Elation trip report

Got back on Sunday, already posted the severe low point, here's the
rest of the trip. I wouldn't hold your breath reading it, I will not
be responsible for the head injury you receive after passing out and
falling on the floor.

We had a target of getting out of Austin for Houston by noon on
Friday. Started packing at 1:30. We spent most of the day making
last minute preparations for the flooring install while we were gone.
Finally left town about 5:30, actually had clear sailing on I-10
through Houston and arrived at the in-laws about 8:50 after stopping
for dinner in Bastrop.

Saturday was spent lounging around the house and making a trip to
Academy to find a hard shell water proof glasses case, since mine was
sitting in a drawer at home. That evening we celebrated Father's Day
with Carol's folks, with a little something for birthday's and
anniversary.

Left the house about noon, made it to the parking lot (Easy Cruise,
$55 for the week) about 1:00. And waited 20 minutes in the Texas noon
day sun for a van. I don't think it was worth the money saved. Maybe
next time we'll try Dolphin, although they didn't seem to have anymore
covered spaces.

We were at security by 1:30 and whizzed through that line. Ran into a
very long line at check in, but it moved quite quickly. There was a
lady walking through the line, making sure that our Sail & Sign
authorizations were fill out correctly. Finally reached the head of
the line, with 22 check in stations it didn't take long. The
gentleman that took our information asked our name, looked it up on
the computer and didn't even ask for the Funpass form. He just said
"I need to see your passports" and then asked for a credit card. He
handed us our gold Sail & Signs, we signed them and were off to the
ship, all before 2:00. Our room was ready, so we dropped off out
things and headed out to explore the ship. The flowers I had ordered
were there and looked quite nice.

The Rhapsody was in port, too, it was interesting getting a look at
her. She had been in port when we were in Cozumel last year, but was
at Puerto Maya. We took some pictures of her from the fan tail, then
went in for a little something to eat at Tiffany's. Good food, which
portended well for the trip.

Our room was made up with two twins pushed together. We flagged down
a steward in the hall and asked who our steward was. He said he was
it and I asked that the beds be made up as a king. He said he'd do it
while we were at dinner, which he did. More on the steward in a
moment.

Dinner was very good. I won't go into everything we had, but the
starters, salads and main courses were consistently good to excellent
through out the week. I already knew some of our table mates, as it
was a group another agent had set up that I booked into. They were
celebrating her in-laws 40th, so we kind of skipped my birthday. Our
waiter Otto (Hungary) and assistant John (Taiwan) introduced
themselves and Otto said that if there was anything they could do,
just speak up. They definately made dinner a very pleasant
experience.

We returned to our stateroom to find our bed made up and turned down.
We had spent about three hours in our stateroom unpacking before
dinner (and just relaxing) and had never met our steward. I didn't
expect to see him at 9:30, so we just assumed we'd see him in the
morning. We crawled into bed only to discover that our bed was made
up with several sets of overlapping twin sheets, with double coverage
in some areas and no coverage in others. Not a good end to the day.

Monday morning (Carol's birthday) we had a wake up call. After I did
the shower & shave thing, we were off to breakfast in the restaurant.
After breakfast it was back to the room for a little lounging. Room
was made up, but no steward (you can see where this is going). We got
up, walked around the deck for a while before heading down to the
Mikado theater for a welcome aboard show. Our CD Jorge Solano was
very funny and kept things going. We had the traditional spoon race
with some pretty hilarious moments. One of the women was asked who
she was traveling with and she replied "my wife and two kids",
followed immediately by "no, I mean my husband"! "I thought we were
having a Dr. Phil moment" said Jorge and someone in the audience
yelled "Jerry! Jerry!". The race was fun, with comments along the
lines of "guys, more slack, I don't want to see the color of her
panties". The comedian was great, just wish I remember his name,
although it's in the Caper, so I'll look it up later, when I can find
them. Then it was off to lunch. After lunch we spent some more time
on deck, playing a little cribbage and one of us doing some people
watching, or at least certain parts of certain people. We both had
manicures done ($40 each plus tip) and Carol headed back to the room
for a nap. Did I mention she works 10-12 hours a day, sometimes 6
days a week? I went off to the Cole Porter lounge for a quick drink.
While I was gone, we had a little delivery. A gift basket with two
champaign flutes, a picture frame and a bottle of Korbel were
delivered to the room, courtesy of a good friend of outs. I got back
to the room in time to dress for dinner (late seating) and we headed
back for another pleasant dinner. Since it was formal night, we did
lots of pictures. I gave Carol a card at the restaurant, and had
another hidden under her pillow. Bed turned down and towel animal in
place along with mints. But the sheets were once again an arrangement
of twins that didn't really work and caused some entanglement.

Tuesday was Progresso. We slept in, had breakfast at Tiffany's (that
would make a great movie title) and headed into town. The jetty is
almost five miles long and took about 10 minutes by bus. Once into
town, we walked a few blocks to the beach. After searching for about
10 minutes for a palapa, we went to a restaurant and I ordered a
Carona while Carol had lemonade. We chatted with another group there,
had some lunch and mas cervasa, then headed back to the ship for our
massages. We had a couples massage scheduled for 3:00. It was great,
well worth the money ($242, discounted as it was a port day). While
we were there, the ship headed out.

Tuesday was our 25th anniversary and I had a cake ordered. We took
along the champaign, which Otto substituted for one already chilled.
We had flutes set out for all the adults at the table and split the
bottle over dinner. GiGi (celebrated there 40th on Sunday) had iced
tea but no sugar. So I jokingly suggested a little champaign. Which
she tried and loved. And got a little sloshed. Our cake, chocolate
was delivered, along with their cake (coconut cream), which was
supposed to have been delivered on Sunday, but Carnival had lost the
order. There was singing and laughter. It seems that there were two
or three birthdays or anniversaries every night. Both cakes were
delicious. Our room was turned down, again, but, surprise, twin
sheets.

Wednesday was Cozumel. Carol was going to do a little unsupervised
shopping while I went diving. I had had mixed results with Sand
Dollar on our last cruise, but they were much better this time.
Instead of a 45 minute boat ride to their shop, we took taxis. I had
all my gear, so it was a bit of a drag for me. Our first dive was
Santa Rosa wall, which was supposed to be 80 for 30 but my computer
said it was more like 90 for 35. Second dive was Yocab, 60 for 35.
Hard floor at 65 kept that limit, but I went 45 before being ordered
up by the DM. Then it was another trip back to the shop and another
taxi ride back to Punta Langosta. Carol was already back in the room,
having spent only a little money on some candle holders (onyx) and
some 2.5% hydrocortisone. We had lunch at Tiffany's and then played
some more cribbage in the room. We went back on deck for the sailing.
Dinner was again very good, although we did have a little drama.
Carol had the filet. Suddenly I heard her gagging and trying to
cough. I gave her a slap on the back, then got up and went behind
her. I put my arms around her and gave a pump. Nothing. Another
squeeze and out came a big chunk of meat. By this time, Otto, John
and two other waiters were there. Carol was gasping, but otherwise
okay. In a flash, Otto picked up the plate with the chunk of meat on
it. He asked if there was anything they needed to do for her. She
said she was okay. He then asked if there was anything else he could
get her and she said no. John made sure her water glass was full (as
if he didn't do that every night). She had a sherbert for dessert,
which she ate fully. People were calling me a hero, I was calling
myself a lucky husband. We went back to our room and were amazed to
discover king sheets on the bed. But we still didn't know who our
mystery steward was.

Thursday was another early day. We had booked a cave tubing trip
through shoretrips.com. We were supposedly to wait until all of the
ship's excursions had tendered in, but ran into our friends who had
stickers saying they were on the ship's trip. So we went to the
Mikado, told them we were on the cave tubing excursion and got
stickers for the earlier tender. Okay, so we cheated. But we never
said we were on the ship's trip, just "a" cave tubing trip. The
excursion was great, there were only 14 of us, we got a quick tour of
Belize City along with a history of the city and Belize. Then it was
off into the country. We were in a brand new 15 passenger Toyota van,
delivered the day before. When we took off down the dirt road, I
laughed and said "new shocks, new paint" and the driver said "not for
long". Surprisingly, it rained in the rain forest. We hiked about 45
minutes to the put in point, with a nature and history narrative along
the way. The path was muddy, slippery and tricky to navigate with an
inner tube on one's shoulder. To get in the water, our guide (Marcel)
hopped in first, then took the tube. You hold onto a rope, lean back
and drop into the tube, then float along. He had us set up in a long
train as we floated into the first cave. Being a claustrophobe, I had
no idea how I'd feel, but only had minor twinges and no real panic.
We had headlamps, but they were off for parts of the trip through the
caves. There were some rapids and shallow spots, for which we learned
the phrase "wiggle wiggle wiggle". Also "up butt". Which didn't
prevent some of us (not I) from dragging bottom. The float trip took
about an hour and a half. Then it was a ten minute walk back to the
base, where we had an excellent lunch. I snoozed on the trip back to
the pier. Once there, we did some shopping at a little market on Fort
Street, where we found some very nice wood carvings and an attractive
belt for Carol. We caught a late tender back to the ship and watched
the last minute tenders coming in, wondering who figured that 5:15
really meant 5:20. It turned out that several of our group WERE on
the very last tender!! Once everyone was onboard, we left very
quickly. We napped for a while, took another tour around and watched
some of the festivities. We had been invited to a past guests
reception, complete with free booze and hors 'devors. Then it was off
to another marvelous dinner. And a bed made with king sheets!

Friday was a late day, with breakfast at Tiffany's. We had a little
snack there later and were amused to hear a page for someone. Then a
second. The story on the whole thing has already been posted. Dinner
was kind of subdued, although the waiter's parade and singing went on
as scheduled. It was the second formal night, so more pictures. Much
conjecture and speculation as to what actually happened.

Saturday was an early day, as Carol had a spa taster treatment at 8.
After she got back we went to breakfast, then took another stroll
around the deck. The forward observation deck was incredibly breezy.
After lunch we went back to the stateroom when we heard the
announcement about the engine (did he really mean the pod?) We made
two stops for repairs. Once again we went to the gym for a workout
(went almost every day) along with a soak in the whirlpool. I got
back to the room in time for a shower and then headed out to the spa
for a facial. Very nice, probably worth what I actually paid for it.
Got the heavy sell on product, but didn't buy anything. Afterwards I
went to the Lido deck and tried to enter the hairiest chest contest,
but was #11 of 10. Sigh, and I was clearly better than the winner.
Dinner that night included chateu briand. Since we had had that on
our honeymoon at the Don Cesar in St. Petersburg, we just had to have
it. We made another circuit of the deck, taking pictures and
memories.

Sunday was early up early and off to Tiffany's again. We choose the
express self debark. With everything that went on, we were only about
an hour late getting to the dock. We were off the ship and through
Customs by 9:20 and at our car by about 9:35. We got to Carol's
parent's house about 10:30 and the pups were happy to see us. We
repacked the car with all of the stuff and headed out shortly after
noon. Nothing else of interest happened, and when we got home we were
very please with the new flooring. Now all we have to door is put
felt on everything and seal the grout.

I'm sure I've forgotten numerous things. Like how I burned 98 of my
100 minutes of internet time. Or all the pictures we bought.
--
dillon
Linux, it's not just an OS, it's a way
of life.

And a damn fine one, at that.