Cruising Part 1

We're back from the cruise!  Adjusting to life on shore is tricky - why isn't my bed made? where are my fresh towels?  where's dinner? I'M making dinner???  I ate it, where are my 3 desserts?

We had a ball on this trip & it lived up to the nearly 5 years we've been planning to go on it.  We had adventures every day, saw new places, met great people, & relaxed better than we have since our honeymoon.  This trip was long, so I'm gonna break it down in a little time line & eventually get through it all.

When leaving Galveston, you're kind of far away from the fun places in the Caribbean, so you have 2 days at sea in order to get to your ports.  But have no fear of doing this, the ship is non-stop fun too (if you want it to be).

Getting on our ship - the Mariner of the Seas.

 We were pretty freaking excited.

 What a view huh? This is looking down on the Royal Promenade & even further below to the art gallery area.  That big art installation is also a working compass, so you could see the boat's direction & turns when you walked by.

 Our *cough cough* "state room." Give me a break, even just calling it a cabin would have been nice enough. It was small but smart - room enough for all your junk, quiet & dark enough for some great sleeping.

 While we waited for our fellow passengers (over-excited us were nearly the first on the ship... we were only beaten by a few dozen elderly couples that raced right to the buffet). These are the adult pools:

 Up on the pool deck just outside the gym (we spent a lot of time there, we even won a free health assessment with a very rock-solid trainer from Sweden - basically we can look like him just by buying his detox package for $900 each & sitting in a bath 3 times a week.  We decided to remain fat.)

 Pool deck!

 Sports deck with mini-golf, sport court, in-line skating, rock wall, etc.

 Oh the dining room... it was amazing! 3 floors with a Sound of Music theme.  The statues on the grand staircase were of Maria & Captain confessing their love & the mural behind them is the children singing goodnight. 

Little old me got to eat in this room every single day.  It sure can make you feel special.

 But the best was that we had amazing dinner companions & the best waitress to ever live, Irene from the Philippines. (More on them later.)

 Seeing our first show!

That night they held a huge parade in the Promenade - the costumes, lights, music were all amazing!

The next morning we decided to upgrade to the royal suite...

 Nah, just kidding. This is the fun of wearing BYU clothes on vacations.  The lady staying in this room was also LDS, and noticed Josh's shirt.  We talked for awhile then she asked us if we'd like to have a tour. Um, YES!  She had a walk in closet, two balconies, a baby grand piano, 2 bathrooms, man it was sweet!

 Our first 2 days were WINDY!  Out on the bow the waves sprayed high & you could lean back into the wind without falling over.

(I also got some USAA shout outs with my shirt - most memorable was the wife of the "ogre" on our boat.)

 The first formal night - we decided not to do pro pics, but trusting elderly strangers to get a good pic wasn't a wise move. Here's the best one we got:

 Our towel dog! Don't worry, this is the last towel animal pic I will display, I just had to do it since I've been looking at everyone else's cliche towel-animal pics for years.

The next day we thought we'd hit up Johnny Rockets - it's a fun place with nostalgic food & entertaining servers.

 But OH what a gut bomb!  We were full forever after that meal!  The menu boasted Tillamook cheese - I couldn't believe my luck - my local, favorite cheese right there in the middle of the ocean! But when my burger came, they couldn't fool me. That was a plastic, American single for sure. I was mortified to be so dupped, but also that so many people would now think of glorious Tillamook cheese as fake crap. So sad.  This sundae helped ease the pain.

 After lunch we did a ship wide video scavenger hunt. We used their flip cameras, so we don't have the footage, but we did lots of silly things - I took a nap on the helipad & got engaged to a worker that was swabbing the deck, I "strangled the dragon" while doing my best Crocodile Hunter imitation, & then Josh was a human statue, crammed himself into a shuffle board closet, & did leap frog over me in a public stairwell.  It was a hoot, but we didn't win. :(

The very first day people told us that we had to see the ice show - it was "the best show."  Josh & I wanted to do a little of everything, so we went to line up for tickets.  We went for our showing, not knowing what to expect, and LOVED it! 

 They made an Ice Under the Big Top Circus, with all of the acts you'd expect for that theme - clowns, romance, a lion tamer, snake charmer & acrobats.  The skaters were amazing (especially since they did it all in a rocking boat). We loved it so much in fact, that we went back a second time in the stand-by line & got even better seats.

The really jaw dropping act was their "Guest Star" a man named Wolfgang from Germany who did all kinds of gymnastics & tricks inside of a circle:

 This isn't him falling, this is him making the circle roll fast around like a quarter that had been rolling on its side.

(On the last night, I ran into him face-to-face on a stairwell... as big a fan as I am, that dude is intimidating... I'm pretty sure my eyes bugged out, my jaw dropped, & I froze till he passed.)

The show that night was:

 The singers & dancers brought paintings to life, covering lots of genres of music. At one part they made a framed pic ripple like water. I don't know how, but it was awesome!

Wow that's a lot & we haven't even gotten anywhere yet!  Next post Honduras!