When beloved in-laws Buddy and Jeannie Creel called in February
to say they were taking a cruise out of Galveston and invited us along with in-laws Don
and Beth Trumps, the idea of another cruise after our last December cruise was the
farthest thing from our minds. However,
the prospect of spending some time with our old Casper relatives and Don and
Beth was too much to resist, so we quickly agreed and in short order booked the
Carnival Magic out of Galveston for the week of April 26-May 3, sailing to Key
West, Florida, and the Bahamas. After
looking over the ship’s floor plan, we opted to go up a few levels to Level 12
and pay a little extra to get private spa privileges, also. As our travel agent told us, “The private spa
is worth it if you use it but wasted money if you don’t.” We planned to get our money’s worth. So we waited for April 26, 2015.
Sunday,
April 26. We had planned to drive to Galveston this
morning, but with our regular Sunday School teachers, Brother and Sister
Boothe, being absent and with my mother-in-law teaching the lesson, we decided
to stay for just the SS class anyway and do our musical part and then leave
shortly thereafter for Galveston. We did
so, and quickly headed home to change clothes and head south. We had packed on Saturday, so we were ready
to go once we left church.
We left home about 11:20 and had smooth
sailing until we got around Clear Lake on Interstate 45 where the traffic
bogged down. We were down to a crawl for
about five or six miles when it suddenly cleared again and we cruised on into
Galveston, down Harborside Drive to Terminal A where the Carnival Magic was
docked. The first impression upon seeing
these cruise ships is their immense size.
The Magic is 1,004 feel long, displacing 130,000 tons…bigger than any
battleship in World War II. Fourteen
levels consisting of staterooms, restaurants, party rooms, theaters, gambling
dens, and every other imaginable vice and joy the human mind can imagine to
place on board a seagoing ship.
The usual procedure is to drop off your
luggage at the terminal, drive to the parking area to park one’s car, then
catch a shuttle back to the ship to board.
Naturally, since there are 5,000 travelers boarding the ship at
approximately the same time, the traffic bogs down around the terminal and
things are a little hectic. This is
where I nearly suffered my first heart attack.
As we neared the terminal to check our baggage, Shirley mentioned
casually that she would like to find a bathroom (should have been a red flag
for me right there.) Upon pulling up to
the baggage check in, I got out, walked around to the rear of the car, got our
three bags out, and checked them with the baggage handlers. I started to get back in the car, and saw
Shirley as she walked away and disappeared around a wall. The baggage handler even hollered, “Hey,
Lady!” but she was gone. I suspected she
was looking for a restroom, but she had said nothing. (There is some…um…discussion here…she says
she told me she was going looking for a restroom.) I shut off the car and got out, trying to
catch a glimpse of her. I suspected
there wasn’t a restroom within a thousand feet, mainly because it was a baggage
loading area and not meant for public use.
So I impatiently waited….10 minutes….15
minutes…then 20 minutes. With each
passing minute I could imagine her being in a corner somewhere having been robbed,
or she had experienced her first Alzheimer attack and had become disoriented
and lost. I tried calling her, and she
never answered. I was becoming very
frustrated and tried to pray at the same time, which is a hard
combination. Finally….finally my phone
rang and she said, “Where are you?” She
had discovered Buddy and Jeannie and was visiting with them! I was relieved and more than a little upset
at the same time, which is another couple of emotions that are hard to
combine. Somehow she thought I was going
to park the car and then come back for her, but that’s not the way it’s usually
done because where we board is not the same place as where we drop off the
luggage. Anyway, I was too relieved to
feel anything else, so we drove finally to the parking area and abandoned our
car for a week. Even that took a while,
because, after all, there are 5,000 people boarding the boat, most of whom
drove their vehicles to the terminal, so we’re all parking and trying to catch
a shuttle at the same time; hence the trip back to the terminal took about 40
minutes.
The official check in then begins, with a
showing of one’s boarding pass and health statement which confirms that one is
not an Ebola carrier. Security is next,
with a flashing and confirming of one’s government photo identification
(passport) and a trip through a metal detector along with a baggage check. Assuming one is not a terrorist carrying
explosives, the next step is up the escalator to Carnival’s check in, where we
received our room keys and official “Welcome Aboard!” The last journey is a trek up the long, long
gangplank to finally enter the ship.
This description of check in takes only a few lines here, but it takes
far over an hour to actually accomplish.
Long lines are at every stop and the walking distance from ground to
ship’s entrance is probably a good mile in length.
Eventually, we found out that Buddy,
Jeannie, Don, and Beth were on Deck 10 in the Lido Restaurant, so we went down
to see them. They were nearly finished
with their lunches, but we decide to see if we could find some food since it
had been a long time since breakfast.
Every place was either shutting down to prepare for the evening meal or
had not opened at all. We finally found
a line to get hamburgers. We waited for 20 minutes and the line closed when we
were six feet away from the food….because it was time for the federally
required safety drill. We had to go find
our emergency assembly area and trek (along with everyone else….i.e. long waits
at elevators), to our assigned place.
The Official Maritime Safety Training is a
bit of disorganized mayhem as the “trainer” attempts to tell everyone how to
don a life vest and to say calm as the ship is sinking. Somehow, I cannot imagine that, in a
emergency, that everyone will “calmly walk to his cabin, take his life vest and
put it on, then proceed to his place of assembly, where he will be directed to
his assigned lifeboat.” Probably be more
like “Titanic II.”
Anyway, the training mercifully ended, and
we went back to the hamburger joint and got a couple of hamburgers to tide us
over till our 8:15 late dinner. Our
relatives had scheduled the late dinner seating, which is not preferred by
Shirley and me, but we wanted, of course, to spend quality time with the family,
so we went along with it. We hardly ever
eat at that late a time. Buddy stayed
with us as we downed the hamburgers, and it was good to visit with my old
hunting partner. Afterward, Shirley and
I headed back to our room to unpack and get settled. We were tired from all the walking and day’s
activities, so there was a time of catnapping thrown in that time also.
By the time we returned to our room,
Shirley and I were very tired, to say the least. After a shower, it was to bed. I guess we were so exhausted for the first
couple of hours we didn’t notice the racket coming from next door, but about
1:30 a.m. I awoke and could hear a loud TV and lots of laughing and
talking. I tried to ignore it and
plugged in my music again, but after about 20 minutes, I called Guest Services to
complain and was told our neighbors would be asked to tone it down. I dozed off, but
about 2:30 I awoke again to the same noise.
This time I call Guest Services and really complained, and that seemed to
do the trick…things quieted down. Back
to sleep.
Monday,
April 27 We made it through the night with no other
interruptions, thankfully. We were tired
and didn’t really start stirring until after 8:00. The ride during the night was really bumpy
with a lot of heaving starboard to port to starboard, occasional head on
crashes into large waves, and tremendous wind.
Traveling faster than the Carnival Triumph at about 23 knots and facing
45-50 mile per hour wind gusts, it was like the ship was bucking a 75 MPH
headwind. When the ship hit a large wave
it felt like a car hitting an unexpected bump…to the point that the bed jarred,
and I thought Shirley was having a nervous jerk. After listening and looking outside the
window, it was clear we were in rough seas, and it would not be a smooth ride
for a while. I’m sure to the usual
seafaring person, it was not cause for alarm, but to more generic landlubbers
like us, it was a bit disconcerting.
We met the crowd at the same Southern
Lights Restaurant as last night and enjoyed a really good, leisurely
breakfast. Certainly wasn’t the usual
Denny’s Restaurant menu as I had an English muffin with cream cheese and
salmon, along with a good omelet with peppers, ham, and cheese…with turkey
bacon on the side. Even the coffee was
good and the service was great. Afterward,
the ladies wanted to go to the Shopping Guide presentation, and Buddy and Don
had something in mind, so I went back to the room and started on this
dialog. That lasted until the pitching
of the boat began to make me feel a little queasy as I stared at the monitor,
so I shut it off and lie down to rest my eyes.
The next thing I knew, Shirley was calling on the house phone to say
they were back in the Level 10 Lido restaurant having lunch. I was still full from overeating last night
and breakfast this morning, but I went down anyway and enjoyed an ice cream
cone as we visited. Okay…two ice cream
cones. By this time, 3:00 was
approaching, and Don wanted to go to a Veterans’ get-together in one of the
bars, and Buddy wanted to go take a nap.
I didn’t have any interest in raising a glass to old comrades, and
Shirley was wanting to go visit the spa, so off we went.
Our stateroom was on the Level 12 Spa floor,
so we were just around the corner from the entrance to the spa facilities. We dressed in our bathing suits, put on the
complimentary bath robes and slippers, and made our way. Our first stop after checking our gear in the
dressing rooms was the jacuzzi spa, a large heavily-jetted spa for
approximately 15-20 people. The most
noteworthy item was, due to the pitching of the ship, we also had our own
natural wave machine as the water sloshed from side to side to the point that
the water was splashing out the ends, and we had to hang on to avoid being
swept along in the tide. But it was
nice, and the jets were powerful enough to make you feel good to be sitting
there.
Shirley then wanted to try out some
ceramic, heated reclining seats that were supposed to make the back feel
good. They were too hard for me, so I
visited the Aromatic Steam Room, a wet oven with various pleasing aromas that
are theoretically therapeutic for soul and body. Definitely made you sweat, but it felt
good. After a refreshing shower, it was
back to the room. Looking at the weather
and waves outside, it appeared that the swells seemed to be laying down a bit,
although we still felt a jolt from time to time.
We had about a two hour break to catch up
on a bit of napping and writing. About
7:30 we got our best clothes on and headed to the Southern Lights Restaurant
for our “Cruise Elegant” evening of dining…the one time on the cruise when you
are asked to dress up for dinner.
Although the dress code is supposed to be dinner jacket and tie for the
men and dressy for the women, there’s always a segment of travelers which
prides itself in being sloppy casual.
There were quite a few, however, more than on the Triumph, who did dress
up in their finery and looked very nice. (We, of course, were among this
group.)
This is the night of the best menu, also,
so I dined on lobster and king shrimp.
As an appetizer I had a fruit bisque…which sounds strange, but Shanna
and Julia had bragged on it after their cruise a couple of weeks ago. It was a sweet cream sort of gravy with
strawberries in it. It was good, but I
missed not getting my usual shrimp cocktail…should have ordered both. As it
turned out, the lobster was okay, but a little rubbery and undone for my
tastes, but the vegetables were good. My
dessert was cherries jubilee, and again I regretted not ordering my usual
melting chocolate cake with ice cream.
Actually, the whole dinner was very good; it’s just that on a cruise,
one’s standards of quality rises as one expects only the very best in dining
pleasure.
Tuesday,
April 28 Up about 7:30 a.m. as we were expected in Key West
port around 9:30. With activities planned, we needed to be through with
breakfast and ready to disembark when the gangplank fell. As it turned out, we were not in quite as
much of a rush as I expected since the bicycle trip I had decided to join Buddy
and Don on was full, so I decided to go with the girls to shop Key West. They in turn decided to not rush down the
gangplank, but let the mobs get off first, so I had no reason to hurry. As it turned out, Buddy and Don missed their
bicycle trip anyway because they were too late getting to the rendezvous
point. They wound up renting individual
bikes and taking off on their own.
We remaining four disembarked about 11:15
and walked the short distance to the entrance to the main tourist part of
downtown Key West. Key West, the
southernmost spot in the continental United States, dates back to the early
1800’s and pirate days, though it is more famous now as the primary home to the
great writer Earnest Hemmingway, and more recently the hangout for musician
Jimmy Buffett and his “Margaritaville” ensemble. The home of Hemmingway and the Margaritaville
Bar of Jimmy Buffett are two major tourist attractions in Key West today. We walked the tourist area along Front Street
and Duval Street. The area is a
conglomeration of high dollar diamond stores, eclectic island offerings, and
made-in-Indonesia tourist trap souvenir stands offering $5.00 tee shirts for
only $12.95 each or two for $25.00. Intersperse amongst the tourist traps were
several beautiful buildings dating from the early 1900s, including the Clinton
Square Market Building, the Chamber of Commerce, the Shipwreck Treasures
Museum, and several other buildings which I cannot identify. Charmingly little trolley-style cars and mini
trains hauled tourist to all the points of interest in orderly fashion,
allowing them to spend the maximum amount of money is the minimum about of
time. We even saw a sidewalk musician
playing his steel drums in the melodic island fashion. Most picturesque. While we were walking in this island
paradise, this distinguished gentleman (I assume) walked up to Shirley and
asked, “Tell me, Ma’am, were you born beautiful, or did you just grow into
it?” Shirley replied, “Huh?” and I
replied, “She’s already taken, Bud.” He
replied, “I wasn’t hittin’ on her, man;” he laughed, and walked off. Not before making Shirley’s day, though.
We did managed to buy a few souvenirs,
since we are required by law or something to bring back some sort of trinket
for each member of the family (not complaining, I am sometimes the happy
recipient.) I was trying to find
something authentic…you know…from the earth of Key West, as it were. But beyond the obligatory tee shirt saying
“Key West” I couldn’t find much…until I entered a shell shop. There in vast array were some of the most
beautiful seashells I had ever seen…even reasonably priced. At one time Key West was apparently know for
its conch shells and was even known as the “Conch nation,” and there on the
shelf sat these huge conch shells in magnificent shades of colors. I picked one
out and took it to the checkout and casually asked whether all these shells on
the shelves had come from the sands of Key West. “Nope,” came the reply, “The conch shells came
from the Bahamas because in the Florida Keys seashells are forbidden to be
collected from the beaches.” So now I
have an authentic souvenir from the Bahamas…that I bought in Key West. Oh, well.
By this time Shirley and I were beginning
to feel the mileage on our legs. Not to
mention it was approaching 90 degrees, and it had been a good while since
breakfast. We started looking for a
place to eat, and apparently in downtown Key West, you’re supposed to shop now and
eat later, because there was not too much to be found, unless you went into a
bar. We decided to walk back to the
Magic and have a late lunch, since it was approaching 3:00 anyway, and we were
tired of walking. We were several blocks
away from the boat by now so it took a couple of rest stops, but we made it
back and reboarded. It was actually a
good move, because we beat the returning 3,000 people to the boat AND the
restaurant on the boat….we had lunch in
the Lido before wandering back to the room.
Plus, a rain storm came about 4:30 as the multitudes were in line on the
pier trying to get checked back onto the boat.
Sometimes the Lord just takes care of the old and helpless. Around 6:00 the rains had abated, and the
skies actually looked pretty good as the Magic began to creep away from the
dock and aim itself toward Freeport, Bahamas.
So anyway, we had a couple of hours to rest
before dinner time, and took advantage of it in our stateroom. We left a little early for the Southern
Lights, swinging by the gift shops on Level 5, where they had a sale on odds
and ands, including Freeport tee shirts, so I bought a couple. At the restaurant, I ordered a flat iron
steak with a shrimp cocktail appetizer. Afterward, Shirley and I agreed that so
far, the food has been good, but not up to the level of the Carnival Triumph,
where every meal we had was astounding.
For the first time in many years, I sent a steak back to the chef
because it was tough and not done, and the replacement was better cooked, but
was not tasty and it was still a little tough.
The shrimp cocktail consisted of
five really small shrimp that were soggy and not very firm. All in all, not a memorable dining
experience. But we were with friends and
we had a good visit. Afterward, we all
went to the fourth level to see if we could find any of the photos that the
constant flock of photographers are constantly taking of you, Shirley and I,
and Buddy and Jeannie could find none…only Don and Beth. Buddy and I agreed that it was obvious they
were not displaying the photos of the really photogenic people…just the, well,
you know. We did not tell Don and Beth
of our conclusions. By this time, it was
nearly 11:00, and we all said our good nights and retired to our respective
staterooms of abode.
Wednesday, April 29 Awoke to heavy clouds and rain as we
crept into the harbor at Freeport, Bahamas.
Shortly, the announcement came over the speakers that most of the tours
had been cancelled for the day. Although
our Freeport Island Tour was not one of the cancelled tours, we decided that we
didn’t want to get wet walking to the bus and would try to get our money
back. We went to breakfast at the Lido
Restaurant on Level 10 and sort of took our time over a leisurely cup of
coffee. As we were doing so, the skies
seems to clear a bit and the rain stopped, so we decided to go ashore anyway
and check out the group of shops that were just off the gangplank on land. In doing so, we realized that our tour was
just loading, and the weather seemed to be improving, so we got in line to load
up. When I was asked for our tickets, I
realized I had brought the wrong tickets…I had brought the ones for our tour
tomorrow at Nassau. The lady was very
helpful, however, and issued us replacement passes on the spot, and we were
able to board.
We made our way back to the ship…past the
homes of Sidney Portier and the late Count Basie (“and his Band of Renown”) and
various homes of rich eccentrics such as the guy who had hundred of statues of
lions on his wall fence and in his yard…past the oil tanks that reminded us of
Baytown Exxon and the shipyard with hundreds…maybe thousands…of shipping
containers, and finally the drydock with the huge cruise ship perched up on
scaffolding as workers welded and did whatever else to the hull. We reboarded around 2:00 and after a stop at
our stateroom, went back to the Lido for a bit of lunch. Naturally, I picked up more food in the
buffet than I could eat. I am afraid
that I will suffer a bit of a relapse on my Nutrisystem diet plan after this
week, but I planned for it, so it will be simply back to the regimented eating
schedule once we get home. But for this
week, I am going to enjoy some good food.
We were due to set sail for Nassau about
5:30, but apparently they had spotted a squall in our path and delayed our
departure until 7:00 p.m. Lines were
cast off, engines were revved up, and we pulled away from the harbor about dusk
for what turned out to be a very smooth ride to our next destination. In the meantime, the group of six met at our
usual spot at table 573 in Southern Lights Restaurant, having been met by our
personal waiter who greeted us all by name, placed our napkins in our laps, and
brought us some fresh bread and butter.
I could get used to this. Tonight I ordered a turkey and butterfly pasta
dish with vegetables that was very tasty, along with a appetizer of roast duck
and oranges. My dessert was sort of like
the hot melting cake we all love, but rather with sort of an apple cake
filling. Quite good. At this time Jeannie said she had located our
photos we were looking for last night, but most of us were worn out from the
day’s activities, and, since it was approaching 10:00 p.m. anyway, we said our
good nights and went to our cabins. It’s
a rough life on the high seas….sleeping…eating…touring…walking.
It was a chance to try out Bobby’s GoPro III
digital underwater camera he had lent me for the trip. I wandered out further and fired up the GoPro,
taking stills and movies both above and below the water line. Only downside to the GoPro is there is no
monitoring screen, so you take the photos by faith, hoping you’re aiming in the
right direction. I had taken a few
practice shots earlier, and tried to download them to my Sony VAIO laptop, but,
alas, my laptop is celebrating its fifteenth year and would not recognize the
GoPro…plus it probably didn’t have the memory capacity to store HD movies
anyway. So I will have to wait till we
get home to seem if my underwater selfie turned out OK.
So I swam and videoed while Shirley read
her latest book, with intermittent rest periods on the lounges. Really a pretty nice time. About an hour before we were to head back to
the Magic, we decided to have a little brunch, since we missed breakfast, and
besides, our tour tickets for this beach trip included lunch. So up the beach to the Starbucks/restaurant
we went and ordered. The chicken wrap
Shirley ordered and the grilled chicken sandwich I ordered were tasty and huge
and included French fries. They should
have been tasty and huge since Shirley’s sandwich cost $13.00 and mine
$16.00…but at least they were included in our tickets. We dined and rested while we waited for time
to board.
About
11:15 we boarded for passage back to the Magic, and that was when I noticed the
pens where the stingrays and dolphins were kept. This place advertises “Swim with the Dolphins”
and Swim with the Stingrays.” The way
Bobby and Shanna described it in Cozumel was that the stingrays and dolphins
were actually wild creatures which you were privileged to swim with. These poor creatures, however, were kept in
what I estimate to be three to four acre pens at ocean’s edge. The areas were heavily fenced all the way
around so that the sea-loving prisoners could not get out.
It was sort of a water zoo. I
felt sorry for the stingrays and dolphins. I will
admit one dolphin seemed happy as it constantly jumped out of the water doing
its acrobatics to the delight of the swimmers. Anyway, I was pleased that we
would not be riding back in the boat we came in. The return cruise was done without the
cheerleading of the first trip. However,
for some reason, we were unloaded way around the docks from the Magic
gangplank, and the walk back was probably over three fourths of a mile. I gauge that from the fact that we were about
four Magic boat lengths away from the gangplank…and the Magic is 1,000 feet
long. Shirley was really dragging, and I
was feeling the effects of the long walk also as we plodded step after
step….and then the rains came. As we
were heading toward the Magic, a new flock of private beach goers were heading
to the tour boat to the island. I had
noticed that the skies had been darkening for the last hour or so, and, sure enough,
about halfway through our walking journey back to the boat it began to
rain…really rain. One of the city cab
drivers said, “Bahama liquid sunshine, man!” and laughed. We made it to a covering and waited for a few
minutes until it abated a little, and then we put our bath towels over our
heads and finished the trip. By the time
we made it to the gangplank, the rains had faded. There we met Buddy and Don as they were headed
back to the tourist shopping areas to nose around since they had finished their
kayaking adventure earlier. We did not
feel like going back to shop and continued to our stateroom. Once in room 12015, we collapsed. Overall, though, it was a fun trip.
We rested for an hour or so, then decided
to visit the Spa area and sit in the Jacuzzi to massage our weary bones a
bit. Enjoyed the powerful Jacuzzi, where
you had to hang on to keep from being treated like a teabag in boiling
water…then to the sauna for Shirley to toast on the heated, molded, ceramic
seats. I went to the aromatic steam room
for about fifteen minutes, then to the sauna in the men’s dressing room.
Or I tried.
As I opened the door to the men’s dressing room, there was a woman
inside the door who said “Excuse me” and closed the door on me. I noticed next to her leg was a walking cart,
so I assumed she was perhaps helping some handicapped gentleman get ready for
some exercise. I stood outside the door
and patiently waited. About four minutes
later, just as a spa attendant was walking by the door, the lady came out of
the room pushing the cart and asked the attendant, “Excuse me, where’s the
ladies’ dressing room?” “Next door on
the left,” he told her, and she pushed off, looking a little embarrassed. If she looked inside the sauna in the men’s
locker room, she got the shock of her life.
Anyway, I cooked to medium well in the sauna, showered, and went back to
our room. A few minutes later Shirley
entered, and we decided to go find a little snack, since our dining time is
8:15. At 5:00 on the boat, most of the
buffets and snack places are closed, still getting ready for the evening meal,
but we went to the stern of the boat and found a deli offering sandwiches, and
enjoyed (for her) a tuna fish sandwich and (for myself) a ruben sandwich.
Afterward, there was a play or musical or
something at one of the theaters which everyone (but me) wanted to go to, so I
blessed them and sent them on their way while I retired to our cabin. Finished the day with a little writing and
then packed it in for the night.
Friday,
May 1 Since we are now at sea on our return voyage, there was no reason to
set an alarm clock this morning, so we were able to wonderfully sleep until we
woke up. It’s wasn’t really late…only
around 8:00 a.m. Which reminds me of an
interesting tidbit I learned yesterday.
We had wondered about the times posted at each port as far as how we
would know what time zone we were in, but as it turns out, the boat is always
on Houston time…the clocks do not change for the various time zones the boat
travels through. So when port arrivals
and departures, tour starts and returns, etc., are posted it’s always Houston
time. The result is one never has to
worry about changing watch settings or worrying about a time change. Handy.
Whatever time it was, we awoke to a
beautiful, sunny morning…the first we have seen on this cruise. But it was also a little chilly on the high
seas; the clearing weather front had moved through the areas last night,
pushing away the rain and clouds, but also dropping the temperatures. It was a little bit too chilly to be sitting
on our deck this morning, but the clear skies and sunshine were welcomed
anyway. Considering the weather we’ve
had these last three days, we were fortunate to get our tours in without interruption…in
all three locations, Key West, Freeport, and Nassau, there were tours
cancelled, but we were able to enjoy all of ours.
Since we didn’t have to rush for breakfast,
we went back to my favorite place for breakfast, the Southern Lights. Impeccable service, just like in the evenings
but with a superb breakfast. I had
chocolate chip pancakes for an appetizer(!) with an omelet featuring peppers,
onions, ham, and cheddar cheese with a side of hash browns. Interspersed through the breakfast were the
usual bread goodies: rolls, muffins,
cakes, toast, etc., along with a bottomless cup of good coffee. It is going to be a real downer to come back
to earth nest week and go back to an eating regiment.
By the time breakfast was over, it was
nearing 11:30, and we wandered back to our rooms for a few minutes and then
regathered on the Lido level (Level 10), found a table, and played cards until
nearly 2:00. Suddenly someone realized
that Bingo started at 2:15, and the consensus was this was the best way to
recapture some of our frivolously wasted money…by winning at bingo. So down to the Showtime Theater on Level 3 we
went to get there in time to buy…excuse me…invest in some bingo cards to the
tune of $30.00 for each of us. Well, you
have to invest money to make money.
There were three rounds of bingo with prizes from about $500 up to
$750. On the first round, tension
mounted as Shirley was within one number of winning when some other person
yelled, “Bingo!” to her dismay. No
problem…we have two more games to go.
The second session…well…we were not even close, but there’s always the
last round with its biggest prize. My
heart beat began to rise as I inched closer to the prize and was one number
away from winning. All I needed was
B-12, and I would have victory in my grasp and be financially solvent
again. Alas, the number called was B-13,
and some other undeserving soul yelled the dreaded word, “Bingo!,” and my hopes
were dashed. Oh, well, one has to look
at bingo sort of like playing the stock market…you invest, and sometimes you
win, and sometimes you lose. With a
sense of loss and dejection we exited the theater…older but wiser. It was approaching 4:00 and the girls wanted
to go up on deck to sit in the sun and read, while we guys decided to go to our
respective homes of abode and catch a nap, so the next hour or so was spent
recharging batteries.
Back to the Southern Lights tonight for the
best supper so far. I had escargot and a
seafood sampler as appetizers. The
escargot was out of the shell in butter sauce; they were tasty, but not quite
garlicky enough for me…but good, nonetheless.
The seafood sampler was just that…a sampler: one shrimp, a bit of
salmon, and a scallop with a bit of sauce. In honor of New Zealand and in
memory of the Moreaus I had a glass of New Zealand white wine to complement the
seafood. Very mellow with a good
presence to use wine tasters’ lingo. The main dish was chateaubriand beef, with
potatoes and vegetables. The beef was
wondrous, perfectly cooked and very tasty, and, of course, the various forms of
bread and the bottomless glasses of tea were ever-present. These are magical moments spent with good
food and good family that one will remember for a long time. Buddy and Don are great guys, Beth is funny
without trying to be, and Jeannie is always her charming, irreverent self (I
say these thing truly lovingly.) I wish
B and J lived closer to the rest of us, but their kids are anchored to
Colorado/Wyoming, and I understand there is no greater pull than that of your
children. I mean, after all…Shirley and
I are in Texas, aren’t we? And it’s not
because we loved Baytown. Anyway, the
dinner party didn’t break up until about 10:20, so we headed back to our
stateroom for the night. I walked out on
our balcony to check the weather, and it was cool with relatively calm seas, but
we have still yet to see a star in the sky during this whole trip. Though it was calm, apparently there was
still an overcast of clouds and it was dark as pitch. At least it was not raining. Lights out.
Saturday, May 2 Our last full day at sea began at
8:30…relatively late for us. I tried to
call the other folks but could not figure out where they were, so about 9:45 we
headed to the Lido for breakfast, where we ran into Jeannie in a food
line. We loaded up with breakfast, got a
open seat by a window, and enjoyed a leisure (what else?) breakfast. Eventually Buddy showed up, and we discussed
major events of the day like when do we eat next and what’s next on the
schedule. There was a watch sale on Deck
5, and, though I have twenty or so watches at home, I felt I needed to get a
couple more if I could find something I liked.
On Deck Five there was a mob around the watches…there were two long
counters full of watches…all priced at $19.95 or $29.95 (so you know they were
very high quality watches!) This was the
only day on ship to get a reasonably priced watch. All the other days they were selling quality
watches for 75% off…which meant you could buy one for as low as $300.00; or you
could get a Rolex for as low as $3,995.00.
Although the temptation to buy a Rolex was great, I decided I’d rather
pay my bills next month, instead, so I passed on the fantastic bargains.
Shirley and Jeannie decided to go up to
Level 11 for some sunshine, but I opted to return to the stateroom. After a while, Don called to say they were in
the Lido about to have lunch, so I went down to join them. I wasn’t hungry, yet, so I picked up an ice
cream cone along the way and met them in the Lido dining room. Eventually, Buddy, Jeannie, and Shirley came
in and we sat and visited for over an hour.
Buddy and Don were wanting to try their hands at traversing the overhead
rope course in Deck 11, so we all went up a level and watched as the two guys,
using safety harnesses, tight roped themselves around the obstacle course. Nobody fell or slipped, so there were no
anxious moments…except when Don teed off on the putt-putt golf course, and his
ball left the course and nearly hit a guy sitting at a table. No harm done, though, and all went well
thereafter. We sat in the sun and began
to feel the heat thereof, until I finally got up to take a few videos, and the
girls left to find a shady spot to read and crochet….yes…crochet. I came back to the cabin and started to get
semi-organized for tomorrow’s sad debarkation from the ship.
By the time the dinner bell was about to
ring, we were pretty well packed up and ready to move out tomorrow. Since we were using the “relaxed exit”
tomorrow, which means we were going to let the porters haul our luggage down 9
levels of decks to the debarkation area, we had to have our luggage sitting
outside our door by 8:00 p.m. tonight.
So as we were heading down to the Southern Lights for one last hurrah, we
sat our luggage outside and hoped it all stayed together. The last supper (as it were) on board a
cruise ship is always sort of melancholy and wistful, as everyone wonders where
the week has gone and do you suppose there’s some place we could stowaway on
board for the next cruise? Alas, there
is no place to stow away, so we prepared for the inevitable descending back
into the real world.
Tonight was prime rib night with baked
potatoes, along with two appetizers, shrimp and vegetable rolls, topped off
naturally by the fantastic hot melting chocolate cake with ice cream. Definitely the Carnival’s signature
dessert. The wait staff serenaded us as
is done on every final night with “Well, I’m Leavin’ on a Fun Ship….,” a
takeoff on the song “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
Sort of sadly fun, and they actually sing like they are sad to see us
leave…they probably can’t wait to get a break.
Actually, there isn’t much of a break for them. We disembark tomorrow morning and by noon a
new hoard of excited travelers will be invading the ship. Our last official act in the dining room was
pass out the tips for our personal waiters.
One of the major expenses of sailing, I have found out, is the cost of
tipping. Each person is automatically
charged $12.00 per day while on board…so for two people, that’s $168 for the
week, plus one is expected (well, naturally) to additionally tip for
“exceptional service,” which at $5.00 to $20.00 per pop (porters…luggage,
waiters, stewards) can add up to an additional $100-$200 per week. Oh, well, the service is usually impeccable
and friendly…most of the tipping is worth it.
After wandering a bit after dinner, we settled back in our stateroom for
our final evening. At least by now, the
skies had cleared, there was a beautiful moon, and the seas were calm; it was a
smooth ride back to Galveston.
Sunday, May 3 We looked
out the balcony window just in time to see us backing slowly into our berth at
the Galveston dock from whence we had left.
Apparently once the Magic enters Galveston harbor it is spun around and
backed into port by tugs. It’s so slow,
however, that unless one is outside on the deck, it is not even
noticeable. We had to vacate our
stateroom by 8:30, so we went down to the Lido, Level 10, for breakfast. We enjoyed one last breakfast in the Lido
Buffet and awaited our turn to disembark.
Your luggage tags have zone numbers assigned, and debarkation is
scheduled by zone number. We were zone 6, so it wasn’t but a short time until
our number was called, and we began the long trek to our car. First it was down
to deck three, where we were checked off the boat, and then we walked the long
zigzagging gang plank down to the dock level.
The dock level is actually the second level of the customs building, so
once we got into the customs area we had to go down another level to go through
customs. Here’s where we had a stroke of
luck. As we were walking by, one of the
female customs attendants apparently saw Shirley was moving a little slow and
directed us to a side elevator, where we were able to glide down to the main
level. Then, as we left the elevator,
another attendant asked, “Would you like a porter to get your luggage?” “Yes!” we gasped. She waved this guy over and he asked us what
zone our luggage was it, and then said, “Come on, we’ll cut through these
lines.” He pushed us through probably
500 people, got our luggage, and then took us to a side line for customs check
that bypassed another mob of people.
Once we cleared customs, he carried our luggage out to the bus and
loaded it for us. That was the best
$20.00 tip I ever spent. Once on the
bus, we were taken back to our car, where we unlocked, loaded up, and headed
for home. At 1:00 p.m., one week and one
hour after we left home, we drove back into our driveway. It was a wonderful week.
Whether we ever go back to the Bahamas is
debatable. Freeport is more of a blue-collar,
industrial area, sort of like Progresso, Yucatan, but with no colorful history
to make it interesting. We really can’t
make a judgment about Nassau, since we spent all our time at a private island,
which was very nice, but we didn’t get to see much of the history and color of
Nassau. I saw one policeman or official
wearing a pith helmet and a white uniform, but that was the extent of the
English influence we saw. I suspect
there is much more to see and do in Nassau…even if the U.S. officials have
warned tourists to be vigilant due to the rising crime in there. Where do we go next? Stay tuned.
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