Holiday Cruisemas Part II

Part II:

Tuesday Dec 24, 2019 (Belize)
This was our second port of call. We had a snorkeling excursion booked. Belize is a port where the water is too shallow for large cruise ships to come all the way up to the land so you drop anchor a little way out at sea. We went straight from our cruise ship to a smaller boat that took us to our private island where we did the snorkeling.

It was really hard to get good pics while we were snorkeling. This was my first snorkeling experience. I was amazed by the beautiful coral reef we explored (the second largest reef system in the world). I wish we could have had more time in the water but our "beginner" group had to stick together and the time flew by. When we finished snorkeling we had lunch and then a little beach time. We had chicken and rice. Once again, it was okay, but could have used some more flavor.

When we got back to our cruise boat we still had some time left so we showered quickly then hopped on a tender to take us to Belize City. We just wandered a little and did some shopping.

Wednesday Dec 25, 2019 (Mohagany Bay, Roatan Honduras)
This was our third, and final, port of call - and also Christmas Day!  We decided not to book any excursions for this day. Carnival has it's own free private beach that is just a short walk from the cruise boat so we had a beach day. We were thrilled to learn that the snorkeling off the pier was amazing - even better than in Belieze. We have our our snorkeling gear so we spent a good portion of the day in the water.

The kids got to experience "fish therapy" where the little fish eat the dead skin off your feet. They giggled the whole time and loved this!

This is the little shopping village at the Carnival port. We bought some souvenirs and some Honduran chocolate.



So, a big thing on cruise ships is the towel animals. Each day you find a new towel animal creation on your bed. On Christmas morning we awoke to find towel animals covering all the beach chairs on the lido deck and a giant towel snowman. It was pretty amazing.
                     

Friday Dec 26, 2019 (sea day)

This was our last full day on the ship and we tried to make the most of it. We ate all of our favorite foods and spent more time at the Sports Square. In the evening we attended Lip Sync Battle and Lights, Camera, Action. Haden was selected to go on-stage and competed in a game of memory (with celebrity faces). He doesn't love being on stage but did a great job anyways! 

Saturday Dec 26, 2019 (debarkation day)

All good things must come to and end. It was debarkation day. We were supposed to be out of our state rooms by 8:30 am but while we were still getting dressed the captain came over the speakers with an announcement. There was extreme fog in Galveston and ships weren't allowed to sail. We were anchored a little ways out from the port and would have to wait for the fog to lift. So, we took our time eating breakfast and then headed back to the room to hang out. We received updates every hour and in the end we debarked at around 4 pm. We ended up getting about an extra 6 hours on board. 

Dense fog - there were other boats near us but they weren't visible

The end!  

Overall we had another amazing cruise experience and highly recommend cruising to anyone who asks. It's a great way to visit new countries, try new foods, meet friendly people, and have a great time.

Holiday Cruisemas Part I

Once I started writing this I realize there are so many pictures that I want to share so I'm breaking our vacation down into two parts. Here is part I:

Our family decided to take a holiday cruise again this year. Kye and I asked the kids if they'd like to forego the gifts this holiday and pick a cruise instead. They were on-board from the beginning and each kid spent some time researching and picking cruises that fit within our guidelines. Basically, Kye was willing to drive to either New Orleans or Galveston, TX. Flying wasn't an option due to the price of flights over the holidays.

We narrowed our options down and finally decided on a 7 day western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston. The ports of call included: Cozumel, Belieze, and Roatan.

We booked our excursions, packed our bags (7 pieces of luggage + a few book bags), and took off on a Thursday afternoon after work. We made it just past St. Louis and grabbed a hotel for the night. We were up bright and early on Friday to finish the drive to Galveston. The drive was pretty uneventful but it was fun to watch the temperature slowly climb as we drove South.

We got a hotel on the seawall in Galveston and had a view of the Gulf of Mexico. The kids hopped into the pool for a few minutes to burn off some energy then headed to bed. Saturday morning we woke up excited to begin the cruise, but had to wait until around noon to arrive at the port. We checked out of the hotel and then stopped by a couple of gift shops. We still have time to kill so we stopped at Stewart beach to take some pics and the boys played a game of football.



Saturday Dec 21, 2019
Finally, it was time to head to the Carnival port. We pre-paid to park and then hopped on a shuttle bus that took us to port. The process at the port was quick and easy. We sent our luggage off and made it through security and were on the boat within minutes. It was time for the fun to begin! The boat wasn't scheduled to take off until 4pm so we had a few hours to explore the Carnival Vista. We roamed around exploring the food options and outdoor entertainment options. The kids wanted to play mini-golf right away. Haden also made me do the "hard" ropes course. We made our way to the soft serve ice cream machine for the first of MANY cones!

I don't know the true name of this game, but it's a combo of soccer and billiards.

The first evening, Kye and I attended a Battle of the Sexes show. It has hilarious and Kye volunteered to join the men's team.


Sunday Dec 22, 2019 (sea day)
We had a full day at sea. We spent a lot of time in the Sports Square area - mini golf, ropes, Sky Ride, table tennis, etc. I also snapped a few pics of our rooms because I've had many people ask how big they are. We chose an interior room so no balcony or window. These are some of the smallest rooms available but they fit our needs because we prefer to spend most of our time out exploring and use the room only for sleep. We had two rooms. The bathroom is really small and it was hard to get a good picture of it.

We ended the night by playing Bingo and attending formal dining. James was thrilled that he got to try lobster tail!

Monday Dec 23, 2019 (Cozumel Mexico)
This was our first port of call. We had a sightseeing tour scheduled. We met up with our group and got on our tour bus. Our first stop was a beach. We had about 20 minutes here - not enough time to get in the water - just enough time to snap a few pictures.







Next, we got to visit some Mayan ruins. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and we learned so much about the Mayan history and culture. The kids didn't appreciate the history at this stop but Kye and I found it really interesting.

Our final stop was a Mexican restaurant for an authentic meal. They served chicken tacos. The kids weren't thrilled with the food. It was okay but rather bland and could have used some more spices. After the meal we did a tequila tasting and then a chocolate tasting. I'm not a huge fan of tequila normally but the samples they gave us were delicious. Some were aged for 5 or 10 years and were very smooth tasting. For the chocolate tasting they had us sample crushed cacoa beans - they are very bitter. Then they chose James to make the chocolate using whole beans, honey, and a few other spices. He mashed it all together and then we got to sample that too.

Peanut butter, bananas, and ice fishing!

So, I'll start this post with a highlight from my week - I tried a new peanut butter and it was amazing!  I saw a coupon on Ibotta for this peanut butter and had to visit three different stores before I found it.  It reminds me a lot of a raw cookie dough and I'm loving it on apples for straight from the jar.  James also tried it today and loved it - I guess I'll have to share :)

Another highlight from the week was attending a Scheel's Kids Klub event.  The store has a different kids event scheduled for each month of the year. This months event was "Ice Fishing" and we were excited to see what they'd teach us.  They started by talking about ice safety and showed the kids an auger and other tools that an ice fisherman would use.  They let the kids sit inside the ice hut - that was a big hit. They talked about bait and poles and how they differ from what a summer fisher would use.  The kids got to see an underwater camera and then they named different fish that were on display in the store.  At the end of the event, each kid received a snack (Gatorade to resemble "ice" with a penguin catching a swedish fish).  They also got a calendar to color.  There was also a DNR representative present and she had a table full of stickers, coloring books, fish guides, etc.   She was also explaining the TAKO (take a kid out) initiative.   We're love these kind of events - especially during the winter!

A random question - do Costco's bananas ever ripen?  This week I bought bananas from Costco for the first time ever.  I was a bit hesitant because they were so green, but I had my fingers crossed that they would ripen up.  Well, its been three days and they are still way too green to eat.  I guess you need to buy them about a week before you plan to eat them!

This picture doesn't do them justice - they are still very green!

Two cooking fails this week - roasted broccoli & chocolate dipped strawberries.  So, another Costco purchase was a giant bag of broccoli.  I've seen recipes for roasting it with some olive oil and garlic and it sounded yummy to me.  I read to cook it at 400 degrees for 20min.  My first batch was scorched black after 20 min.  I should have know to check it sooner. My oven always cooks things in less time then a recipe calls for.  I tried again and it was better, but the broccoli didn't get soft enough.  If I'd left it in longer it would have burned too.  I'm not done experimenting with this!

My 2nd fail was melting chocolate.  I tried to melt milk choc chips in the microwave.  Once again, a recipe said to add a bit of butter to give it a smoother texture.  The recipe did say to use a double boiler but I wanted a shortcut and the microwave failed me.  I've never had luck melting chocolate in the microwave- why does it have a melt choc button if it doesn't work?!  I guess I'll just have to eat the strawberries the healthy way (without chocolate!).