Vacation!!!

I wrote a little about the cruise and how it came about, two weeks ago. I thought I’d share a bit about our cruise with you today.

We got on board long before we pulled out of port. We couldn’t get in our rooms right away, so off to the Lido deck to eat some lunch and wait. We hit the buffet and then checked on our rooms. Tony, our room steward, had them ready and our bags arrived moments later.

Since we’d driven all night, we were in need of naps; some more than others. Of course there was the mandatory safety orientation first. Then up to Lido deck to watch as we pulled out of Port Galveston, which Mike got a picture of.

Sean snapped this one. You can see how windy it was. I, of course, loved it because I’m so warm natured. (From bottom to top: Tiffany, Mike, me, Lauren, and Brian)

Then off for that nap. We then changed and went down for dinner. We were not so early we had to stand in line for the anytime seating in the fine dining room and thus we were seated near the rear and had an all Filipino wait staff team. Mary Grace, Ronnie, and Wilfredo were very attentive and kind, so we asked to be seated in their section for the remainder of the cruise.

We started our trip with three days at sea. If you have never done a Carnival cruise before, here is a tip: even though the seminars about port shopping and diamonds and such are boring if you don’t intend to do mega shopping, still go to those seminars because you will get coupons good for charms and a charm bracelet that you get by going to the jewelry stores and showing them the coupon. Also, take any papers you are handed because it may get you more free jewelry.

I’ll have to add a picture of our completed charm bracelet later this weekend sometime because I don’t have time to take a picture of it right now and mine is not yet put together and I don’t know where Tiffany’s is hiding at the moment.

When we came into port at Mahogany Bay, there was a somewhat long walk, uphill from the boat. Along the way a gal was handing out flyers to get a free necklace at effy (her store). When we got there, they were out of necklaces but gave us earrings. They are small little studs but they are real gems and they were free. AND they told us to visit their store in Cozumel and they’d give us the necklace.

Another reason to attend the shopping seminars is because they raffle away some items. Sean won one raffle. Pretty cool!!!!

We learned something else about sea days; they have fine dining open for breakfast/brunch. It was our third sea day and Brian and Lauren suggested we give it a try. OMG! It was wonderful! I have always wanted to try eggs benedict but never had the opportunity and the hollandaise sauce always seemed a bit tricky for me to attempt making something I might not like. So since it was on the fine dining menu, I gave it a try and I loved it! Well, I loved it on ham but would not even try it on salmon, as that just seemed a bit yukky to me.

This was also the day that Lauren and I decided we wanted to find out what the daily puzzle was. We sure wish we’d have done it earlier. We thought we’d missed it the other days but found out on day 3 that they just put the puzzle sheet in an acrylic stand at the one cafe near the casino. We made sure to go by and get them the rest of the cruise.

It’s not that big of a deal but it was fun. There is a crossword puzzle, a sudoku puzzle, and a kryptic, which is kind of like a rebus, if you’re familiar with those. The answers are on the flip side of the page. It’s only a half sheet of paper but it is fun.

We picked it up and headed to the Lido deck to hang out. It was way to windy to play the miniature golf and they even had the serenity deck closed part of that day.