Carnival Breeze 2022 Recap – End of cruise, travel home, final thoughts

Getting off the ship is always a sad time. Yesterday, we decided that we would not do the self-assist and instead would leave our luggage outside our door. That definitely freed up a lot of space in our room.

We went to the Lido deck in search of food. I had there ever so yummy (not really) scrambled eggs, pork sausage links, hash browns, croissant, butter, grape jelly, strawberry compote, and coffee. Jim had his usual Blue Iguana breakfast burrito consisting of eggs, sausage, ham, hash browns, onion, cheese, guacamole, creme fraiche, salsa rojo, and coffee/hot chocolate combo. His coffee was actually yummy!!!! I wish we would have tried that sooner. We decided to eat our breakfast in our stateroom so we could do any last minute packing and double check several times to make sure we didn’t forget anything.

After we finished eating, I stepped out onto our cold balcony to see the Carnival Vista at terminal one. We knew we would be at terminal two. No big deal.

While we waited in our stateroom until we had to leave, I straightened up the bed and left some goodies and an envelope for our room stewards. They did an excellent job of making sure we had everything we needed which was basically only ice.

Once we were finally off the ship, the cruise really was over. That means the post cruise depression is right around the corner.

Our drive home included a stop of Buc-ee’s to stretch our legs and relieve ourselves. Once again we did not purchase any drinks. We also stopped at a Taco Bell in College Station to grab something to eat. This was not my choice.

Another stop at the Little Czech Bakery in West, Texas for some Kolache’s. Then a stop in Waco for gas. Then we were home. Our critters were so happy we were home. And we were happy to be out of the car.

My final thoughts on the cruise. Cookie is the BEST cruise director and definitely my favorite. Jim and I hope we sail with him again some day. He really puts himself into every activity he hosts and makes everything so very entertaining. He is also very personable. Just the best.

Overall, the cruise was great. There were a couple of things that were not really what we expected things to be. For instance, we had reservations at the steakhouse for the first night on board. When we got there, the hostess was not very friendly. She asked if we wanted to sit at the bar, which is situated just off the walkway to the area the tables are in. We told her we would prefer a table so she sat us quickly after that. The steakhouse was crowded which I expected since it was on Valentine’s day. It also seems much smaller than the steakhouse on the Carnival Dream. The meal itself was excellent and our waitstaff was good. But the entire meal felt like we were being rushed. I do not like be rushed when I am having a wonderful dinner for my birthday. With my birthday being on Valentine’s day, it is very rare that I go out to eat as everywhere is packed. I learned on this cruise that it would also be packed on my birthday.

The only other thing we noticed was the seating in the Ovation Theater. We went there to see the Love and Marriage show. We decided to sit on deck 5 so we could get a good view of everything. We had GREAT seats, but the seats had a very straight, hard, upright back. It was very hard to get comfortable. After that, if we went to something in the Ovation Lounge/Theater, we sat on deck 3. Lesson learned.

Those were the only 2 things that were just off for us but definitely did not impact our cruise negatively in any way, shape, or form. We would love to sail on Carnival Breeze again and we definitely want to be on a ship with Cookie again.

Carnival Breeze 2022 Recap – travel day!

It’s finally here!!! It seems like I have been waiting for a long time for this day to come. But today is the day we leave for our cruise. We always drive to the home port one day early so we can enjoy the island.

Today, we started with a quick visit to see my mom so we can give her some Valentine goodies!!! She was so happy.

We already knew our travel day would take us to The Little Czech Bakery in West, Texas and to Buc-ees in Waller, Texas before arriving in Galveston.

I must say, the Kolache’s at The Little Czech Bakery are beyond EXCELLENT. We loved them so much, we stopped on our return home as well. They have a large selection of Kolaches as well as sausage rolls. I highly recommend them and I will be making the drive there hopefully on a monthly basis!!!! They are that good!!!!

Our next stop was Buc-ees for gas and a restroom break. No photos this time. Maybe on the way home.

We made it to our hotel in Galveston before check-in time so we decided to see if they would let us check in early. And they did. I love staying at the Quality Inn & Suites. The staff are very friendly. We got our luggage to our room and decided to leave for dinner. As I was walking out of our room, I noticed that the door did not shut completely and could be pushed open. I called the front desk and they had someone there within minutes to fix the problem. It took maybe 15 minutes to fix the door and we were on our way out to dinner.

It is a pre-cruise tradition for us to have dinner at The Original Mexican Cafe in Galveston. The food and staff are top notch. We have never had a bad meal there. I can’t wait to go back there again!

After dinner, we drove around for a bit then decided to go back to the hotel to watch the Super Bowl and try to sleep.

And so ends another wonderful pre-cruise travel day.

Carnival Breeze 2022 – Reservations made

We currently have seven weeks to go!!! I fully aware that these weeks will fly by!!! But at least there are a few things I do not need to worry about!!!

Parking reservation was made on September 11th. We will be using Port of Galveston SMP Parking Garage located at 150 Rosenberg Street. It is conveniently located across the street from the pier. Of course, our return trip could have us at the terminal 2. It is still within walking distance. We used this facility the first time in August when we sailed on the Carnival Vista. The only drawback was the elevator not working. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the elevator will be fixed by February.

I did have an issue with hotel reservations. Let me start of by saying, I use Hotels.com for my hotel bookings. I have never had a problem and the issues were all mine, not theirs in any way, shape for form.

On September 11, I booked a one-night stay at Hotel Galvez, located at 2024 Seawall Boulevard. This is a hotel that is on my bucket list, mainly because it is haunted. I was looking forward to staying there, but then I started doing some research. Although the reviews are great, I just did not feel comfortable with having to pay extra for parking. And some of the reviews said the rooms are rather small.

So on September 17th, I cancelled my reservation for Hotel Galvez and booked Inn at the Waterpark located at 2525 Jones Drive. They had a great rate and I thought I would be okay with not having an ocean/gulf view. And any other time, especially if we had our grandkids, it would probably suit our needs better. So, I kept thinking about staying at the Inn at the Waterpark while still checking rates on Hotels.com.

Finally, on October 1st, the hotel/inn that we have stayed at before had a rate I was happy with. So, I cancelled the Inn at the Waterpark and booked our stay at Quality Inn located at 5924 Seawall Boulevard. It is a very basic place but it definitely fits our needs for a comfortable place to sleep.

Now I feel much better about our pre-cruise accommodations and have no plans to make any changes.

I have made reservations for Jim and I to have dinner at Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse on embarkation day! I am definitely excited about this. I have already decided that the clothes we will be wearing to dinner that night will be in our carry-on, just in case our checked bag(s) do not arrive in time for our 6:30 dinner reservation.

I have also made reservations for a beach club in Cozumel. This is a new place for us and for the price, it is definitely worth checking out. Bonus: It is within walking distance for Puerta Maya cruise terminal. I do not know if the rates in the photo are still available.

Please come back next Monday to read about my pre-cruise Amazon purchases so far.

Carnival Vista 2021 – Time to go home

My least favorite part of every cruise, when our cruise comes to an end. We had decided to do self-assist on this cruise so we can leave the ship relatively early.

Since we woke up early for no apparent reason, we had breakfast at the Lido Marketplace Buffet. We were not necessarily hungry, but we wanted something to go with our coffee!

Once we finished eating, we returned to our stateroom to watch us sail into Galveston. I was so happy to actually see some dolphins playing is the water.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave the ship. The debarkation process was easy with the exception of the people that do not think the rules and announcements apply to them. We made it thru the immigration process quickly as we had nothing to claim and the use of facial recognition.

After we were on the road for a while, we decided we were hungry so we stopped at a Jack In The Box for something we could eat while driving.

Next stop, Buc-ee’s in Waller, Texas for some gasoline, then we were on our way home with no additional stops.

We definitely enjoyed this cruise even thought we both had summer colds. I blame Jim for it. There were things on our to-do list that we did not do but we did go to the Punchliner club once. The remainder of the time we were just bums doing whatever we decided we wanted to do when we wanted to do it.

I do hope to go one the Carnival Vista one more time before she moves to her new home port sometime in 2023. Although we would probably pick a different itinerary. I guess the COVID restrictions will be a factor in selecting our next 7 day cruise.

So until next time, I hope you have enjoyed this series of our cruise blogs. Hopefully another one will happen in the next year or 2. Only time will tell.

Stay healthy, be safe, and thank you for reading our blogs.

Telling Our Story One Scrapbook Page At A Time – Installment 19, Galveston 2012 No. 6, Evening in Galveston.

It seems only appropriate after the walking, driving, in and out of the car, that we did it would be appropriate for us to go in search of a place to eat. The dining options in Galveston are endless. The variety ranges from fast food to fine dining. It all depends on what you want at any given time. Today we decided to have a late lunch, early dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. It’s nothing special but definitely hit the spot. Of course, our travel mascot Fernando deFrog Cruise had to have a cocktail!

A walk along Seawall Boulevard was required after eating. Obviously I was on my way to my favorite shopping spot on Seawall! Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures inside Murdochs but maybe on another trip to Galveston, I will.

Our evening ended with a beautiful sunset outside the condo.

We didn’t know how the evening/night would end, but it ended suddenly. While we were relaxing, we received a frantic call from our granddaughter, Jennifer. My mom fell in the bathroom and she did not know what to do. Jennifer was scared as I’m sure anyone would be at that age (13). We immediately packed up and headed back home. I think we made it to the hospital in record time! Luckily, there were no serious injuries and the cause of the fall was determined to be from a seizure and a small stroke.

Telling Our Story One Scrapbook Page At A Time – Installment 18, Galveston 2012 No. 5, Some Beautiful Houses

While on our trek to find the tree sculptures, we saw some beautiful house. I thought I should share a few with you.

The Frederich-Erhard House, a historical home we saw. It is beautiful.

Another beautiful house. Just look at the details. Definitely very grand. Vibrant colors. But I can’t get over the details!

Two more houses that really caught my eye. I just love the colors.

The houses have stood against hurricanes and the floods they bring. Most of the house we saw had signs near the front door showing where the flood waters came to on the house.

I think we might be getting a little hungry now so please come back to see what we get into next!

Telling Our Story One Scrapbook Page At A Time – Installment 17, Galveston 2012 No. 4, Tree Sculptures part 2.

Continuing on our tree sculpture journey.

“Geisha” located at 1717 Ball Street. Artist: Jim Phillips.

“Sister Angels” located at 1717 Ball Street. Artist: Dayle Lewis.

“Tin Man and Toto” located at 1702 Winnie. Artist: Jim Phillips.

“Grandmother Reading To Her Grandchildren” located at 1723 Winnie. Artist: Earl Jones.

“Monument to Galveston Trees” located at 1028 Winnie. Artist: Jim Phillips.

“Mermaid Holding Clam Shell” located at 1408 Church Street. Artist: Dayle Lewis.

“Pelican Sitting On Piling” located at 1618 Church Street. Artist: Dayle Lewis.

There are still so many more I will need to find and I am happy to do that on our next extended trip to Galveston.

We did some some beautiful houses while we were on our tree sculpture adventure. I will share those scrapbook pages in the next installment.

Telling Our Story One Scrapbook Page At A Time – Installment 16, Galveston 2012, No. 3 Tree Sculptures part 1

On September 13, 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston. Among the destruction Ike caused were beautiful old trees, uprooting and killing thousands. Years later, the tree sculptures were born.

On this day, we decided we would take the list and map we found online and see how many tree sculptures we could find. Although we did not find them all, we could have but our stomachs had other ideas. So, here is today’s tree sculpture scrapbook pages.

“Pod of Dolphins and Mermaid” located at 902 Ball Street. The artist is Earl Jones.

“Dolphin” located at 828 Ball Street. The artist is Earl Jones.

“Squirrel with Acorn” located at 1302 Ball Street. The artist is Dayle Lewis.

“Wildlife Totem Pole” located at 1302 Ball Street. The artist is Dayle Lewis.

“Two Herons” located at 1316 Ball Street. The artist is Dayle Lewis.

“Guitar” located at 1415 Ball street. The artist is unknown, however some website say the homeowner is the artist.

“Toad” located at 1615 Ball Street. The artist is Dayle Lewis.

Tomorrow I will be back to complete the tree sculpture tour.

Telling Our Story One Scrapbook Page At A Time – Installment 15, Galveston 2012 No. 2

Continuing with SeaWolf Park. Since we were homeschooling our son at this time, we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to visit the Galveston Naval Museum.

We first toured the USS Stewart, a WWII destroyer escort.

Then toured the USS Cavalla, a WWII submarine.

There are truly no words to describe the history we walked through. Photos do not do it justice.

Afterwards, we walked over to a building on the park that was destroyed by Hurricane Ike.

I must confess, I did have to go to Michaels to purchase something I did not have to create my scrapbook pages on the UUS Stewart and USS Cavalla. I initially went to get stickers only, but then I saw the embossed navy blue paper and new it would be perfect for the layouts.

Tomorrow will be another fun day as we go in search of the tree sculptures.

Telling Our Story One Scrapbook Page At A Time – Installment 14, Galveston 2012 No. 1

It’s time for me to put together scrapbook pages for a weekend getaway we took in 2012. We like going to Galveston. It’s somewhat east to get to from our house as long as we manage to avoid the traffic in Houston. That is definitely the worse part of going to Galveston… Houston traffic and Houston road construction. It’s never ending much like I-35!!!

On this trip, it was my husband, our son Dawson, and our traveling frog mascots. Luckily they didn’t get out too much. We used bonus time with our SilverLeaf timeshare so we had a place to stay and didn’t have to worry about where we would be eating. We typically eat at the condo so we always stop at WalMart to pick up the necessary items as we are driving in. Every morning starts the same way… coffee on the balcony.

On this day, we decided to make our way to SeaWolf Park. It is so nice there. Lots to see and explore. I like watching the ships as they pass by. And sometimes, I have even spotted dolphins playing. But not this time.

To be continued