The plans are in motion for the Mediterranean cruise!!! The text came last night just before I fell asleep and yikes! I was awake for the next 2 hours even though my alarm was set for 4:30am.
Yeah - barely 5 hours of sleep! It wasn't the texting as that only lasted 10 minutes or so. It was the excitement and then worry about "Who will get the boy off to school?" "Who will be Meri's verbal alarm clock?" I know all these things will get worked out. Meri is working harder at obeying her physical alarm clock and I'm sure she'll adjust to it soon.
I've got 4-5 months. It's going to be ok! But did my mind know that at 11pm? nah.
Whew! Barcelona, France, Italy. So looking forward to it! And it'll be somewhat cold. I'll be doing my research for what to pack in the coming months.
Several months ago, Robb and I planned a cruise for THIS very weekend! It had to be cancelled...
Thanks Covid...
Today is the day we would have winging south to Florida. Sigh. Little did we know that Covid would still be a thing... and it's probably a good thing or I would have spent my 3 work days off (Thursday, Friday and Monday) anxious about getting calls from my boss and clients about a big programming project that I'm in the middle of. Everyone is anxious, why not make Val on her vacation?...
Oh and it's an ice storm today so the flight probably would have been delayed anyway.
So as it stands, I'm taking tomorrow afternoon off and Robb and I will stay at a wonderful hotel pretending that it's a cruise ship. Embassy Suites are awesome and kind of give you that feel anyway.
Our spacious cabin overlooks the promenade deck.
It's only for a couple nights, but I'm looking forward to getting away!!!
No dishes, no laundry, just Robb and me.
Then back to the same old same old.
And that crazy ground hog predicted 6 more weeks of winter.
It could have been a better prediction... Like only a month and a half til spring.
Wow, it's been a while! The days have been a rush. Every time I think, Hey! That would make a great blog post, I realize that I hadn't done the last day of my cruise story and then it all goes away for a while.
SO... let's get the last day of the cruise story out of the way so I can get on with my life. right?
Day 5: Caribbean cruise.
After a grand breakfast in the grand dining room, Meri and I waltzed through the promenade one last time. Meri wanted to act like she owned the cute little beach buggy that one of the stores was giving away. Apparently we did NOT win it...
And we said our goodbyes to our home away from home and hello to land legs. Not a fun feeling. For the next few days, I still felt like I was swaying to the waves...
Some of the last palm trees we'll see for a while.
The kids in our car wanted to hit the beach one last time before heading to the airport.
So we stopped at Cocoa Beach and got our fill of the waves, sea air and sea shells.
I filled a bag with shells that I found and they're waiting to be made into a heartfelt gift someday. I still have 10 pounds of Irish shells waiting for that same purpose...
Meri made me pose for this one. I'm wearing a shirt that went to the fair and some shorts that I was able to complete before the cruise. I wasn't VERY happy with them but they matched the top.
And I was running out of clean laundry.
And I caught her unawares with this one.
Cocoa Beach was beautiful!
And the waves crashing in were gorgeous!
and check out his beach skate board! SOOO cool!
After the beach, we saw a Ron Jon Surf Shop! Everyone needed souvenirs.
Meri was interested in a sweat shirt and head phones. But they didn't have any head phones there to fit her phone.
I thought this would be good shirt, but was vetoed.
She's an uncommon girl with non-standard plugs for her phone...
The gang opted to also stop at a Target to find either ear buds or an adaptor so she could use mine. Also bought some snacks for the flight because our cheapo airline charges if you want to recline your seat... ;) just kidding, but not...
Isn't the shark cool?
As SOON as we were dropped off at our terminal area, Meri and I ran! Got checked in and then grabbed some food for lunch, meeting up with Melanie and kids one last time by chance as their terminal wasn't too far from ours.
Since Meri and I were apparently the absolute last people to get our boarding passes, we couldn't sit together. She was in the aisle behind me with a couple who couldn't speak English and I was in an aisle with a couple who didn't want to at all.
So without ear buds, I did cross words or Sudoku the entire way home.
It took a while to get onto a bus to the economy parking when we got back to Minneapolis and we panicked when we didn't remember that the bus driver on Thursday had given us a ticket on where to get our car. I finally found it in a little known secret pocket of my purse. WHEW!
Sunday. We slept in a bit... til 7 I think! After breakfast, Ruth Ann and I roamed the deck. We'd arrived at the island Cococay! So we explored and saw the rough seas.
Wondered if we'd get to go parasailing... and Meri had wanted to swim with the pigs... Ruth Ann and others wanted to go snorkeling...
We found additional life boats! It really didn't look like there were enough on the other deck...
and the instructions on how to use them. We're experts now.
We watched the men on the dock pull us snug. It was fascinating to watch. I don't know why we were the only ones out there watching, but maybe we were on the wrong deck.
Below we saw the wagons and hoped we wouldn't be expected to ride on them.
They looked uncomfortable! But a gangway went down and a forklift started hauling out food and supplies on flats and loading up on the wagons. aha!!! The chef from the day before had said that the galley crew supplied all the food for the restaurants on the island. So that's why the food was free everywhere on the island too! cool!
ALL those wagons got loaded up. The last one piled high with bags of ice. I didn't think it looked like enough...
This was our view of the island so far.
There is a water park, as if you can't get enough water
slides on the ship... And we were heading there.
Anyway, we found Meri and told the others that we'd meet them on the dock. As soon as Ruth Ann, Meri and I got our sea pass scanned and we were out on the dock, there were trolleys available so we jumped on one.
here we are..
And the view of the ship.
Once the driver dumped us all out, I remembered that Ken and Teresa were going to meet us at the gangway. WHOOPS!!! Ruth Ann went off toward the beach to find out about snorkeling with Melanie and family. And Meri and I climbed right back on and went back to the ship. We got scanned again because you never know when a stowaway will try to sneak aboard!
Found those three and headed back!
As soon as we got dropped off for the 2nd time, we found out that all the excursions had been cancelled due to the windy conditions. shoot! No parasailing, no swimming with pigs, no snorkeling...
We made it to the beach and found hundreds of beach chairs and a deserted beach!! YAY!!
Meri and I hadn't planned that far ahead so we went to find a restroom to change into our suits. When we got back, Teresa watched our stuff and the rest of us swam in the ocean until I got too much salt water in my eyes...
Ahhh this is the life!!!
Then Teresa went in with Ken and did lots of antics for photo ops. I've got hundreds of these types of pics to get the very best one.
I think this is it.
It was about this time that Meri got a FB message from Melanie asking where we were! Meri had had internet access all along because she got the wifi package, but Melanie hadn't! There must be wifi on the island!!! It was sketchy, but there was intermittently. We found out that they had saved us some chairs by the pool. So the 5 of us moseyed that way. No sign of Ruth Ann.
We found the land bound swimming pool with a sunken bar and tables! Cool! I didn't want to get in the water, so I walked all the way around and found a walk up side to the bar for some pop.
Went back and found Teresa and Ken's chairs. No sign of Melanie and kids either.
I don't remember WHEN exactly we met up with Ruth Ann again... But she was at the chairs too.
She had wandered around the island 4 times, or so she says, and had walked all the way over to the houses where the onland staff lives. She got a ride back to the pool area and that's where we must have caught up with her.
It had abeen a lazy morning and it was about lunch time, so Ruth Ann, Meri and I headed to one of the buffets and got lunch. Ruth Ann got her food and headed back to the chairs.
We had visitors at the table!
Isn't he amazing?
Caught up with Melanie and her kids there too! AH!!! And the "pool" they'd messaged was the bay swimming area. Melanie didn't even know about the "pool" pool.
So after lunch, they came to join us at the pool for a while.
While we sat at the chairs visiting, a little boy wandered into our area followed by a lifeguard type woman. She said that the boy appeared to be lost. He crawled under a chair in front of us. Just then the mom came up and she was in tears and so upset! Apparently she'd turned her back for just a sec asking someone a question and he'd bolted. We assured her that we were all moms and we totally understood! They had to lift the chair off and the boy was reunited with his mommy.
I kind of feel like a jerk now for taking the picture...
We split up after that. Some wanted to explore and maybe swim more, Meri and I wanted to buy souvenirs for everyone. BUT they had to be small enough to fit in our luggage...
I found key chains, t-shirts, a cigar for Robb, bracelets, deck of cards and a scarf for me. Then met up at the beach for a bit with everyone.
Can't get enough of the Caribbean selfies!
Most everyone wanted to go back to the ship
so Ruth Ann and I wandered around the many, MANY little gift huts to round out her gifts for all her kids.
We came across some hammocks that we hadn't seen yet! AHHHH...
And then another in front of the ship before we head back.
Then back to the floating hotel.
We had to get scanned back on the ship and then we wanted to watch the ship shove off.
From the deck, we could see the last stragglers get on board.
The very last was a very drunk woman who was flirting heavily with the security guy. "What do you MEAN you can't come on board?!"
She high fived all the workers and as soon as her boyfriend pulled her into the ship, the workers were whipping that gangway together and undoing all the ropes. We could hear one of them on their walkie talkies, "Apparently she fell asleep in one of the cabanas..."
And we were OFF again!
The island workers waved to us! What a fun job they must have!
As the ship got further from the dock, we could see all the churned up mud underneath. Wow...
After that, Ruth Ann and I went on the waterslide on board the ship. The slide tunnels are outside the top of the ship... WHEW! That was a snootful of water when you hit the bottom! But now we can say we did it!
Then we all went, showered and got dressed for dinner. At one point, Meri and I needed to run back up to our room and as we ran through the Schooner Bar, I saw the lady that had led the 70s dance class on Friday night. She was looking for a volunteer in a crowded bar and since I "kind of" knew her, I asked, "What are you playing?"
AHA! she cried and grabbed my arm, pulling me up on the stage next to the baby grand piano. "What's your name and where are you from?" "ummm Val from Iowa."
Meri stood nearby stunned that she'd lost me.
The gal made me close my eyes and pick a celebrity from a stack of cards. She then showed it to everyone in the room. I had two minutes to ask as many questions as I could to determine which celebrity I'd chosen. Within 2 seconds of the end, I said "Elton John." YES!!!! I had won!!!!
A Royal Caribbean pen.
...I'd kind of been hoping a free cruise, but there you go.
During supper, our assigned waitresses, Camilla and Katia brought us a couple of these special little cakes to our table to celebrate the last night of the cruise.
Suddenly some loud party music started up and all the waitors did a parade for the guests. FUN! Since Ken and Teresa have been on these cruises before, they knew what to do. We waved our napkins in the air as the staff lined up on the stairs and danced for us. A few other tables were waving their napkins too, but several people looked confused. JUST WAVE THEM!!!
After dinner, Meri and I were to meet up with Melanie and Ruth Ann on the deck. They didn't show. We assumed that we'd misunderstood or they had, so we played shuffleboard on a windy, wet night. I couldn't leave the ship without playing shuffleboard at LEAST once!
On our way back through the ship, Meri wanted a pic of her impersonating the statue.
Yeah - you better try it with my scarf!
better....
We found all the girls down in the Art auction area buying their photos of the trip. Meri and I had done that earlier.
Then we all went to see the ice show that had been postponed since Friday night.
Wow!!! What an awesome show! I can see why they'd need a calmer sea to ice skate on board a ship!
Meri had chosen the front row seats and we got sprayed with ice shavings more than once.
And that was Day 4. Lots of Ahas and actually it was... a Perfect Day at Cococay!
