this is almost 2.5 pages in word. i don't know how Kelly did this - it's taking forever.
12/4/11: woke up around 7 and got ready to leave for our trip on the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas. *Barbie* Pumped, showered and finished some last minute packing while DK got Wolverine ready. For breakfast, I ate an orange and a granola bar. I had water to drink. Wolverine had cheerios and milk. DK did not eat. DK packed the car and almost forgot to bring the bag that had Wolverine’s clothes, and his garment bag. At 9:30am the car was packed and we were ready to go, except Wolverine needed a diaper change. We quickly changed her diaper and got on the road. We drove to 290E, and then took it to 610S and then 10E to 45S. We took 45S the rest of the way to Galveston.
Once we got to Galveston Island, around 11am, we got off the highway and followed the directions on Jess’ Android to get to the ship terminal and parking. It was about 11 am when we got to the terminal and we were hungry, so we decided to find a place to eat. We drove around Galveston to get to the visitor center, but saw a Subway and decided to eat there. *Barbie* had a 6” chicken teriyaki on honey wheat and DK got a footlong meatball sub. DK’s sandwich was only $4! *Barbie drank Dr. Pepper and DK had diet coke. Wolverine ate a yogurt parfait, except she spit out the fruit because it was frozen.
After lunch, we drove back over to the ship terminal and found a place to park. We parked at EZ Cruise Parking because it was half of the price of Royal Caribbean’s parking lot. When we got to the parking lot, it started to rain, so we had to stand in the rain and wait for the shuttle. Luckily, the line of people going to the Royal Caribbean ship had a tarp, and people let *Barbie* and Wolverine stand under the tarp. DK stood in the rain and got wet. There was a Carnival ship in port too, so there was a lot of people going on the Carnival ship too. They didn’t have a tarp, so they got more busses to the ship. We waited a long time, but finally got in the 3rd bus for Royal Caribbean to go to the boat.
Galveston likes to have a lot of festivals so a lot of the streets near the cruise terminal are blocked. The bus had to drive all over the place to get us to the cruise terminal. Once the bus driver dropped us off, he got a porter to take our bags to the ship. DK, Wolverine and *Barbie* all went and got in line inside this big warehouse to go through security. The security line moved pretty fast and then we went through metal detectors and put our carry-on bags through an x-ray. It was like airport security. After security, we had to fill out a card stating that everyone was healthy, and then got in line to get Sea Pass cards.
We had to show our passports to the CSR to get our Sea Pass cards. Then we needed to scan the card and have our picture taken so they would know it was us when we got on and off the ship. After all of that we got to go onto the ship. We got on the ship and then went to our room to look around. We used our Sea Pass cards to get into the room and then put our bags down. We had a suite with a big bed and a couch and a little coffee table there was a desk and a tv, and a bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet. We freshened up a little and then went to find the all-you-can-eat buffet. We got a snack at the buffet (jess got fruit and some chicken and fries and a cookie and had lemonade to drink, DK got a lot of different things to try and had iced tea. Wolverine had milk and water, and shard some of mom and dad’s food.)
After we ate, we had to go to a shipwide emergency drill where they showed us how to use life vests and where to meet if there was an emergency. They let us leave the drill first because we had a baby.
After the drill, we went back to our room to watch the ship leave port. We stood on our balcony and waved to the Carnival Magic, which was still in port. The Carnival ship had loud music playing (Michael Jackson, among others) and Wolverine was dancing/bouncing on the balcony and waving. We saw a few dolphins in the water and a few pelicans. There were also a lot of seagulls that followed the ship because people were feeding them. They were dive-bombing the ship for fries.
After It started to get a bit dark around 5:30CST, we put wolverine down for a nap, and DK stayed with her while *Barbie* explored the ship. I took pictures of the top few decks and walked all over. I tried a free sample of a yummy liqueur called Amarula. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarula). I stopped at one of the free cafés and picked up some fruit salad and chocolate mousse for myself and DK. I took it back to the room so we could have a snack before dinner.
Around 8:00pm we got wolverine up and got ready for dinner, which started at 8:30. We walked to the dining room and were seated at table 347. Mario was our waiter – he was from Columbia, Tanja was our assistant waiter and she was from Montenegro. We were seated with a couple from Toronto – Cheryl and Sven – and another family who had an 11mo girl, and 4yo girl, mom, dad, and maternal grandmother. The other family only came to dinner on the first night. For dinner, I ordered the chef’s special which was a pork tenderloin, a mushroom dish, and a few other items. DK got the same. Unfortunately I was not feeling well, so didn’t really eat much. The motion of the boat was bothering me so I took some Dramamine.
After dinner, we went upstairs and went to bed. Wolverine slept in a travel crib.
Day 2 – at sea. We ordered room service for breakfast and got an assortment of food. I was still feeling unwell, but had some fruit and yogurt. DK had bacon, eggs, hash browns, tomatoes, fruit, yogurt and pasties. (as a side note, his inner fat kid had a ball on this cruise…) Wolverine had some eggs, yogurt, and cereal. DK and I had apple juice, and Wolverine had milk. After breakfast, DK ran down to the medical office to see if they could suggest anything for me, and brought back some motion sickness medication. That really helped, although it did make me feel a little bit tired. We decided to go up to the pool for a swim. I was surprised that it was a saltwater pool, although it made a lot of sense. Wolverine had a ball splashing in the water, and quickly figured out how to climb out of the shallow end of the pool.
After we were at the pool for a while, the activities crew decided to have a mini Olympics and I decided to participate. I joined a team and we had relays to pass oranges, and hula hoops up and down the line in different ways. We were tied 2-2 after the 4th even so the tiebreaker was a relay in the pool. You had to put on a t-shirt and then swim to the end of the pool and back and then put the shirt on the next person in line before they swam. My team was winning all of the way until the last lady in our line. She blew the race. We ended up getting small prizes for participating (I got a keychain) and we had a lot of fun.
After swimming, we showered and got some lunch at the buffet. DK and I both had an assortment of food, and shared with Wolverine. I was feeling better so was able to eat a lot more. Dinner was the first formal night, so after lunch we explored the ship for a bit and then let wolverine take a nap. We got a little snack around 5 or so and then hung out and got ready for dinner. I wore a blue/ purple/pink dress with pinky-silver peep-toe heels, DK wore a dark gray pinstripe suit with a dark teal shirt and matching tie, and Wolverine wore a little satiny plaid dress in shades of grey/black/white/pink/silver. She looked very cute.
We went to the dining room and had dinner with Cheryl and Sven, who were very nice. For dinner, both DK and I had the escargot appetizer, which was fantastic, and we got an extra one for Wolverine. She ate 2 and really seemed to like them. I have video proof of her eating them. I got to finish the rest, which was pretty awesome. After the escargot, I had the duck, which was also fantastic. I don’t remember what I had for dessert, but all of the desserts were great.
After dinner, we were exhausted and went straight to bed.