It was vacation time for our family. Last week we departed on a 5 day cruise out of Galveston on the Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Sea. I think there were around 3,100 passengers and 1,800 crewmembers aboard. We headed down for stops in Costa Maya and Cozumel. The ship got to a top speed of 20 knots as it traveled through waters as shallow as 30 meters and as deep as 3,600 meters (over 2 miles deep)!
We just couldn't resist doing the "King of the World" pose that Jack and Rose did.
We caught some breathtaking sunsets on the deck of the ship!
For most of the trip, the seas were calm, but one night they fastened all the deck chairs and wouldn't let anyone out on deck. The seas got rough and they distributed barf bags. It was very loud that night with the waves hitting the ship.
The water in the Gulf was a beautiful blue color!
We were able to see the beauty of God's creation and yes, I did think of Noah's ark!
Our cabin attendant kept our room clean and fashioned little animals out of towels to keep us entertained.
There was lots to keep us entertained though. We went to see wonderful shows with singers and dancers and ice skaters. We watched karaoke and pianists, reggae and jazz musicians. We took part in trivia contests and logged a number of miles on a walking trail. We went to a gym and worked out and sat in a sauna and steam room. We watched the movie F1 on the pool deck one night. Tricia even took part in a country line dance class on the promenade.
And did we ever eat! We started off eating at Jamie Oliver's restaurant and then ate at the dining room where we got spoiled with 3 course meals on white tablecloth. I can't explain how good the service was. Wow! On the last night, the head chef came out and said that when they left port, they left with 235,000 pounds of food and when they get back, there will be none left!
Here we are at the first port of call:
Costa Maya:
Our next stop was Cozumel:
We had a snorkeling excursion booked, but it was canceled due to strong winds moving in, so we rented a taxi for 3 hours and had him take us to the nicest beaches to go swim.
The water was beautiful and we enjoyed going out, catching waves and body surfing back to the beach.
It was a real nice time, for sure!
I don't know how this became a thing, but passengers bring ducks on the ship and hide them for you to find. We found many, many ducks.
We had left on Monday morning and on Saturday morning, we pulled back into port at Galveston as the sun rose in the eastern sky as we overlooked the scene on the balcony of our cabin.
It's nice to get away, but it's also nice to get home! There's no place like home. (Except at home, we have to actually cook and clean and there's no one to serve us.) Thanks Dad and Mom for taking care of the animals while we were cruising!
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