TravelStream™ news feed for member cabsvacations on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/cabsvacations en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 06 May 2009 14:16:24 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1238759700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1238759700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1238759700/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 14:16:24 -0400 Our Texas & Beyond Cruise to Houston, Galveston, Cozumel, Roatan & Costa Maya

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Galveston, Texas, United States

Texas and Beyond

TGIF...We got up at our normal hour, dropped off the dogs when the kennel opened and headed to ORD early. United was able to put us on a standby list...being #1 & #2 on the list we felt our chances were good but when they started offering comp packages, we lost all hope. As the plane was filling, the agents could not find almost 11 passengers...we made it!

We arrived in Houston almost four hours early, got our car rental from Alamo (a nice sporty G6) for all nine days. Yes, it was cheaper to rent for the whole week then it was to take shuttles to the port, which was an hour plus drive. This was one bad part of the trip...the cruise lines & other related companies do not make it easy for vacationers outside of Texas. So, we headed to see our friends from our May cruise last year, Trina & Wade. We ran into traffic for the PGA Tour at Redstone Golf Club, so we stopped off at a Sonic for a quick snack and a little shopping. Their house was amazing with a walk in swimming pool, multiple bedrooms, wine cellar, media and billiard room. Wade spent most of his day preparing our dinner that was like an expensive restaurant quality meal. We had a salad, homemade bread, Texas sized steak/chicken, veggies and a perfect dessert. Drove the Interstate through downtown Houston at night and arrived onto Galveston Island to spend two nights at the Hilton. We were in the front part of the hotel, and it had issues with the elevator while the back tower and elevators looked almost new. The room seemed pretty large, air conditioner was noisy, our door to hall had tons of open spaces for hallway noise and had a balcony that partially faced out to the Gulf waters.

We got up early and drove around the Island as Hurricane Ike hit the area last September. We saw a dolphin statue that was lost out to sea, drove down the seawall, and went to a lookout point. The Strand area is still in recovery; Joe's Crab Shack is still boarded up as well as other buildings on that block, and we even took a photo of a plastic chair in a tree. The port area had a nice hotel and a few restaurants with a special sailing ship in town for the weekend. The downtown area was still working on many of the buildings and the Art Museum was being gutted out with the nine foot water line circling the building. We drove by the arch, library, Bishop's Palace and a beautiful white catholic church that all looked open for viewing.

We drove north through Texas City to see all of the oil drills and petro businesses. In Kemah, we drove by the boardwalk and noticed pelican statues all decorated up (like our cows in Chicago). As we were waiting for our Hawaii cruise friends, we stopped at a local mall, walked around, chatted with locals and got a blister from my new sandals. The locals told us that The Strand on Galveston Island, Texas City & Kemah were the hardest hit areas because that is where the storm surge came in. Denny, Dianna and Hayley looked great, and we had a perfect lunch with them at Bubba's Seafood. They did look into our cruise, but they got a better deal on the reposition cruise a week after ours.

NASA (Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center) was next on our agenda. We walked through a mock shuttle "Adventure" and saw the cockpit, toilet and payload bay. The area that held samples of all the spacesuits was pretty cool to see the history and the back wall had a photo of every person ever in space. Mark got onto a computer game to "Land the Shuttle" and got the best score for the day. I watched a demo of life in space trying to sleep in Velcro, brushing your teeth, going to the bathroom and how they have to shower. Since we skipped a show that we saw at home, we headed into the back way and found a perfect museum. This was my favorite area that had a mock shuttle on the launch pad, Skylab replica, multiple Spacecraft, touch the moon rock and the patch designs of each space launch series.

Back to Galveston to try and shop downtown, but we could not find a spot to park and they had meters for you to use. So, we just drove around for a bit and ran into a "Shiloh" Church. Kelly & Nathan called to see if we were ready for dinner at Saltgrass. We had a great meal and we were able to watch a basketball game on the televisions.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1241633460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1241633460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1241633460/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 14:12:18 -0400 Our Texas & Beyond Cruise to Houston, Galveston, Cozumel, Roatan & Costa Maya

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Galveston, Texas, United States

Day at sea...played a round of mini golf, turned in our coupons, ate lunch at the Jambalaya Cook-off, watched Joe in the Belly Flop Contest, took a tour of the Royal Suite, Mark tried three card poker, the crew held a Dodgeball Tournament against the guests and Nathan climbed the rock wall. Dinner was lobster night, and Mark was sad that he ended up with four small tails. That night we tried the casino again, saw the Island Frenzy Parade and The Liar's Club (no need to see that next time).

Day at sea...packed up our suitcases, watched a cooking demo, we tried bingo and David won a game but had to split the winnings, Chili Cook-off for lunch, Close up Magic, Afternoon Comedy, Final Bingo session together with Kelly & Nathan, Suzie & LaShon as we split the cost of the electric machine. We did get excited as we had to stand in one game & got down to two numbers in the final. After dinner we tried the casino again, popped into to see Lance Ringnald (gold medalist gymnast), Farewell Show and met at a bar with some CC friends.

Happy Easter...We got up early and headed up to the buffet to see if they had any decorations, but they did not have anything special. We went to our room to get our bags for the Express Disembarkation and walked off the ship before 7am, took the shuttle to our car, headed up to IAH, and got on an earlier flight. The flight was delayed for a bit due to stormy weather and then when we landed in ORD we were put into a hold area on the tarmac to wait for our gate to become available. We were able to eat dinner at Moretti's and then picked up the dogs.

After we arrived home, I got a call from Kelly stating that they had a huge delay getting off the ship because of immigration issues...they had finally got off the ship after 4pm...we were so very fortunate. Also, the "swine" flu (now-N1H1) had surfaced in Mexico and is spreading into other countries.

Overall, this was our most relaxing cruise...can't wait for our next cruise in August!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1241892540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1241892540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1241892540/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 14:10:55 -0400 Our Texas & Beyond Cruise to Houston, Galveston, Cozumel, Roatan & Costa Maya

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Majahual, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Costa Maya was a port with a very long pier. They were hit by a hurricane 16 months ago and there was a lot of evidence of destruction from the ship. We walked straight to the area that took you to town, got on a bus and drove by new stores coming in and trees just bare with no leaves. We got off the bus to walk the path along the beach, did some shopping and just enjoyed the beautiful water views. Back at the port we did some more shopping, enjoyed some performers and ran out my camera batteries. Tonight we had dinner at the table alone, went to the 70's Disco Street Party and Quest. Quest was a bit stressful this time as the crew member just picked people out of the audience. A guy from our group, LaShon, ended up being our runner. We had a good group that participated enough so that we didn't have too much to do...Mark donated his sock & Nathan had to dance the shirtless can-can with four other guys.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1239214080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1239214080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1239214080/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 14:09:28 -0400 Our Texas & Beyond Cruise to Houston, Galveston, Cozumel, Roatan & Costa Maya

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Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

Roatan, Honduras was a 9am arrival, so we had breakfast out on the balcony to watch us come into port. There were many trees, valleys and beaches. We had a group of a dozen performers dancing and singing all day long on the pier. Originally, I had suggested a beach break day, but we heard about the sand flea issues and afterwards learned that the jellyfish had come for a visit. So, we decided to hire a taxi and took a tour past the Island Fire Department, a banana farm, lookout point and shipwrecks. The shipwrecks (Alexandria & Tulung) were coming into port to pick up lumber and got stuck in a sand bar. We walked the town of Coxen Hole back to the ship, and Mark had a local beer, Salva Vida. Tonight was the Ice Odyssey Show, Love & Marriage Game, "Fountains" performance and a group of seven of us decided to serenade Nathan in his stateroom as he had went to bed early.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1239127620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1239127620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1239127620/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 14:08:14 -0400 Our Texas & Beyond Cruise to Houston, Galveston, Cozumel, Roatan & Costa Maya

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Cozumel, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Cozumel was a sleep in day for us, since we have been there before. We went to the movie theater on the ship to see Swing Vote, played some games and took a nap. Never made it off the ship because we had to go to the Crown & Anchor Party, dinner and then Nathan & I sang karaoke at the Pig. Casino was not very nice to us, so we went to the production show.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1238943840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1238943840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/7/1238943840/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 14:06:51 -0400 Our Texas & Beyond Cruise to Houston, Galveston, Cozumel, Roatan & Costa Maya

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Galveston, Texas, United States

In the morning, we drove around for a bit & went to park our car at EZ Parking. Took the shuttle over to the ship, dropped our bags off with the porters (a tad nervous this time as they looked confused), zipped through security, checked in right away with the help of being frequent cruisers, got a glass of champagne and boarded the ship right away before 11am. Went up to the buffet for lunch and took some photos of the ship, Island & port area. I liked the fruit decorations and the number of places offering ship services (like our soda package). We are still impressed with the Royal Promenade...our favorite area. Rooms were ready at 1pm, so we went to deck 8-mid-ship to drop off our carry-on bags. The room was good enough for us, but it did need some updating as the closet door was broke, trim was missing near the fridge and loveseat very worn. The balcony was very private with steel enclosures on three sides, therefore, it echoed. Service for the week was pretty normal, however, there were a few items missing such as towels & tp at times. Our sail-away event with Cruise Critic was before the muster drill. It was nice to meet everyone that we have been talking to for a year. The drill took a bit longer as we had to have a double one (English then Spanish) since there were almost 1200 people from Mexico. Finally, we got our luggage and started unpacking. Departure from this port is pretty neat because you have to go down the channel a bit and make a 180 degree turn in tight quarters. On the way out, we saw a few dolphins, passed several oil rigs and a beautiful sunset. Dinner was good, but our seats were on deck 4 and right at window view even though the shades had to be pulled down every night as we headed south. Our tablemates were two honeymoon couples from Texas. Service for the week was just standard-our poor assistant just wasn't all there, but the Headwaiter did do a great job of helping out. I did feel for the servers/head staff as some people would come in so late or wearing very casual attire. The evening show was good as they gave select people from the audience a key chain that had to go up on stage to perform a spoon race by threading it through their tops & pants to one another. Also, I can't believe that we had three of our CC people up on stage. We were able to stay up to watch "The Party around the World Parade" down the promenade.

Our first day at sea...ahhhhh...seas were a bit rough at 12 feet , but we didn't really feel the ship moving that much...maybe we still have our sea legs. Breakfast at the buffet, ice ticket pick up and then to Meet & Mingle with our CC group. At the meeting we each received a note pad, got to meet Mike the Cruise Director (he was great), and I won a drawing for a RCL book bag. Then some of us went to a CC Slot Pull...we each put in a twenty and got to pull ten times...at the end we ended up winning our twenty back plus one dollar. We decided to eat at Johnny Rockets for lunch and ran into Laurie & David, so we had a great lunch together and then watched the ending for Mr. Voyager of the Seas. Headed back to the room for a nap but got caught up in the movie, Made of Honor. We had formal dinner tonight, then to the promenade for the Captain's Welcome Party and off to change into comfy clothes for the NCAA tournament on the promenade big screen. We watched it from the Pig & Whistle and Derek was a huge hit with our group. He had a Five Minute Party, Shake My Balls and karaoke events. He even wore a t-shirt "Adult Day Care (at night)". Then our group went to watch the Karaoke Superstar and decided that we were not going to tryout. After that a few of us headed to the late night comedy and then visited The Vault.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227746340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227746340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227746340/tpod.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:45:51 -0500 Our November Panama Canal Cruise to Ft. Lauderdale, Ocho Rios, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Guatemala

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San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

A fun little tender ride into the port today...the views here were very pretty with the blue waters and the colorful stoned hill cliffs. We decided to just walk around the port area that had a nice sized market and very good music entertainers. Just wished we would have taken one the bicycle tours! On our ride back to the ship we had a great view of a cave and the very front of the ship. The Captain's Circle Party was fun with some of our table mates as we had several drinks. Dinner was formal night, so Mark ate light all day due to the usual lobster; however, it was not on the menu when we arrived. We found out that it would be served as an option for our Thanksgiving meal. We did attend the show "Dance", and it was a lot like a Royal performance that we had seen in April. We then headed to the Love & Marriage Show to find out that our CC friends got picked to participate. We stayed to watch the Pop Star Heat to check out my competition and then headed to the Champagne Waterfall.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227573300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227573300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227573300/tpod.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:44:49 -0500 Our November Panama Canal Cruise to Ft. Lauderdale, Ocho Rios, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Guatemala

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Puntarenas, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Pura Vida...We decided to do a little sightseeing via a Princess Motor Coach. They took us around the bay that had some beautiful ocean views and next to another port town that some ships are visiting. We got a lot of information about the country in general. Our first stop was in a town called Orotina. We visited a market area that had some souvenirs, fruit samples and even saw their bird, quetzal. We proceeded to drive through some very tight curves up a mountain side and saw some nice rivers. Our bus driver kept stopping the bus every time he noticed fruit trees...we got to touch a noni, mango and something redish that was furry. They pointed out a termite nest, coffee plants, sugar cane, bamboo and many trees. We drove by several churches, and he mentioned that the doors always face west in respect of Jesus. Our next stop was to see a performance of school children in Esparza. They were to dance to five songs for us and the final song was the broom dance that needed some of us to participate, and I was chosen. We then purchased a magnet and a mini ox cart from them. We were allowed to visit the local church on-site, and we were told that the front of the church built in 1517 was the only part that survived the many earthquakes throughout the years. We then got to drive through the town to a market area that had views of our ship down in the bay area. On our way back down to the ship we drove on the Pan American Highway and got to view the city of Puntarenas. Since the tour was well over the scheduled time and past our lunch, we headed back onto the ship for a late lunch with our table mates. So, the one thing we did not do was to visit the market or beach at the port. That night, we were pretty tired, but we did manage to stay up for some of the "Party Under The Stars".
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227313860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227313860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227313860/tpod.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:43:36 -0500 Our November Panama Canal Cruise to Ft. Lauderdale, Ocho Rios, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Guatemala

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Ocho Rios, Jamaica

After breakfast, we packed our bag for the day and headed to the top deck to watch us park in Jamaica. Ire Ire Ire...no problem mon is what we learned on our short bus ride to the Sandals Dunn's River. After an orientation, we toured the grounds and decided to sit on the beach. It was an overcast day, so Shiloh was very relaxed. We enjoyed watching the parasailers, jet skiers, snorkelers, sand crabs and the whistles of those trying to sell things at the chained fence. Since everything is included, we headed to the wood fired pizza/grill area for lunch and our goal was to try all 10 drinks on the board. We crossed out two of the drinks because they had coffee or chocolate in them. Sooooo...Mark got tipsy and Shiloh enjoyed three of the Jamaican Smiles. The pizza was excellent and Mark tried a jerk burger. We walked through the sit down restaurant to view the buffet style food, but we decided to walk around the local market area instead. Sat in chairs next to the pool area and put our feet in but the water was too cold to swim in. The beach area was fumed with exhaust from the jet ski, and he was getting more vocal to get our attention, so we then walked to the hammocks. We tried very hard not to take a nap in fear of missing the bus back to the ship. We decided not to do much this night since we had such a busy day, so we watched The Dark Knight in our room.


11/22/2008 Sea Day
After breakfast, we were getting ready for the day, and I saw a low flying Columbian cargo/coast guard airplane circle our ship. Now, we are out in the dead middle of the Caribbean Sea with no land around us whatsoever. Fearing this was an act of terror; I quick took a photo of the plane and got Mark out of the bathroom. The Captain made an announcement over the speaker system...we are currently changing course to assist a sailing boat with a distress call. One of their passengers are unconscious and in need of medical attention, and they are looking for people to donate blood. A barge will be assisting us in our rescue mission, and we will deploy our rescue craft when we reach the vessel around 10:30am. At this point we are so interested in watching the rescue that we skip all of our morning plans to watch from the front of the ship. After spotting the sailboat, we knew that the activity would be on our side of our ship, so we headed to our balcony. What a trying rescue with the waves bobbing both boats around...felt like it took forever, but it was a success. Tonight is our Bayou Steakhouse dinner with another couple from our table. We arrived early to have drinks...Mark had the drink of the day, Ultimate Mai Tai, Shiloh had a Mucho Mango, and our tablemates had wine. Dinner was very enjoyable but the steak was not as good as last time, and they were out of alligator...bummer! An announcement was made during dinner that our patient is awake and doing better. We all then headed to the Comedy Show. Then, in our room were two towel animals of pet dogs...awe!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227832920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227832920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cabsvacations/6/1227832920/tpod.html Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:51:27 -0500 Our November Panama Canal Cruise to Ft. Lauderdale, Ocho Rios, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Guatemala

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Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

Happy Thanksgiving! The ship had decorations everywhere and a huge display of foods in the atrium. We headed into port right away, received a handmade bracelet as a welcome gift and were given a music performance. We walked around and around and around the market. Our goal was to find the worry dolls, and we did...hope they work! We also found a flute, postcards, magnet and other items. We did enjoy the children showing us how they make the textiles and Mark enjoyed a local beer. Back on the ship, we headed to the football game parties, watched Iron Man and a local Ballet Folklorico Inguat. Dinner was perfect for Mark with six lobster tails and pumpkin pie in his belly, we went to watch another football game in our room and saw a perfect sunset.

11/28/2008 Sea Day
Busy-Busy-Busy day for us as it is our final day, so it was time to pack up all our items this morning. We needed to run around the ship; fixing our departure time for tomorrow, bill check, picking up our gift from Terri, picking out our favorite photos, cash out our casino earnings, filling out the survey, giving extra tips, final internet check, donating a finished book to the library and most important hitting the day after Thanksgiving shopping event. Luckily, we did not find anything at the shopping event as our bags were at the max coming onboard the ship. Lunch today had a buffet of nicely decorated desserts and then we headed to Bingo to see if the big jackpot was won. Since it did not go, we had to attend the final, and we were not even close to winning. Dinner was good, and we watched most of the Farewell Show as Shiloh had to go change for her Princess Pop Star Grand Final. There were five people but the other girl dropped out. So, we had a Ricky Martin, The Rose (Shiloh's), Elvis and Country...just a very nice mix. The country performer was picked as the winner...but Shiloh has been there done that now!
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