Category: Vacation

Rest and Relaxation

On By debweeksIn Florida, Illinois, Vacation2 Comments

That is always the hope when you go on vacation.  Not sure our upcoming vacation will be full of rest and relaxation, but are hopefully it will be full of smiles and laughter.

After a quick trip to Illinois where we will visit family and friends, hubby and I will head south to Florida with a van full of kids for 5 days on the beach for . . . . .

Body boarding
See the source image

Which won’t look anything like this when we’re hitting the waves.  🙂

Building sand castles

Ours likely won’t look anything like this.

Collecting shellsSee the source image

Watching sunsetsSee the source image

Taking walks along the beachSee the source image

Swimming
See the source image

SnorkelingSee the source image

I will share stories and pictures along the way.

 

The End of our Cruise

On By debweeksIn Cruise, VacationLeave a comment

It was our final morning and as always, I got up to head out to the balcony.  As predicted, it was foggy.  Very foggy!  We were sitting still off the Texas coast waiting on the Port Authority to give permission to come into dock.  In the distance, we could see some other ships, but the fog was thick enough that it was hard to tell just how close or how far away they were.

Regardless of the fog, the ship’s crew needed to stick to schedule as much as possible and since the Windjammer was only open for a few hours on our last morning, we got dressed and headed upstairs for some breakfast.

The Windjammer is extremely packed on two days of a cruise – Day 1 and Day 7 – and it was packed full of passengers.  Most were looking sad and tired as they stood in different lines to get their food.  Tables were difficult to find, but our friend Gena (you can read about Gena here) helped us find a table and we were soon making our way thru the crowd for our farewell breakfast.

Word from the Captain was that we would be pulling into port sometime after 10:00, but everyone needed to be out of their staterooms by 9:00.  Even though we couldn’t leave the ship, the crew still needed to get everything set up and ready for the new passengers that would be getting on the ship later that day.  So we stayed in our room as long as we could and then headed to our assigned place to await our departure information.

You might think it was exciting news that our ship was delayed getting into port, but with most everything shut down in preparation for the next cruiser’s arrival, all we could do was sit and wait.  There were a couple of places open for drinks and food, but it was primarily just sit and wait.

Finally, 3 hours after our original disembarkation time, we were getting off the ship.  After the long wait, it wasn’t quite as sad leaving the ship 🙂

The check out process, like the check in process, went pretty smoothly.  We stood in line, but the line continued to move steadily.  We found our luggage quickly and stood in another line waiting to get thru customs.  Once thru customs, we headed to our assigned spot to catch the shuttle to the cruise parking lot and soon were on our way to Houston to drop our friends off for their flight back home.

Hubby and I both agree that while we enjoyed our cruise this year, we enjoyed our cruise on Allure a little bit more.  Liberty of the Seas is a nice ship, with lots of activities to keep everyone busy.  The food and service were wonderful.  The shows were entertaining.  The pool area was very nice and we left our cruise with lots of wonderful memories.

Would we take another cruise on Liberty, absolutely!  However, we are more interested in cruising on Allure again and trying out some of Royal Caribbean’s other ships.  For a matter-of-fact, we left the ship with our European cruise scheduled but we scheduled a second cruise as well.  Right now we’re scheduled to go back to the Western Caribbean in December, but will likely change our itinerary and head back to the Eastern Caribbean or to the Southern Caribbean in January of 2018 .   We have some time to decide and with our reservations already made, it will be easy to change.

For now I’ll say Bon Voyage and leave you with more pictures from our week on Liberty of the Seas in the Western Caribbean.

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Day 6 – At Sea

On By debweeksIn Cruise, VacationLeave a comment

We boarded the ship full of happiness and excitement about the week ahead, then suddenly our trip was coming to an end.   Yet, with a full day ahead of us, we were determined to enjoy it even though we knew tomorrow was D-day (disembarkation day).

I headed out to the balcony for one last morning at sea, but the sun was rising on the other side of the ship, so no photos.  Then we headed to the Windjammer for breakfast and later for lunch.  The girls enjoyed time in Adventure Ocean and at the pool.  We also went ice skating.

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I’m on the ice helping Naomi get onto the ice.  Until this day, I hadn’t been ice skating in well over 20 years.  It was Naomi’s first time.
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Now Lili is getting on the ice.  While I won’t go into a lot of detail, her ice skating experience was not a pleasant one for her.  We found out later that her skates were too big and she ended up with bruises on her arms from trying to hold herself up on the wall and not fall down.  She made it around one time, very slowly and then she was done.  I don’t think ice skating is in her future, but she can now say she’s been ice skating.
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Naomi was slowly getting the hang of it and having a lot of fun on the ice. 

After ice skating and some pool time, we got ready for our last dinner in the dining room.

We really had some fantastic meals on board.  Each evening we sat at the same table with the same servers, which meant they knew us by name, knew what drinks we liked, what kind of bread we liked, etc.

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This is Gena!  She was the assistant to our waiter and I swear she was the happiest staff member on board.  She greeted us each evening, but was also in the Windjammer each morning greeting everyone.  She was the one who taught us how to make the napkin cat ears that Naomi enjoyed wearing at dinner each evening.
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I have no idea what she was doing here, but probably singing.  She and Gena got along very well.
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Here is Gena with Lili, Naomi and our friend Grace.
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This is Louie.  He was our waiter all week, providing us with wonderful service.  He also entertained us with magic tricks. 

After dinner, the girls went to Adventure Ocean one last time while our friends and I went to the theater on board to watch the Broadway show, Saturday Night Fever.  We had been waiting for it all week.

With everything packed and ready to go, I put our luggage in the hall to be collected and taken to the holding area for our departure the next morning.  However, we weren’t sure what time our departure would be the next morning as the Captain had announced that the Port Authority in Galveston was warning of thick fog which meant ships could not come into port.  We headed to bed knowing we would get more information the next morning and a little excitement that maybe our cruise wasn’t going to end quite as soon as we thought.

 

 

Day 5 – Continued

On By debweeksIn Cruise, VacationLeave a comment

Day 5 was jammed packed with activity.  Instead of writing much, I’ll just post some photos Lili and I took while snorkeling as well as some photos from the Dream Works parade.  The underwater photos are not the best quality.  What we saw was much better than what the camera captured, but at least you can get a small glimpse of our experience.

Enjoy!

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Lili absolutely loved snorkeling and is interested in learning how to scuba dive. She is almost old enough, so we’ll be checking into scuba diving classes in the not too distant future.

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Day 5 – Cozumel

On By debweeksIn Cruise, Vacation6 Comments

We woke up to another beautiful day, but due to where our room was on the ship and the direction we were traveling, I wasn’t able to get a sunrise photo 😦  I’m sure it was beautiful though.  Yet I still had to take a picture of the morning.

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I still set out on the balcony taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the ocean.  I was fortunate to catch a glimpse of a couple of dolphins as we approached port, but not having my camera ready, I wasn’t able to get any photos of them.

During breakfast, we were joined by Allure of the Seas.  We sailed on Allure last year and it was good to see her again.

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Here they are next to each other.

After breakfast, we got off the ship and headed to our excursion location.  We were going on a snorkeling and beach excursion, so Lili was pretty excited about the day.  She learned to snorkel on our cruise last year and was anxious to try out her skills once again.

A note to anyone going to Cozumel, don’t try to take fresh food into port.  We had grabbed a few bananas to have as snacks and had to throw them away before they would let us into Cozumel.  I have no idea what they do with all the food they collect, but they had collected quite a bit and it was sad to think it was going to be tossed.

It was only a short walk to the end of a pier near the cruise port and within a few minutes of arriving, a catamaran pulled up and we were soon on board.  Our excursion was with a company called Fury Catamarans and they wasted no time getting everyone on board, handing out snorkel equipment to those who were snorkeling.  Before long we were on our way while our tour guide gave us instructions, keeping us entertained as he spoke.  After he was done, we were free to move about the boat while we made our way to the reef, which was also a great time to get some photos.

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Parasailing looks like fun, but I’m not sure I’m brave enough to actually do it.

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Not sure I can ever get enough of the blue ocean water.  It is so beautiful!!

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We’re getting further away from port.

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These two love being on the boat.

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They are having too much fun!

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Hubby was enjoying himself as well.

And then we arrive at the reef.  It was time to put on our snorkel gear and get in the water.

Naomi was too scared to try snorkeling this year, so she and hubby stayed on board and took pictures.

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Snorkel time!

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The water was a little cooler than I expected, but it didn’t take long to get used to it.

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The fish and the reef were AMAZING!!!  I’ll share underwater photos in a separate post.

Lili and I snorkeled for about 30 minutes and then headed back to the boat.  A few minutes later, everyone was on board and we headed to the next part of our excursion.

Beach time!!!

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This is Naomi’s idea of water time.  She knows how to swim, but isn’t sure of her abilities yet.  Hopefully another summer in our pool is all she will need.

This beach had some fun water play equipment as well.

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Lili worked and worked and worked trying to get up this slide.  It was missing a handle and she finally gave up and moved on to this slide.

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Lili had a great time trying out the different play equipment.

Naomi, on the other hand, had a great time collecting shells and coral pieces again.

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And covering her body in sand.

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We spent about 1 1/2 hours at this beach and it was wonderful.  We enjoyed the sand, the water, the sun and the drinks that were included as part of our excursion.

Too soon we were back on the boat for our trip back to the ship.  Little did we know that it would become the party barge on the way back.

They served drinks and the crew lead everyone in dancing the Macarena, YMCA, a Conga line and a couple other dances.

Hubby and Lili sat back and watched the dancing.  Naomi and I, on the other hand, joined right in and had an awesome time.

Once we were back on shore, we headed into Cozumel to do a little shopping.

But first we needed to get a picture of the girls with this guy.

 

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Out of all the stops on this cruise, I was looking forward to Cozumel the least.  We had been there on our first cruise and while we had a good time, it wasn’t anything spectacular in my book.  This time, Cozumel was my favorite port stop out of the three.  The excursion was fantastic and the next time we return to Cozumel, we will be going on another Fury Catamaran snorkel and beach excursion.

Day 5 was packed full of fun and activity, including a Dream Works parade.  I’ll share those photos in a later blog post as well.

Adios for now!