Caribbean Cruise 2015

Here are the journal entries from our fabulous cruise that we just took. A HUGE thank-you to my parents and siblings that helped watch the girls. It was so wonderful to be able to get away knowing the girls were in good hands.

Saturday- Left Pasco around 7 am and flew to Houston. Stayed at Fairfield hotel near the airport. Ate dinner at local restaurants that had delicious wheat rolls. Got great sleep!

Sunday- Ate breakfast at the hotel and then took the shuttle back to the airport to catch the cruise shuttle to Galveston. Arrived at our cruise ship around noon and went through the boarding process quickly. Our room wasn't ready till 1:30 so we started exploring the ship. We quickly got distracted by all the food and decided to eat lunch at the Lido market buffet. I consumed 2 ice cream cones in less than 2 hours. Went to our room and started unpacking the luggage that had arrived. One piece ended up with guest services and we didn't get it till close to 5. The bag tag with our room number had fallen off. We continued to explore all of the ship. Once we had all our luggage and met our stewardess Mawlie we changed into our swimsuits and hit up the hot tubs at the back of the ship while watching the sunset. After changing we decided to forego the line for dinner at the Northern Lights restaurant and had our dinner back at the Lido buffet. After dinner we watched a little of the opening show but ended up going to bed early since we still were catching up on the little sleep we got last week.

Monday- G slept in and I went to the gym for a nice long work out (each of our favorite things to do). After breakfast we relaxed till late afternoon on a huge comfy, round lounge chair on the adult only deck. We read our books, soaked in the hot tub, napped and took a few stops to eat more food, go down the water slide and take a quick dip in the pool. The clouds would come and go but we got plenty of great sun. It was a very relaxing day.
After getting that much sun G went to watch a movie in the room and I hit up the gym again to read my book on the stationary bike overlooking the ocean. We relaxed until we got hungry again. It was fancy dress night so we got dressed up and went to dinner at the northern lights restaurant. The food was great - especially the melting chocolate cake! We finished just in time to go watch the the Showtime 70's & 80's dance show. It was entertaining but a few of the songs and costumes weren't our favorite. We changed out of our fancy clothes and decided to do a little dancing ourselves at the Vibe Nightclub.

Tuesday- the usual- G slept in while I went to the gym. After breakfast we went to "our spot" on the adult only deck and enjoyed the sun and reading. Around noon we headed back for the cabin and got ready for our first port - Costa Maya. We docked at 1 pm and headed straight to Diamonds International and Tanzanite International to pick up our free charm bracelets and tanzanite studs. We continued through all the port shops and hopped on a bus for the town of Costa Maya. We got off at the first stop (southern end of town) at a beach called Blue Cay. We spent all afternoon there relaxing on the beach, reading, snorkeling and swimming. Garlan even got a massage and loved every minute of it. The snorkeling was nothing too spectacular but the water was crystal blue and the fish were pretty colors. Around 5 we headed back to the port area and did a little shopping before getting back on the boat. For dinner we went to the Northern Lights Restaurant and met a really nice older couple from Houston. He is a retired pilot and she's a flight attendant for United. They live in Houston and have done at least 25 cruises over the years! They were really fun to talk to and made us want to move to Houston so we can start cruising all the time. Okay not our stage in life but still a fun thought.

Wednesday - today we landed in Cozumel. It's as beautiful as I remember! We got off the ship around 8:30 am and instead of our original plan, getting a taxi and going to Paradise Beach, we ended up renting a double scooter for the day. It was so much fun! Our first stop was a gorgeous (and free) beach called Planacar Reef. We lounged, swam, and snorkeled. We even saw a small sting ray! Once the beach started getting crowded we got back on the scooter and continued to drive around the island, stopping at various beaches and shops. The weather was perfect and the ocean crystal clear. When we got back into downtown we got a little lost and ended up driving up and down the non-touristy areas of town. It was actually kind if nice. We even found a huge grocery store so that I could stock up on vanilla at 1/10th of the price. Happy, exhausted and a little red we got back to our cabin very satisfied with our day in Cozumel. Too tired to do anything after dinner we called it a night early to be ready for Progreso.

Thursday- today we stopped in the city of Progreso. It's a newer cruise port and not quite as touristy as the other 2 stops. The beaches seemed to have nice sand but the water was choppy and seemed murky. We took the shuttle down into town and as we shopped around we decided to sign up with a tour for $20 (much cheaper than what the ship offered). We were first taken by a little boat to cool sink holes in the middle of a huge mangrove forest were we could swim. Then we drove to the salt flats where the locals harvest salt. Next to the flats were huge swampy lakes that had hundreds of flamingos, which were beautiful. Then we headed to the ruins X-Cambo. Originally we had talked about taking a tour to Uxmal ruins but decided we didn't want to be on a bus for 3 hours round trip. We loved these ruins! They weren't as big as Uxmal or Chitzen Itza but they were still good size and fun to explore. After about 45 min there we were taken to a small resort. Most people bought into the all inclusive option but we didn't. We just relaxed by the pool before going back into town and to the ship. Again we retired to bed by 10pm because of the sun wearing us out.

Friday- last day at sea! We spent the day lounging around the deck, eating lots of food, taking naps and then eating more food. It was quite windy so we didn't last long on the upper decks. After dinner we grabbed blankets and watched Big Hero on the big screen. Cute movie. We are excited to see our girls but we were sad to pack our bags. It's been a wonderful vacation!

Saturday- woke up and worked out one last time while G slept in. Got ready and had our last breakfast (and ice cream comes) before disembarking. It was sad to leave but we are excited to see our girls. Garlan's cousin Chris picked us up and we spent the day with him, his wife Sarah and their kids. They took us to a super yummy Tex Mex place called Torchy's Taco for lunch. It was soooooo good! The kids went home to nap and Chris took us driving around to The Med center, a huge area with tons of hospitals and medical buildings and schools. It is where he works and a place I'd love to work. I don't think I realized Houston was such a medical hub. We also walked around Rice University, which has a beautiful campus. After a few more sightseeing drives down cool neighborhoods and parks we headed to the airport. We definitely would love to go to Houston again.
We ended up having an eventful flight. For the last 2 hrs of our flight to Seattle the 84 yr. old in front of us was having substernal pressure, SOB and HTN. I was leaning over the seat helping her and her daughter (a home health nurse) and the stewardesses until we landed. She and her daughter were super sweet and I am hoping everything turned out okay. After seeing her to the paramedics once we landed we found our flight from Seattle to Pasco was canceled. Boo! So they gave us food vouchers and a hotel for the night. Happy Valentine's Day to us! One more night added to our trip away. We were ready to kiss our girls but were so tired it was nice to crawl into bed and have a good night's sleep.

Sunday- Our flight was delayed for about 30 minutes and my checked bag didn't make it till later in the day but we are finally home with our baby girls!