Cruisin'
As the title implies, this post will document a cruise TLM and I went on in July of last year. I should be working on a couple of books, but that is hard. Blog posts are easy.
I have two books in the pipeline for publication this year. One is “The World on Fire” (a working title I’m not really happy with) a science fiction novel I have drafted and for which I have received editorial comments. It’s the first book in planned four book series. The other is a historical romance set in England in 1847. That book was suggested to me by my daughter Catherine. “You should write a historical romance, dad.” Being the obedient father I am. I said, “Okay.” Three years later I finished “The Gentleman and the Spy” (a working title which TLM has summarily rejected. (“You should think of something better.”)) Anyway, I sent the draft off to Catherine begging her for comments since I have zero experience writing romance, and, TLM informs me, zero experience with romance at all. To date, she has not provided comments which I interpret to mean, she started it and could not bear to disappoint me with her true feelings so has decided silence is the better option. Not to worry. I have engaged a professional editor who will not spare my feelings.
But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to learn about our cruise experience. Some friends from church were discussing a cruise they were planning to Mexico. I said that sounded fun and they encouraged us to come with. So, we signed up with Royal Caribbean cruise lines for a five day voyage departing from Galveston, Texas and stopping in Costa Maya and Cozumel. Sounded fun. TLM agreed so we signed up.
We had never been to Galveston before, so we decided to travel down early and spend a day in Galveston before we embarked. “Why would you do that?” was the typical response when I told our traveling companions our plan.
We flew to Houston arriving on a Thursday afternoon and caught a shuttle to our Air BnB in Galveston. The unit we had rented was underwhelming, but I was too cheap to spring for a nicer hotel.
Anyway, the next day we ventured out. We had not rented a car so we found a place for breakfast and walked to the Sunflower Bakery and Café.
TLM and I ordered omelets. Mmmm, delicious. Then we ventured out again into the heat. Oh, did I not mention the heat? Maybe it was the humidity, but whatever it was I was sweating buckets by the time we arrived at the restaurant. I was not going to let that deter me, however, so we soldiered on heading for the downtown tourist section. This, it turns out, was your standard tourist section. You could have cut it out and slapped in Ketchikan/Jackson Hole/Seaside and no one would know the difference.
After that, we wandered down to the dock where we would be boarding our ship the next morning. By that time, I was in distress. I don’t know if it was the heat or the humidity or what, but in addition to sweating, I was light headed and feeling faint. I had to stop a few times along the way to recover. It was very strange and somewhat disturbing. We made it back to our unit and crashed until dinner time.
By that time, I had recovered enough to venture out again. We thought about catching an Uber to this one seafood restaurant our limousine driver had recommended on our drive down from Houston, but decided against it. That was a mistake.
We headed out and walked along Seawall Boulevard to
Miller’s Seawall Grill which in my mind somehow translated into seafood. Shrimp, oysters, salmon, crab, flounder and snapper were on the menu, but that is not what I saw first. What I saw first was the combo which advertised build your own seafood delight. The shrimp and oysters did not interest me, but the fried or grilled fish did. I asked the waiter what the fish was in that dish. He told me it was catfish. I wanted to argue with him about false advertising (how is catfish building my own seafood delight?), but TLM convinced me to act against type and keep my mouth shut. TLM had shrimp. I don’t recall my meal.
I had had visions of walking the mile and a half or so to the dock the next morning to board our ship, but our two excursions in the heat and humidity had convinced me to spring for the Uber. Saturday morning, then we hopped into our ride and hit the road to the dock. I am sure many of you are experienced cruisers, but we are not. The only other cruise we had been on was an Alaskan cruise with our kids in 2007. I remembered the boarding process was painful. It seems cruise technology has advanced considerably. Boarding was painless, except for having my heating pad confiscated. The information we had been provided said we were not allowed to bring sources of heat. They didn’t want someone burning the ship down. Neither did I, but I failed to see how a heating pad was a danger. They (the nice people searching my luggage) disagreed. Once again with a gentle hand on my arm (well, it started out gentle, but as the fire built up in my eyes, slowly hardened until the pain got through to me), TLM convinced me a scene was not in order. And we were on the ship.
I asked one of the helpful people who told me our ship had about 3,500 passengers. It astonished me how quickly and efficiently everyone boarded. They were a well-oiled machine.
Our first port of call after a day at sea was Costa Maya on the eastern shore of the Yucatan Peninsula just north of Belize.
A member of our group had booked an excursion for us (not through the cruise line, but through a local outfit) to visit some Mayan ruins and later to have massages at a resort by the beach before heading back to the ship. Originally, we thought we were docking at 8:00 am and leaving at 5:00 pm which gave us plenty of time for our activities ashore. It turned out however we in fact docked at noon which meant with the debarking process and finding our tour we would not start out until about 1:00 pm. A member of our group was in touch with the tour company when we found out about the change. The tour company assured her that everything was in hand and all was well.
So, off we went. The Mayan ruins were cool.
But we had limited time to enjoy them because of the snafu around our docking time. I was not too disappointed since we had booked a tour to visit more extensive ruins at Chichen Itza.
At this point I think I should say something about the ruins. I’m not sure what I expected. We have visited ruins before in Italy and the UK. Each time I visit the remains of now defunct civilizations I expect to have more of a sense of deep time, more awe, more mystery. More of what I described in Prospector’s Run surrounding the alien ruins. That was not my experience. It is a failure of imagination, perhaps. Anyway the ruins were cool.
We didn’t spend as much time as we had originally thought to at the ruins because of the whole having four hours less time than we thought thing. So, after an hour or so we piled back in our vans to head to the beach and our massages. Along the way we stopped at a local market for mango and pineapple. TLM having served a mission in Venezuela knew what fresh mango tasted like. I was ignorant. I had had mango from the store in the US, but I have to say fresh mango plucked from the tree is a level of heaven I had not experienced before. If fruit were a means of transportation what I had tasted before was a stage coach and what we ate in Mexico was first class in a 747. And did I say pineapple? Well, what we were given was something called sugar pineapple. I could not get enough of either of those luscious fruits.
Anyway, off we went to the beach.
By the time we arrived it was going on 3:00 pm and we were made aware of two things we had not known although we should have. 1) When they announced at the ship that it would be leaving at 5:00 pm what they meant was the ship would undock at 5:00 pm. Fine. 2) if the excursion you booked was not through the cruise line, the ship would not wait for your return. If you were not there by 5:00 oh, well. You would have to find your own way back to Galveston.
Okay that is a slight exaggeration, but still this new information was disturbing. Anyway, after we arrived at the beach for our massages, it turns out we were not expected. At least, that is what we surmised from the lack of people present to perform any massages. After twenty minutes or so, we were informed that only four people would be available to provide massages so instead of an hour each for our group it would be more like half an hour. Okay, fine, this wasn’t part of the experience I was terribly excited about anyway. TLM on the other hand was looking forward to the massage. After another fifteen minutes we were told only that only three masseuses would be coming. After another ten minutes that three was down to one. At that point we determined only two of our group would be having massages. Two of our number took their family down the beach in search of a massage. Of the remaining five, I was not interested, but Steve and TLM were. So, Steve went first. When he was done, TLM went for hers. When she arrived, another person was negotiating with the masseuse. So, no massage. It was getting late at that point so with visions of missing the boat (others of our group had helpfully described being on other cruises and seeing passengers sprinting to the ship) we hurried back where we arrived with a good fifteen minutes to spare.
Our next port of call was Cozumel. At Cozumel, TLM and I had booked an excursion through the cruise line to visit more Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. They were very cool.
The excursion was uneventful, and we returned to the ship in plenty of time.
A few comments on cruising. I have heard people rave about cruises. Eh. I thought we did not have enough time ashore and few of the activities on the ship interested me. I would go on another cruise, but I’m not sold on them as a way to see and experience other lands. A cruise is a pleasant way to escape day to day responsibilities as everything is done for you, but then you must fill the time somehow and unless the ship board activities are of interest, you need to bring your own interests. I had intended on this cruise to write since I was in the middle of writing The Gentleman and the Spy, but it just didn’t happen. Not to worry, though. I am in the final editing stages for that blockbuster romance. It should be out soon!
