Cruise 2012
Carnival — Triumph
May 3rd – May 7th, 2012
We had started planning this cruise back in March with our friends Gary and Carol. Connie and I knew a lady that went to St. Jude (where we attended mass) who was a cruise planner. So, we decided to use her for scheduling our cruise. Connie and I met with her in early April to begin planning the cruise. Gary and Carol let us handle all the arrangements. All of us had decided the first week of May would be an enjoyable time to go. Since Gary and Carol had a medical billing, they ran from home they did not feel comfortable taking a whole week off, so we decided on a 5-day cruise. After we worked out all the detail, we got two cabins with balconies close to each other on the same deck. We had a lot of fun planning the cruise and we’re excited about taking it.
Gary had agreed to drive us to Galveston for the cruise. which is about a 5-hour drive. We left our house a little before 6 that morning. It was about a 20–25-minute drive to Gary’s house. I remember so vividly that we were driving down this road and it was very dark when Connie warned me that there was a bicycle in front of me. I am so glad she saw it because I did not. It was dark, the bicycle did not have any lights or reflectors and the guy was dressed in dark clothes. Thank you, Connie, for spotting him.
When we arrived Gary already had their luggage loaded and then he loaded ours and we were ready to head to Galveston a little before 7. We beat most of the traffic rush through downtown Dallas but got caught in a little bit of it. Once we were past downtown Dallas, we started looking for a fast-food place to grab a little bit of breakfast. It was about 8 that morning when we stopped to get a quick bite to eat. Then we were on the road again. The stop was short. One of the things that surprised us was there was a drive-in movie about 45 minutes south of Dallas. I had not seen a drive-in theater in the last 25 years.
The ride to Galveston for our cruise was a great fun time. We were kidding Connie because the thing she seemed to be the most interested in was the prison at Huntsville as she wanted to make sure she was able to see it from the road and she did. The other thing we did, and I do not think any of us will forget it was to tell redneck jokes. It is amazing how many rednecks jokes they are, and I think we made up a few. Most of them were not that funny but we laughed at them anyway. I think once we came home Carol try to document all of them.
We arrive at Galveston by 11:30 and Gary dropped us off with the luggage at the terminal while he went to find a parking place for the car. It did not take him long as we had just barely got our bags checked when he showed up. After getting on the boat, we went straight to the deck where they were serving food and got us some lunch, we had lunch, sat around and talked for a while, and then explored the ship. Our rooms were supposed to be ready by 3 so we went to our rooms. All of our luggage was there but I think Gary and Carol were missing one bag which showed up before dinner. There was only one room between ours and Gary’s and Carol’s. In fact, when we were on the balcony, we could lean a little bit forward and talk to each other.
When they had booked our cruise, we had been scheduled for the late seating for dinner. While Connie unpacked, I went down to see if I could change it to the early seating which I was able to do. I think the early seating was at 5:30. When we got ready to go down to dinner, we found out that Gary and Carol had a plumbing problem in their room. So, they said they would be down shortly. Connie and I were really happy with where our seating for dinner was. It was at the back of the ship, but the remarkable thing was that we had a spectacular view of the ocean and the sunset. It was a magnificent view. Gary and Carol arrived about 15 minutes later and they loved the view also. They always seemed to offer a strange food and Gary always try it. I cannot remember for sure but the first night was either alligator or octopus. Gary thinks it was squid so we will never know for sure, but I am going to stick with the alligator. The other things that Gary told us at dinner was that he had forgotten his bathing suit and had to buy one on the ship and they were expensive on the ship.
I am not sure what we did that night, but I think we went to one of the shows and turn in early as we were all pretty tired.
The next day we were at sea day. We had breakfast with Gray and Carol and then did some more exploring of the ship. Connie also enjoyed sitting out on the balcony.
I remember extraordinarily little about Friday, except that Carol had brought some games along and we found a place on the ship where we could play them.
Early Saturday morning we docked in Cozumel. If I remember Gary and Carol got off the ship early. I had scheduled a massage that morning since most of the people were getting off the ship. My massage was fairly early because afterward, Connie and I got off the boat which was around 11;30. It was an extremely long walk from the ship to all the shops along the shore, but they had bicycles with carts behind them that carried two people. So, Connie and I took one of those. I tip the guy really well because I am not sure it was that easy pulling me as I weighed about 200 lbs. at the time. We visited a lot of the shops and spent a lot of time looking but ended up buying only t-shirts.
We were back on the boat around 2:30 and I was so glad that we got back early, as we looked down from the balcony around 3:30 and could not believe how long the line was of people trying to get back on the boat. Everyone was supposed to be back on board by 4 pm.
Here are some ohotos of our day in Cozumel. Clicking on a picture will open them up for a better view.
It was not long after 4 that we heard the people in the next room, throwing out the f-word like it was going out of style. They were explaining to their friend what had happened to them. Evidently, he had rented a small scooter or motorbike so he and his wife could explore on their own. He had an accident and was taken to the hospital. He was not hurt too bad, and his wife was ok, but they would not let him leave until he paid them $750, (I believe).
The other thing that happened as Carol told us at dinner that night was that she panicked because she could not find Gary. They had gone to the beach where Gary went snorkeling and Carol stayed on the beach to read a book. She would look up and see him every now and then. It was getting close to the time for them to head back to the ship, and she did not see Gary. She had been keeping an eye on him but all of a sudden, she could not see him out there. She got really concerned and ran back to the tour guide for help. It was a distance. They both ran back to the beach and just as they got there Gary was coming out of the water. There was a floating pier out there and Gary had gone behind it. She was genuinely concerned about it, and you could tell she was still upset about it at dinner. At least Gary knew how much he was loved.
That night after dinner, Connie was resting, and I went down to the casino and put two quarters in and won $50. I stopped right there and was on the deck where the fast-food pool and spa were. I was in the spa when I saw a woman coming down some stairs and she fell a few of the steps. She seemed to be ok and appeared to be a little tipsy.
Sunday was another day at sea, where we played a lot of games and had some ice cream swans, which you can see in one of the pictures. Some more pictures from our trip. Clicking on a picture will opeen them up for a better view.
The next day, Gary, Carol, Connie, and I all went up to the food deck and had a bite to eat and just waited for most of the people to get off the boat. A little after 10, the people leaving had slowed down, so we disembarked. Luckily, we all found our luggage fairly quickly and Gary headed off to get the car. I was surprised as it did not take Gary long to get the car and we were on our way home. It was probably around noon or a little before that we stopped at a McDonald’s south of Houston. As we were getting ready to go in this lady came up to Gary and asked him for some money. He said I will buy you something to eat, but she refused that offer. We were on the road again for a couple of hours when we stopped at a Buc-ee’s. That was the first time Connie and I had ever been to one. I think they had about 100 gas pumps there. They advertised themselves as having the cleanest restroom. There must have been over 30 stalls and 30 urinals in the men’s bathroom, and it was extremely clean, they had so much stuff there you could spend hours just looking around.
We did not stay too long as Gary, knew this BBQ place we could stop at for a late lunch or early dinner. We did hit the afternoon traffic coming back through Dallas. As soon as we got on the north side of Dallas, Gary started looking for a gas station as he was running low on gas. It took a little bit longer to get home than it did to go but we were back at Gary and Carol’s place around 6 that evening.
Thanks, Gary and Carol we had a wonderful time.