Two years ago, before we headed to Alaska, our friends Donna
and Greg said they were taking a 14 day cruise down to the Panama Canal and
would we be interested in going with them.
Honestly, Ron and I had pretty much decided throughout the years that we
didn’t think cruising would be for us.
We have been at ship terminals and watched the throngs descent from the
ships, board onto buses, only to return a few hours later. That just didn’t appeal to us. But here we are, retired and professed
travelers, and felt like we should explore into this opportunity. So we booked!
January 19 was D-day.
What do you pack for 14 days when the weather from Galveston was
supposed to be nasty and cold? Was very
hard to think ahead to warm, sunshiny beaches.
Yes, I over packed and didn’t pack enough warm weather stuff, but it all
worked out. I want to thank Donna and
Greg for guiding us through this cruise ship lifestyle! I’ll share our honest opinion at the end of
the post about how much we really liked it.
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| Me and Donna boarding the ship! |
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| There's our boat at the Galveston Dock! |
We arrived at the port in Galveston around noon, with two
Arctic fronts blowing, making it not feel like a tropical trip at all. It was hard to find a place to park ourselves
so we could grab some lunch and wait with our carry-on to get into our rooms. Finally found a spot, which was cold, and
enjoyed our first taste of cruise ship food, which was cold. LOL! Our balcony room was great, and by all means
was our saving grace for the trip. We
had our required safety drill and man was it cold! Just really made you not feel too good. Back to our rooms, unpacked and had
drinks. Long time friends Debbie and
Jimmy Kilgore were also on the cruise and we sure enjoyed spending time with
them! This ended up being a long day, I
was still fighting allergies, and it was just great to get in the room and
chill.
Sunday found us starting the day with room service
coffee. Cloudy and still feels cold
outside. Enjoyed a dining room
breakfast. Next stop was the casino, and
man, couldn’t win anything. But Debbie did do some memory refreshing for me on
playing blackjack and I enjoyed that.
There was a great musician on board, Victor Chapman, who played some
pretty decent country music. So we got to do some dancing before getting
dressed for our first elegant night.
After a good dinner, went to karaoke and the comedy club and by then the
old problem ankle was saying it was time to go home.
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| Loved the music and the chance to do a little dancing! |
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| Friends Chuck and Karen from Sweeny were also on the cruise! |
Monday was another sea day, but it’s finally starting to
warm up and we can sit on the balcony.
What did we do on this sea day?
Lost money at the casino, got close to winning Bingo, happy hour, dancing, buffet dinner, went to a fun show, karaoke, and 2 comedy shows. Whew!
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| Enjoyed the balcony! |
Tuesday we visited Grand Cayman Island! We didn’t plan an excursion, but found a taxi
to take us to a beautiful beach. Enjoyed
meeting new friends. When we got back to
the ship, we were starving and really chowed down and enjoyed one of Guy’s
burgers. The seas area getting really
rough out here.
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| Friends Debbie and Jimmy, looking marvelous! |
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| Rented us some chairs and umbrellas. Loved the sand. |
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| Ron got his chill on. |
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| Toe shot equals good time, even if I still have to compress that silly ankle! |
Wednesday was another sea day, and a very rough sea day it
was! Geez……
Thursday our port of call was Aruba! I don’t know what I was expecting, but it
wasn’t the desert! Aruba is known as One
Happy Island for the warmth of it’s people.
The fofoti trees are abundant on the northeast coast, sculpted by the
winds into graceful forms. Our guide
told us that during their rainy season, they get rain for about 2 minutes at a
time. Although we didn’t have an
excursion planned, when we got off the ship we signed up for an island tour $25
each.
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| The harbor pilot boat coming in to help guide us. |
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| Pretty water! |
Here’s what we saw:
1 – The California Lighthouse, which is their only
lighthouse.
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| Desert scenery |
2 – Casibari Rock formations – went for a climb on this and
saw a great view of Aruba.
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| Climbing to the top. |
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| Looking across Aruba. |
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| Donna and Greg |
3 – a Catholic church. More than 90% of the island is Catholic.
4 – Caught the sunset on the beach
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| The beach was full of conch shells. |
Did a little shopping. Interesting fact: all the grocery stores are owned by Chinese.
The next day was a beautiful port – Curacao! Originally named Island of Giants by Spanish
explorers for the massive physique of its original inhabitants, today Curacao
is a true global melting pot of over 5 nationalities. We had an excursion for beach time and
snorkeling at Blue Bay. Just
beautiful! Could definitely spend some
time here, but only if we flew in. Ended
the day with some good balcony time.
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| Coming into port |
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| Beautiful water! |
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| Always a crowd! |
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| Pretty homes |
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| Donna enjoying the beach! |
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| Sunscreen time! |
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| Toe shots! |
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| Leaving port |
Saturday marks 1 week of being on a ship, and it was also
another fun day at sea. It was a long
morning, and here’s why. While on the
ship you stay on ship time (for us it’s Texas CST). However we were 2 time zones ahead. Ron got
up super early cause he looked at the cell phone which had adjusted itself to
the actual time zone…… Oh well. Went
walking on the walking track, chilled by the pool, read and people watched,
played bingo and enjoyed a social hour with some other folks we had not yet
met. Enjoyed dinner with the Kilgores, a
good variety show and then the comedy club.
What comes to mind when you hear Cartagena, Columbia, South
America? For us, it’s about drug cartels
and coffee. I think our best port was
Sunday to Cartagena. We had booked a Sea
Rumba and Old City Tour. Awesome! We got on a nice sized, double decker boat
and took a ride over to the Old City.
Our tour guide, Carlos S., was fantastic. He had warned us about the peddlers and how
to deal with them. The old city was
cool. It was hot. Saw a lot of history.
Went to an emerald museum, of course it ended with walking through their
showroom where we were pressed hard to buy some emeralds! Now the ride back on the boat was so
fun! Free Rum drinks, dancing, music! Got back to the room, showered off the sweat,
and talked about the pretty cobblestone streets, good music and 16th
century plazas we experienced. Enjoyed getting food
from the buffet and sitting on the balcony.
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| Coming into the harbor was this pretty statue. |
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| Pretty pelicans |
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| Traveling though the harbor |
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| Looks like a pirate boat! |
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| The wall around the old city |
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| Very busy with tourists and peddlers |
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| A sidewalk with all the country's beauty pageant winners. |
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| It was Sunday and folks were attending mass. |
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| Wasn't too sure about this statue. |
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| This man painted us a picture in under 2 minutes on glass. Amazing to watch! |
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| A little street entertainment |
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| A little refreshment to cool us down! |
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| Greg's new friend. Kinda funny to watch. |
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| Our music entertainment on the boat ride back. |
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| The refreshment bar |
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| Ron having a rather large time with the dancers! |
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| Our rum drinks! |
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| Carlos S. - a very good tour guide showing us the dance moves! |
Monday, January 28 was the day everyone was waiting for –
the Panama Canal partial transfer.
Panama showed us some mountainous terrain, which was different from the
other islands! I headed to the 10th
floor and found a spot at the front, smack dab in the middle of the ship – a great
place to see everything. The Carnival
Freedom is such a big ship that we had to go through the new locks. They say it’s
more fun to go through the old locks. It
was so interesting to see how they maneuver the ship through the 3 locks. The canal is about 180’ wide. I forget how
wide the Freedom is, but there’s just a couple of feet clearance on either
side. About 14,000 ships use the canal
each year. It averages about 8 to 10 hours for each ship to maneuver
through. A canal pilot boards the ship
and navigates it through. You have a tug
on the front and a tug on the back, then there’s a crew on each side that ties
the ship up while the water level starts adjusting. Cool process!
Each lock you are raised (or lowered) 28 feet.
Tuesday found us in Limon, Costa Rica. We had an excursion – the Veragua Rainforest
Trail and Tram. Limon is home to another
multi-cultural community, with roots in Italian, Jamaican and Chinese cultures,
brought in to help build a railroad. Not
too impressed with our visit here, might be better to fly in and get away from
the docks and what the ship offers you to do in the short time you’re
visiting. The rainforest was pretty and
it was cool to see sloths and howling monkeys and colorful frogs. It was a good experience. We had the best meal ever at the steakhouse that evening. Was fun to get dressed up and then go dancing
at the pub.
Wednesday was another sea day. Ron is also starting to get sick so he stayed
in all day. The highlight of my day was
getting dressed and going to the Captain’s Cocktail Party. Free drinks and snacks!
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| Emma, our British cruise director and me! |
Thursday was our last port – Cozumel. Ron is still sick but at the last minute he
decided to go ahead and go on our excursion we had planned. I felt like we needed a little history so I
scheduled an Ancient Culture/Mayan Ruins trip. But man oh man is the water
pretty here! We got into port before 8,
our excursion was at 11. So we decided to get off the ship with the first wave
of folks and go do some shopping. I
think it’s a little sad, maybe disappointing is the better word, that that’s
what appears to us to be the cruise life.
Hurry up get off ship, hurry up go shop and everyone is trying to sell
you something, then hurry up and get to your excursion, hurry and hurry up
through the stops you have and hurry up to get back on the boat. But that’s our opinion. So our excursion took us to the San Gervasio
Mayan ruins. I was a little
disappointed, guess I was hoping for pyramids.
These ruins remind us of a lot of the ruins in New Mexico and
Colorado. What was interesting was that
these ruins were based around fertility, which meant you had to understand the
lunar cycles. The tour also included
lunch, authentic Mexican food, and a tequila tasting.
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| Beautiful water here! |
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| Our lunch spot. |
At the heart of the ruins were the sacred precinct of
temples where great ceremonies were staged.
The name Ixchel can be translated as “the woman with white skin,” and is
linked with the mother goddesses and the moon, because she is considered an
energy that provides fertility, to the earth as well as to animals, and sexual
power and birth. In the codices we find
the representation of two goddesses, one young and one old. The second one is considered companion of the
supreme god Itzamma, and is related with weaving and painting. This sanctuary received distant pilgrimages
from the entire Mayan region, especially women seeking to ensure a fruitful
marriage.
Friday was our last fun day at sea. Ron is sick so I found ways to entertain
myself again. An astronomy talk, Bingo,
packing for our disembarkment, reading and dinner with Donna and Greg. Saturday morning we arrived in Galveston in
the fog around 6:30 a.m. There was a lot
of noises on our last night, which meant not much sleep. We found a spot to sit and wait for disembarkment. Finally got to the truck around 11:30. Went
to Salsa’s for some great Mexican food, and home back at Brazos Bend State Park
around 4. Mounds and mounds of laundry.
So to answer the question – did we like cruising? There was good and bad about it. Since we’re used to not having a sticks and
bricks home, being on a boat for 14 days wasn’t hard to do. Will we do it again? Doubtful.
Now a river cruise to another country might be on the horizon. Will we
go back to the Caribbean area? Probably,
but only if we fly in. The downside for us
was getting off at the ports, rushing, avoiding everyone that was peddling
their goods, and being limited to the ship’s hurried schedule. We also got weary of ship food for the most
part. Oh – and dodging those scooters,
or as Ron calls them, the plate holders!
They said the average age of this cruise was 72. I guess a cruise is easy for folks with
disabilities to enjoy a vacation and I am happy for them to be able to go.
Well, with the government shutdown being temporarily blocked
for a few weeks, we will be able to leave the state park here and head out to
our next volunteer spot in Stonewall, Texas – the Lyndon B. Johnson National
Historical Park. Heading there on
Friday, February 8. Once we get into the
ranch, if the government shuts down again, we will still get to stay.
And that's a wrap on our cruise!
What an interesting adventure! We don't see ourselves as cruise people but then again I have never been on one so really cannot judge. Looks like you had a great time!
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