Stateside

We're home!! I am happy but sad. We had such a great time, I really don't know how to put into words the joy that I experienced. It was even better than I could have ever thought!! I will post pictures and more about the time later, for now I'm at my grandma's house in east Texas.

I can't wait to get home and see you all, it's been so long since I've seen many of you! Miranda, I didn't get any chimis ....but I did have some damn good nachos!!!!!! :-) Oh, and Guacamole.

I'll post again as soon as I can!!!

Paradise

I am here in Paradise...Paradise Beach that is. Sorry for the lull in posting the last couple of days, we have been busy busy!! After Jamaica we went to Grand Cayman and swam with the sting rays, oh my GAWD it was so awesome! I have never experienced something like that in my life. I can't wait to post pictures for you all!!! We are now in Cozumel, Mexico at Paradise Beach at the moment. We rented a van and as always yours truly is the driver....that is a trip let me tell you!! Anyway, there is a time limit here so I better hurry. We will be back in the states Sunday and I will blog again with pictures as soon as possible!!!



Wish you were here!!!

Goodbye Dolly!!!

Things are much much better, today, thank goodness!! TS Dolly has moved away from us and we have had clear sailing since early this morning!! We watched a comedian last night and had a pretty late night, so D and I slept in until around 10:30, yay for sleeping in!!! Then we got dressed, had a late breakfast and headed to the pool. We spent most of the rest of the early afternoon by the pool, frying ourselves to a nice little crisp pink. We hoped to not get too pink since we are heading to Jamaica tomorrow, and plan to spend the day at the beach!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know (if anyone is still reading) that we are just fine, Dolly is gone and things are the way they should be on a cruise ship!

Cheers!!

Barf Bags and Stumbling

Thanks to Tropical Storm Dolly our first day at sea has not been a cup of tea. We got about 30 minutes by the pool today and the first little rain shower hit. We ran inside and it soon cleared up. We then got about another 30 minutes and the big one hit!! It's TS Dolly, and she's a little pissed off at the moment. The waves are pretty rough, about 4-6 feet swells. That is far from the little "wavelets" that we had last night according to our cabin television.

So anyway, we are hoping and praying that the weather clears by tomorrow so we can have one more fun day at sea before we go to Jamaica, GC and Coz. Wish I could post pics, but the connection is pretty slow at the moment. Until next time, have a dry day, I know we wish we could!!

Ocean Waves and Sand in my Toes!!

We're here!!! We arrived in Galveston yesterday evening and got settled in to our hotel. (which is super nice btw, thank you Lyle!!!) We ate at The Spot, a pretty well-known bar/grill right on the ocean. Lots of you were able to see us on the webcam, so that was cool!

This morning we got up and I am now in the lobby checking email/eating a bowl of cereal and waiting to board the ship around 11.

I will hopefully post some pictures later today or tonight...we'll see.

For now, I'll chat at ya later!! :-)

Here we come!!

We are leaving in the morning...Well in 8 hours to be exact. And I should really be in bed. And I'm going, right after this post, I promise. So, not sure when I will be posting again, maybe hopefully tomorrow when we get to the hotel in Galveston....not sure. BUT, don't stop looking here while I'm gone, I hope to upload some pics as we go. We will be getting an internet package while onboard to keep in touch with Ashley who will be here holding down the forts and taking care of all the animals. So, if I have a decent enough connection, I will hopefully be able to share some pictures while I'm gone. For now, I'll see you all and talk to you soon, hopefully with a much more tan face! :-) One more Day!!!!

Busy busy, but still blogging....Shouldn't be though!!

Often people have to meet the ship after it has left shore, or have to be taken back to shore. When this happens a little boat comes by and attaches itself right on the side of the cruise ship. A ladder comes out of the ship and people either go right on up, or right down into the little boat. Here are some pics that show that:

Two DAYS!!!!!!!!!!

Three Days!!!

On a cruise it is amazing how the staff takes such wonderful care of all the passengers. On the last cruise we had an amazing waiter. Each table actually has two waiters that take care of you. Our head waiter was pretty good, but our assistant waiter was phenomenal!!!! We loved him so very much! Even though he had several tables to take care of, he always made us feel like we were most important. His name was Thanet and he is from Thailand.

They even got Ashley up to do the Macarena!! She did a great job!!

Four Days!!!!

I am grasping for pictures at this point....I have hundreds more, but not sure anyone really cares about them....I thought this one was pretty cool, cause for some reason my camera decided to focus on the boat and the water in the background, but not on the trees in the foreground....have no clue about why, but makes for a kinda cool pic!!! (though also slightly dizzying)

Five Days!!

I always liked this picture of the hallway outside our door, it kind of looks like it's on fire!!

Six Days!!!

I love pictures like the one below. It always amazes me how the world DOES look flat when you are staring out at the horizon. I can see how all those explorers thought that the world was flat, I am totally on their side!!!

Feet and Sand

Brittany took this picture at Paradise Beach in Coz. It is almost an optical illusion because if you look at it one way the sand appears to be coming up out of the sand:

And when you flip the picture it looks like it is a foot that has pushed down into the sand:

Awesome!!! Seven Days!!!

She's commmmminnnnngggggg!!!!!!

One of my bestest oldest friends is coming today, yay! She has really perfected the hold-the-arm-out-to-take-my-own-picture technique!!! Here are just a couple of them. I think we have AT LEAST 100 of just her taking her own picture, not even including her with other people.

She's coming with me on the cruise, so we're sure to have at least 100 more of her picture, look for more when we come back!! Eight days!!!!

Nine Days---Single Digits Baby!!!!!

Formal Night!!!

We have ten days until our next cruise, man I can't believe that we are almost into the single digits!! Seems like just yesterday we were saying, only 150 more days, or only 100 more days!! HEHE Time really flies! The following pictures were taken on formal night.

This is a picture of all the officers onboard. I really didn't know there were that many......and of course the most important one is the one on the far end to the right....the head CHEF!!!

11 Days!!!

The wake on a cruise ship is massive!!! This picture is one of the many that I took of the wake of the ship, and I could sit and just stare at it for hours.....



Here is one of the wake that I took between the banister of a staircase, thought it was pretty cool!!

Twelve Days!!!

When we got off the Fantasy the last time, we spent an extra day in New Orleans. We took the day to run around my favorite city doing lots of fun stuff. We made it back to the pier in time to see the Fantasy leaving again for her next Voyage. It was cool to see it from another perspective. These pictures show the ship docked next to the big bridge, then pulling away and turning around. The first time we got on board we were wondering how the ship was going to be able to make it underneath the bridge....but it doesn't, it turns right around in the river. It is pretty cool!!

13 Days

These parrots hang out at Paradise Beach in Cozumel. They have their own little hut and just pretty much stay there all the time. They aren't tied up or anything, that is just their home. It was cool to see them up close and personal like that.

Fourteen Days!!

Two weeks until our next cruise, and I can't tell you how excited I am! My thoughts are so consumed with thinking and stressing about my cruise, that I am even dreaming about it at night. Last night I had a dream that we got all the way to Galveston and I didn't have my passport!!! Talk about a scary dream! :-)

This picture was taken from one of highest points on the boat that people can wander around:

Happy Fourth of July!!

To celebrate the Fourth of July, I have decided to post a video of fireworks that Brittany took on July 4, 2007. My family, Brittany, Donia and I were in New Orleans, and this was the day before we got on the Fantasy. This fireworks show was right on the Mississippi River. They had two huge barges on the river that shot up dueling fireworks. It was pretty amazing! So, it's kind of like a cruise picture, to continue my countdown.

15 Days!!! Enjoy

16 Days

Don't know if I've posted this one or not, I'm too lazy to go back through all the posts. This picture was taken right before the muster drill on my first cruise.

The lovely ladies:

17 Days!!

On our first cruise out of New Orleans, it began to rain as we were in the terminal waiting to get onboard. This wasn't a little rain, it was a downpour like no other. My dad was driving away from the terminal and almost had to stop his truck because it was raining so hard he could barely even see the road. When we looked out the window of the terminal, we could barely see the ship that was 20 yards from us, that's how hard it was raining.

Then we walked over the little sky-way that attaches the terminal to the ship. The rain had slowed, but was still coming down pretty heavily. We looked down below us where the luggage guys were working very hard to transport the luggage from the terminal into the hull of the boat. We noticed that there was a crate of luggage out in the pouring rain, just sitting there! There was no worker near, the suitcases were just chillin' out there in the rain. We were all just chatting and someone said "Hey wouldn't it suck to have your luggage sitting out there in the rain?"

"Yeah we said, that would suck!" Then we continued walking a little further. As I was walking I was also looking down at the crate of luggage sitting in the rain beneath us. I slowed to a stop as I realized and shouted, "Wait a minute, that IS our luggage!!!" LOL

Well, of course we had to take a picture of it! So here it is, our wet luggage:

All was well, and when the luggage finally made it to our room, it was all dry!! Nothing inside was wet or anything, so we were thankful for that! Memories memories!! :-)

The leaning tower of drink cups......

18 Days:

I only drank a couple of these I swear......(uncrosses her fingers from behind her back.......)