02.03.10

Our Recent Cruise

Posted in General at 3:16 pm by Dale W.

I’ve been waiting for Janet to do this because I did the detailed journal, so what does she say to me? Since you did the journal, this will be easy for you. Okay, here goes and grab your pillow.
On Saturday the 9th, Dixon drove me, Janet and Dale G. to SEA where we met up with Mark and started our adventure. The packing was easy since we now have to pay for checked luggage, so I was limited to one carry-on. Janet checked her large bag, and took some of the space in my bag for her wardrobe. I only needed two shirts, a pair of shorts and some socks. The flight took us to Atlanta, as it is impossible to get to New Orleans unless you fly into the Eastern Time Zone. The flight went well - in fact they gave us all seats in the emergency exit row, so we had lots of leg room.
When we arrived in New Orleans, it was very cold - colder than it was that morning in Seatle. We took a cab to our hotel in the Convention Center area and had a great meal and a good sleep.
We were close enough to the ship that the next day we walked there from the hotel. It was a snap to get on board and by noon we had wedged our way into the Buffet, or as we called it, the “Boo-Fay”. By evening we were steaming along the Mississippi towards warmer destinations.
We spent Monday at sea and we enjoy sea days for relaxation. We all brought reading material and participated in several activities and enjoyed the entertainment. A day at sea for me was, get up at 7:30, go to the gym, eat breakfast, relax, eat mid-morning snack, relax, lunch, relax, mid-afternoon snack, relax, dinner, entertainment, evening snack.
Our first port of call was at Coasta Maya. We booked an afternoon excursion to the Chakchoben ruins.

Dale had never been to a jungle before so this was especially interesting to him. The trip took several hours and was fun. The following day we were in Santo Tomas Guatemala. I’d never been there before and we booked a boat ride from a local vendor and went along the coast into a river inlet and saw a lot of the country side. We had lunch in a place with a Guatemalan family playing drums, singing and dancing. The food was overpriced and under quality, but what do you do when you are in Livingston Guatemala.
Our next port of call was Belize City. Janet and I have been there twice before so we didn’t do too much. The boys took a tour to Altan Ha, a Mayan Ruin, and the liked the place. We continued the next day to Cozumel where Janet and I had been once before so this time Janet and Dale walked around the city while Mark and I did some snorkeling. It was fun as there were only four of us in the water and we had a guide. We saw a couple of barracudas and a sting ray and a very large eagle ray among other things. It was an enjoyable day. After snorkeling we went to the ship for lunch and then back to the city to see if there was any junk we wanted to buy. There wasn’t.

We had another day at sea on the return and enjoyed that. We arrived at New Orleans on Sunday monning and were able to walk to the motel from there and were in our room before 11 a.m. We walked to a WW2 museum nearby and enjoyed that, along with great Cajun food. We also walked around the French Quarter and we came across the Café du Monde and had some of their famous Beignets.

On Monday morning my nephew Nick Speth met us at the hotel. He lives in Baton Rouge and drove down to spend the day with us. We walked our legs off and saw a great deal of the city with Nick and we were ready to call it a vacation. On Tuesday morning we caught a cab to the airport and flew to Cincinnati - again in the Eastern Time zone. Our flight to SEA was very good, in fact we arrived 40 minutes early and our ride (spelled Kurt) arrived about 50 minutes after we arrived. We arrived home safely and loved our adventure.

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