The Boat: Carnival Conquest
When: December 20th thru the 27th
Who: Grams, Aunt Barbara, Auntie, Melanie, Dad, Billy and I
The Itinerary: 20th – Leave from Galveston
21st and 22nd - Fun Days at Sea
23rd – Jamaica
24th – Grand Cayman
25th – Cozumel
The cruise was scheduled to leave on December 20th at 4pm. Billy, Dad and I decided to drive to Galveston and meet the rest of the family there. Friday the 18th I had a Christmas party to cater therefore not much time to pack. The catering went well thanks to help from Ness, Auntie and Kev. Unfortunatley I had to leave town at three so Auntie and Kev had to clean up for me. I was so excited to get Billy to sea level I didn’t seem to feel bad like normal but honestly couldn’t have done it without them. I went home at 2:30. Packed as quickly as possible, packed the car, went to the bank, took Ness home and headed to pick up dad. Needless to say we were running a bit late. The three of us got in the car, got gas and were finally headed south about 5:30. We drove till about midnight and made it to the south east side of Amarillo, TX. We stayed at a dumpy hotel just to get a little shut eye.
On the 19th we woke up and hit the road about 8am. Dad played on his computer most of the time. He got his business finances entered for the year and got caught up on all his emails. It was weird having internet in the car but it kept Dad and I entertained while Billy drove. Outside of Dallas we called an old family friend who lives in Houston and asked if he would meet us for dinner. I called and made reservations at the Rainforest Cafe (one of my favorites). We decided to play it safe and make the reservations for 7pm giving us time to check in to the hotel and settle in before running to dinner. The plan was not so great after we spent 2 extra hours in Houston traffic. So we had to rush to check in, drop our stuff and run to barely make the reservations.
It was great to see Phil though. He doesn’t seem to love Houston but maybe we could see him more after we move closer. Everyone seemed to love the Rainforest Cafe just as much as I did except… Melanie. If you have ever been to the Cafe you would know there are robot rainforest animals. Snakes, Apes, Elephants, etc… The lightning storm started and the animals started to move and Melanie freaked. She refused to eat with us and went to sit in the bar where it was “safe” from the jungle. Hmmm, wonder what robot monkey attacked her when she was a kid? Anyways, dinner went great and I was thrilled to be in Galveston. I LOVE Galveston. The next morning we all woke and met at the free breakfast bar at the hotel. We chatted for a while since there was no rush, we didn’t need to be at the boat till noon. I had a Texas shaped belgain waffle, yumm and fun! Billy and I decided to break from the fam and walk on the beach and grab some real estate brochures. The brochures were useless but the beach was beautiful, the gulf waters were very calm.
We walked back to the hotel and asked the fam if we could go to the dock early to check in early. Everyone was game so we drove the 3 miles to park and then walked two blocks with everyones luggage. Good thing Billy could breathe there because he had most of our luggage, plus some of my Grams and Aunties. We made it slowly to the terminal and through the first hall, up a few ramp, through another hall, security checks where we all strip down any metal and then put ourselves back together. Putting seven people back together takes a few minutes but we all gather our stuff and head to the tickets booth. We get our passports checked and were given our lifelines for the week. A blue credit card looking thing that had our identity so the boat knows when we get off and back on and the only way to purchase anything on the boat. We were then instructed to go sit on the floor. This was odd because we were supposed to be able to walk on the boat and settle in before embarking on our cruise. Everyone was antsy, sitting on a hard floor with Grams was frustrating. There were lots of chairs but we weren’t allowed to go there. Soon the entire terminal, even the lines people were sitting with their luggage. Then a few Carnival employees started passing out apology letters. From whispers around the terminal, “this has never happend before.” Of course not! What had happend was the ship came in late and the previous cruise folks were still on board which is why we couldn’t get on. Makes sense, bummer, but its vacation, it will be ok. We finally went through another hall, got a snap shot of our group and headed to the boat. Because things were not going as planned the crew instructed us to go to one place “The Lido Deck, floor 9″ which is where the buffet is. We were supposed to be served luch but it ended up being almost dinner time. Getting seven people and all there luggage in a buffet line is a bit stressful. Billy and I stayed with the luggage so others could eat, we were going to wait for dinner in the Renoir Dining Room. Once everyone was back to their seats we took our luggage to the main deck on level two. Our room was 2268 and it was ready. It was so nice to unload all of our luggage, six hours of baggage was quite enough.
Billy and I told everyone we would meet them at Dinner at 6pm, there was a map of the boat when we first got on, it was our friend that first night. After we were settled in we made sure our cameras were charged, took a few pictures then went walking around the boat checking things out before dinner.
This is what we found when we first walked in: Billy said “Look, they left us a Vagina”
Right before we were heading to dinner the intercom told us we had to do safety drills at our Muster station. We headed to our Muster station D to meet out Lifeboat. Apparently our life boat will float with 150 people and/or completley filled with water. I would prefer mine not be filled with water if I had to use it but if telling people it will float even filled with water comforts someone then more power to them. After the thousands of people managed to leave the one deck we then headed to dinner. We didn’t see any of the fam and they told us the dining room fills up fast and we can’t sit unless the whole fam is there. So we sat down by ourselves and they held a small table next to us for the fam. We watched the door and no fam… Dinner took us 2 hours, it was a really long and slow dinner and a bit stressful since I didn’t know where my fam was. We both had a steak and some weird macaroni stuff.
After dinner we headed back outside to see us moving further from Galveston. After we got too chilled to be outside we headed inside for the Welcome show. It had dancers sorta like in Vegas just not as grand. We decided to make it an early night and hit the sack around 11 since it was a long day and I didn’t know what else to do.
The 21st and 22nd were “fun days at sea”. I put this in quotes because that is what the crew called them. They were the days you are stuck on the boat with not much to do. We thought we would go to the adult deck and sun bath up top. After breakfast we went to the back of the boat and pretty much got blown away. Because we were going cruising we brought swim suits and shorts, we did not dress appropriate for the weather. It was very nice to get away though, Billy could breathe and there was unlimited food anytime of day. We stuck to the basic breakfast and dinner with the fam and snacks around lunch time. We did learn to bring butter from the lunch buffett to take to dinner. The dinner butter tasted like fish.
Grams liked to flirt with the waiters at dinner. It was pretty cute.
Even though we didn’t always know what to do on the fun days at sea we did enjoy the sceneries, the photographers, the hot tubs and relaxing. Because Billy could breathe, I could sleep. It was hard to get to sleep because the constant rocking but once I was there it was good and long sleep. We were both enjoying that.
My first drink, I think it was only $12, the very reason I only had 3 drinks the whole trip.
After the photographers made us twist into akward positions we went outside to mock the situation in our own windy photos.
Fun Day at Sea #1 did have a lobster dinner which I enjoyed. Food excites me.
At dinner dad kept having to borrow Auntie’s flower reading glasses which was pretty funny.
The towel buddies.
Heading to the casino to fill up some “fun day at sea” time.
Hot tub fun after my swim suit broke, walking back to the room after it was hanging to my knees.
I will work on getting the really great days posted soon. River day, Dolphin day and Ruins day still to come.
This is not a great system. We frequently walk around with millions of wrinkles in our clothes. So tomorrow I will fold and hang everything. If it is wrinkly I will rewash it and hang it up right out of the dryer like normal people. After the clothes room is done I plan to vacuum the abundance of dust bunnies that are spread throughout our house. Since it will be Sunday I will probably stop there. If I have any energy I hope to tackle the kitchen but lets not get to ambitious.
