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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment