Cruisin’ for Christmas

I love a lot of things about Texas, but being away from the rest of my side of the family is certainly not one of them. However, that does make me cherish those times that we do get to spend time together even more so, and this past week provided a great chance to do so. Instead of fighting the high price holiday airfare problem, we decided to postpone the holidays a few weeks and go on a family cruise.

The Pittsburgh clan flew down to Houston on Sunday, but we set off early Monday morning to get to Galveston. After a quick meetup for a “wine” swap, we made our way over to the port to get on the ship. Boarding was remarkably painless, and while some people had their bags and soda boxes torn apart, we sailed on through. It must have been those cute kids. 😉

Once aboard, we decided to walk around a bit to get our bearings as well as get some lunch. Kim had mentioned loving Guy Fieri’s burgers that were now on Carnival ships so I went with that recommendation and was not disappointed. If I’m being honest with myself that was going to be the first of five of those burgers throughout the trip. They really were good and I couldn’t get myself to try anything else for lunch.

Mom, Dad, Melissa, Jason, and Annabel also got on board, and we were able to start catching up with them as well. Shortly after that, we went down to check out our room and drop off some of our stuff. We had to go to one of the lower decks to all be close to one another, but the room itself was nice. Small, but nice. Given that the four of us were all going to be in there, we weren’t sure what to expect for bunk beds. As it turned out, there was a king and two Pullman-style twins that came down from the ceiling which was pretty cool. Both kids really liked climbing up and playing up there, but only Crosby would end up doing any serious sleeping out of the big bed. As is usual, we got an interior room which I honestly prefer. It rocks less and gets pitch black at night which led to some good sleeping most nights.

We also took the time to go up to Club Ocean — aka the kids club. Crosby and Carlyn were both in the youngest group, so we got them all registered so that they could stop by during the week. I also caught the tail end of happy hour at the Pub, which meant I could try out Carnival’s private label beer — which was actually pretty good!

Carlyn was exhausted, so I took her down for a short nap. That was also about the time when we finally set sail which several of the group watched from the back of the Lido deck. I was still down below, but they saw several dolphins jumping around behind the boat — which sounded pretty cool. Dad and I then got a chance to just catch up a bit as we started our journey — and there may have been a slice of Pirate Pizza involved.

Not long after that, it was time to start getting ready for dinner. With the three kiddos along, we opted for the early seating which was probably a good call. We met our two waiters for the week (Adi and Vicente) and had the first of what would be many great meals together. We had a large round table at the back of the boat which had a view out the rear windows until it got dark.

The great thing about being on a cruise with a group of people is that meals become completely hassle free. There are lots of choices, so everyone can get what they want. There are no dishes to do after the fact. And perhaps best of all, there’s no bill that comes at the end! We were all able to just sit there, eat, and enjoy each other’s company.

We decided to test out the kids club, and so we dropped off both Crosby and Carlyn for a bit. Given that she was only 2, they gave us a phone to hold on to in case they needed to call. That turned out to be a nice side perk as you could also use it to call any of the rooms on what I dubbed, the Bat Phone. Korey and I took the opportunity to sip on some rum and cokes and go listen to a bit of live music. That would turn out to be the only time Carlyn would go into the kids club, but we did have a nice hour to relax with just the two of us.

Tuesday was a “Fun Day at Sea” which meant that we essentially had no agenda for the entire day. After a bit of rearranging, we did all sit down for Brunch in the main dining room and got to pick up where we left off the previous day — enjoying spending some quality time together.

After that, the kids all wanted to go swimming, and so we did. All the pools on the boat are salt water and depending on where that water is pulled from, they can be chilly. That was certainly the case that day, but the hot tubs were more like warm tubs so the kids all just piled in there. Despite the small size, they still had a blast. Crosby and I also tried out the water slide several times before switching back to warm up.

Korey made a gym run earlier in the day, so I took the opportunity late morning to get in a run on the track. It’s a little weird running on a boat. We weren’t rocking much that first day, but obviously chugging forward at 23 mph will affect your GPS. I ended up counting the speed variances to get a good idea of how far I went. We went swimming again after lunch, but otherwise had a pretty relaxing day.

Tuesday night was the fancy dinner, so everyone got dressed up appropriately. They changed things up a bit, so there were no free lobster tails or filet mignon, but the prime rib I had was excellent. The crime brûlée and chocolate melting cake were pretty delicious as well!