Reflections of My Travel

the characteristic carnival “whale tail” with mobile in the background
hubby and me
pulling away from the dock
the uss alabama at battleship park on mobile bay
once we were out of the bay, we headed back to the room to drop off our life vests and ended up taking a nap. we woke up shortly before our scheduled dinner time. while waiting to be let into the dining room, we spoke with a nice russian girl from siberia named anastasia. we had dinner with a couple from tx, melody and mark, and a couple from mobile, felicia and larry (honeymooners). we enjoyed talking with the people at our table but it was hard to hear them over the extremely loud, obnoxious, drunk chick the next table over. i think we’ll probably try to change tables for the rest of this cruise because we ran into her four more times tonight after dinner and i just can’t take any more of her mouth. the show tonight was a comedian by the name of john wesley austin who is a very funny man.

towel animal du jour: mommy and baby seal!

this morning we had breakfast in the dining room with a young couple from pensacola who are moving to japan next week. we spent the rest of the morning back in our room relaxing and watching movies. we emerged for a late lunch and a round or two of putt-putt. it was an interesting day for golf since the ship was rocking quite a bit and the wind was blowing fiercely so the balls kept rolling around when we were trying to swing at them. needless to say, i won! (my blog, my version!!!)

heading into a storm
anchors aweigh!
after our cut-throat putt-putt match, we found a couple of lounge chairs by the pool and people-watched a bit. anastasia, the siberian girl from the dining room line last night, sat next to us and we had a great conversation. i am very impressed that she is traveling alone so far from home. she is my age but i would be far too chicken for that. we got so wrapped up in talking to her and comparing cultures that we barely had time to get ready for formal night and ended up being late to the captain’s reception (truly a shame to be late to those). we then stopped at a couple of portrait stations to get some formal pix taken on our way to the dining room where the maître d’ graciously accommodated our request for a new table on the opposite side of the dining room from the loud, obnoxious chick. we are now sitting with an older couple, burrell and linda from tx, and a couple around hubby’s age, suzanne and charles from al. there was good conversation and good food and we couldn’t even hear loud, obnoxious chick. when we left the dining room, we got changed into more comfortable clothes and went to walk around the promenade deck. we ran into anastasia in the disco and danced a bit before heading to the xtreme country show. it was a decent show but not my favorite. although i think hubby enjoyed the skimpy costuming. we finished up the night with the adult comedy show (same guy as last night) which we managed to get front row seats for and it was freakin’ hilarious.

towel animal du jour: elephant!

today was our first stop in cozumel. the engines got very loud and our room started shaking around 07:00. it wasn’t too bad but i’m pretty certain that never happened on the glory (maybe, just maybe, i’ll actually write up a travel log for that cruise someday, although it would probably just be pix because it’s been two years and i don’t remember many details). while i’m at it, i might as well review the holiday a bit. it is a noticeably smaller and older ship than the glory. it is clean and in good repair but there is not as much to do. all in all it doesn’t bother me too much but it is much noisier and the motion is much more exaggerated (really, i never felt any motion on the glory at all but nobody can walk straight on this ship). i’ve seen many people walking around with patches behind their ears and i’m pretty sure someone like my cousin, bro-n-law, or MIL would have a rough time on it. /review

anyhow, the excursion we booked today was more of a beach break deal. it was an all day snorkeling pass at the el cid resort which included all-you-want food and drinks. we laughed a bit because it ended up being right at the end of the pier so we had a view of our ship all day (until we came up from snorkeling one time and realized that our ship had grown and changed it’s name to imagination).

we lounged for a bit when we first got there before finally testing out the waters.

the snorkeling wasn’t the best because the small reef that was there was very bleached. they said that wilma destroyed a lot of their reefs, which is a shame. however, there were patches of nice coral and some colorful fish, anemones, and urchins.

we snorkeled for a bit, got out to rest and enjoy refreshments, and snorkeled some more.

i think we went in about four times and snorkeled for probably an hour or so each time. i took a few dunks in the fresh water pool which was a welcome change from the salt water (i haven’t even tried the pools on the ship because i remember not much caring for the salty pools). all in all, it was a great way to spend the day. after all, this trip is all about relaxing and we got to do plenty of that. the sun and swimming took its toll and we ended up taking a short nap when we got back on the ship – our wake up call being the engines as we were leaving port. our after-dinner entertainment was a juggling show followed by another comedian. the juggler was manuel zuniga who we had seen on the glory two years ago. he’s good at what he does and puts on a funny show. the comedian was tim harkleroad who wasn’t as funny as the other guy. i’m not sure if it was part of his act or what but he just seemed nervous and ill-prepared. tonight was also the night of the big deck party and midnight buffet (at 23:30) which was mexican food. unfortunately, i absolutely stuffed myself at dinner and had no room for midnight mexican (i’m sure my tummy thanks me for that) but we walked around a bit before coming to bed.

towel animal du jour: scorpion!