CRUISIN' 2015

On May 13, 2015, Mr. W and I will be married 40 years.  Did I just say 40 years? How did that happen? I couldn’t possibly be old enough to be married 40 years! My, how time flies.

So, in honor of our 40 years together, we decided to take a cruise.  It seems this has become our tradition to do this every 5 years since our 30^th anniversary.  Even though I’ve always lived in H-town, I have never sailed out of Galveston.  I have always found better deals at other ports even with the air fare added on.  However, this year, Royal Caribbean had a deal leaving out of Galveston.  So, I signed us up.  I’m warning you right now that this post will be heavy with pictures.

We sailed on Navigator of the Seas.  This ship was refurbished in 2010 and was very nice.  We reserved cruise parking with Discount Parking in Galveston.  While we were in transit to the dock, the heavens opened up with pouring rain.  The driver of our shuttle bus stopped in the middle of the lot, got our luggage out and told us to grab our luggage and get out.  In the middle of a downpour?  Really?  I guess the word “Discount” should have been a clue.  So, we grab our luggage and start running.  By the time we reach the terminal, we are soaked.  My hair is dripping, our clothes all the way through are wet, our shoes are spitting water every time we take a step. Fortunately, when we opened our luggage, we only had a few damp things.  Some people we met opened their luggage and everything in their luggage was soaked.

We did a balcony room which is always nice. 

The room was decorated because I bought the "Anniversary Package" and that was part of it.

Our room steward was Tony.  Tony is from the Phillipines.  In two weeks, Tony was going on a 9 week vacation and returning to the Phillipines to see his wife after being on the ship for 7 months.  They don’t have any children, but he was hoping that his wife would get pregnant while he was home.  His wife is a teacher in the Phillipines. 

 

 

Tony, like most of the stewards, was a master at towel art.  I’m like a big kid and love these! I’m always excited to see new creations in our room.

 

The ship had a theater where there was a variety of entertainment.  There were the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers who did 2 shows. One was Ballroom Fever and the other was a Tribute to Broadway.

There was an accapella group, Re-Voiced.  They did one show.  I was hoping that they would be as good as the group “Six” in Branson, but they weren’t.

There were 2 comedians who were really funny and nowhere near politically correct and that was really kind of refreshing. Last but not least was a guy, Joel Mason, who did a tribute to Elton John.  Sadly, I forgot my camera that night.  He was really, really good AND funny.  He played the piano just like Elton and he wore some crazy outfits, including the glasses, just like Elton. What a photo opportunity I missed!

This ship also had an ice rink.  There were 4 performances by ice dancers/skaters.  It was free but you had to have a ticket so that everyone didn’t show up for the same performance.  This was really good.  Just imagine trying to do jumps while the ship is rocking.  Puts a whole new perspective on that doesn’t it?

 

A cruise would not be a cruise if there wasn’t food.  Do not go on a cruise trying to diet! There is food everywhere and someone is always trying to feed you.  Our waiters in the evening were Ahmet, head waiter, from Turkey and Sergio, assistant waiter, from the Dominican Republic.  These guys were great.  Every evening there are 5 entrees that are only on the menu for that particular night and about 4 entrees that are there every night.  After about day 2, Ahmet knew exactly what to recommend for each person.  He was really good at cuing in on what you liked.  Your water glass/wine glass was never empty.  Your silverware was always turned the right way for each course.  Your napkin was put in your lap.  If you ever felt like royalty, this is it.

Sergio

Ahmet

Of course there is always something going on at all hours on the ship.  I played Bingo one day. There is a casino onboard.  You know I made all the special sale events at the shops on the Promenade. J There is karaoke and dance parties. Mr. W and I spent quite a bit of time sitting by one of the pools.  One day while we were sitting by the pool, they started line dancing lessons.  I had to participate.  The ship puts together a DVD, Your Cruise in Review, so there is a cameraman that shows up at different events and tapes people doing the event.  Their media people take cuts from all of his tapes and compiles the DVD.  He was at our line dancing and I actually ended up on the DVD.  A star is born……....

Notice anyone you know...Like on the back row in a turquoise shirt with a sun visor and shades???

There were also events that happened most nights on the Promenade.  The first night was the circus parade.  It was great and very colorful.  There weren’t many kids on the cruise, but the ones that were there were totally fascinated by the circus parade.

 

There was also a disco night.  Now who wouldn’t love a 70’s party?  The Royal Caribbean version of the Village People showed up.  Every popular disco song of that era was sung and danced to.  The crowd consisted mostly of people of the generation that knew all those songs and we were singing right along.  The Village People got down in the crowd and interacted with everyone.  I ended up doing the “booty bump” with the construction worker.  We were laughing like crazy.  In fact, Mr. W was laughing and forgot to turn on the camera and take a picture.  I’m pretty sure that I’m thankful for that.

The Disco Divas

Sing along - Y-M-C-A

The construction worker that I did the booty bump with.  Fortunately he had pulled his pants up before that happened!

Anyway, great ship and great cruise.  There will be a separate blog post about the excursions I took at each port of call.  Stay tuned.  There’s more to come.

A few more pics:

Looking down at the Promenade from our level.

Me and Mr. W on our first formal night.