dinner.  We noticed the water rocking in the glasses a little more than usual, but a huge cold front had been rolling through Texas so we didn't think much of it.  Once we got back to our room we realized it was pouring rain.  We tried to go out onto the balcony and the wind was blowing like crazy.  We were on Deck 10 and there was standing water on the floor of our balcony.  I was going to post a video I took, but I can't get it to load right so I will post it on my Facebook page for your added viewing pleasure.  :)

That night we were woken up by constant banging in the cabin.  The closet doors were opening and slamming shut.  The movement in the cabin was CRAZY!  Mark got up and shoved shoes under the closet doors to keep them shut and we were literally rolling in the bed it was so bad.  I had just drifted back off to sleep when I heard something crash.  I thought "Holy crap", this is insane.  I didn't get up to investigate because I was already asleep again.  When it's time for me to sleep, there really is no stopping it.  I fell asleep at a Blackjack table once.  I think Mark stayed awake all night.  The next morning my Kindle was no where to be found.  I finally found it on the floor midway under the bed.  Thankfully that was the only thing that took a tumble. 

Friday was a our first Sea Day and I really expected things to settle down... Boy was I wrong.  Trenton and I headed to a late breakfast and found the Lido deck all tied down.  It was probably around 9am.  Pools and slides were closed. If you look closely in the picture below you can see a guy holding on to the railing trying to get down the stairs.  The chair hogs certainly didn't make it out on deck this morning.

As the day went on... less and less people were around.  We basically had the whole ship to ourselves.  There was zero line at dinner... as there were hardly any guests at dinner.  Every public bathroom had someone tossing cookies in it, every elevator had someone getting on with armloads of Sprite, and word on the street was the medical deck had run out of sea sickness medicine.

I really feel sorry for the first time cruisers.  This was the worst movement we have ever encountered!  On elegant night I was trying to get dressed and use the full length mirror.... I am so very thankful no one else was in the cabin.  I was trying to put my heels on, but I kept falling over.  I held onto the closets and finally got my shoes on, but as I was trying to view the finished product in the mirror, the ship shifted causing the closet door shut on me and I completely fell into the closet! I got tangled in my other dresses and my legs were kicking out of the closet while I was trying to get myself up.  Then my shoes fell off and I had to start the whole process over again.  I contemplated just wearing my house shoes to dinner, but it was elegant night and the shoes I brought to wear were extremely cute.  I finally got my shoes back on and decided to hell with the mirror, how I looked was how I was going to look!  LOL

Thankfully my little family survived just fine on Non Drowsy Dramamine.  Mark and T just had 1 pill each and both were good to go.  After dinner Mark and I headed to the casino, grabbed a chair and just held on to the tables.  I ended up passing out my excess Dramamine to some of the bar staff in the casino.  Thankfully the next morning as we were nearing Cozumel the seas calmed and people started coming back to life. 

I had not planned any excursion for this trip.  We only had one port which was Cozumel and this was our 7th time there.  After breaking my shoulder in August A) I am left with very limited movement of my left arm and B) Mark vowed to bring me back in 1 piece or it was pretty much understood I would never be approved for another vacation ever again.

So... we originally were going to scuba dive, but that was out.  Mark also vetoed snorkeling.  I have trouble doing that anyway and swimming with only one arm probably would have just had me out there going in circles.  Ziplining was a no go (I can't reach the line with my arm to hold on).  I suggested renting those little ATV things ... Mark said "Hell no".  So basically I was approved to go to a beach somewhere and sit.

During the shoulder breaking time, T's passport also expired.  By the time I was well enough to go renew it, we were about to cruise and I was afraid his birth certificate would not come back in time so we just decided to cruise without a passport for him this time.  As a result, I did not want to go off on our own and risk something happening so I was perusing through the Carnival excursions.

I came across La Casa En La Playa.  $129 per person. There were less than 30 people on this excursion so it was wonderful.  We were taken to a private beach house on the South side of the island.  It is actually owned by a person (not a corporation).  The beach was private.  We had our own personal chef who cooked for us.  If you wanted to go in the kitchen and cook with him you could.  Some people might love this... I don't cook when I am at home, so I certainly wasn't going to do it on vacation! Several people did this and raved about it.  The food was AMAZING!  I had a stuffed poblano pepper, Trenton had fajitas and Mark and Mom got some kind of grilled fish.  There was an abundance of homemade guacamole and pico de gallo.  We also had our own personal bartender who brought us drinks no matter where we were.  They even made special non alcoholic drinks for T. The house had restrooms and showers.  There were plenty of beach loungers, sunbeds, and hammocks to lay in.  There was also a photographer and massage people there.  Total time was almost 5 hours and it was 5 hours of Paradise!  Well worth the money.  It was certainly a nice, relaxing day.

 

The rest of the cruise was pretty un-eventful.  The weather in Cozumel was wonderful.  Sunny and probably in the 90's with a pleasant breeze blowing.  It was not rocky on our way back home and people began to venture out of their cabins and enjoy the cruise.  We did not do a lot of activities as this cruise was mainly for rest and relaxation!  We got plenty of that.  We did play in the casino some and came away with a Casino Bounce Back free cruise offer.... Love those!

I will end with a picture of us on Thanksgiving night that I forgot to include in the first part of the blog.... I'll let you decide which one is Mark :)

Thanksgiving Cruise - Part I

Have you ever had one of those Thanksgiving gatherings that just kind of got out of hand?  Like you are sitting there munching on olives, trying to watch the football game, and you suddenly realize… you don’t know any of these people. Yeah, that happened to us. I think the inviting got a little out of hand. Next thing you know… I can’t even find my husband. Strange, elderly people are coming in with coolers of beer... (it wasn't that kind of party).  You get up for 1 second and completely loose your seat.  So after I made the rounds through the house a couple of times in search of Mark... found my mom and clarified she didn't know half the people either, I sent Mark a text to say "Where are you?" His response. "Outside waiting for my Uber ride." …. Really?

So if you have ever called an Uber just to escape a family gathering… you should consider cruising over Thanksgiving.

I worked half a day on Wednesday. Plan was to leave at Noon. We pulled out at 11:55 which I thought was a major win! However, Mom listed 10 things she forgot before we were even an hour down the road.... including wet clothes in the washer! Traffic was steady, which we anticipated as it was the day before Thanksgiving. We were nearing Houston. It was 6pm and traffic was ceasing to move so we checked out our Yelp app to have dinner to see if it would disperse a little. We decided on a place called 5.Ate Café in Spring, Texas. It had 5 stars and let me tell you… they deserve every one of them! Fantastic place for gourmet burgers, fresh pizzas cooked in a stone oven… they even have gluten free options. The fun part is they are located in a rock climbing gym! No joke! I have to say though… if you are driving down to Galveston, this little detour is WELL worth it!

 

This was our first cruise since the Port of Galveston started having the enforced, staggered check in times. When we got out of the car the porter met us there and asked to see our boarding passes. They were checking the times out on the street. (I suppose to stop someone from parking early and then having to wait all that time.) It was 10:15 and our check in time we selected was 10:30. We noticed there was a long line forming down the sidewalk and they were not letting anyone in the terminal yet. We had PRIORITY boarding so we walked to the front of the line and showed our paperwork. We were told to continue on inside. There was only a handful of people in the terminal. We walked right up to the check in, through the scanners and then headed upstairs. The Diamond and Platinum check in is no longer in the little room. You go up to the counter, but it is your own line and separate from FTTF. There was only 1 family in front of us so we literally had our cards and were kicked back in the lounge waiting by 10:30. We were on board and in our rooms by 11:15. (I realize our experience is a little different from the majority of cruisers, but I saw several people posting online in our cruise group that check in was a Breeze, and I did not hear anyone complain while on the ship).

My "turkeys" and I were very Thankful for our family and beach time!

Thanksgiving dinner was our first night on the cruise. I had researched in vain prior to this cruise to see if anything was done for the holiday. Everything I read said it was not, however you could get sliced turkey on the lido and that was as close as we would come to a traditional holiday dinner. The Triumph had the American Table dining and that was totally not true.

I think the table presentation was beautiful each night and not having a table cloth didn't spoil my dinner at all!

Here was our special Thanksgiving menu.

Dinner was Amazing!  We ordered the Smoked Duck, Thanksgiving Salad, Tomato Crab and Tuna, Oysters Rockefeller, Slow Roasted Tom Turkey with dressing, sweet potatoes and cranberry relish.... Then had the Double Roasted Pineapple and Pumpkin Pie for dessert! 

 We then rolled ourselves out of the dining room and felt like the stuffed little turkeys we were used to being on Thanksgiving!

Stay tuned for Part II of the Thanksgiving cruise.