Cruise 2010

Okay - here it is! The long awaited, very long, cruise posting!!

3 years ago, Brandon and I went on our first cruise (together). We had both cruised as kids (me on Disney when it was the Big Red Boat and Brandon also on Big Red Boat and a Hawaiian island cruise). Our first cruise together was FANTASTIC. So I decided that 3 years later, we'd do another cruise.

The timing actually worked out PERFECTLY. We were scheduled to depart on March 28th. Brandon had a ROUGH month (both work and school) and I was really fed up with the girls and life in general. So, needless to say, the idea of having a week with no contact with anyone was heaven sent for us!

Mom and Dad drove us down to the port (Galveston). We got there around 1030 (when we took this picture from our van).


We got out and kissed the girls goodbye. Jordan says, "I go on airplane too." We had to explain to her that it was a BOAT and that Mommy and Daddy were going without them. The girls both looked like they were about to start crying so we left quickly. I called my mom while we were in line to check in and she said that NEITHER of them cried (whoo-hoo!) and they were on their way to Bass Pro to go see the Easter Bunny.

We had to wait a little while in line but overall, it wasn't bad. We were on the boat and taking this picture just a little bit before noon. This is the atrium that our room overlooked. Our ship, Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, has a 5 story high promenade inside the ship. It's kind of like a street but inside. It's where all of the shops are (as well as a cafe). Our room is probably on top of the rooms right behind us, just out of the picture frame. The cool thing about these rooms is that even though you pay for an interior (and it is an interior room), you have a window so it doesn't really feel like an interior (even though the window still looks inside, not out).

Since we were onboard at noon but our room wasn't going to be ready until 1 or 2, we decided to go wander the ship.
Our room was ready at 1. Here it is:

After we got in our room, Brandon needed a nap. He's been working his tail off between work, school and the kids. So he slept while I explored. I found the mini-golf course, in-line skate track, a cool bar, the cool golf bar and the back of the ship's view. It overlooked Galveston. I went and got Brandon up and we got some wine and headed back there. While most people were at the front of the ship when we took off, we were at the back, watching dolphins. It was pretty cool!

The muster drill was later that afternoon. Then we wandered the ship again and checked out the shops, etc. Next was a YUMMY dinner. When we got to our table, we were SHOCKEd. Guess how many seats? That's right - 2. We requested a 6 person table but were actually pleasantly surprised to have the 2 top. During dinner, we noticed that there was a HUGE group from Monterrey, Mexico in our section. They kept going over and talking to a 2 top table not too far away from us. After the third or fourth trip, I asked one of the guys if they were traveling wiht them. They were. So we called our waiter over and thoroughly confused our waiter by asking to switch tables. They called the head waiter over and the couple agreed (although they were kind of worried we'd change our mind since it was a small round versus the bigger square we had). It was nice to make someone happy! After dinner was the welcome aboard show - pretty funny! Our cruise director was Mike S. (He had a horribly long Polish last name). He was VERY funny. We didn't stay up for the parade in the promenade and since our room overlooked the atrium, not the actual promenade, we weren't bothered by noise or lights.

Oh, just a note - don't get an adjoining room. That night, we were woken at 4:30 to the VERY loud guys screaming in Spanish at each other, just coming in from their evening. I was NOT happy. Luckily, it only happened one other time and it wasn't as late.

Day 2 - Monday

So the first day we can sleep in and what time do we get up? 8. Granted, that is still sleeping in for us, but still, it would have been nice to wake up and have it be noon!

We checked out the buffet for breakfast and headed over to trivia. I went down to the ice rink to get our tickets to the ice show. Then it was time for Jeopardy!!

We put our names in the hat to be contestants on Jeopardy and lo and behold, we both got picked. I was on the girl team (2 girls), Brandon was on the co-ed (1 girl, 1 guy) and there was a guy team (2 guys) that were worthless. It ended up being Brandon vs me and was a lot of fun.

After Jeopardy, we decided to go lose some money in the casino. Brandon made friends with a bartender who told us about this GREAT deal. If you buy a $25 coupon book from guest services (with coupons for the different ports) you get buy one, get one free on the drink of the days. Score!!!

We went to the Port Shopping talk (to get some more coupons for free stuff), ate lunch in the buffet, and went up to the art auction preview (to get free champagne). Then, it was time for a nap!

Up next, wine tasting! This was something we really enjoyed on our other cruise and even though it was set up a little differently on Royal Caribbean, we really had fun here too. We made friends with another couple who didn't like red wine, so the wife gave her portions to Brandon! We made friends with one of the servers and so we ended up with seconds on champagne AND some champagne cork "earrings." :)

Then it was time to head down to the ice rink. The ice show was really cool. They also had a headliner Vegas performer who did hula hoops on skates. She was AWESOME.

We finally found SUSHI! Whoohoo! The waiter for this area (and his boss) knew us by the end of the 2nd day up here. We liked the view from this area while we ate our sushi before getting ready for dinner. (On Monday, we even saw a turtle out the window....well, I did. Brandon doesn't believe me!)

Monday was the first formal night.

Apparently, a lot of the waiters have tricks. We saw this one waiter who could balance a wine glass (full of wine) on his head while he danced around. Our waiter did this: (Brandon took about 10 pictures of it from all different angles so he could recreate it. Nerd.)

In the background of this picture, off to the upper left side, you can kind of see our old table.

We had plans to head to the late night comedy show after dinner but after a HUGE, rich dinner and some wine, we went to bed instead!

Day 3 - Wednesday: COZUMEL!!

We got room service for breakfast, since we wanted to be off the boat early. Wonderful! (I think all we do on cruises is eat and drink!)

It is hard to put into pictures just how beautiful Cozumel was. The water was the clearest, most beautiful blue I've ever seen.

When we got off the ship, we had a little while until our excursion left. The port at Cozumel had a shopping area so we wandered around a bit. This was the water tower at Senor Frogs or Carlos N Charlies or one of those places. We scoped out the shops for vanilla (my mom's one request) and souveniers for the girls. We figured we'd have time after our excursion (which we did).

On our excursion boat - arriving at Passion Island

The island was really neat. It was GORGEOUS. It was a little windy and the water was kind of choppy, so they didn't have any of the free water sport stuff they were supposed to have (kayaks, trampolines, etc). We didn't mind but there were quite a few college spring breakers that I'm sure were a little disappointed. Our ship was the first of a few ships to arrive so for a while, we had the beach almost to ourselves. There was a "restaurant" (open air building with a kitchen) where they had chicken, fish, chips/salsa/guacamole, fruit, etc and a bar with margaritas, beer and other fun drinks. (That was all included). Apparently there was also a cash bar on the beach that had daquiris and stuff but we were fine with the free drinks!

We got our tour guide to take our picture (ignore my hair....SUPER windy!)

In addition to the restaurant building, they also had bathrooms, some shops for souvenir vendors (where we bought a handpainted conch shell) and my favorite - THE MASSAGE HUT. Brandon and I both got massages on the beach. Massages are so much more fun when you have REAL ocean sounds in the background instead of that taped crap! ;)

Here's the restaurant

When I was walking back from the bathrooms, I noticed a crowd behind the souvenir buildings. Apparently this female iguana

And this male iguana were "communicating"

Bye-bye Passion Island!

When we got back to our ship, another ship had docked right next to us. It was a Holland American ship (and was quite a bit smaller). It was weird to get to watch people on another boat!

Since we were back on ship so early, we headed up to another trivia (Phobia Trivia). We were the only ones there. SO we got to chat with the cruise director staff person who was hosting it. (I thought he was fun, Brandon did not).

Then we had some snacks. And margaritas (drink of the day). That translated into a 3 hour nap. Oops. We missed a trivia and didn't make it to the dining room for dinner. BUT we did go to the Country Name that Tune (which was harder than it sounds!)

That night was a production show (okay) and the Love & Marriage game show (kind of like the Newlywed game but they pick a newlywed, a couple that's been married for 25ish years and the couple that's been married the longest from the audience). The couple that had been married the longest were from Mississippi and they were HILARIOUS.

Day 4 - Grand Cayman

There isn't a dock in Grand Cayman so you have to take a tender. That's a smaller boat that you get on and ride to shore. The wait wasn't too bad. I think we were on one of the first tenders to leave the ship. We wanted to have time to shop and wander around before it was time to meet our excursion.

We went into the Harley store to try to find a present for Mike and Mary. They had some great women's stuff - none in Mary's size. They had some really cool shirts for men but they were all weird colors. Or the cool design was on the front and back design was weird. Sorry, Mike and Mary, we tried!!

Brandon saw this hanging from the sports memorabilia store and had to take a picture. Do you think they crossed out Marshall and wrote Tebow? :)

Grand Cayman was neat because all of the shops recommended by the ship were close to the port. So we were able to get all the "free" stuff that the shopping people talked about. It was a little bit of a disaster waiting for our excursion (just VERY disorganized and late).

When we were finally in our bus, we drove around Grand Cayman a bit. We got to see some INCREDIBLE houses.

Our first shop was Pedro St. James - the birthplace of democracy in Grand Cayman. It's a really old house and has some great history.

Plus, we saw a lizard. Or anul. Or something like that.

Our next stop was the Queen Mary Botanical Gardens - home to the Blue Iguana. Blue iguanas live ONLY on Grand Cayman. So this was the main reason Brandon wanted to go on this tour.

We saw a snake.

And a palm tree that was knocked over by a hurricane but kept on growing up.

And a tiny lizard, anul, thing. See it? It's green and it on the right side of the tree on the left.

And lots of really cool flowers. But sadly, no blue iguanas. It was kind of cool and overcast, so the iguanas were not out. Brandon was a little bummed. But as our bus started to leave, we screamed, "STOP!" and almost made the bus driver crash. He backed the bus up and parked us right next to this guy:

Here's where our excursion started to go downhill. Apparently, the numbers given to the tour company of how many people registered for certain excursions was a little off. Our excursion was only supposed to go to 2 places - Pedro St James and the Botanical Garden. It was then supposed to drop us off back at the pier with plenty of time to shop (and try conch fritters). However, one of the other excursions that did the first 2 stops ours did PLUS the stingray encounter (that Grand Cayman is known for) overbooked. So we had 2 of those people on our tour. So we had to drive them out to the sting ray place, not get out, and then drive back. Adding a bunch of boring drive time to our already delayed excursion. True, we did get to see 7 mile beach and learn some more history about the island AND got to see a random police roadblock. But by this point, our guide was getting on our nerves and we just wanted to leave.

FINALLY, we got back to the pier and rushed to Margaritaville.

This is the view from our table at Margaritaville. We had our free margarita, a Cayman beer and conch fritters. Yum-O!

We headed back to the ship and went to the sports bar to hang out. Then it was time for the Family Feud game show, followed by dinner. Again, great intentions of seeing the comedian/magician, but sleep set in first!

Day 5 - Jamaica

Jamaica was also a little crazy and disorganized when we were waiting for our excursion. Our guide handled it really well (even though we had some CRABBY and mean people with us). We headed out on what we THOUGHT was going to be a 90 minute drive. It was a LOT longer. Up a mountain. Through a rainforest. In a 3rd world country. On a crappy road. Going 75 miles an hour. (Can you tell I spent most of the ride trying not to puke?!)

When we got to our destination (Appleton Estates) they had rum punch waiting (Brandon had to drink mine).

Our first stop was seeing how they USED to get the juice from the sugar cane.

And the donkey gets the scraps to chew on.

This is the aging house. Before that, we got to see how rum is made. Brandon waited until after the tour guide had done his speech and then while we were walking back to aging house, started asking him all kinds of complicated, engineer questions. The guide LOVED it and he and Brandon were inseperable the rest of the tour!

Tasting the molasses

Then they called for volunteers.....to be the donkey. Brandon (and this girl who was picking on her family) got picked.

Tasting the sugarcane juice

After our tour, we got to taste whatever we wanted of all the rums that they make. We REALLY liked the rum cream liquer and the coconut rum (so we bought some to take home). And we got a Jamaican BBQ lunch (with more free rum punch since some stuff had gotten messed up).

The drive back was not as bad (even though it was raining for a good portion of it).

Oh, and Brandon got to see a midget. (I think this was the highlight of his trip!)

We shopped a little at the port and headed back to the ship. We headed up to Sports Trivia. Then we decided to go putt-putt. On a cruise ship! Crazy!!

Then it was time for nightly sushi, followed by a show and dinner. Again, the show was okay but nothing great. Dinner, as always, was FANTASTIC.

After dinner, it was time for another game show - The Quest. We had heard this was a DO NOT MISS thing. Brandon did the can-can. Shirtless.

And his stupid human trick (rolling his stomach). Apparently the comedian that we missed does that too. So the cruise director had them do it together.

The Quest was CRAZY fun. If you go on a Royal Caribbean ship, don't miss it! (And be willing to get a little silly and participate - it's more fun!)

Day 6 - At Sea

We had breakfast at the buffet. I have it written down that we had bad service, but I can't think of what the problem was! Must not have been too bad!!

I think we missed morning trivia and decided to head down to check out the ice skating. Again -0n a cruise ship!? Crazy!

Lunch was a poolside buffet. This was one thing that I liked better on our other cruise. The Carnival ship we were on had a casual buffet eatery on the pool deck. So it was really easy to eat outside. This ship was set up so you could do it but it wasn't as simple.

We stuck around to watch the belly flop contest. I will never again doubt Brandon when he says, "Let's watch the belly flop contest." I ended up having a blast!

Then it was time for the crew vs guest dodgeball tourney. (We just watched). SO stinkin' funny.

We tried to win a free cruise at Bingo (no dice) and headed to Trivia.

Here's a trivia tip for all of you that have made it through this LONG blog. Who was Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1938? If said Hitler, you either listened to Brandon (which I didn't) or you're just smarter than I am. And you got it right.

After Trivia, we got dressed for formal night, headed back down to Finish that Lyric and wen tto dinner. After dinner, it was another show called the Liar's Club. We got there a little early, so we got to see the end of the Headliner's show - The Texas Tenors (anyone remember them from America's Got Talent?) They were REALLY good.

Liar's Club was HILARIOUS (and I recommend it if you have a chance to see it). When we finally got back to our room, this was waiting:

Day 7 - At Sea

We did morning trivia (because that's how we roll!). And We deaded to teh "So You Think You Can Cook" demo. It ended up being a cake decorating thing where they called up a man from the audience (weird, Brandon got picked!) and then taught him how to decorate a cake while they talked about all the food, cooking, etc on the ship.

Brandon did really well. He decorated a Black Forest cake (one of my FAVES!)

Then we went to the art auction. Where we ended up buying art! (Brandon LOVED this piece and had been looking at this one and the artist's other pieces around the ship)

Brandon headed to another trivia while I finished up at the auction. Then it was time for the Farewell Trivia, where we made friends with these 2 guys. One had been a flight attendant for TWA and knew some of my mom's old friends. Small world.

We went to the Farewell show (which was great) and paid for our art (ouch).

At dinner, we were presented with Brandon's cake and they sang us the "Happy Anniversary" song. Cute!! Since we were at a table of 2 and the cake was HUGE, we ended up sending pieces to friends we had made that were near us in the dining room. The women had seen the cake thing on the ship's TV so they were happy and waved. The men were confused as to why this couple was sending them cake.

We watched some NCAA basketball with friends we had made and said our goodbyes to them (or so we thought).

Sunday

When we woke up on Sunday, we weren't moving. "Wow, awesome!" we thought. We were wrong. We were still a couple hours out from Galveston and stuck in FOG. We were supposed to get off the ship at 930-945. We picked this time because we knew mom was going to church at 7 (since it was Easter Sunday) and they'd have to drive down. We'd have to get our bags and clear customs. SO we thought the timing would work out. It did not. Mom broke her foot and ended up going to an urgent care place. We ended up hanging out with some friends we had made. Luckily, the cruise line handled it REALLY well. They opened up lunch for us (was supposed to be for the new people) and then opened up movies and games for the kids. They let internet access be free so that people could change their flights. We FINALLY got off the ship at 515ish. Then we had to get our bags and clear customs. And then drive home.

But we had a great surprise when we got home - chicken and dumplings!! Yum-o! I've decided my mom is the best house guest EVER. I came home and all the girls' laundry had been done, the Easter bunny left candy, and I had TONS of wonderful homemade food in the fridge. Mom and Dad, you're welcome back any time!

I think we gave my Dad the cruise bug though because now they're talking about cruising next year (out of Galveston so we can drive THEM down there). :)

All things considered, it was a great vacation. We have realized that we're "cruise people." We do all the chintzy things the cruise line wants you to do. And we spend a lot of money on drinks of the day. And we have fun.

Till next time!!