Update!

I know I just posted about doing the transatlantic and while we would love to do that, after adding in the cost of going airfare plus the price of extra baggage because let's face it, no one could cruise for two weeks with just one bag, it's a little higher in price than what we really want to spend. So, we have decided that we will do the iternary that is very similar to the one we just did. However in the place of Costa Maya, they have put in belize. So it would be two days at sea, Roatan, Belize and then Cozumel. Then we would take a second week off work to just relax at home. This way it's cheaper too because we can just drive to the port. We will probably book the same week as we did on this last one because the weather was wonderful, although we all know that it could be different next year.

While we are on this cruise we will be booking the alaskan one though so that wont change.

Here is the itenerary for the new one.

23-Jan Galveston, Texas 5:00 PM

24-Jan Cruising

25-Jan Cruising

26-Jan Roatan, Honduras 8:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked

27-Jan Belize City, Belize 8:00 AM 5:00 PM Tendered

28-Jan Cozumel, Mexico 8:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked

29-Jan Cruising

30-Jan Galveston, Texas 7:00 AM


The pricing is already out currently for this itenerary too. We will probably be booking next month or April as we will get our profit sharing then so we could just pay it off at once. Hopefully we are going to look into getting certified for scuba diving either before hand or on the ship. That was something I forgot to mention in my review. They offer the scuba certification on the ship and it's around $200 pp.

Future Cruises in the works

This goes out to everyone in the family no matter which side you are. hehe... We don't have the 2011 pricing just yet as they haven't officially released it, however we believe that instead of doing the new england/canada one we are looking at the Galveston - Spain Transatlantic for next year. This would depart at some point in April from Galveston, TX. It is a 14 day cruise and the end departure is Barcelona, Spain. I will post the itnernary for the 2010 one in a second and hopefully it would be similar to this one. We are then depending on the pricing going to stay and do a cruise for the medit. So three weeks in total. While on this cruise we plan on booking a 2012 Alaskan Inside passage cruise to get the great discounts you usually find for booking a cruise while on a cruise. hehe. They said the 2012 prices should be out in the future so those that might want to do the alaskan cruise I will let you know when the pricing comes out for those. We are not necessarily looking for this to be a family reunion sort of thing, we were just wanting people to know that we were going to do these, and if you want to book too great, if not that's ok as well.

An idea of the iternary for the Transatlantic would be probably something similar to this...





Day Port *** Arrive Depart Activity

18-Apr Galveston, Texas 5:00 PM

19-Apr Cruising

20-Apr Cruising

21-Apr Nassau, Bahamas 7:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked

22-Apr Cruising

23-Apr Cruising

24-Apr Cruising

25-Apr Cruising

26-Apr Cruising

27-Apr Ponta Delgada, Azores 12:00 PM 7:00 PM Docked

28-Apr Cruising

29-Apr Cruising

30-Apr Malaga, Spain 7:00 AM 8:00 PM Docked

01-May Cartagena, Spain 7:00 AM 2:00 PM Docked

02-May Barcelona, Spain 6:00 AM

Then the first medit cruise would be something like this....

Day Port *** Arrive Depart Activity

02-May Barcelona, Spain 7:00 PM

03-May Cruising

04-May Naples, Capri, Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM Docked

05-May Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM Docked

06-May Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM Docked

07-May Villefranche (Nice), France 7:00 AM 7:00 PM Tendered

08-May Provence (Toulon), France 7:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked

09-May Barcelona, Spain 6:00 AM

The pricing right now for the 2010 one for the transatlantic is really good...You can currently get an inside stateroom for only $549 and balconies going for $800

Then for the medit cruise an inside is currently $699 and balconies for about $900

It's just something to think about. However once the 2011 pricing comes out, I believe we will probably be signing up for the transatlantic one. We might not do the one week medit at this time due to money, however if we have the money to do it, we probably will. The further out you book it the better as you can really have your pick of stateroom and be able to pay over time with a monthly payment making it affordable for nearly everyone. =D

Sunday - Disembarkation day

We woke up at 6 which was just in time to see us dock. We got dressed and finished packing up the last few things that we had left out for the morning time, such as toothbrush, etc. We were in express departure group "C" which was set to disembark at 8:30. Around 8:15 we decided to gather up everything and head down to the deck we got off on. We were able to walk down, swiped our sea pass card one last time, and in font of the customs area by 8:30ish. We then made it through that line and headed for the street to find our shuttle for the parking lot. They had one there and we were able to get two spots on it. We made it to their lot by 8:40ish and were on the road by 8:50. One of the best debarkations ever!

We then made it to my parents in Kingwood by 10ish and visited with them for awhile. I got to see my brother whom I hadn't seen since our grandpa's funeral last Feb. So it was nice seeing him. I also got to meet his new girlfriend which was nice. She seems really nice and I can't wait to learn more about her, etc.

That is all for now. More in a minute to come about the future journeys.

~hugs

Saturday - last sea day =(

We woke up around 9ish today. We slept in because we didn't have a lot of plans. I knew I was going to get us packed before we did anything for the most part. That way we could relax for the rest of the day. We made it to the last art auction even though we had said we wouldn't go to another one but there wasn't a lot going on so what the heck. We ended up buying a few more pieces. I think we will be happy with each one we chose. We also had an appt with the future cruise man as well. We prebooked for 2011 so we could qualify for only a $100pp deposit and we will receive a $300 onboard credit for our next cruise as well. We have been debating between two iternaries for next year and the transatlatic in April of 2011 is winning so far. It's about $500 pp less than the New England/Canada one, and it would be from Galveston aboard a ship we are quickly falling in love with. We honestly can not say enough great things about the crew members on this ship. They were friendly and truely seemed to enjoy their jobs. SO MUCH BETTER THAN CARNIVAL!

Back to the cruise....we had dinner in the windjammer tonight as neither of us wanted to get dressed up for dinner in the dining room. We then chilled on the balcony until we were tired and crashed. We knew we would have an early morning. We also had gloomy skies and high winds on the last sea day. They were saying as high as 60 so they had to close off the outside decks for the pool.

Friday - Cozumel day

One of my favorite days of the trip. We got up around 8ish and got ready for our fun relaxing beach day. We had booked Nachi Cocum again as usual and it didn't disappoint. We had 7 ships in port with us at Cozumel and they only allow a max of 100 people in to the beach club so we knew it would not be as crowded as other places. We got to Nach about 9:30 and got one of the best palapas on the beach. We met our waiter for the day and had a yummy fruit drink for myself and Ian had a dos equis. I know I probably just butchered that name. We really spaced our drinks apart as neither of us wanted to get drunk. It was so relaxing. Around 3 we had our waiter call us a taxi and made it back to the pier by 3:15. We took a quick nap and around five woke up. We were in each port from 8am to 6 pm so nice long days in each one.

Thrusday - Costa Maya

We got off the ship to do some shopping. We found all sorts of great deals. The only thing that is bad about this port is the pier is freaking long, and it's usually very windy here. We were having about 50 mph winds on the pier and then when you got into the shopping area at the pier it was about 30ish as we had buildings helping us. It takes foever it feels like to walk against that wind. We had the ice skating show tonight so we went to johnny rockets for dinner for something easy. The ice skating show was fantastic! It was really cool to see them do the tricks and still land them when you feel the ship rocking somewhat due to the choppy seas we had. Not much else to report on here so I will just post some of our pics.

Wed - Roatan,Honduras

Today we finally get to see land again. LOL. We are in beautiful Roatan, Honduras. If we ever get back to this port on a future cruise we will be doing a snorkeling/scuba excursion as its a great spot for this. You will see in the pictures I have. We didn't do a lot today as we had nothing planned. We explored the ship and got some more great pictures with it being less crowded.

Tuesday - 2nd Sea Day

We pretty much did the same thing as the day before. However this was the first of two art auctions we would go to. We headed down at 1 for the art preview. We saw a few pieces we really liked that go with our others we have bought on ships. The same artist Linda LeKnff and of course Ian found the last of the three speed racers that are sold by Park West auctions. We were able to put in a pre-bid and get a nice package deal. What should have cost us around $1900 we got for only $450 total for three pieces. After the art auction we went back to the room to get a nap in as we had reservations for the specialty dining room, Portofino's. It was very good. It was ony an extra $20pp to do this. I had a glass of wine with dinner and Ian had some tea. It is a four course meal. They bring you out all sorts of breads and dipping sauces/items. One was some olive oil obviously but they brought out this big thing of roasted garlic. OMG! That is all I have to say. Ian got this skewer of meat that was delicious. It had lobster tail, scallops, tiger shrimp, and a small thing of salmon that was already plated. I had tiger shrimp with garlic and basil. OMG again!!! Then before they bring you the dessert menu's you get a dessert appetizer, yes you heard that right. It was a three tier'd tray with chocolate covered strawberries on the top, the next level had these delicious small chocolate/wafer cookies, and then the botoom had some other chocolate decadence thing. We chose to do the mini sampler for our dessert. It had a white chocolate creme brulee, coffee/chocolate tiramasu, and a chocolate flourless cake. OMG!!!!YUM!! I have no other words that can possibly describe it. We were both full beyond belief at this point. We then went back to the room as to change as we had an appointment with the auctioneer people to discuss where to send our art to. We ended up getting one of the mysteries they did as well. It is by an artist that I call the Russian KISS dude. hehe... He came to America from Russia and the rock band KISS influenced him with his painting because of their make up they wear. There is more to the story than that but when we get the paintings in we will take a picture of it and explain in more detail.

Monday - 1st Sea Day

We woke up around 8ish and headed up to get some breakfast at the windjammer. It was already busy but it was a little larger than the Conquest's buffet area so it didn't feel crowded. We had gorgeous weather everyday. We only had a little rain shower on the day we left Roatan, but the rain didn't come down until we left. Anyway, back to the first sea day. After breakfast we headed down to the cafe promenade to get some coffee and look over the cruise compass(daily activities) to figure out what we wanted to do today. We decided to go to the port shopping talk to find out where to get some good deals on certain things we knew we would be bringing back for people. After the shop talk, we headed back to cafe promenade for some lunch as they had pizza and sandwich's every day. Ian got a turkey sandwich on foccacia and I got a ham on a croissant. After lunch we headed up to the room and went on the balcony to do some reading. I finished two books while on this cruise. We sat on our balcony a lot and read. It was one of the most relaxing cruises we have done so far. We had some excitement happen on our first sea day. The capt and crew spotted what appeared to be a raft out on the water. So we of course have to stop and render aid. They sent out a rescue boat to check it out. It was about a 14 person life raft and unfortunately had no one on it. So it just makes you wonder what happened to those people. /cry. The capt came over the intercom system and stated that they contacted the manufacturer and were able to find out what ship it belonged to and had relayed the information.

Tonight was the first formal night on the cruise. We decided to get dressed up and head down to the dining room. We chose to do "My time dining" where you don't have a set time or table you eat at. We were put at a table for two close to a wall of windows so it was perfect. We had indicated we were celebrating our anniversary which was the reason for the cruise. At the end of dinner the head waiter along with our waiters, and a few from tables by us, came over and sang "happy anniversary" to us, and made us stand up and kiss. They also brought a piece of cheesecake which was delicious. After dinner we went back to the room and got changed. They were having a smoke free night in the casion so we wanted to go to the casino on this day. I came out ahead about $60 bucks so not too shabby. We then went to the show, which was music from the movies starring the dancers and singers of the ship. It was ok. We were not overly impressed as it seemed they were out of sync. We left the show early and went back to the cabin. We had two messages waiting for us. They were from various crew members, thanking us for choosing to sail with Royal Caribbean for our special occasion. We thought it was pretty special.

Sunday - Embarkation Day

We woke up this morning and looked outside while holding our breath that the fog was gone as predicted. Then we were able to breathe a sigh of relief as it was gorgeous blue skies, and no fog in sight! We got dressed and walked over to IHOP as we were staying at the Hilton. While at breakfast we made the decision that we would go back to the room and try to get a parking spot at the parking lot my parents used last year as we didn't really feel like waiting for the shuttle that we were currenlty booked to take from the hotel. After calling around and talking to my mom, we found out where Lighthouse parking lot was and at 9ish we were on our way to the parking lot. We found it quick and they had openings, phew. We had one of the first spots by the gate. The bus made it over to us and we were on the shuttle in less than 2 minutes. We got to the terminal and were in line at 9:45. They opened the doors at ten and we made it through security, then to the check in line to get our sea pass card. We were sitting in the waiting area by 10:30ish and about five minutes later they opened the doors for us to begin boarding the ship.

Once on board we decided to look at a ship layout to get a handle on the ship. It was relatively light crowds as we were in the first group to board. We first went to the royal promenade and found someone that was selling the beverage packages. We got signed up for a coke pass on ians card. I honestly don't think we will do it anymore in the future. We hardly drank any sodas while on board. We mainly drank water, tea or lemonade which are all included. We of course had coffee too as they had a nice cafe with unlimited coffee set up for 24 hours a day. This became one of our favorite spots on the ship.

After exploring the promenade we made it up to the windjammer for a yummy lunch. When the clock finally rolled around to 1:15ish we decided the rooms were probably open and ready for us to go to. Our luggage was dropped off quickly. I had us unpacked by 2 if I remember right. Might have been closer to 2:30. Then we chilled on the balcony for a bit before it was time to go for the muster drill. Thank god, wearing the life jacket is no longer required. It was fairly painless. While standing out there waiting we saw the conquest head out at 4. Once the capt. dismissed us we ran by the room to get our cameras and headed up to the pool deck for sailaway party.

We decided to hit up Johnny Rockets for dinner this first night. We had a st.louis burger which had bacon, lettuce, and some yummy sauce. Ian got a chocolate malt of course and I had a flavored soda. You get unlimited onion rings and fries. We didn't make it to the show tonight as we were kind of tired. We went to the room after dinner and just relaxed on the balcony.

quick post

I just wanted to post that I haven't forgotten about writing my update. Work has been kind of hectic getting back into. I haven't wanted to get on the computer at home. However I plan on taking time on Monday or tuesday to do my post for each day along with some pictures. I also have a video to finish editing and will probably be sending that out as well. So by Tuesday I should have it all completed, cross the fingers. hehe...

~ Hugs

What a vacation!!!

We had a wonderful time!!! If I were to rate our cruise vacations, this one is ranked number one officially! I just can't say enough of the trip. I plan on being back soon with a day by day recap. However I have been in front of the computer for a long time this afternoon, paying bills and filing for our income tax refund. I'm ofically sick of the computer already. Hehe... But please come back tomorrow as I plan to write a nice review and do pictures to go with that day. That's all for now though. I will leave you with a picture that I like to call "this is how to relax"