Last week was finally time for Fritz and I to catch our cruise we planned about a month ago. We had planned our first vacation together. We figured to go big or go home and booked a Western Caribbean cruise. It is no secret I love cruising and Fritz enjoys it too. Can you believe this was my 20th cruise?? Me either.
So this cruise, we went out of Galveston, TX. We flew out to Houston the night before and drove down to Galveston to stay the night. We were bumped off our original flight and given first class seats "for our inconvenience". We didn't complain at all!! We stayed at the Tremont Hotel which is a beautiful historic hotel close to the cruise port. We were given a beautiful suite with a large living room, bathroom, and huge bedroom. It had floor to ceiling windows that looked out at the Strand. One of the benefits of this hotel is they would park the car for basically free and shuttle us to the cruise terminal and back. Huge relief to us since there aren't many cabs on the island and it was expensive to shuttle from the airport.
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| Getting ready to take off |
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| Galveston....love the ocean |
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| Living room of our suite |
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| Large street arch leading to the Strand....right outside the window |
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| Gorgeous glass ceiling in the hotel lobby |
Our ship was late getting in from the prior cruise so we had a late boarding process and it was frankly a huge nightmare. But once we were onboard, we got a cocktail and got a little rest before our room was ready. Because of the late sailing, we were at dinner at the time we started out to ocean. I like to watch us leave but no luck this time.
Our ship was the Liberty of the Sea from Royal Caribbean. It is a large beautiful ship with an ice rink, surfing pool, large water slide, and promenade which is like a shopping mall inside down the middle. We had a balcony room towards the middle back. It was nice and quite and pretty large for a ship cabin.
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| Onboard cocktail |
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| Port of Galveston |
We had a sea day the very first day. I was supposed to take my Methotrexate shot but completely forgot so we got to spend the day exploring the ship and seeing what fun things we could find to do. That was nice to not have a down day.
The next day, it was a stop in Cozumel. It was also Fritz's birthday. While he was in the shower, I decorated the room with a birthday banner, balloons, and streamers. He was pretty surprised. We decided to book a shore excursion in Cozumel. After much research, we did a Salsa, Salsa, and Margarita day. We made 6 kinds of Salsa, had 3 different types of Margaritas and learned to Salsa dance. It was perfect because it was rather rainy yet hot and we were able to be inside an air conditioned resort. We drank way more than we planned and ended up cutting ourselves off early. We had great fun though and enjoyed the event and sampling our snacks we made.
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| Us with one of the dancing chefs |
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| Our set up |
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| Sign for lightweights......(Me) |
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| Ready to go. |
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| Margarita #1. Pure alcohol with a squeeze of lime. |
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| Roasted veggies for our first salsa |
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We donated to Lela the pig. In leiu of tips, they
accept donations that they use around the country for charity. |
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| Beautiful day....beautiful flags |
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| Ice cream parfait with fruit salsa on top. |
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| Guacamole |
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| Pineapple/Tomato salsa. |
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| Our group. |
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| Mariachi band |
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| Turtle!! |
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| Jungle forest |
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| Love the ocean |
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| Inside the security area. |
That night, I had a birthday cake delivered to Fritz in the dining room. He was very surprised. I didn't get a good photo of it but it was beautiful with strawberries and blueberries on it. It was wrapped in sheets of chocolate.
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| Happy Birthday Fritz! |
The next day, we went to Grand Cayman. I love Grand Cayman and I've been there many times but you have to tender and that is very difficult for me. So we stayed on board. We had a nice nap, played cards, ate lunch in the dining room, and went to a show in the evening. It was a aerobatics show done in the air. Very nice show.
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| "Air" show |
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| Sunshine makes us happy |
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| One of the tender ships |
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Grand Cayman has a pirate ship by the shore.
Marsha and Mom- do you remember this? |
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| A tile mosaic onboard. I really liked it. |
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| Grand Cayman |
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| We went to a 3D movie in the theater. We saw Xmen. |
The 4th day, we were in Jamaica. There is a new port in Falmouth we came into. The reviews said it was safe and clean so we decided to just walk off and check it out. As you might recall, I love Jamaica. It was nice to be back there again.
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| Us with the ship |
We saw a tram tour we could take around the city and decided to jump on that to get a little ride around to see things. It was nice because it took us out of the guarded area and we saw some Jamaican flair. Fritz had heard about the Rastas and wanted to see them. There were quite a few. We also stopped at a beautiful church and the ocean.
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| On the tram |
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| Beautiful Flowers |
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| A "nice Jamaican house" |
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| Jamaican flair |
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| A shop/house |
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| A "very nice" home owned by a weathy person. |
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| The church we stopped to see |
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| A gift shop and house across the street |
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A woman on our tram stopped and sung a song to a
church lady about being a beautiful woman. It was a pretty
special moment. |
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| More beautiful flowers |
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| Rasta Man |
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| Us by the ocean |
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| Gorgeous |
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| More Flair |
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| Jamaican Security |
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| We stopped for burger and margaritas at Margaritaville. |
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| The door to the ladies room. You choose! How funny is that?? |
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| Our boat |
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| Falmouth, Jamaica |
We were sad to leave Jamaica but we had 2 more sea days to enjoy the ship. It was such a large ship, we had more to explore. We went to an ice skating show, enjoyed a speciality dining steak dinner, played cards and bingo. So yeah....basically relaxed!
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| One night, we had Mother Goose waiting for us |
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| Ice Show |
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| Ice show |
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We spent one late night watching Quest. It is an adult scavenger hunt.
It usually ends with men dressed as women. |
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| Theater seats |
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| The big show was Saturday Night Fever. Honestly neither of us really cared for it. |
Before we knew it, it had been a week and it was time to get off the ship. Luckily getting off was easier than getting on. We caught the shuttle back to the hotel to get our car. We were anxious for a big soda and decided to head back to Houston.
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| The ocean from the seawall |
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| Love Galveston |
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The ocean and birds...from McDonalds! Can you believe
they have this perfect real estate on the beach? |
We wanted to stop at the Johnson Space Center to see what it was all about. We looked around a bit and then took a tram tour. We got to see the testing center which was fascinating. I couldn't help but think about Philip's quest for engineering education and how fun it would be to work for NASA.
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| Floating moon man |
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| Long horn cows!! |
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| Deer at the space center |
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| Testing center |
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Orvis. The next space launch. They are working to
develop a plasma fuel and it is taking some time. |
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| Rockets |
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| Mock up Space Shuttle |
We had a good flight home. We had to make a quick goodbye as Fritz had a tight flight connection home to Twin Falls.
We had a great time and got to spend 9 days together. The longest we've had. Traveling with someone is always a challenge and it can be stressful. We enjoyed spending the time together and getting to know more about each other. I'm not sure what our next adventure is. I am looking at next Spring. It is nice to look forward to the next vacation!
