Cruise

Like I said in a previous post, our cruise was awesome. Warren (Kathy’s Dad) and Jean (his girlfriend) arrived at our house on Friday (Oct 15). As soon as he arrived, Warren had to take his Caddy to the dealership and get his power windows fixed. The motor went out on his power windows and he couldn’t roll his window up. His car just went out of warranty six weeks before, he wasn’t happy and I don’t blame him ($$$). Once we got that fixed we took them and showed them our new house.

On Saturday, Oct 16 we got up and drove to my parent’s (Butch & Rose Mary) house and picked them up. We all loaded up and headed for Diamondhead, Mississippi. I had reserved rooms about 45 minutes from New Orleans so the drive on Sunday would be short. The ride was pretty uneventful except for when Rose Mary was singing and Butch said “Rose Mary will you knock it off, you’re singing about two octane's to high!” I thought I was going to wet myself. We made it to Mississippi by about 3:00PM. Kiel called his girlfriend Liz who lived about a half an hour away and we made arrangements to pick her up. We went and picked Liz up and we all went to dinner at the Grand Casino in Bay St. Louis, MS. Kathy and I are not gamblers but the casinos have fantastic buffets. I know going to a huge buffet before you go on a cruise doesn’t make too much sense. We looked at it as a warm up for what was ahead. Any how we ate, lost our obligatory $20 on slots and went home. All except for my mom (Rose Mary), I came back and picked her up later on in the evening after she finished playing slots – she won as usual. Ate a late night ice cream sundae at the Dairy Queen next to the hotel and went to bed.

On Sunday, Oct 17 we began the day by looking for a Wal-Mart to buy anything we realized that we had forgotten. Let’s just say finding a Wal-Mart when you need one isn’t as easy as it sounds. It was a journey in itself but eventually we found one. Headed to New Orleans, found the pier and dropped off the bags. Warren and I parked the cars and made it back to the pier. Took about an hour to check in and get on the boat. By this time it was about noon, so we got on early. This ship, the Carnival Conquest was huge (110,000 tons) and beautiful. We got on in the center atrium which was all done in art. The theme of this ship was art. We’re talking Mannet, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh etc. They kind of blended all the different styles together but it seemed to work. It was about one level below gaudy. Everywhere you look were pieces of art and murals. Of course the first thing we did was go eat (our rooms weren’t going to be ready until 1:00PM). When we finished eating we went to our rooms. Our room was nice and comfortable nothing fancy. Butch & Rose Mary’s cabin had a balcony and it was very nice. We checked the ship out and figured out what we wanted to do. We had early dinner at 5:45PM. We met our waiter and his assistant, Glenn and Natialjia. He was from the Philippines and she was from Estonia. They were awesome and took great care of us the entire cruise. They were by far and away the best wait team we’ve ever had. We got to know them quite well and enjoyed speaking to them whenever we saw them on the ship. I’ll talk more about them in a later post. We set sail about 6:00PM and spent about 4 hours on the Mississippi River before we made into the Gulf of Mexico.

Monday and Tuesday were sea days. These were great and we relaxed and all really did what ever we felt like. Some of went to the pool, some went to ship activities, some of us read. Rose Mary played in a slot tournament at the casino on the ship and won $500. Kiel played in the ship’s version of Family Feud, his team won. One of the questions he was asked was to “Name a famous brother and sister duo?” Kiel brought down the house when he said “Bert and Ernie”. He said “Well, they do sleep in the same bed.” (Kathy and I will sit him down and we’ll have a little talk). Anyhow days at sea are very relaxing and we really enjoy them.

On Wednesday, Oct 20 we arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica at about 8:00AM. We all decided to do the Dunn’s River Falls. It was about a two hour bus ride over to the falls. Jamaica is a British Colony which means they drive on the right hand side of the road. Butch sat in the front of the bus behind our driver, Vincent. I’ve been in many scary taxi rides but nothing compared to this, it was awful. I promise you we almost bought it about a dozen times. It was fun watching Butch wince on all the near misses we had. Now he knows how we feel when we ride with him. We enjoyed the scenery along the way and had a guide to narrate and tell us about Jamaica. We got to Dunn’s River which is near Ocho Rios. The falls are about 600ft up and start at the ocean floor. The goal is to walk from the bottom to the top, it is very steep, slippery and wet. Kathy, Katlin, Kiel and myself did it, we had a blast. When we finished we went back to Montego Bay and shopped before we got back on the ship. I liked Jamaica, however while riding on the bus the shanty's and poverty really got my attention. I didn't realize what a poor country it really, really was.

Thursday was another day at sea as we traveled from Jamaica to Cozumel. We were supposed to go to Grand Cayman but it was closed to cruise ships due to the recent hurricanes. We made it to Cozumel on Friday at about 7:00AM. Cozumel is my favorite; I can’t get over how beautiful the water is. I could swim in it for hours; it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. We rented two jeeps and drove around the island. Kathy and I have been to Cozumel before and knew where we wanted to go. We stopped several places and hung out before moving on to the next spot. It was a lot of fun. Warren won’t soon forget the beach front massage (it was legal) that Butch and Rose Mary bought him on one of our stops. I thought he was going to cry when they told him it was over. With all the stops we made, it took us about six hours to drive around the island. We dropped the jeeps off and some of us went back to the ship to rest. The rest of us caught a cab and went into San Miguel (the city) and went shopping. I bought a couple of cigars and found Corona’s for a buck. I was a happy camper. It was fun but I was exhausted. So much so that the next day, which was another sea day, I was a waste. I had no energy to do nothing. It was major effort just to put one foot in front of another. So I didn’t, I slept. By the way, cruise sleeping is the best. It was so dark in our cabin that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It was great, slept like a baby. Again, we all hung out and enjoyed our last day on the ship before we got off Sunday morning. We had no trouble getting off the ship and were off and on the road by 9:30AM. Security and customs were a joke, they were non-exisistent.

I know I’ve skipped over quite a bit and left a lot out. Let me think of anything else before I close. So prepare for a random stream of thoughts: The food was superb, best we’ve had. Service was exceptional; Glenn and Natalija really went of their way for us. We had two formal nights and we had lots of pictures taken. Rose Mary played bingo and won $250 - her and Katlin didn't miss a game.. She played a lot on the slots, so much so that the casino host sent a bottle of Champagne to our table a dinner! That’s a lot of nickels. Grandpa Butch taught his grandson Kiel how to play Craps in the casino. Whatever happened to taking your grandson fishing? Anyhow, Kiel went up and down before he eventually lost an undisclosed sum of money he couldn’t afford to lose. Ooops, am I sounding like a parent? Katlin found a group of kids his age and hung out with them. The movie ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ was continually on in our cabin drove me crazy. I just don’t get it. We enjoyed the shows and entertainment on board. However, some was stupid and really sucked. We liked the different singers and musicians they had a various spots on the shipped, some were very talented.

All in all it was great cruise a few minor things could have been better but nothing to get too bent out of shape about. I was impressed and very pleased with how everything turned out. I think everyone had a pretty good time and enjoyed themselves. Anyhow, no real problems and everyone got along fine. It was a great time, I highly recommend it. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I can. There are some pretty good ones. Hopefully the ones of the fat Mexican guy in the T back turn out….