Honeymoon Cruise – Day 4

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We got up early this morning and headed up to the buffet for breakfast. We got to watch the ship back in to its mooring while we ate, which was really cool. It’s pretty impressive to see how fine a degree of control the captain has over such a large ship. Once we finished eating, we went down to deck 4 and lined up to get off the ship. Disembarking was interesting. They scanned our cruise cards, in effect checking us out, so that they could keep track of who’s on and off the ship. From there we walked up to the Mahogany Bay cruise terminal/shopping center to find our tour guide. We were early, so we wandered around, snickering at the overpriced jewelry and picking up souvenirs.

We returned to our queueing area and met up with our guide, who took us to the mini bus that would be our transportation around the island. Our first stop was the Carambola Botanical Gardens, where we were guided through some rain forest, learning about many of the plants we’ve used, such as allspice, coffee, and cacao. At the end of the tour, we had a light snack of some fresh local fruit. Once back on the bus we went on to Roatan Butterfly Garden. Even though the weather was not cooperating, with some light showers, we weren’t disappointed because they had a number of parrots and other birds there. We actually got to handle a few of them, or more accurately, we got to be perches for a few of them. There weren’t many butterflies to be seen due to the weather though. But it was still really cool. Next up was a stop at the West End village to see a cultural show, put on by some members of one of the local tribes, and some shopping. I picked up a post card for Reese and some cashew wine vinegar. Heather found a nice wooden bowl at one of the stores. We then got back on the bus and headed to our last stop, a cameo factory where we got to watch cameos being made. It was very interesting, and they’re definitely works of art. We then boarded the bus to head back to the port.

My head had been a little wonky yesterday, and was in full on sinus infection meltdown today, so I was really thankful to have a pharmacy and over the counter antibiotics available. Hopefully a course of azithromycin will knock it down. If not, I’ll be seeing the inside of the ship’s medical center soon. Since we had some free time before the ship sailed, we went back on board to drop off our loot, get some lunch, and pick up our passports to get them stamped. When we got back on the ship, they again scanned our cruise cards and then compared our faces to the pictures they took when we boarded. It was nice to see the security in operation. So, with free hands, we went back to the stores, did a little more shopping, got our passports stamped, and then mailed Reese first post card off. On the way back to the ship for the final time, I picked up a liter of The Macallan scotch in the duty free.

We hung out on the promenade and watched the sailaway, then went forward and got some great pictures of the sunset as we were heading out towards Belize. Tonight is going to be another early night because we’ve got to be up before 6:00 AM to get dressed, eat, and meet up in the theater for our excursion by 6:45 AM.

Heather and I at the Carambola Botanical Garden

Heather and I at the Carambola Botanical Garden

I'm bird furniture.

I’m bird furniture.

Hitching a ride on Heather.

Hitching a ride on Heather.

Honeymoon Cruise – Day 3

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Today was another sea day, and the weather has been steadily improving. We did the breakfast buffet again this morning, then I snagged a cup of coffee while we waited for the vegetable carving demonstration to start in the Piazza. It was really interesting to watch, and he worked a lot faster than I thought. From what they said, the ship has two carvers, a junior and a senior, who do all of the fruit carving, ice sculptures, and more.

We did some more exploring and laps around the promenade in before lunch, and then went up to the buffet to have some sushi. After lunch, since the weather was so nice, we grabbed some fruit smoothies and a couple lounge chairs and sat out, enjoying the sun, for a little while. After that, we went down to our cabin and got dressed for dinner.

When we got in to our cabin on Saturday, there was some paperwork waiting for us, including our excursion tickets and a card to present to the head waiter for our honeymoon surprise. We decided to do it tonight, and got a table for two instead of sharing a larger table. After dinner was done, our waiter and a few of his accomplices came out and sang happy anniversary to us, set to the tune of happy birthday. They also brought us a piece of chocolate chocolate cake, which was rich and delicious. Due to the cake, we did a few extra laps around the ship after dinner and then turned in early. We’ll be in Roatan tomorrow and have a shore excursion booked, so we need to be up and moving pretty early.

A friendly passenger took a picture of us at the back of the ship.

A friendly passenger took a picture of us at the back of the ship.

Honeymoon Cruise – Day 2

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After an extremely restful night’s sleep, we got up and got moving. First thing on the agenda was to head up to the buffet for breakfast. I’m a little worried about my waistline, because the food is good, and while portions are small, there is nothing stopping you from going back for more.

With full bellies, we decided to walk off some of that food and do some more exploring. From our cabin, out the exit at the end of the passageway, we came out on the upper promenade, almost completely forward, on deck 8. There were some great views dead ahead, with no obstructions, and since the weather was improving, we decided to stay out for a little while longer. We ended up making a complete circuit of the ship, stopping at the aft section for some wake pictures. There was a little rain ahead of us, but we didn’t see any actual drops while we were out and about. We’ll see what the weather has in store for us during the excursions. Hopefully things stay nice.

While we were walking around, we found out that the ship’s pub lunch was being held today in the Wheelhouse Bar. It’s usually done on one, or maybe two, sea days, and they serve traditional English food such as fish and chips and steak and kidney pie. It’s pretty popular, so we got there a little early just in case and got in on the first group. I had the fish and chips, which were really, really good. Some of the best I’ve had outside of England. Heather had the plowman’s lunch, which wasn’t as good. It’s not that the food was bad, it was great, but the dish included paté, which she found out that she doesn’t care for. I tried it and it was pretty good, so it’s not a case of bad paté, just personal preference. We went up to the buffet to get her a little more food later, and then back to the room to take a nap.

Tonight was the first of two formal nights, meaning we had a great excuse to get dressed up. The ship’s formal night dress code is a dark suit or black tie for men and evening wear for women. I packed one of my kilts, along with the prince charlie jacket, so I was good to go. Heather picked up some knock your socks off dresses before we left and packed the best looking of them. I think we did ok, though she did have to do a little guard duty because the kilt was a bit of an attention getter. I got lots of comments, and a few pictures taken with other passengers. Dinner was delicious, and the desserts were really tasty. After dinner, we went back to the room, changed up, and did a few laps around the ship to work off some of the extra calories.

Us all dressed up for our first formal night.

Us all dressed up for our first formal night.

Heather up on the promenade, all the way forward on deck 8

Heather up on the promenade, all the way forward on deck 8

Honeymoon Cruise – Day 1

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We got an early start and headed out for breakfast on Galveston Island before going over to the Galveston Cruise Terminal for boarding. On the way over, we stopped at Wal Mart to pick up a few things we’d forgotten or intended to pick up down there. After we were dropped off, we got our luggage checked and proceeded to queue up for security screening and passenger check-in. The security screening was what I fondly remember as a pre-9/11 process, with just baggage x-ray and metal detector. We were through that in no time flat and in line to get checked in. After receiving our cruise cards and a packet of information about the ship, we queued up again to await boarding. Once we were called, boarding was pretty quick, though the elevator traffic on the ship was pretty crazy. We opted for the stairs, as we are planning to do throughout the cruise and headed for our stateroom.

We’re on the Crown Princess, one of Princess Cruises‘ ships, staying in an ocean view stateroom on deck 8. It’s all the way forward, on the starboard side, above and behind the theater, which is on decks 6 and 7. We’re a little concerned about noise from the shows, but we’ll see how things go. We bumped in to Antonio, our cabin steward, while getting settled, and introduced ourselves. The cabin is nice, larger than our initial cabin, which was an interior on deck 15. Thanks to a last minute upgrade from Princess, we got this one, which is nice because having that window and some natural light is more enjoyable. After dropping our stuff, we went down to the passenger services desk and signed up for the ship’s tour, and then up to deck 15 for some lunch. Hopefully we’ll get on the tour, but that depends on how many people sign up.

Following all of that, we nosed around the ship, familiarizing ourselves with the layout and features. It’s really nice, bigger than I would have thought, and we don’t feel crowded, even though there are about 3,000 people on board, plus crew. From there, we went back up to deck 15 to watch the sail away. It was a bit chilly, but fun. We met two couples from Canada and talked with them while we sailed away. Finally, after getting out of Galveston Bay and into the Gulf of Mexico, we went back down stairs to our cabin, where our luggage, including the case of bottled water we’d slapped a luggage tag on, were waiting for us. Everything arrived intact, and there was plenty of storage for all of our clothing, casual and formal, for the entire week.

After unpacking, we got dressed up and headed down to do our first dinner. Since we chose flexible seating instead of a fixed dining time, there was a little bit of a wait. But it wasn’t any different than heading out to eat at a normal restaurant. In fact, the wait was shorter than many places we’ve been. We told the hostesses that we didn’t mind being seated with other people, and ended up at a table with three other couples. The service was great, the food was excellent, and the company was enjoyable. We spent some time getting to know each other, and enjoyed a delicious meal.

Since we were pretty worn out, we headed back to the cabin and crashed out for the evening. It was a busy day and we really just didn’t have it in us to party all night. It’s not really our thing anyways, so it’s all good. Tomorrow is the first full sea day, which should be interesting, since Heather’s never been out of sight of land for as long as we’re going to be.

Here’s a shot of the cabin and one of us at sailaway.

This was our cabin on the Crown Princess

This was our cabin on the Crown Princess

Up on deck 15, during sail away

Up on deck 15, during sail away

Honeymoon Cruise – Day 0

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Heather and I took half days at work today and headed out for some lunch and then to the airport to catch our flight to Houston. Darleen and Mitch picked us up from the airport and will be taking us down to the Galveston Cruise Terminal in the morning. We’ve been looking forward to this for a while now. It’s going to be a good opportunity to unplug and spend some quality time together. As we’re going to be away from Internet access, these updates will be posted after we get back. I’m not going to be using the ship’s Internet, or looking for WiFi at any of the ports of call.

We’re going to be on the Crown Princess, heading for Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico. We’ve got some pretty interesting excursions planned, including exploring some Mayan ruins. But like I said, updates to follow after we’re back.

Amtrak Fail

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So I just got a call that my Amtrak trip up to see Reese, leaving tomorrow, has been canceled. And there are no seats on any trains until the day I was originally going to be returning. Oh, the fun of booking last minute plane tickets. But on the bright side, I did get flights booked that get me in and out at around the same times I’d planned for with the train, so I’ll still have the same amount of time with Reese. I just hate last minute disruptions like that.

The Coolest Birthday Gift Ever

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For my birthday, my darling wife picked me up what has to be the best birthday present I’ve gotten so far. It’s a plaque with a picture of Fenway Park and a plastic container holding some actual dirt from the ballpark. It’s so freaking cool! Totally made my day. After that, we headed out to the Old Monk for dinner and some good beer. Happy Birthday to me indeed!

Rush – Clockwork Angels Tour

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Heather and I went out to the American Airlines Center to see Rush’s [amazon_link id=”B007I2BZIE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Clockwork Angels[/amazon_link] show. It was a great show, with a huge setlist of new stuff as well as older songs, some of which haven’t been performed live in decades. We had pretty good seats, higher up, towards the back of the arena, that gave us a great view of the stage and the video screen. The sound guys did a great job, loud enough to be enjoyable, but without being obnoxious. What was interesting was that they brought a string section along with them, to accompany some of the Clockwork Angels songs. They kept them on the stage for some of the other songs, including YYZ, where it really added to the piece. We had a little bit of a surprise when Geddy announced that they were filming the show for a DVD they’re going to be putting out. The cameras were visible, but not obnoxious or overly intrusive. I’m really looking forward to seeing the footage when it comes out.

Gaelic Storm At The Live Oak

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Thanks to a scheduling bobble, the concert turned out to be today instead of this past Wednesday, so we booked it over to The Live Oak over in Fort Worth to catch Gaelic Storm. This is the third time we’ve seen them, though the previous two were at the House of Blues. We got there a little early and had time to get some food from the kitchen. Unfortunately, our first choices were sold out, so we had to pick some other stuff. Heather got a BLT, which she wasn’t too impressed with, and I got a water buffalo burger, which was excellent. They also had a number of great beers on tap, including locals and imports.

After we finished the food we went around back to the music hall part of the venue. It’s small, but not uncomfortably so. We struck up a conversation with the couple behind us in line and ended up sharing a table with them, instead of standing. The show was great, with some of our old favorites, as well as a bunch of stuff from the new album, [amazon_link id=”B0089LT8XW” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Chicken Boxer[/amazon_link]. I picked it up and after the show got it signed by the entire band. It was a great show at a pretty good venue.

Picking Up Kendo And Iaido Supplies

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Due to some scheduling issues with the club’s equipment supplier, I ordered a bokuto, shinai, and a carrying bag from Kendo Style today. They should be in on Tuesday, hopefully before I leave for Iaido practice, if FedEx can be believed. It’ll be nice to not have to borrow someone else’s equipment for a change.