Ah, it seems we took our trip a week too early because we came back just in time for sleet and ice to take over the metroplex. Although I will admit that it has been nice that Matt's vacation has been extended an extra two days since school was closed today and is also closed tomorrow.
Anyway, we had a
blast on our cruise. The weather was a little chilly on the boat (it was still January after all), but the warm day in Cozumel was totally worth it. Plus, we had an entire
four days of no responsibility whatsoever. None! So here's a not-so-brief rundown of the trip:
{WEDNESDAY}
We left after Matt got home from school (okay, not right after like we had planned, but Avery was super clingy that day because she was teething, so I wasn't able to get everything ready to go on time). My faraway friend Jennifer had just gotten in town that day, so we were able to meet her and her husband at Chick-fil-a for dinner on our way out. Avery was awesome in the car (she slept most of the way, ha!), and aside from some spoiled chocolate donuts from Buccee's, we had a good (albeit late) road trip to Baytown.
{THURSDAY}
We didn't have to be in Galveston until around 12:30, so we had a pretty relaxed morning. Matt went to Walmart and grabbed some things we forgot, while also making a pit stop at his favorite, Snowflake Donuts, to get breakfast for everybody.
Avery was super silly during the hour-long car ride, but once we got out of the car and said our goodbyes, she was a wreck. Okay, I admit it, I was too. (The picture was before all the crying.) Matt might have even teared up a little. We've never left her for that long, not to mention that we'd be pretty out of touch the entire time. We somehow managed to suck it up and get on the boat tear-free and ready for a relaxing few days.
The first thing we did when we boarded was eat. We were starving by this point (about 2pm), so we checked out the lido deck buffet while we waited to set sail. We pretty much just chilled until dinner; we walked around the ship, unpacked, went to the oh-so-informative safety briefing, and people-watched on the lido deck.
I stinking loved the food on the boat. We did the Your Time dining, so we were able to eat in the dining room whenever we wanted, and we were always seated right away. I would definitely go that route again. Our first dinner was steak for Matt and tilapia for me, and we both got melting cake for dessert. Yum yum yum.
We went to the little Welcome Aboard song and dance show that night, and while we weren't really impressed with the performers' singing and dancing abilities, it was fun anyway. It was even more fun to watch people make fools of themselves at karaoke later that night, but we finally ended up in the little casual restaurant where we played Phase 10 (I won!!) and drank our weight in hot chocolate.
Y'all. Carnival's hot chocolate is the best ever. I seriously could not stop drinking it. Plus, it's just there all the time! At the push of a button! And yes, the exclamation points are necessary!
{FRIDAY}
We were so looking forward to sleeping in on our first morning at sea. The room stewards had different plans. They were clanging carts down the hallway at 7:00 in the morning! Come on people, we were on vacation! We gave in and got up for breakfast since there was no way to sleep through the constant crashes of metal. (Fortunately that was the only morning this happened...)
At breakfast we were seated with six random people at a massive round table. It was no big deal, but it was a little awkward trying to make conversation with a bunch of strangers when we were barely awake. After breakfast we went and checked out the trivia game going on in the performance hall. It was pretty lame (you just wrote answers on a sheet of paper and then the MC dude told you the correct answers at the end), but I'm supposed to let everyone know that Matt beat me.
We chilled by the pool with some hot chocolate and then went to hear some speech about fun stuff to do on the ship and at port. We shouldn't have wasted our time because the speech wasn't so much fun to listen
to. It was all pretty obvious stuff, so we left before it was even over and played some more Phase 10. We ate lunch at the grill and then got to take a glorious 3 hour nap.
It was elegant night on the ship, so we got all dressed up, but we didn't even get a good picture! The only one we managed was a self-timed one that ended up super blurry. Dinner was so good though; we both got lobster and melting cake, and it was worth every calorie.
We stopped by the comedy show after dinner, but it was the same guy Matt had seen on his choir cruise in April, so he had already heard all the jokes. You'd think the dude would get some new material. I thought he was pretty funny though. We also went to the country show that night, which was also mediocre at best.
We hit the penny slots (we're big spenders, ha!) that night where I lost $10 and Matt won $10 (we're a perfect pair!). We ended the night with midnight hot chocolate and pizza before heading back to our cabin.
{SATURDAY}
Happy birthday to me! Saturday was our day in Cozumel, and after breakfast at the pool, we had decided to spend the day at the beach. We went ahead and did the deluxe beach excursion because we didn't want to plan anything ourselves and it seemed like the most relaxing, stress-free option since it included all our transportation, food, drinks, and beach activities.
When we docked we had about an hour to kill at the little touristy area (okay, all of Cozumel is touristy), so we walked around the shops and took goofy pictures of ourselves.
And then we had the day at the beach. The temperature was in the upper 70s and it was perfect weather to just lay out under an umbrella by the water with my favorite person in the world.
We took advantage of the unlimited drinks (don't worry, my pina coladas were virgin, sheesh), all-day beach buffet (which turned out to be pretty disgusting), and time to just sit, talk, read, and be still. We even made it out on the paddleboats for a little while.
After a 10-minute bus ride back to the pier with people who had definitely taken advantage of the unlimited alcohol, we spent the rest of our shore day wandering the shops. The beach excursion was so much fun, but I think in the future we'd just get a taxi and head to a beach instead of paying for the excursion.
Once we got back on the boat (after we got all cleaned up from our day at the beach), we went to a hilarious Jeopardy-style trivia show. They had some really funny people up on stage, so we got some good laughs before dinner.
The chef must have known it was my birthday because they had cheese sticks as an appetizer option! If you know me at all, you know that I love me some fried mozzarella. I could've just eaten those as my entire meal, but I also ordered a chicken and pasta entree while Matt got a disgusting turkey dinner. Ew, it was so weird. They made up for it by having tiramisu for dessert. So delicious!
We played some more slots at the casino and ended the day at the deck party where they had a Mexican buffet (it totally compensated for the horrendous excuse for Mexican food at the beach), and Matt beat me at Phase 10 by the pool.
{SUNDAY}
We finally got to sleep in! We ate a late breakfast outside in preparation for a super relaxed day (not that they weren't all relaxed!). We watched the newlywed game in the performance hall (hilarious!) and then sat and talked on the top deck before heading to lunch at the dining room (ribs for Matt, fish and chips for me).
After lunch, Matt took a nap in the room while I went back to the top deck to lounge and read until Matt joined me. I can't remember the last time I had so much uninterrupted reading time! We watched a movie (You Again) before dinner (salmon for Matt, veal for me [best part of the meal was the onion soup]) and then caught the Dream Voyage show, which was more of a nightmare than a dream, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
For some reason the boat was swaying SO bad on Sunday night, so it was hard to walk anywhere. We tried to watch the adult comedy show, but it ended up being basically the same show we had seen earlier only with adult language. It wasn't even funny and we couldn't find a seat, so we ended up back up on the lido deck for more Phase 10 and hot chocolate. Aren't we exciting?
{MONDAY}
We went to the dining room for our last breakfast on the boat and then got our luggage and read until they called our deck for disembarkation. Customs was a breeze and we were soon reunited with our sweet baby girl. We missed her so much! (Thanks so much to NeNe, Pop-Pop and Aunt "Cazzie" for taking such great care of her while we were gone and picking us up when we got back!)
So it might seem that we had a relatively lame cruise in that we played a lot of Phase 10 and spent plenty of time reading and too much time eating, but it was just what we needed after a busy couple of months. I truly enjoy hanging out with my husband, so even though we weren't the crazy party-ers of the ship, it was well worth the money to have that uninterrupted time for just us. Who knows when we'll get that again!
