Spring Break, 2013

 Claudia and I headed for Texas last week to join Jacque, Jeff, Rachael and Kyndi for the girls Spring Break cruise to the Caribbean on Royal Caribbean’s “Mariner of the Seas”.  We left Encinitas just as a small weather front hit our area.  After a short visit with the kids, with the obligatory shopping visit to the local Bass Pro Shops store thrown in, we headed for Galveston Sunday morning to board the ship.  Even though we got there early, traffic was already terrible.  Galveston has a crappy cruise ship terminal.  Both arrivals and departure vehicles occupy the same curb area and confusion is rampant!  We dropped our bags off, parked the cars and boarded the ship.

What was the first thing to do?  Eat, of course!  The Windjammer Café was ready and waiting for us.  We scarfed down a leisurely brunch and then toured the ship to get a lay of the land.  The ship is 1,021 feet long and 127 feet wide and has 1,200 crewmembers.  It has three 14,000 KW electric motors run by six 12,600 KW generators and can do 24 knots at full speed.  The total fresh water production is 540,000 gallons per day.  During our 7-day cruise, we consumed 20,000 pounds of beef, 12,000 pounds of chicken, 28,000 eggs, 15,000 pounds of flour, 65,000 pounds of fresh veggies, 8,000 gallons of ice cream,  19,200 cans or bottles of beer, 11,500 cans of soda and 2,900 bottles of wine.  There are a total of 1,557 staterooms on board.  That’s why they call it a “Mega-ship”!

We left Galveston about 4:30 pm and headed for sea.  The aforementioned small weather front had by now caught up with us and we had light drizzles and wind that kept us inside.  Days 2 and 3 were cruising days as we headed toward Roatan, Honduras.  When we awoke the morning of Day 4, we were there.  We got up early, grabbed a quick breakfast and joined our shore excursion to Tabayna Beach. 

Due to the wind and threatening weather, the snorkeling trip to the local reef was cancelled.  We made the best of it by renting snorkeling gear and diving the inner reef (which was open), getting massages

and drinking several rum-based fruity drinks.  After a buffet lunch, RIGHT AFTER the buffet lunch, the skies opened up and chased us back to the ship.  So much for Roatan!  We departed around 5:00 pm.

After cruising all night, we arrived at Belize City, Belize the next morning.  After another hurried breakfast, we joined our group for a one-hour boat ride to a marine reserve at Caye Caulker.

 The weather was better today and the water was diveable, with only a moderate current to contend with.  The visibility was about 60-70 feet so the fish-watching was very acceptable.  We saw lots of tropical fish, one lobster and one moray eel. 

After an hour or so, we picked up and moved to a shallow area to lure some rays and sharks to the boat with offerings of cut fish.  The rays showed up before we got the anchor down.  The crew threw out a couple of bait tubes and the rays pounced on them.  We slid into the chest-deep water as the rays flew around, bumping into us as they jostled to find food.  Most were around three feet in diameter and were very soft to the touch. 

Two nurse sharks soon joined the fray, one was three feet long and the other was just over four.  Their skin was VERY rough.  After a half-hour playing with the rays and sharks, the crew opened the food tubes and jettisoned the cut bait.  All hell broke loose as they fought for the food. 

We all got back into the boat and headed for lunch and a walk at the thriving metropolis of Caye Caulker.

This is the main street on Caye Caulker

After lunch, we headed back to Belize City and “home”.  

After another 5:00 pm departure, we were on our way to Cozumel, Mexico.  We had no activities planned for this stop so breakfast was fairly leisurely this morning.  When we did depart the ship, we grabbed a taxi and headed for the recommended shopping area a short distance away.  

Claudia’s attention was aimed at a cute pair of diamond earrings that were at first glance, studs.  They transformed into “danglies” with a quick flip of a fingernail.  After the first establishment tried the typical Mexican bait-and-switch and “make me a deal” tactic, we walked out.  The next store, a sister store of the first one, gave her a fairly straight-forward approach and a deal was finalized in short order.  Claudia was happy!  

We then jumped into another taxi and headed south of town to preview the local Fiesta Americana as a possible future destination.  It was nice and is now in the “YES” category.  We then returned to the ship, pausing only to buy two bottles of local hot sauce, one labeled with something like “Hold onto your sombrero!” and the other with “Follow this with ice cream or you’ll be sorry!”

We got a late start pulling out because of a computer glitch on the ship that said one couple had left their child behind.  Once that got straightened out, they pulled in the gangway and dropped the lines to depart.  Oops!  Another couple came running up the dock.  The captain held the ship against the pier with the thrusters while the gangway was again deployed.  The couple boarded and, this time, we pulled away, destination Galveston, after an all-night and all-day cruise at 20+ knots, primarily due to our port delay at Cozumel.  Our cruise was uneventful, except for a quick “zig” to check out an old boat wreck.  

We got all packed up the evening of Day 7 and put our luggage out for the porters to take down and get ready for debarkation the next morning.

Our check-out time was in group 11, which was scheduled off at about 10:00 am.  However, the on-board PA system soon informed us that, due to the sequester and budget cuts, our departure would be delayed by about an hour.  Great!  Thanks Obama!  Exactly one hour behind schedule, our number was called.  We left the ship and joined a  L  O  N  G,  V  E  R  Y   S  L  O  W  line to get through customs.  I inadvertently (really) and accidentally (really…again) cut into a line to get a porter (and thus shorten the wait to customs as opposed to the shmucks that were dragging their own luggage) and breezed right through.  Well, it was more of a drift than a breeze, but we got through it.  We now faced the traffic!

What a freakin’ mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The Port of Galveston HAS to get a handle on this.  They have to change the traffic pattern so that is improves from its present description of “Complete chaos” to something more manageable.  We waited over an hour for Jeff to get the car from right across the street and bring it to the curb so we could load our luggage.  I vowed to have TWO stiff shots of Scotch that night…if not more!

We got our stuff home and unloaded.  Jeff and I made a quick run to the Academy Sports store where I made a killer deal on a new camouflage back pack and accessories bag for under $30.  I was ecstatic!  We returned to four very hungry people.  

We all jumped into the Expedition and headed for Crazy Alan’s Swamp Shack.  We ordered appetizers of fried alligator bites (YUM!!!!) and hushpuppies.  Claudia had a seafood burrito that was absolutely delicious.  Jacque had some sort of a burger and the rest of us had eight pounds of mudbugs (crawdads) with red potatoes and corn.  It don’t get no better than that folks!

We waddled back to the car and returned home.  Let me rephrase that.  We waddled back to the car and started to return home.  On the way home, we saw a Kemah PD “stealth” vehicle stopped at a Dairy Queen. 

We had to check it out.  OK, OK…we had to check out the stealthmobile AND the DQ.  A hot fudge sundae and several ice cream “blizzards” were consumed to set off the evening.

The next morning, we were all up at O-Dark-Thirty and headed for the airport.  The plane trip and Coaster ride home were uneventful.  Choka was VERY happy to see Claudia.