COZUMEL .. OUR FIRST PORT OF CALL

Today was our first time ashore in Cozumel, Mexico.

I decided to stay on board since we had been there two other times. Frank left the ship mainly to see if he could purchase some nuts to have with our drinks. When he went to the check-out counter and started to pay for them. Two small bags of peanuts were $18.00. He asked, "Do you mean pesos" and they said "No - American dollars", so he quickly returned them to their place on the shelf. Mexico is no longer the bargain it used to be. They did have all the touristy stuff to buy, though, if you were interested. At our stage of life we are getting rid of things, not accumulating more.

You find out quickly when you are on a ship that has ports where the cruise lines control the facilities, things are even pricier than they are on board.
When we were there several years ago, we had our photograph taken with some parrots. If you remember, we used it on one of our Christmas cards.

He looked for the guy with the parrots again but he was long gone. He did see some divers taking a break however, so he took a photo of them. They were not necessarily candidates for Chippendale's.

Not far from there, they were setting up a beach volleyball game. It was not for us, but it should be fun for those who are young and interested in playing.

There were also carretas all over the town to transport you if you didn't want to walk. That would have been about my speed if someone would help me up in the buggy!

I had forgotten that Cozumel is where they make Dos Equis beer. They had water towers all over the place advertising it. Wonder if they were full of beer?

On the way back to the ship Frank took this shot from the ground. You can see from this perspective how big she really was and this is only a small portion of her.

They were washing the ship next to us. These vessels have to have constant care in order for thetm to be maintained in top condition.

Frank came back on board in time for lunch and we decided to go to Johnny Rocket's, which is a hamburger place. It looked a lot like a Denny's Diners on the outside.

It's really a fun place to eat because the wait staff provides the entertainment. At any minute they might break into song and dance. Our waitress had a great voice and all the moves.

They started our meal off with onion rings and fries with ranch dressing to dip them in along with ketchup.

Even the ketchup they served was happy and fun as it came in the form of this familiar face.

We were already full by the time the burgers arrived, but we struggled and ate them anyway. How can you possibly pass up a burger when it is wrapped in paper like they used to serve them at the drive-ins plus were dripping with grease. Delicious!!!

I really enjoyed pigging out since I've been on Weight Watcher's for the past couple of months. It was a real treat!

As you were enjoying your meal, you could make selections from the juke box and listen to your favorite oldies. Just like the good old days.

While we were playing cards after lunch, we noticed that the ship docked next to us had nothing but women on board. When we took a closer look, we realized that the two flags that she was flying were a rainbow and the name Olivia. As it turned out, it was an all Lesbian cruise. What a shock. I had no idea that there were cruise ships that catered to all gay clientele!

We went to the show before dinner. It featured a comedian and vocal impressionist named Jonathan Clark.

He was very good and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. All the entertainment on board this ship has been very good so far.
After the show we went to the dining room where we dined alone tonight. Our table mates were having dinner in Portofino which is a specialty restaurant on board. Our waiters took very good care of us. One was named Robin and the other, our wine steward, called himself Errol Flynn.

Robin was from Mumbai and I'm not sure where Errol was from ... probably not Hollywood!
The meal was delicious. Here are photographs of some of the things we ate. We started with crab cakes, followed by a spinach salad, then tortellini and Osso Bucco for our entree. We finished off the meal with watermelon sorbet and a Lady Finger. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

Tomorrow we will be in Georgetown in the Grand Caymans. I'll report about this in a day or two.
XOXO, Pcasso

TOUR OF OUR SHIP'S EXTERIOR

SEA DAYS ARE FUN

We are now under way and are ready for some much needed rest and relaxation. After we got settled in our suite, we decided to take a stroll down the Promenade and have a little drink. This place is huge. The ship is 14 stories high and this "passage" is as tall as the top floor of the ship. Shops and businesses as well as bars are all along the way.

I have just read on AOL in a special report that women who drink are less likely to gain weight. That's news that I've been awaiting for a very long time!

While we were sitting there a man came up to us and said to Frank, "You're the one I see on the big screen at Cowboy Stadium every time I go to a game". We were amazed that out of 3100 passengers he spotted Frank and came over to talk to us. Here are photos of the ad that he was talking about.

The first Cowboy game we attended in the new stadium, Frank stopped for a bottle of water and they filmed him. They have shown that film clip 3-4 times every game this season. It's so nice to be traveling with a celebrity!
Today is a sea day, so we plan on doing much of nothing. I started out with my favorite breakfast ... Lox, bagels and cream cheese with onions and capers. It was divine!

After breakfast, we played cards. Frank and I have had an on-going Gin game for years and the winner may never be determined. One game it's me, and then the next one he has the advantage. It's so much fun and we are so lucky to be able to enjoy each other's company playing cards. We fuss at each other a lot (we've been nicknamed the Bickersons) but it's all in good fun.

I neglected to mention that I had the use of a wheelchair this trip. I've been having a lot of trouble with my back (I won't go into details now), so it would have been impossible for me to have walked the length of this ship over and over again. If you've ever cruised, you know that the dining facilities are at one end of the ship and the entertainment is at the other, so there is a lot of walking involved. This ship is 1021 feet in length and you travel back and forth at least 3 times a day. I just couldn't do it this time.

This afternoon we attended an ice show on board the ship. It's a really neat little ice rink and when the show isn't on, the guests can skate. Since my family love to be on the ice, I had wished that they could have been there to enjoy this time with us.

I have included two slide shows following this post so you can see for yourself how great the show was. Be sure and scroll down.
After dinner, we went to the main showroom, La Scala, and were entertained by Earl Turner who is a Las Vegas entertainer. He's performed at many major hotel casinos across the country including the Luxor, Caesars Palace, The Showroom at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino, The Showroom at Harrah's in Laughlin, Nevada.

Due to the fact that I was in my wheelchair, I had privileged seating and there was always a reserved seat for me. That made it nice for both of us since Frank was my "care giver". I wouldn't recommend it, but there are a few perks when you're handicapped!

They allowed us to take photographs at all of the shows as long as they were shot without a flash, so I got a few good shots of the entertainment.

Yesterday I promised you a tour of the ship, so it will be easier to put this tour in slide show form as well as the ice show. Tomorrow I will show you the exterior shots that I took.
So far it's been a great day and a great trip. Wonderful weather and calm seas. What more can you ask! We'll be in Cozumel, Mexico tomorrow, so I'll have more to report.
XOXO, Pcasso

A TOUR OF THE SHIP

I decided that the best way to show you the ship tour was to put in a slide show form as well. Enjoy. We certainly did! (If you mouse over the photos you can read the titles of the ones I have labeled)

ICE SHOW AT SEA

FAMILY BIRTHDAY FUN AND SAILING THE BRIGHT BLUE SEAS

Sometimes it's difficult to know where to begin. The last part of February was very cold, very busy and went by very fast. After all of our cold weather, we decided to take a short break and go to the sunny Caribbean for a week.

Several days before we left, we celebrated February birthdays with the family. Both February and October are very busy months for birthdays in our family. We had everyone over to celebrate Dayna, Rachel and Ethan's birthdays.

Boompa grilled wonderful steaks for all of us and we all made pigs of ourselves. He's become a marvelous chef (must take after our son)

After dinner, the birthday trio went to the little red monkey who was hanging from the ceiling fan in the den and got to pick their own $50 bill from the "monkey tree". Money always seems like a pretty safe gift since everyone can then get what they want for themselves. There's no exchanging for the wrong size or color as the color of green always works well.

It's hard for me to realize that Ethan is now 15 years old! Seems like yesterday that he was just taking his first steps. They grow up much too quickly!

The next day we packed and early Sunday morning we headed for Galveston and our cruise ship. The drive was easy and we were there by noon. I couldn't believe that we were able to get everything in these two bags (guess my teenie-weenie polka dot bikini didn't really take up too much space after all ;-)

Our ship was the Voyager of The Seas which was a Royal Caribbean International ship. We will be gone for 7 days and will stop in Cozumel in Mexico, Georgetown in the Grand Caymans and finally Montego Bay in Jamaica.
Since neither of us are water babies anymore, we are really going just to enjoy the ship. And a beautiful ship she was indeed!

The 138,000-ton, 3,114-guest Voyager of the Seas became the world's largest cruise ship when it entered service in November 1999.
She has an ice skating rink, rock climbing wall, a 9 hole miniature golf course, spa, casino, heaven knows how many pools and Jacuzzis and a full sized basketball court, just to name a few of the amenities.

She was the largest ship that we'd ever seen, let alone been on, and she was truly wonderful. I must also add that our accommodations were very nice. We were able to get into our suite as soon as we boarded and the luggage arrived to our quarters within 20 minutes. I couldn't believe how very efficient they were. Here's a quick look at our suite.

As you can see, we had an abundance of drawer space and we didn't need it this time. I would have killed for this much space on our last cruise that lasted a month! It was like having all the comforts of home at sea.

The bath was a little small but we survived. We somehow managed to stay out of each other's way. We had two sinks plus a tub and a shower on the last cruise and that was great.This time we only had a tub with a shower in it, but the water pressure was great. If we'd only had a tub, that would be an entirely different story. We would have had to call for help to get out!

We even had a walk in closet. It was so nice to have enough room to really spread out!

We had a lovely dinner and were blessed to have delightful table mates, Melinda and Jim, from Houston.

Our table was on the third floor of the dining room and we had great waiters as well. We had requested a table of 6 but there was only the two of us which worked out very well.

Since tomorrow will be a sea day, I'll take you on a tour of this beautiful vessel and tell you a few funny things that have happened along the way, so stay tuned.
XOXO, Pcasso