Daisy wanted a graduation cruise, and since we didn't have our summer vacay planned yet, we did it!
Being our first cruise and we didn't know if everyone would enjoy it, we booked a short cruise out of Galveston. We went down the day before and stayed in a hotel. Just like the old days, we hit the pool.
Here we are, lining up in the parking lot to grab the shuttle to the boat.
Immediately upon entering, they offered me a drink. After acceptance, I learned that they would charge $15 to our tab. 😳
Here is the first view of the ship!
Visions of dispensers with free-flowing ice cream had been a dream of Daisy's. It was fulfilled.
The first day we had lunch with these pink napkins that brought me back to the days of Dad's grease rags.
We had time to explore the ship whilst waiting to launch.
From the bow to the stern we traveled, ending up in the workout room.
Our balconies appeared to be separated, but we learned how to open the wall in-between.
After we got going and our luggage was delivered to our rooms, we went swimming.
We were assigned the same table for every dinner meal. We had a nice view, which I appreciated.
We attended a gaming session, which ended up just being a room with a couple games available to play. You can see who the winner was.
There were gorgeous sunsets on the boat.
Once everyone was settled for the night, I enjoyed the view from my balcony.
Abe was the only one up early enough to catch the sunrise.
We watched them carve this big chuck of ice into an angel fish, but you can't really tell it from my pic.
We also played a family competition. We each had a different task. Daisy and I blindly tossed fish to each other and had to catch it in a net without getting out of our seat.
This was our fancy meal night.
It was also the night that they sang happy birthday to Daisy since it was kind of a graduation/18th birthday cruise.
While Daisy and I were taking pics, the boys played a game of chess.
We can clean up when we want to.
Our excursion day was at Cozumel.
This dude is called Chac Mool. This stone rested at the base of a pyramid. He rested while staring at the sky with a bowl on his belly; he was a messenger of the gods--a bridge between the world of humans and the deities of thunder and rain. The Mayan priests would place offerings of copal, food, and blood into his bowl. Chac Mool would deliver them to the divine realm, in return for rain.
Our ship is behind us.
We had a little time to explore before our first outing.
We were provided life jackets for our snorkel trip. I'm not gonna lie-- it was not a great snorkel trip. The coral was mostly dead, so it was just gray. There weren't many fish there, either. But it was snorkeling, so it wasn't all bad.
Before they fed us lunch on Stingray Beach, we went to the stingray sanctuary. We were in waist-deep water while the stingrays swam around us. We were able to feed them, hold one and kiss it. Yes, they made us kiss it for a (WAY overpriced) photo. But it was fun to interact with it. We also swam with a few nurse sharks. Both the sharks and stingrays were being rehabbed and would be released in the future.
We walked through the port at Cozumel before boarding our ship again.
The boys made a little cave with the shades pulled and the TV on after our excursion. Enough people for them.
Early one morning Abe found a towel creature on every single chair on the main deck.
Daisy and the Pops were finding activities for the afternoon.
More water slides.
There was also this cute minion display.
That was the morning we had a formal breakfast at a different table in the restaurant. I know, I know--we're crazy!
They landed on towel creations.
The boys decided on a game of Risk.
There was a ropes course behind us that we tried. The unobstructed view of the ocean from so high up was cool.
The last supper (on board).
Daisy was the only one who posed for me...
so Abe did too.
Finally got the boys' attention.
We got ducked!
And that's all she wrote!
[June 24-28]
