Cruise - Part 2

I'm finally getting around to posting the second part of our cruise adventure! The Texas school where our daughter Bailey teaches band takes their senior band students on a cruise each year, and she asked me to go along as her roommate. Of course, I jumped at the chance to spend time with my girl, even if I risked falling overboard in the process! You can see Part 1 of this adventure HERE.

Although I did just fine on the cruise, it was also good to see plenty of safety equipment around...

...and more than enough life rafts! These rafts fit TONS of people and are fully enclosed, like a capsule. I was happy to see that this was not the Titanic!

As you can see, there were lots of people on this cruise!

But I can assure you that, other than Bailey and a small group of older ladies, very few people were knitting on this cruise. :) Wait until you see what cute thing she was knitting! More on that in a future post!

On a cruise, you can get room service any time, day or night, at no additional charge (except for the tip). Bailey mentioned that she had never had room service in the past so we ordered breakfast for one morning just to try it out. It was pretty nice not having to brave the crowds and lines!

And it was pretty, too. We decided we could get used to room service! :)

On the other mornings, we enjoyed breakfast with a lovely view of the sea!

 On Saturday morning, the ship docked at Cozumel for the day. This is a view of the ship from the shore.

The kids were scheduled to go to a private beach area for the morning through lunchtime.

There were many fun water activities, including para-sailing...

...and plenty of fruity (non-alcoholic) drinks!

There were comfy lounge chairs with plenty of shade.

We ordered lunch FROM OUR LOUNGE CHAIRS! That was a first for me! Except I did not eat, other than my fruity drink. (Why did I not eat? No idea...)

The grounds were absolutely beautiful!

There was also a lovely pool. After lunch, we headed in to town for a brief shopping trip, then it was back to the ship.

 

 

The kids loved the nightly karaoke on the cruise ship. I spent quite a bit of time watching karaoke -- often BAD karaoke -- while waiting for the kids to perform. The things we do! :)

One of the most fun events was the Towel Animal Folding class! These towel animals greeted us upon arrival at the workshop.

Lots of people attended, but no one was more excited than Bailey!

I did fine folding my towel animals, but Bailey EXCELLED at it! She obviously missed her calling!

Back in the room, we practiced our new skills. Or rather, Bailey practiced our new skills. :)

She made all the animals we'd learned in class, plus some new ones we had seen.

On our last morning, she made towel animals for the staff who had left them for us each day.

Going home, Bailey drove the bus on the last leg of the trip.

Did I mention that she's an excellent bus driver? Did I also mention that it is sort of an out-of-body experience to ride on a school bus driven by your daughter? :)

Gosh, it was good to get back to the apartment to see this little one! She was very happy to see her meow-my!

Rory loves the "Trouble 1" t-shirt Bailey bought for her in Cozumel. She wears it to bed almost every night!

To celebrate our safe return to dry land, Bailey made a few towel animals.

I loved going on this trip with Bailey, the students, and other directors, It was a super fun opportunity and a great few days hanging out with my girl!

Cruise - Part 1

 As I mentioned in a past post, I recently had the opportunity to go on a cruise with the senior band students from the school where my daughter teaches. Taking students on a cruise is a really foreign concept to those of us in Iowa but apparently in Texas it's pretty common, given the proximity to ports where cruise ships dock. I had never been on a cruise (truthfully, it has never been on my to-do list!), but I jumped at the chance to spend time with my girl!

A few weeks before the cruise, she let me in on ONE LITTLE DETAIL she had neglected to mention: SHE WOULD BE DRIVING THE SCHOOL BUS (part of the way) TO GALVESTON! In recent months, we've had to get used to the idea that many band directors, coaches, etc. in Texas must have their CDL for school bus driving. This, too, is a foreign concept to those of us in Iowa! Over the past few months, she trained with a bus driver, took classes, and passed her DOT tests with flying colors. Still, I could not get used to the idea of her driving a bus! :)

So we left the school around 3AM in the morning to head for Galveston -- pitch black outside, raining cats and dogs with The Mama in the front seat of the bus and The Daughter behind the wheel. (This was my view, once the sun came up.) Of all the experiences I've had as a parent, riding on a school bus being driven by one's daughter has to be one of the strangest! LOL

 

 At one point along the route, I decided I'd do some reading on my phone. Soon after, I started to feel queasy and realized that wasn't the best idea I've ever had. I'd never been car (bus?) sick and this was definitely not the time to start! So I dug around in my bag and unwrapped my new sea bands. I had no idea how to use them and didn't dare read the instructions so I just slid them up my arms and hoped they'd do the trick. Apparently they worked because I soon felt a little better!

Of course I knew Bailey would be a good driver, but driving a school bus full of precious cargo (kids) is a huge responsibility. I'm happy to report she did a great job, and you never would have known it was her first rodeo!

 Once in Galveston, we moved through the "embarkation" process smoothly. We were pretty tired from not sleeping much before we left and everyone was anxious to get on the ship!

 

While we waited for our room to be ready, we toured the ship.

Of course we knew it would be big, but it was really HUGE!

Once we made it to our room, we were surprised at how large and nice it was. The beds were extra comfy, much more so than I expected! Of course, we might have just been extra tired! :)

Even before our safety training, I located the life jackets. WHEW! :)

The bathroom was a bit dated but very functional, much like a camper.

We had never seen a blow dryer like this one! It was sort of like a car vacuum but it worked great! Not that it mattered because my hair was a complete disaster the entire time. Humidity does not agree with me! :)

Cameras on the ship give you a view out the front windows and also show your location on a map.

 

 When the ship leaves port, there's a little dance party on deck.

 Soon we could no longer see land!

  

 One of the first things we discovered was Guy's hamburgers and fries. Oh, my! I must say that the food was mostly very good and very plentiful. These fries...MERCY.

 

I soon figured out that if I wanted to eat those fries, I'd better do more than lie around all day. I found the track, which didn't seem to be popular at all! A sign on the wall said that 11 laps around the ship equals one mile so as I worked my way up to that, I felt a little less guilty about those fries!

 

 Ice cream is WAY too accessible on a cruise ship! One day I even had ice cream TWICE! So I found the gym, which was not at all busy. It was fun being on the treadmill because the view was right out the front of the ship, much better than at our home gym!

 

 Because I'm fair and don't like the heat, I stayed out of the sun most of the time. I only spent a little bit of time on a lawn chair. I was probably the only person on that cruise who didn't get any color from the sun!

 

As you can see, there are plenty of chairs for sunbathing or relaxing! At night, they show movies outside on deck, which is pretty neat.

 

I had a great time on the cruise and loved getting to spend a little quality time with my girl as well as get to know her co-directors and students. And I'm happy to report that after the bus ride, I never once had to use my sea bands on the ship!

I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to tag along on this trip. I'll share a few more pictures in a future post. :)