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"

OMG....A new post for the new year!

Good morning! It seems like I don't have enough time in a day anymore to do simple things that make me happy. One of my new years resolutions is to change that. I am taking time to do things that make me happy such as reading, working on my scrapbook, etc. I am going to make a Dr. appt for next month and start working on becoming a healthier better me. Ian is too. Speaking of vacation, it's just right around the corner now. So excited. The more reivews I read of the ship and staff the more excited I become. I need to stay away from my favorite cruise site because it makes the time go slower but alas it's great for tips on shows not to miss, or things to avoid so I must sacrifice myself. LOL. When we return from the trip I promise to take the time to write a nice review of everything and post pictures and video that I capture. We are only doing one excursion this trip. We figured we really loved our beach day in Cozumel last year that we are going back again this trip. However in our other two ports we will just jump ship long enough to shop and hopefully find some deals and then we will be back on the ship to really just enjoy it. I want to explore and we have vowed we will take naps in the afternoon so we can stay up late for the late night fun this trip.

We leave on Saturday for Galveston, and then if all goes well, we will board the ship by noonish on Sunday. I'm hoping thats the case so we can explore the ship before it gets more cruisers on board to get some good shots with the camera. Then we will have two sea days, one of which we are going to particpate in a mystery dinner theatre option in the optional resturaunt on board. It's an upcharge but it really sounded interesting and Ian really wants to do this so I figured why not. Then on Wed, we will be in Roatan, Honduras. We get long port days for a change. Each port we visit, we will be there from like 7 am until 6 pm. Most cruises we have been on, it's like 9 am till 4 or 5 pm. So we are really looking forward to this. On Thursday we will be in beautiful Costa Maya, Mexico. It was hit pretty hard back in 07 from a CAT 4 hurricane. The pier was torn in pieces that we had just been on with our first cruise. It was pretty bad as it's just a tiny fishing village, where the people are very friendly. We loved that town on our first cruise so I'm very happy to see they rebounded as quickly as they did. Then on Friday, we will be Cozumel. We plan on jumping ship around 8-9ish and heading for our beach day at Nachi. We plan on relaxing there until about 2ish and then we will head back to the port so we can shop for a while. Or we will reverse this and shop, take the goodies back to the boat and then go to Nachi. Who knows. We are on vacation with really no major plans this time so it will be relaxing all the same. Then on Sunday we will be back in Galveston and have to go through vacation withdrawl. That feeling always sucks. We plan on dropping in to Kingwood to visit my folks and drop off goodies for the family. Then we will either head back that evening after dinner or wait till the morning time. We keep going back and forth on this as we both will be ready to get home to start the unpacking/laundry/grocery shopping, etc. We will see how we feel on Sunday and then make the decision.

I will send both parents our cabin number for the cruise and phone numbers in case an emergency should come up to reach us. Expect that sometime this week.

I guess that covers it all for now. I will post when we get back.

~Hugs

Happy Holidays!

Greetings to all of our blog readers! First we want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Yes, I know that is early but as we are working both holidays and how crazy things have been around here I figured I better do it earlier than later...hehe....

We had our annual chritmas party last night. We had such a blast. They gave away some really nice things to in the raffle. Of course the Faas curse continues and neither of us won anything. We had a great time and that is really what matters. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but lets just say, fun fun fun!

We booked our vacation finally. We are going on another cruise to the caribbean. We set sail on Jan 24th and will be back on Jan 31st. We put in for the saturday prior through the wed after off this time. This way, we can have a shorter work week when we get back because lets face it after you are on vacaion, going back to work is tough! We will be doing the Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas cruise to Roatan, Costa Maya and Cozumel. We plan on snorkeling in Cozumel and will just shop in Roatan and Costa Maya probably. Then again we might choose to do snorkeling in Roatan and shopping in Costa Maya and Cozumel instead. We still need to work those details out.


I think that about sums it up for now.

~Hugs