The Family Cruise

We had a lovely vacation, thank you for asking.  It would have been perfect if the weather had been 5-10 F warmer, but we weren't complaining (much).  The Caribbean and the Yucatan are under the same cold weather that has been spreading snow in the southern US, but we still wore shorts (sometimes) and went in the water (a bit).

Rosie wanted to spend a lot of time working on her tan, but this was inside the Solarium, so we were out of the wind on our first sea day, but maybe not catching all of the UV rays (better for her, actually).

The first night out, the casino had lessons.  The better to reel those suckers in.  Abe and I both went but he was the only one of us to go back and actually gamble.  He wanted to take his whole wallet full of money with him, but mean ole mom would only let him take $30.  The short story of it all is that he managed to win enough each night over the 5 nights for him to have a net gain (a little over double).  Not bad.  Even if he'd lost it all, he still would've had 5 nights of entertainment.

In Costa Maya, we went to see some Mayan ruins.  Abe and I had a good time, and so did Rosie, but she won't admit it.

The next day, in Cozumel, with a chilly wind blowing, we went swimming with the dolphins!!!  Ours was named Regina.  Luckily, the water was a lot warmer than the air.  We had a great time.

We had planned on staying at the beach the rest of the day, but after getting buffetted by the waves into the fence at the dolphin lagoon and getting some scratches and being cold, we came back to the ship.

Both port days, our ship (about 2400 passengers) was docked next to another Royal Caribbean Line ship.  And we were the baby ship next to the Independence with its 4000 passengers!  The kids and I agreed, though, that we actually liked better the smaller ship that we cruised on 3 years ago (also RCL).

But some other people told us that the best ship that they had been on was the next size up, with 3500 passengers.

Our dinner table companions were from New Jersey and Paris.   A couple celebrating their 30th anniversary and a cardiologist and his biologist wife who vacation either 6-10 weeks since he has such a high stress job. (Not to mention the amount of vacation time that they get in France.)  So we have invitations to both places.  I pick Paris over NJ!  Who knows? Maybe someday.

Overall, it was an extremely relaxing vacation- just what we needed. I just wish that my inner ear knew that we were back on solid land.  We'll be moving soon to the new condo, so there's lots to do now.  Ah, now when is that next vacation?

Comments

[songbird]

Glad you had a good time. the captain of our ship actually apologized to us for the lack of sunshine last week (as if he could control the weather.)