January 9, 2020 - Girls Gone Not-So-Wild Weekend on the Wonder - completed

[ukintheus]

Welcome to the tale of another fun adventure in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the Disney Wonder.

This adventure was booked fairly last minute in early December for myself, my Mum and my sister, Maureen. My husband, Scott, was back at work in Saudi Arabia right after Christmas and so it was a perfect, quick 4 night cruise, that we could squeeze in for us girls.

Here's a picture of the three of us about a year ago on the Panama Canal cruise, which was awesome, and Scott came along on that one.



The plan was that Maureen would come down from Tennessee, we would go on the cruise and then she and Mum would go back to TN so that Mum could spend some more time with her. The cruise timing was perfect for us to have a short get away together. So, time to get this trip report rolling as I have been so busy at work that I am behind on getting it started!

Thursday, January 9th - Embarkation Day

Our previous cruise at the end of November had been delayed by fog and so the day started very early for me as post-fog cruise paranoia snuck up on me, and I was checking to see where the Wonder was in the middle of the night. Thankfully I did manage to get to sleep on and off for the rest of the night.



At 6:30 am the Wonder was showing up at the pier in Galveston, so my worrying was all for nothing (of course!)



I sent Mum and Maureen a screen capture from the Galveston cruise cam that our ride had made it.



We all were up and in the kitchen ready for a cup of tea by 8 am. I took our kitty, Charlie, to be boarded at the vet at about 8:30 am. He has to have medication, and he isn’t very nice about it, so he gets to be boarded while the others stay home. Here is a photo of him staring at me that morning trying to telepathically tell me it was time for his breakfast before I got up.



Mum and Maureen had both packed before getting to my house, so there wasn’t much left to do that morning and we were ready to leave early, but we had an hour or so to relax before we left the house at just before 10 am. After the major boarding fiasco from the fog delay on our last cruise, I elected to avoid the initial cruise terminal crush and get down to Galveston an hour or so after the terminal opened. Here is the amount of luggage we considered necessary for three people for four nights.



The traffic down to Galveston was very easy and we didn’t get stopped in anything that was significant enough to make the journey longer than normal. We made it to EZ Cruise parking by 11:45am. I’ve been using EZ Cruise since many other parking lots that serve the cruise industry have dropped Disney since their time in Galveston became so short. They do a good enough job and the shuttles run frequently. We didn’t have to wait long for a shuttle and DCL were the only ship in town. As they reminded everyone about passports, we just HAD to look at my sister, (see last trip report for details on why ) she definitely wasn’t being allowed to forget it.



We were at the terminal a little before noon and there were no lines at all outside. One of our fellow shuttle bus people offered to take this photo of us – turned out to be one of the best ones of the cruise! We definitely missed our photographer (Scott) this time around!



We made it through security very easily, checked in quickly, and we were soon on our way upstairs where they told us it was already open boarding. There was a small line to get to the scanners to get onto the ship as they have the photographers before the scanners. We patiently waited, even though we skipped the photos, as I figured it would be rude to try and push past everyone, but I really wish they had a separate line to make skipping photos a little easier.



We walked onto the ship at about 12:30 pm, and ran into a server we have had in the past, Putra, who was outside Tritons. He told me that Maggie was on our dining rotation, so that was good news! As we had booked this cruise a few weeks ago, I had not been able to get a Palo brunch reservation so we went into Azure where I was easily able to get us in for 10 am the next day. We then headed up to Cabanas and got ourselves a seat in a corner where we could stow our carry-on bags for them not be in the way. Maureen bought us both a drink of the day in the commemorative cup, I think that’s the first time I have ever had one, and definitely the first in the new cup for sure! The drink of the day was a Bay Breeze, and it was pretty good. I have learned not to try and get anything that is “off menu “going out of Galveston.



Time to fill plates and bellies! I had a little bit of this and that. The panko crusted cod is pretty good and they had a stir fry today that looked good too.



Yummy drinks. This isn’t a great photo I got of my sister.



But she obliged by taking a not-great photo of me in return.



A bit of a wonky photograph of flat-as-a-pancake Galveston. Scott would not deem it worthy, but it works for me.



Mum - who rarely looks at her phone (according to her) …hmm…..



We had killed enough time that it was now 1:30 pm so we headed down to deck 6 aft. As we stepped off the elevators we were in a sea of people as they hadn’t opened up the barriers yet to let people into their cabins. Right as we were trying to find a place to stand, they came and took down the tapes and the sea of humanity disappeared quickly.

Mum and Maureen had a veranda this time around, and seeing as I was on my own I had booked an inside cabin with a pretty decent IGT rate. Mum and Maureen were on an onboard booking discount and the prices weren't much higher than opening day prices so I didn't feel like we had done badly for booking closer to the cruise date.





The view from their verandah.



Thankfully the fingernail obstruction in this photo didn't last all cruise.



Checking out everything going on down below.



I went down to check out my cabin. It’s been a while since I’ve been inside but it was perfect for me and I was glad I hadn't spent the extra on a verandah (especially as I could bum a looksee off Mum and Maureen!)







I forgot to post a photo of the new soap and shampoo set up on the last cruise, so here's my token photo now. I like the bigger bottles and I really like having body wash instead of a bar of soap.



My stateroom host was Piedad, who we had a few years ago on the only back-to-back we have done. It was good to see her again - I often wonder if they really recognize repeat cruisers or if they are just trained to act like they do. All of our luggage arrived very quickly and we all set to unpacking to get it over with. After I was finished, I went to join Mum and Maureen in their cabin and we sat outside and watch the luggage being loaded. There were a lot being loaded right at the end, after we were unpacked even, makes me wonder if it’s coming from the hotels?





These are somewhat interesting to me these days because my work has recently involved wind-turbine technology - I wondered where these blades are being shipped in from as I think they are all being made in Europe at the moment.



I popped back to my cabin for something, and obviously decided it was a good time to take a quick photograph of the artwork. I kept trying to think about WWSD? (What would Scott do?)



Piedad had left this reminder that we lost an hour tonight. Boo.



We headed down to muster a little early as we were in Animator’s Palate, so we knew we could sit down while we waited. Score!!

Quick photo while we waited.



It had started to turn chilly, and you could feel it coming up the service stairwell.



Continued in next post.

 

[ukintheus]

Muster went smoothly but we waited until the crowd thinned out after it ended as everyone piling out of Animator’s and meeting up with everyone else coming off deck 4 is nothing short of chaos. We went straight up to deck 9 to the drink station to find something warm to drink, and as soon as we had our drinks we went up to deck 10. By the time we made it up there we were already pushed away from the pier.





We didn’t go to watch the sail away party, but hung out in the back and tried to see if we were going to be shown on the harbor cam. The answer was, no, but here’s a screen capture of us sailing out.



We stayed up on deck 10 for a while. Beautiful gray skies in Galveston.





Not great, but we didn’t have Scott with us this time with the selfie long-arms to help us out so there's just bits some of us - namely Mum who is so short!



We gave up and decided to take a more sensible approach.





We stayed and looked at all the stuff along the channel.





By the time we got to where the ship turns to go out into the main shipping lanes it was too chilly to hang out back there any longer so we decided to go down and grab a snack. I was determined to make sure I had a Shawarma this time around, as I hadn’t got one last time.



Maureen and Mum went to check out Daisy’s, where Maureen had a sandwich and some fruit and Mum decided to skip having anything for now.



Having eaten it was, of course, time to get some rest! We went back to the cabins and chilled out for a little while, I watched Peter Pan and opened my first bottle of wine, and got the notes for my trip report started.



We agreed to go down and try our luck at the Pub Quiz later so we met up at 7 pm and made our way down to Crown & Fin.



Not much going on in the Atrium with first seating already in session.



Walking back to the After Hours area.



We passed Belle who was up to something in Azure but we weren’t sure what. Quick drink before meeting all those kids maybe?



Maureen and I each got a drink and we settled in to wait for the quiz. Mum, grabbed a snack of celery sticks, carrots and tortilla chips as she hadn’t eaten since lunch time. They also have BBQ and hot wings and hot dogs.



Yum!



We did not do well in the Pub Quiz, six out of 25 was our final score. See the inserted sad face next to our lowly 6. But, that said, the two highest scores were 10 out of 25 so all in all I guess it wasn’t that bad after all.



We left about 8 o’clock and decided to have a meander through the gift shop on our way back to Animator’s Palate. There was a 2020 ornament that I almost bought, but decided to save it till tomorrow, as I didn’t want to lug it to the dining room. The line to get into the restaurant was really long so we sat down for a little while in Shutters to wait for it to clear. While we were waiting Goofy walked on by all decked out in his fancy duds.



We finally made it to our table and met our servers for the trip. Our server and assistant server were new to us, but we also saw Maggie (server last cruise), Sasha and Charlie (Panama Canal servers) and Putra (server from a long time ago.) Faisal was our head server and we had met him on the Panama Canal cruise, so he was another familiar face. Of course, everyone wanted to know where Scott was. I did wonder if people would actually recognize me without him!

I ordered a glass of wine and Maureen ordered a cup of coffee. I had the Parma ham, and beef tenderloin. Maureen had the butternut squash soup and the tenderloin and Mum had just a tenderloin. I got photos of my food but we all enjoyed our meals.





The show was cute as ever, and Mickey came to say hello at the end.







We shared a sticky date pudding for dessert but evidently none of us thought to take a photograph of it. We left the dining room at about 9:40 pm and went up to the drink station on deck nine to get some hot water for Mum. We got down to the rooms and found these guys. The rabbit was in Mum & Maureen’s cabin and the penguin was in mine.





Maureen and I decided to go for a quick walk around deck six to try and work off some of the food, and then it was time for bed. I texted with Scott for a short while as he was already up and starting his day in Saudi and I caught up with my trip report. I finally turned out the light at about 11:30 pm. There was a nice rock to the ship tonight and I could feel a little bit of vibration seeing as we were so far back, but was hopeful it would lead to a very good night of sleep.

Coming up: At sea and Palo brunch

 

[bcwife76]

First note!!!
So besides missing your photographer, was it odd to cruise without Scott? Or was it just a tiny bit nice to not have to share the comfortable bed? When was the last time you had an inside cabin and how did you like it? We had an inside on the Magic Oct 2019 and it was our first time having one since our very first cruise back in 2015.....it was...odd. But we slept VERY well. And very LATE most mornings
Can't wait til the next installment!

 

[ukintheus]

First note!!!
So besides missing your photographer, was it odd to cruise without Scott? Or was it just a tiny bit nice to not have to share the comfortable bed? When was the last time you had an inside cabin and how did you like it? We had an inside on the Magic Oct 2019 and it was our first time having one since our very first cruise back in 2015.....it was...odd. But we slept VERY well. And very LATE most mornings
Can't wait til the next installment!

I would definitely prefer to cruise with him but it was nice to have a trip with just my Mum and sister. Both my nephew and Scott were very jealous the day we got on the cruise, they were both texting like crazy and my nephew ended up booking a cruise for the family on DCL going out of Dover in September!

I liked the inside cabin, and, yes, it was super nice and dark. It would be tough to have more than 2 in those standard inside cabins though - they are smaller and with less closet space, but for me it was perfect (and cheaper!) This particular cabin had a LOT of creaking...I'll be talking about that later on - so I ended up having to wear earplugs every night, despite not having anyone in the cabin with me.

 

[Quellman]

Hey look! Everyone had the correct passport/travel/residency cards this time!

 

[ukintheus]

Friday, January 10th - At Sea Day



Despite everything, I woke up fairly early at about 6:30 am. There had been a lot of rocking during the night and so I had woken up off and on and didn’t get the great night of sleep I had been hoping for. I really wanted to sleep late but I guess that wasn’t on the cards, so in the end I ditched any thoughts of that, got up, quickly threw on some clothes and went to the drink station to get coffee. Normally, Scott and I would order room service, but I felt weird ordering for one when the drink station was a couple of minutes away. I was lazy and took the lift though.



I thought it would be daylight already (no veranda and the time change had me all off-kilter) but it was still dark so wandered around to get some photos of an empty ship and to commemorate the occasion of being up that early on vacation!





I settled in outside Cove Café for a while as it was very breezy and it was a good place to tuck out of the wind. The deck crew were already out and about and were attempting to put the cushions on the chairs, but the wind was giving them real issues. Scott and I texted a little as well, he was already finished with work for the day.



It seemed a long time for the sun to come up so I wandered around some more and took more photographs. At least there was a peek of daylight at this point.















I took this through the window of the private dining room in Palo - it came out pretty well.



Looking back, but this is grainy because of the half light but I was trying to catch the moon because it looked really pretty.



Finally!!





The pools were sloshing around pretty good and although there weren’t any white caps, the ship was rocking, which was fun. I got a quick video of it.

The sky was turning a really pretty pink at this point, and I was glad that there was at least something pretty to see after all my waiting.





And eventually, the sun actually came over the horizon. I must admit it was very anti-climatic after waiting all that time but it's not something I can say I've done very often on a cruise. I'm more of a fan of watching it go down with a glass of wine in my hand.











By this time the ship was really beginning to stir and people were moving about and, if you remember, I had basically slung on clothes, run a brush through my hair (maybe not - now I'm thinking I just threw it into a ponytail) and taken off in search of coffee. Meanwhile, I was now windswept on top of that not-so-great look, so it was definitely time to get back to the cabin. I got downstairs and texted Mum and Maureen who were both awake at this point. We used iMessage pretty much exclusively, I really prefer it because of the ability to get real notifications rather than the DCL messaging via the app. Mum was game for a cup of tea so I popped back upstairs to get her one. I made myself take the stairs this time - I pretty much got to the point where I was lazy and rode the elevator up, but walked back down any time I popped up to Deck 9 or 10.



I was actually awake and alert enough to remember to get a photograph of the doors as well! The first one is Mum and Maureen's (in case you can't tell) and the second one is mine.





I said hello to Mum and Maureen briefly as I dropped the tea off, and then came back and hung out in the room for a little while. The Palo reservation reminder had been left in my fish overnight.



We were already almost half way through the Gulf and were out in the deep water. As you can see it's 8:30 am now. Anyone that has any remote idea of my usual mornings on a cruise can't fail to be impressed by the amount I'd done already this morning!



I put on the morning show and was so surprised to see Chris as the assistant cruise director! He has come a long way from his calling Bingo days.



It was time to really get the day rolling and get ready for Palo so I quit messing about at this point and hit the shower.

Continued in next post as I'm at my photo limit (and it's only 9 am - this has to be a record!!)

 

[ukintheus]

Hey look! Everyone had the correct passport/travel/residency cards this time!

OK, it's REALLY funny when people who weren't even on the cruise remember!! I can't wait to send this screenshot to the family. Ha ha.

 

[ukintheus]

I cleaned up and put on a fancy/comfy dress. Comfy is about all I will do these days - I'm done with not comfortable clothes. Here's a quick selfie in the mirror before I headed out the door.



I went down to Mum and Maureen’s cabin to pick them up along the way – a beautiful day was waiting for us outside but first we needed to stuff our faces.



We got up to Palo right at 10 am and I managed to get Scott’s obligatory plate photo before they whisked it away.



Yumminess as usual – everything looked delicious. I'd been up long enough that I was ready to eat. As opposed to when I eat anyway, even when I'm not ready to eat.



Yummy cheeses - I know Scott really missed seeing these.



Pastries and other stuff that I never manage to get around to eating.



Antipasti and the famed strawberry soup, that I admit I don't like at all.



Desserts.







It was fairly rocky and so Mum was struggling a bit with keeping her balance and our server, Claudia, helped her out with the buffet. Everyone was walking like they were drunk, and that pretty much continued all day. It seemed very relaxed up in Palo today though.

I decided to go light on the buffet. In other news, I’ve decided next trip I’m going to ONLY do the buffet. I like to think ahead.....annnnnd...because I always feel like I didn’t get everything that I wanted from the buffet!



Maureen and I got a mimosa each. Ahh….perfect brunch morning.



I got my usual eggs benedict (I think Maureen did too) which is always delicious, and then the chicken parmesan which was delicious, but I couldn't eat all of it as I was stuffed by then. (New plan already in place for next time. )





For dessert I tried the Nutella choux bun, which was OK, but not a winner IMO, but the panacotta is just my favorite thing – I wish I was adventurous enough to be bothered to make it at home. The chocolate strawberries are always good.



Our server, Claudia, is usually a head server in the main dining room, but because they were short of servers in Palo there were several people from the dining room helping out today. Claudia was very good, and very friendly, which is perfect for us! She also got a good photo, so all round great server.



We left Palo at almost 12 o’clock, and went down to the cabins to get out of our comfy/fancy clothes and into something just comfy. I popped down to the gift shop, and while I was there Scott sent me a message. I went out onto deck four and found somewhere to sit for a bit (hey it rhymes! ) while we chatted for a few minutes. I'm going to mention here that I was surprised at how little data it used to do a call on WhatsApp, which is what we use when he is over there. I’m sure a video call would have taken a lot more data, but a 10 minute phone call only used 10 mb. We texted or chatted almost every day and I never even used the free 50 MB you get on the first day.





I came back upstairs and went to visit with Mum and Maureen. We decided to go down to the gift shop again as I wanted to get the Christmas ornament and I hadn't had more than a couple of minutes in there before Scott texted me. I also needed to pick up a spirit shirt for someone from our Facebook group from the November cruise, who had asked me to see if I could find it. I have to admit, I almost forgot about it so I was really relieved when they had it (and that I remembered.)



A quick peek outside as the ship was still rocking pretty good and you can get some good wave action photographs on deck 4 towards the front.



We now decided to go and play sports trivia in Crown and Fin. Yup, sports trivia.





Mum bought us a round of yummy drinks - chocolate martinis for them and a Moet Ice for me - this may or may not have been the reason we decided to go to sports trivia.





We know next to nothing about sports, and it showed! Maureen knows more than me, which means she knows more than nothing! It was still fun though because it was funny to not know any of the answers. Amazingly we did get two out of 25 which was two more than we expected.



After trivia we decided to head back to the cabins and have an hour of putting our feet up. I caught up with my trip report and watched some TV while sipping on my Moet Ice. The caramel corn was from the gift shop earlier.



Still chugging along.



We thought about going to bingo but decided that food was more important, so I popped in to pick them up along the way and took a look outside. It was a gorgeous day.



We decided to see what the quick service places on deck nine had to offer. I asked for a hot dog and one chicken tender, and got this. Of course I ate almost all of it. Ugg... Maureen got a snack of biryani from the Build-A-Bowl station, and Mum got a sandwich and some fruit.



We made our way back to Cove because it was so noisy on the pool deck with everyone enjoying the sunshine. I'll just leave this here...nothing more to be said.



Continued in next post....

 

[ukintheus]

We sat in the sunshine for a little while, but there weren't any loungers available and it was hot in the sun, so we decided to check out the game show The Wheel which was starting at 4 pm, and see what that was all about. It took us back to Crown & Fin.





It was a fun game and there was a big crowd in there so it made it more interesting.



After all that activity, we went back to the cabins for a couple hours to put our feet up. I read my book and took a short, ten minute nap. Tonight was 80's trivia in the Crown & Fin and I had really big shoes to fill trying to keep up with Scott's almost perfect score so I needed all the rest I could get.



I went over to Mum and Maureen‘s cabin at just before 7 pm and caught the very last of the sunset. I don't remember the last time I saw the sun rise AND set on the same day on a cruise.



We went down to Crown & Fin in plenty of time for 80's trivia, which is always well attended. Tonight wasn't an exception - it's very popular. I actually got 46 out of 50, but that's mostly because I can remember quite a few from previous trivia sessions. I was actually surprised that I remembered that many. It wasn’t enough to win - you pretty much have to have a perfect score to win.



I popped up to the cabin to grab something I'd forgotten and Mum and Maureen walked back to Tianas and we met outside. Tiana's is Mum‘s least favorite restaurant because it is so noisy, and I have to admit it is hard to hold a conversation until the band are finished for the night. It is always fun to see everyone having such a good time in there though, so that part of it makes it fun.



Tonight all of us said that we weren't hungry between Palo brunch and eating a snack this afternoon. You sometimes just get to the point where you don't want anything else....and then this happens.



Our "not eating" consisted of Mum and Maureen having the Boudin and the tomato soup, and I had the shrimp and grits and the lobster salad. What's a girl to do?? It's food, it's there, and someone is asking me if "that's all" I want.



Tiana made her way around between the appetizers and the entrees. This was cute of her and Mum.



And I got this GREAT photo of me and Louis.



It was the first time I had had the lobster salad, and it was really good, I would definitely order it again.



Another good one of Mum and Faisal.



Maureen and I joined in with the Mardi Gras parade - we figured it was a good way to get a tiny bit of movement into the day and the servers appreciate it when you attempt to join in, I think.



This is an awful photo of our assistant server, Boola, but I'm putting it in here anyway.



Still trying to make our way around the restaurant - the conga/mardi gras line doesn't move very fast.



This was a new set of performers as the Crawfish Crooners for us - they were good - just had a slightly different vibe. Maybe not as laidback "jazzy" as the performers we had seen before.



Limbo!!



Maureen and I tried the beignets and the gateaux for dessert. The gateaux is my favorite, and evidently we were already forks deep into it before I remembered to take photos. Here's some nice half eaten food photographs to round out the meal.





It was a little before 10 pm when we finished our meal and and we decided we were all wearing our big girl panties and could go and see what was happening in Azure. I know, I know....up to see the sun rise, Palo brunch, two lots of trivia already, a game show and NOW Azure after dinner - we were LITERALLY girls gone wild. Nobody would have believed it if I didn't have the photographs (and the trip report) to prove it. And hold on to your hat, because there is MORE!!!

However, this will not suprise anyone.



We got there in time to play Majority Rules, which was a lot of fun. We had played it in November with Paul and Belinda. Like last time, I was elected to be the one to run up with our answers. Oh, that reminds me. Darell, not Darrell, or Daryl, or Darren (as he liked to tell us each time ) was the club host this cruise.


Unlike last time, and much to our shock, and I’m not sure how they came up with this, but we won! I didn’t think anyone really ever won that game.

Here we are in our triumph.



And here's the most prized DCL key chain that we all won.



We stayed to watch Match Your Mate which was on next.



Mum and Maureen decided to give up and left halfway through as Mum was tired. I stuck it out and watched until the end.



The ship was nice and quiet as I made my way back to the cabin - I had managed to do the entire day from quiet morning to quiet night. I really think that's a first for me and probably won't be repeated any time soon (or ever!).





Another mirror selfie for some reason.



So after I had taken this photo, Couple Number One, "the newlyweds" got into the elevator with me, and then followed me all the way to my cabin. Sure enough they were in the cabin across from me! The husband's answer to the question about "discovering the magic", was that it was in their cabin. And then lo and behold we were all in the same spot at the same time getting into our cabins. I told them I hadn’t heard a thing and the wife was completely embarrassed! Ah, fun times. This guy was patiently waiting for me.



It was fairly late by the time I got myself ready for bed. I sent Scott a quick text to tell him we would talk tomorrow as he had sent me a message that a company he had interviewed with in Houston several months ago, had offered him a job which would have him moving back to Houston permanently. I was looking forward to having cell service the next day to be able to talk to him and see what it was all about. Of course it would work out that something major would happen while I'm not able to have great communication, but it was exciting enough that I was just happy to hear he had been offered the job. It was almost midnight when I finally caught up with my trip report and turned out the light. The ship did not seem to be rocking as badly and the roof didn’t seem to be creaking as much tonight so I went to bed hoping that I would be able to sleep late the next day.

 

[bcwife76]

haha yes that was a FULL day for you! Up before the sunrise!!! NOOOOOOO! But you got some beautiful photos for all your effort

oh my gosh, Chris was our club host last time we were on the Fantasy (Oct 2018), love him!! Glad to see he's moving up in the ranks!

Girlfriend, you and I have the same tastes at Palo. Do not like the strawberry soup (tried it at least 3 times, but nope, not for me), Eggs benny and chicken parm FTW and the finishing off with the panacotta, perfection! But where were your sticky buns?

Well done on the trivia ladies (well, maybe not the sports trivia lol).

Scott received a job offer for permanent placement in Houston??! That is fantastic news!!!

I don't know why it didn't dawn on me before but while you were on the cruise, this was the week we were in Cancun and I have to say, the weather was nice but not HOT. Not sure I'd go back to Mexico that time of year again because the pools were also not heated at our resort and freezing

 

[Quellman]

Love the photos of an empty ship and your Mum with Tiana. You packed way too much into a sea day for me!

 

[ukintheus]

haha yes that was a FULL day for you! Up before the sunrise!!! NOOOOOOO! But you got some beautiful photos for all your effort

oh my gosh, Chris was our club host last time we were on the Fantasy (Oct 2018), love him!! Glad to see he's moving up in the ranks!

Girlfriend, you and I have the same tastes at Palo. Do not like the strawberry soup (tried it at least 3 times, but nope, not for me), Eggs benny and chicken parm FTW and the finishing off with the panacotta, perfection! But where were your sticky buns?

Well done on the trivia ladies (well, maybe not the sports trivia lol).

Scott received a job offer for permanent placement in Houston??! That is fantastic news!!!

I don't know why it didn't dawn on me before but while you were on the cruise, this was the week we were in Cancun and I have to say, the weather was nice but not HOT. Not sure I'd go back to Mexico that time of year again because the pools were also not heated at our resort and freezing

Going back through this today, even I had a hard time believing I packed that much into the day. Craziness!!

The story on Chris was that he was just filling in - I got to chat with him on the last night. He was very nervous about doing it - but he did a great job. I'm sure it's a good omen that they even let you try it.

The strawberry soup in Palo is too sweet for me - and just a wierd texture? It's a hard NO for me. Ha ha. I switch out the chicken parm with other stuff but I'm determined to do more of the buffet next time. (Famous last words)

Yes, Scott got the job offer and he accepted it and is now back home full time. Very glad to be back into a more normal way of life for sure. Of course all that went down while I was on the cruise - typical! LOL He didn't actually get everything straighten out to accept it until the following week though, so I was home before he officially took it.

How was your trip to Cancun apart from being chilly? Honestly, I love the temperature at that time of year but it does make it too chilly to swim either in a pool (not heated) or the sea - both are too cool for me if the air temperature isn't really hot. It's a tough trade off.

 

[ukintheus]

Love the photos of an empty ship and your Mum with Tiana. You packed way too much into a sea day for me!

Thanks! I packed too much into an at sea day for anyone! The photos were the bonus for it though - that part was nice, but, as I said, probably not likely to happen again.

 

[tennesseemo]

Hey look! Everyone had the correct passport/travel/residency cards this time!

Easy now. I get enough schtik from the fam

 

[cruisehopeful]

I'm here following along again.

 

[ukintheus]

I'm here following along again.

Thanks for reading more of my ramblings.

 

[ukintheus]

Saturday, January 11th - Cozumel



Today we didn't really have any plans, other than being lazy. I had not had a good night of sleep, as the cabin was very noisy, and it kept me awake off and on so I was awake again pretty early despite not wanting to be. Here's a video of the creaking in my cabin to make sure everyone understands the pain and suffering I was going through. It was definitely the noisiest cabin I'd been in - but it was still funny really as it sounded like a bunch of pebbles/rocks rolling back and forth across the ceiling. Being English, as usual I am complaining here but said nothing at all at the time. You will have to have the sound on (of course!)

As we were slowed down coming into Cozumel the noise in the cabin stopped, but I decided to get up at about 7:30 am anyway and make a decision on what I was going to do for coffee. I put on the Bridgeview on TV and could see that we were almost to Cozumel. Scott had texted me to see what time I would be able to chat, as we were going to try and chat today while I had cell service. He had been watching us on the Marine app and knew that we were close to Cozumel and close to docking. I had no cell signal in my cabin (I had wifi but no real cell service) so I went down to deck 4 so that we could talk quickly, before he went off to dinner. It was a beautiful day.





After a quick five-minute chat I decided to go and get some coffee for me and a cup of tea for Mum. The drink station was pretty busy and somehow, in my pre-caffeinated state, I managed to think that I was getting hot water and yet press the coffee button with my hand under the coffee spout. I just couldn't believe that I had done something so stupid, and I did a pretty good job of scalding my hand! Ouch! I did finish making the coffee and the tea though. I dropped the tea off with Mum and went back to my cabin to run cold water over my hand, although really I could’ve done with putting cold water over it sooner. I went back to Mum and Maureen‘s cabin to watch us sail into Cozumel, or to at least finish tying up, as by that time we were pretty much there. At about 9:15 am I decided to pop down to the medical center and see if they had anything for burns as my hand was pretty sore. I didn't realize they opened at 9:30 am, so I just hung around for 15 minutes outside the door.



The nurse was helpful and gave me a disposable ice pack and some burn gel. They really do a good job of taking care of you and I wasn't charged anything for the supplies they gave me. Nice little scald on my hand...ugg...what a dummy!!



I went back upstairs to Mum and Maureen's cabin and put the gel on, but the ice pack was definitely the way to go. Maureen scrounged up a ziplock bag for me and at about 10 o’clock we decided to go to Cabanas for breakfast. I just used ice out of the ice machine in Cabanas in the ziplock for an ice pack and it worked great. Cabanas was fairly busy with everyone getting ready for their excursions so we took our time and had a lazy breakfast. I got an eggs benedict, grilled tomato and some baked beans.



After we had eaten we decided to go and grab our stuff from the cabin and head up to Cove to have a relaxing morning. By the time we got there, most of the chairs on deck nine that were in the shade were already taken, so we went up to deck 10 and got some loungers together under one of the shade structures. Those things are awesome when you are looking for a spot to sit and deck 9 is full. The Norwegian Gem was next to us.



Ahh...let the relaxation begin.



Or the people watching, whatever you want to call it.



We figured out a little while later than we were beginning to get more sun than we wanted as evidently we weren't good at figuring out which way the sun moved, so we decided to switch to the other side and it was much better over there, plus there was a really nice breeze.





We hung around up there for a little while and either read our books or people watched. At about 11 o’clock I went down to get a drink and found AJohn from Jamaica at the bar. He showed me some pictures of his new son, and the rest of the family including his wife, Christine, who is on maternity leave from the Wonder. We caught up in general with what life had thrown at them since the last time we had seen them on board. I love hearing all about the crew and the life they lead. I eventually made it back with our drinks much to Maureen's relief! Maureen got a Pina Colada/Raspberry combo and I got an Aperol spritz.



Even though none of us were really hungry we decided to go to Cabanas "just to see" what they had to snack on. Today they had Mexican food, and we all found a little something to fill the gap from not having eaten for 2 hours. I don't see anything from the Mexico section on my plate though now I'm looking at it - ha ha!



Food, sun, a drink, and a not-so-great night of sleep meant that it was now definitely nap-o'clock! But we wandered past the ice cream again, so......



My platinum gift of Prosecco was waiting for me when I got back to the cabin. I ended up taking it home so Scott and I could enjoy it once he got back. I'd packed 2 bottles of wine for me, which was plenty in addition to all the other drinks we had.



I laid down to read but fell asleep pretty quickly and I think I slept for at least an hour, I was really tired. And, of course, while the ship was docked in Cozumel my room wasn’t creaking! By the time I woke up my hand was looking and feeling quite a bit better. Power nap for the win!



At about 4 o’clock I went over to Mum and Maureen‘s room and we sat out on the veranda to wait for sail away.



The pilot boat waiting for us.



All aboard was at 4:45 pm and we pushed away from the pier at pretty much 5 o’clock on the dot.



The Norwegian Gem was right ahead of us in pulling out and getting underway. We followed her pretty much most of the evening too.



Cozumel is such a fun place, but staying on the ship is nice and relaxing too - maybe next time we'll get off - maybe.





We sat for quite a while and watched Cozumel disappear in to the distance.



You could make out the Norwegian Gem but she'd got a move on and really got going so she was quite a bit ahead of us.



I left and went back to my cabin to get showered and ready to go out for our evening adventures. We decided to go and play Bingo which started at 7:15 pm and tonight was Pirate Night so there were plenty of pirates out and about to watch along the way. We passed by Goofy in his costume on our way through the atrium.

[

Scott and I played bingo on the ship once, several years ago, so I had forgotten quite a bit about how it was played. We got one machine and some cards between us. I made Maureen play the cards though. The machines are almost fool-proof to use which is much more my style.



And here's the correct spelling of Derrell, which I completely messed up in my earlier post. I guess all his directions on how to say his name worked, but not how to spell it!!



Ah, here's a much better picture of the bingo machine - it was just.....missing something first time around, don't you think?



We didn't win a thing, but it was fairly entertaining and Mum and Maureen had never played before. I must admit it's not something I would want to do often, but it was fun enough and it passed a bit of time on an evening where there was no trivia to use as an excuse to drink.

Coming up: Pirate night!

 

[ukintheus]

We finished with bingo none the richer, and got out of there a little after 8:15 pm. We took a slow walk back to Tiana's for dinner. As tonight was pirate night and not a night with a show in Tiana's, the band weren't playing so it was much easier to hear ourselves talk. I think the menu on pirate night is pretty good these days and it's a fun evening with everyone dressing up. Well, not everyone. We don't.

We all had the lamb shank for our entrees and Maureen got the samosa and I got the crab cake.



I was regretting the decision on the crab cake when our server, Alvin, walked by with an extra Samosa he was looking to rehome. Perfect timing! The samosa was delicious - better than the crab cake IMO.



These salt and pepper grinders were on the table tonight. I hadn't noticed them before and I asked Alvin if they were new, and he said yes. The looked new as they didn't have any signs of wear and tear on them (yet!)



The lamb shank is just so good. We all really enjoyed it but it's a big portion size.



We passed on desert tonight and left our servers to get cleaned up as some of them had to go and work at the buffet for the pirate party. All of them invited us to go up see what the buffet had on it, but it's always way too soon after dinner for me to be attempting to stuff anything else in my belly! It was just gone 9:30 pm when I got to my cabin and found this pirate waiting for me.



Piedad had left the tip envelopes for me. Sigh, the 4 day cruises are so short and sweet. I grabbed a glass of wine and went down to join Mum and Maureen on their veranda to wait for the firework show.



We had quite a long wait seeing as we were done with dinner so early, but the fireworks went off right at 10:30 pm, and we had an excellent view. It was great to watch them without all the hubbub of being up on decks 9 and 10.









We were all tired and ready for bed by the time the fireworks were over. I left Mum and Maureen and went straight to bed, and although I did read for a while, I had turned out the light by 11 pm. My fingers were crossed for a good night of sleep tonight! *creak**creak*

Coming up: At sea day

 

[bcwife76]

Wow, that does seem quite noisy! We've been in creaky rooms before, but it hasn't really kept us awake (and I'm a fairly light sleeper). Ugh, note to self not to book that cabin!
ouch, your poor hand!!! Glad it was getting better later on in the day and didn't seem to blister?

Pirate night.... meh, we're kind of over it now Edge will do a flash mob so we watched our oldest do that on one cruise last year, then scarpered and found somewhere quieter to watch the fireworks. You ladies had the perfect view!

 

[bcwife76]

Oh I realized you asked how Cancun was. It wasn't our first trip but it was our first stay at that particular resort (Now Sapphire), about 20+ minutes from the airport. It was NOT our favourite and I wouldn't return. We love the AMResorts brand (Secrets, Now, Dreams, Breathless) and have been staying with that brand exclusively since about 2014 when we go to all inclusives but this particular resort was disappointing (looooong waits for dinner, cold pools, kids club NOT as good as other ones we have been to before, we upgraded to preferred and it was so NOT worth it at this resort). But heck, it was a good deal and it was a week away after the busy holiday season and it wasn't SNOWING like it was at home so really, it was still nice to get away.