Caribbean Holiday - Part 1

“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like 

the beginning of it.”

 – Charles Dudley Warner

So we decided to use up John's vacation time before it expired and....GO ON A CRUISE!!!  Okay, for some of you it may not be too exciting; especially if you live near a port, because as we found out port residents cruise a lot, but for us it was a first and we were super excited. For John and I, it was actually the first exotic vacation since our wedding/honeymoon vacation in Jamaica, twelve years earlier.  We chose a seven day cruise out of Galveston, Texas aboard the Carnival Magic porting in:  Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico.  

Galveston Beach

Thanks to the gracious hospitality of John's family, I dropped Zoey off with Donna and Rob in Tucson, Arizona a few days prior to our trip.  Twenty driving hours later, I was back in Midland and ready to set off for Galveston.  Eager to start our vacation, we drove all day to reach our hotel, only stopping at Buc-ee's.  Now I normally wouldn't take time to mention a gas station on my blog, but this place is a gas station on steroids:  complete with dozens of gas pumps, merchandise galore, clean restrooms larger than most stand alone convenience stores, jerky deli (ask for samples), and unmanned-computer deli sandwich ordering stations. If you don't mind the fact that it's basically the Walmart of gas stations, give it a try and be sure to order the warm turkey sandwich, it's drool-worthy.

View from our room, Pleasure Pier.

Arriving in Galveston, we were charmed by the Greek Revival, Folk Victorian and Seaside homes. I admit that as we rounded the corner to our hotel on the beach, I saw the white froth curl over the breaking waves and squealed a bit in delight. It had been way too long since we've been to the ocean. Our room delightfully overlooked The Gulf of Mexico on which sat  Pleasure Pier, an amusement park tourist attraction.  I was told I shouldn't miss taking the roller-coaster for a ride, but regrettably I didn't get the message until I was settling into bed...sorry Melissa Cross.

Portuguese man o' war on the Galveston beach.

We wandered the beach, me barefoot, enjoying soft sand between my toes, the wet kiss of humidity and the whoosh of the waves.  We snacked at the little Float Pool and Patio Bar, and then the Fish Tales restaurant.  The evening was a beautiful start to a wonderful vacation.

The next morning we wandered the beach where we saw many Portuguese man-o'-war washed ashore, drove to the edge of the island, and ate the mediocre complimentary hotel breakfast (eh, we didn't expect much more).  We had scheduled a hotel shuttle to take us to port and set off around noon.  I giggled a bit as our Shuttle driver explained a few sights along the way in his East Indian/Texan accent. (Think: Raj from Big Bang theory saying ya'll. )

We dropped off our checked luggage entered the first of several lines to x-ray our carry-on bags, check Passports (or ID for individuals who didn't have Passports), take our security photos, and finally enter the ship.  The process was relatively quick and in no time we were aboard ship enjoying the first of many wonderful meals to come.  A few hours later our bags were delivered to our room (9394) on the ninth deck on the aft-port (back-left side) of the ship. 

Our Cute Room.

Carnival Magic is one of the newest ships in their fleet and it had plenty to boast about.  With 14 decks and a generous amount of sundeck space, we barely noticed the 4500 guests and 1000+ crew aboard.  They had bars, restaurants, clubs, theaters, stores, water-slides,  a casino, miniature-golf, a spa, pools, hot tubs (or as we called them, warm tubs), a big-screen TV above a sun-deck pool, beautiful staterooms, buffets, buffets, and buffets to name a few things.

As we set sail we ogled the dolphins along side the boat and the many other ships at port.  I declared early on that it would be ridiculous to get sea sick since I could barely feel the boat moving...I ate my words a few hours later as I swayed with the boat as it cut through the gulf waters and my stomach decided to give me an ache.  Good news is, I got my sea legs within a few hours, and in the meantime John got a good laugh.

View of deck 5 from our room.

The next morning we found the boat had nearly returned to Galveston in the middle of the night to meet a helicopter to transport a man who had experienced a heart attack.  Later the next night his wife, which I incidentally sat next to, informed me that she couldn't join him on the helicopter transport as is the policy, but he was recovering well and he had called to tell her to get their money's worth.   Despite the delay the boat was on track in no time.

The first leg of our journey, John spoiled me with a facial and a massage at the Cloud 9 Spa, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of.  We spent the next two sea days watching the cobalt-blue Caribbean waters sweep by, waving to passing ships,  and exploring the ship's many entertainment and food offerings. 

Our first port of call was Roatan, Honduras....(to be continued).