Sunday, January 18, 2015….We be cruising the Caribbean

Embarkation from Port of Houston

I really don’t know how Mary Alice does these things, but this time she arranged a 7-day cruise out of the Port of Houston for Sunday the 18^th. Who am I to argue with my wife? Besides it was my birthday!

Seriously, this is our 4^th Caribbean cruise in the last 5 years and we love it.  There is no hassle with airport, security, flying, delays, etc.  Just drive to La Porte, park and get on the ship. We are very happy to have our good friends from Paris, Michel and Chantal, with us too. 

For us this cruise is a really good deal. Its 7 days at a cost of $379 ea plus port fees and taxes. In addition we got $250 on board credit, money to spend on the ship.  The credit given any veteran is a minimum of $100 and then we get another $150 for owning 100 shares of Carnival stock.  I was thinking about folks who have boats and motor homes, or a second home.  I’m sure there are advantages in all these vacation options. For us, well it’s cruising and we don’t pay property taxes for cruises! So this is our 20^th since we got married 12 years ago.

For today, we left our home in Cypress around 10:00 am, that is, once I figured out why the alarm wouldn’t turn on. Turns out we had a window that was not all the way down.  That being handled, I thought I would show Michel and Chantal a little Texas history.  Enroute to the ship, we swung by the San Jacinto Monument and shared with them some of the story of the Battle of San Jacinto.  They loved it.  We met two actors who welcome visitors and are ready with tales of the details of being a “Texian” soldier and a pioneer Texas woman. 

And by the way, veterans get free entry to all the extra exhibits and to the top of the tower. We took the elevator all the up 550’ to the observation deck. From there we could see downtown Houston, the Port of Houston and surrounding countryside.  The weather was clear and sunny and we enjoyed a great view of the battlegrounds.  After touring the exhibits we stopped at the Battleship Texas and headed off toward the Cruise Port.

We arrived, unloaded suitcases, got the car parked, got checked in and received our cruise cards.  Our room is on the Plaza Deck 5, very near the art gallery and the coffee bar.  We joined Chantal and Michel for lunch and made dinner plans with them for later.  Remember! We do not miss meals on the ship!  During the afternoon I watched Green Bay lose in OT to Seattle.  That’s all for now! I’ll fill you in on tomorrow, tomorrow.

God bless Texas.