Carnival Triumph 2014 -Installment #7 Last sea day and the end.

The part of the cruise I dislike the most is the last day. The last sea day. For us this means relaxing and packing. Packing is definitely not relaxing but it is something that must be done. I’m sad knowing that tomorrow I will be forced to leave the ship and drive home.

We did spend time in the smoking section today and said our goodbye’s to new friends, just in case we do not see them tomorrow as we are leaving.

We captured some pictures of our last sunset at sea for this cruise. I have high hopes for taking more sunset pictures at sea in the future.

Even the last dinner in the main dining room was sad. But we put on a happy face as best as we could. We said our goodbyes to our fantastic waitstaff and showed them our appreciation for the had work they had done for us the entire cruise.

After dinner, we walked around and had some final pictures taken by a couple of different photographers. I love that there are so many options for backdrops. These pictures will not be ready until tomorrow! Some day I will be on a ship and take more pictures, maybe like these!!!

We returned to our room and were greeted by our final towel animal. I wonder if he is as sad as I am. We put our luggage outside our door. Made one last trip to the smoking section. Then we went to bed.

The next morning, we woke up so the sight of Galveston. Although I love Galveston, it is always sad to see it on the horizon knowing that we will be leaving the Carnival Triumph. We had breakfast on the Lido deck before leaving the ship. And even though we are not home, it feels like vacation is over. At least until the next cruise.

Thanks for reading this blog. As you can tell I’m definitely not a professional writer. I am doing this as a reminder of our trip and to coincide with the scrapbook pages I am making for this trip. Now that all is left for me to do on this series is to make the scrapbook pages look more finished. Some of the pages are very bare and need a little something to really make them pop. So, I will take some time to try to finish them before putting them in page protectors and loading them into an album. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know!

Carnival Triumph 2014 – Installment #6: Cozumel, Mexico

One of my favorite things about cruising is cruising into Cozumel. My heart always jumps for joy when we sail past our favorite hotel, The Melia Golf and Beach Resort! I always take pictures of the hotels on the North end as we make our way to Puerta Maya.

Today, we had another Carnival ship sailing into Cozumel right behind us! Plus, we were also able to get pictures of the pilot boat coming to our ship!!! This is definitely a first for us!!!!

We made our way to the buffet for some pre-breakfast appetizers and found the Lido deck had been invaded by towel animals. They were EVERYWHERE!!! Definitely the new generation of chair hogs!!!!

This really makes the day start off great!!!

Of course, on our way off the ship we had to stop for the KELLY NEEDS A PICTURE FOR THE SCRAPBOOK photo. Jim and Dawson should know this is a requirement of every port we stop at.

Our plan for today is to have breakfast at the museum then walk around the square to do some shopping and make our way to Tony Rome’s Embassy Restaurant to visit with Tony and his family. We made it to the museum in the rain!!! But even with the rain, the view was still fantastic. Jim and I usually enjoy breakfast at the museum but this time was different as Dawson started getting a headache. The food was great, but the rest of our plans had to be put aside so we could go back to the ship.

Once Dawson was appropriately medicated, Jim and I got off the ship and walked around the shops at Puerta Maya. You never know when I will find that one or two things I must have. It is also an opportunity to pick up souvenirs for our family at home.

It is always sad to leave Cozumel. But I know that I will return again. Fernando and his friend Rowdy hit up the their own personal happy hour in the smoking section. They really should sail together again sometime.

Sunsets on a cruise are always fantastic. I can’t get enough of their beauty. And then there is the dinner entertainment that we love. Especially when our waitstaff is spectacular.

And so the evening ends doing the normal walking around on deck and going to the smoking section. We really are very boring people. But at least we are relaxed!!!!

The next installment will be about our last sea day.

Carnival Triumph 2014 – Installment #5: Progreso, Mexico and the Dzibilchaltun Mayan Ruins

Welcome to Progreso!!! This is the third time we have been to this port and I can honestly say the port area has not changed. We did not go into town on this trip. Instead we book an excursion thru Carnival to go to the Dzibilchaltun Mayan Ruins. Since our excursion time was for 9:30 am, we woke up early to have a quick but filling breakfast at the buffet before heading out to catch our bus.

The bus ride to Dzibilchaltun was not a very long drive. At least not as long as the bus ride to Chichen Itza is (over 2 hours each way!!!). Once we arrived at the site, we walked up a path that leads to a museum. This would be the starting point and we would go thru the museum after we walked the site. The path leading to the museum had statues all around. All very unique and interesting.

Once we started the tour of the ruins, our first stop would be to the Temple of the Seven Dolls. I have always been fascinated with ruins. They are so majestic. I hope to visit more as the beauty of them is amazing.

We made our way along the path to see more ruins, each as beautiful as the one before.

At the end, we came to Cenote Xlacah. Jim and I dipped our feet into the water. So crystal clear and refreshing!.

I must say, these ruins are surrounded by very lush vegetation. My only regret is that I did not take enough pictures of it.

Once we decided we had our feel at the cenote, we walked to the museum. Oh the artifacts they had there. I was in total ah!

It is safe to say that this was an excursion that I will remember for a long time. And although it does not compare to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum, it was still well worth it and I would consider revisiting this site again sometime.

We were the first people to arrive to the bus that would return us to the port. Before long, we were on our way back. Of course, my husband TRIED to sleep! I swear that man can sleep anywhere!!! Once at the pier, we walked thru the shopping area and looked at things before getting back on board.

The remainder of the day and night was spent eating dinner in the main dining room with entertainment provided by the wait staff, taking pictures on deck, and welcoming our new towel animal.

I hope you will return for installment #6 where we are in Cozumel!!!

Carnival Triumph 2014 – Installment #4 Everyone loves a sea day!

For most people, sea day’s are for sleeping in. But I’m not like most people. I’m always up early on vacation. I want to be able to take in every minute of my cruise. Unfortunately for my husband, he usually wakes up not long after I do. Maybe because I make noise when I go out onto the balcony. But where else can I get a gorgeous view to start my morning? Besides, is there really anything better than morning coffee on the balcony on a beautiful morning?

Sea day’s also mean Sea Day Brunch! This is definitely another thing we truly enjoy to do on a cruise. The menu may be somewhat limited, but we tend to always order the same thing. I always have the steak and eggs and Jim always orders the Eggs Benedict. What can I say… sometimes we are not very adventurous when it comes to food.

When we went on this cruise, Jim and I both smoked. At this time, Carnival no longer allowed their guests to smoke on their balcony’s. Since out stateroom was on the Lido deck, we did not have far to go to get to a smoking area. We met some very nice people there. And Fernando made a friend!!!

In the distance, you could see rain. Luckily, on a cruise, rain typically does not last very long. At least it hasn’t on any of the cruises I have been on.

We decided to go hang out in our stateroom and try to figure out what we wanted to do with our day. One of my favorite things to do is to people watch. But in our stateroom, the only one to watch was my son.

Before long, it was time to get ready for cruise elegant night. This is the only time we ever get dressed up so I like to take advantage of it. But first, I had to enjoy the sunset from out balcony. Sunsets are always so beautiful as are the sunrises.

On our way to dinner, we stopped to have some pictures taken. Pictures were also taken in the dining room. Wine and waiter entertainment always makes for a great dinner experience.

After dinner, we returned to our stateroom to change clothes. And to try to decide how we want to spend the rest of the night.

We decided to play some mini golf which was so much fun. We truly enjoy spending our evenings on the open decks.

Installment #5 is our adventure in Progreso.

Carnival Triumph 2014 – Installment 3 I’m ready to get on the ship!

As with every cruise I have ever been on, sleep the night before was minimal at best. I was up early on September 22, 2014 and I felt that my family should be up too! We needed to eat something for breakfast… well, they needed to eat. I was too excited to eat much. I just wanted to leave the hotel and go to the port!!! I really so no problem having that attitude, LOL!

This is the first cruise that we purchased the Faster To The Fun just so we can get on the ship quick! But first, we have to check out of the hotel, drive to the port, drop off our check bags, drive across the street to Galveston Park N Cruise to park our car in the covered area, then walk across the street to get in line to check in for the cruise. Is it just me or does this one process of going on a cruise seem to take F O R E V E R??? As usual, we did have to wait for a while before we were able to board. But that was okay! We had the opportunity to meet and visit some fellow Anchor Clankers. That definitely helped pass the time away.

After the wait, we were finally walking our way towards the gangway. But first, we had to stop for our traditional Welcome Aboard/Bon Voyage photo. It is one of the necessities I must have for our scrapbook and it should never be skipped!!!! Walking onto the ship means that the vacation has really begun. We will be totally removed from social media and cell phones for the next 5 nights.

We spent the day taking in the sights of the harbor and looking for dolphins. We also tried our very first Guys Burger. Oh. My. Goodness. They are absolutely delicious! I cannot wait to devour more while we are on the Triumph!

After the mandatory muster drill, we made our way to watch sail away from our balcony before going to dinner. We had selected Your Time dining which meant we could eat dinner anytime between 5:30 and 9 pm. We like to eat early so we were usually sitting at a table for dinner no later than 6 pm. Dinner the first night usually means the pirates would be invading the dining room!

We were tired after dinner so we did some more walking and exploring of the ship before turning in for the night.

Tomorrow will be a fun filled sea day which will begin with sea day brunch so please come back for installment #4.

Carnival Triumph 2014 – Installment 2: When will we leave for Galveston?

Finally, September 19th rolled around. It is the day Dawson goes to visit his mother for the weekend. I knew when he left that we would not be able to start our cruise adventure until we picked him up on Sunday at 6 pm. But we were hoping his mother would agree to let us pick him up after church on Sunday. Either way, it would be a long wait for us to pick him up. So, around 5:30, Jim left to take Dawson to visitation. Jim returned around 6:30, walking in the door saying “we have a little problem.” My heart sank. Then right behind Jim walks in Dawson!!! Turns out that everyone at Dawson’s mothers house was ill and she didn’t want to take the chance of Dawson getting sick right before his vacation!!!! This means we could actually leave for Galveston much earlier!!!

But, since we have pets to make sure they are cared for, we stuck with the plan on leaving on Sunday!!!

On Saturday, we made sure everything was packed and ready to go. Of course, there are always last minute things we need to get so we did that as well.

We were definitely ready to roll on Sunday. We only had to make one stop at my brother-in-laws to drop off our 3 month old puppy for him to watch then we were on the road. We made our regular stop at Buc-ees and stopped for something to eat along the way but other than that, it was just a normal Sunday drive to Galveston!!!

After we got checked into our hotel, we went to have dinner at The Original Mexican Cafe. Fernando insisted on having 2 drinks and did not want to share, silly frog. He somehow managed to sneak into the car so now we were forced to take him to dinner with us!

Nothing else really happened on this night. Nothing to do but to take in the views and walk around. And pick up forgotten items from WalMart!!!

Now to try to get some sleep before we board the ship!!! It’s never easy for me to sleep before embarkation day. I just hope there is something good on TV to pass the time!!!

Installment #3 will be our embarkation day!!!

Carnival Triumph 2014 – Installment #1: I want to go on a cruise!!!

The desire to go on this particular cruise all started when a cruise buddies (Kandy and Doreen) started a group Facebook page for it on December 10, 2013. They were nice and sent me an “invitation” to join the Facebook page. Who am I to say no??? So, I regularly checked in on the page to see what was going on with the other people on this cruise. It wasn’t long before I became obsessed with buying anything with anchors on it!!! Our group voted on a name for us and we soon became known as the Anchor Clankers. One person designed shirts and we were able to have them made by PR Specialties!!! So here we are, a group of people who love to go on cruises, we have a name for a group, and we have a shirt with our group name and design on it!!!!

But at this point, we had not booked the cruise.

Life has a way of giving us challenges. We were lucky and overcame the challenges as best as we could. And finally on July 22, 2014 we booked the cruise. We would be sailing on the Carnival Triumph on September 22nd!!! I was able to get us a balcony stateroom on the Lido deck on the starboard side. I have never had a room on this side of the ship. I have always been on the portside. But, I will take whatever I can get!!! There will be 3 of us in this room: myself, my husband Jim, and our son Dawson. This will be Dawson’s second cruise and I’m hoping this one will be the one that will show him the love of cruising.

Luckily, waiting this late to book meant I had a very short countdown and I really need to start making plans. The weekend we leave for Galveston would be a visitation weekend for Dawson, so it was very important that I had things figured out ahead of time. I really do not want to drive to Galveston on the day we board the ship!

I made reservations for our overnight stay at Quality Inn in Galveston and for parking at Galveston Park N Cruise. I started hoping and praying that we would be able to pick Dawson up from his visitation early enough so we could have dinner at The Original Mexican restaurant. But there was no guarantee that any of this will fall into place.

All that is left now is to make sure we have the clothes we need, pack, and pray that everything falls into place.

Stay tuned for installment #2

Modified Keto day 13 and organizing my photos from our 2014 Carnival Triumph cruise.

It has been a very long day, but all Saturday’s are like that. So far today, I have had my usual coffee, and Atkins Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bar, and unsweetened ice tea. I’m currently starving and I had not planned on eating anything else for the rest of the day, but then my son brought me half of an avocado with Tuna. Who can say no to that when they are starting???

This morning while I was working my real job, I was able to sort thru 923 photos from our Carnival Triumph cruise. It is actually a fairly easy process. I order my photos from Shutterfly. I arrange my photos by their identifying number and luckily that is pretty much how they arrive. I then separate them according to the day and then put them in photo protectors. Very easy. So very easy.

Today is Dixie’s 4th birthday. Unfortunately, I was not able to take her to Petsmart like I had hoped, but that’s ok. She’s a Yorkie. I’m sure she will forgive me.

So tell me, how do you keep you vacation photos?