Carnival Christmas 2012 Cruise

We boarded the Carnival Legend in Tampa, Florida on Sunday December 23 - embarkation went smoothly and we spent the day getting accustomed to the ship and everything it offered.  Our dinner seating was 8:15 p.m., so after dinner we caught a welcome aboard show and packed it in early.

 

Monday (Christmas Eve) was a beautiful sunny day spent lounging by the pool, attending information sessions and just enjoying our day at sea. Jenn and Amy even found time to go to an exercise class while Jane and I went to the Christmas concert put on by the entertainment staff and the children in “Camp Carnival”.  It was also our first formal night, so it was fun to get all spruced up!  We caught the pre-dinner entertainment show and then the 10 p.m. comedy show.  Entertainment was top notch with professional singers / dancers, live band and stage sets that dazzle.

 

Christmas Day was spent in sunny Cozumel.  We had booked a ship's tour called "Salsa and Salsa" with the Dancing Chefs.  What a blast! We spent the morning learning how to make 7 different types of salsa (what we made, we ate!), and two types of Margaritas.  After lots of drinks and food, we all got on the dance floor to learn how to Salsa!  Definitely a new way to spend Christmas morning!  Back on the ship, we rested by the pool and prepared for an evening sing a long (where it did start to snow!).  Our pre dinner show was high energy - and dinner was lobster tail & filet mignon.  Food so far has been super - if it keeps up nothing will fit!

 

Wednesday found us in Belize.  We took a tender to shore then boarded a bus for an excursion with the Chukka tour company which started with an hour ride on a school bus through Belize City and then through the country side over some rough roads.

  Our first stop was the Altun Ha Mayan ceremonial center where the jade head of the Sun God was found during an expedition lead by David Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum.  Little did we know that there was a Canadian connection when we booked the tour.  After purchasing a local lunch at a small “resort”, we boarded a speed boat for a trip down the Wallace or Belize River where we saw large iguanas, crocodiles of various sizes and heard howler monkeys.  The boat took us back to the harbor where we jumped back onto the tender for the ride back to our ship.  We started the tour the tour late due to the 5 cruise ships in port that day so we had no time for shopping in the port. It was good to get out of Belize City and see some of the country side.  It was not as depressing as some countries, and we did see some gorgeous homes along the river as we approached the harbor.

Thursday morning we arrived in Mahogany Bay, Roatan. Carnival docks in this harbour and has built a “private island” complete with a small shopping area of jewelry stores and souvenir shops and a beautiful beach with lounge chairs, bars, restaurants and rental equipment.  We accessed the beach by riding the Magical Flying Beach Chair lift which was a pleasant ride and especially welcome on the way home.  We all got to swim in the sea and all got nicely tanned. 

 

 

Our stay in Roatan was short, so this was also the second formal evening. Our pre dinner show was a New Orleans themed Broadway type show.  What super performers!  Dinner was great and we are all getting better at sampling multiple appetizers.  After dinner we went to the comedy club for the show which sure beat the magician we saw the night before.

 

Friday!  Yikes, can you believe it's already Friday. I am sitting on our balcony watching the sun slowly rise while composing this diary.  The seas are calm and the breeze is warm.  Today we will dock in Grand Cayman Island.  Our plan is to rent a cab and head to seven mile beach.  The ships tours are heading for Tiki Beach - apparently one of the newest beach clubs, so we might head there as well. 

 

In the end, we took a van to seven mile public beach for $5.00 a person and spent the day there. Our lounge chairs were at the water's edge. Amy rented a floating mat and we all did spend a lot of time cooling off in the ocean. This was the hottest day yet and we all managed to not get sun burned - although even I had had it by the time we returned to the ship.  What a way to end our port days.

 

Saturday was a sea day as the ship headed back towards Tampa.  The sun was out, so we mixed relaxing with last minute ship exploration - and of course the dreaded suitcase packing.  Our final dinner was prime rib and seafood with molten chocolate cake for dessert.  Did I mention the food was really good?

 

On a final note, the 10 year old Carnival Legend is one of the ugliest ships on which we have cruised. From the silver urns, to the Venetian glass in the dining room ceiling, to the ugly statues and the gaudy elevator decorations, it was a unique experience. Fortunately the staterooms were plain and serviceable, the balconies were great to escape the crowds on the pool deck, the staff were friendly and the food and entertainment very good.

 

Sunday morning's debarkation went well, and our shuttle driver picked us up. It was quite a shock to find that Tampa was cold but at least sunny. Soon we were back in our vehicle and checked into the Residence Inn near the airport.  The girls were leaving on Tuesday, so with no plans for the day - what else, we headed to a giant outlet mall in Ellenton! Guess we really had not done any shopping on the cruise and it was definitely too cold to use the outdoor pool! 

 

New Year’s Eve was a slow day since both Jane and I had started to get colds. We enjoyed the hotel’s free dinner time reception so we didn’t have to look for a restaurant and compete with party-goers. Little did we know when we checked in that we were in the closest hotel to the Outback Bowl.  The hotel was filled to capacity with football fans all sporting their team’s logos. We were about the only guests who were not going to the game!!

 

On New Year’s Day, Jenn arrived home before Amy even left Tampa. Since there were no delays with their flights, once Amy checked in we started our drive back to Texas. 

 

This was definitely a great Christmas vacation!

The week before Christmas

On Tuesday December 18th, we set out from San Benito heading to Tampa where our cruise is departing from. Our first night was in Lafayette, Louisiana where we met Doug and Sue Collins for dinner. They had left Florida on Sunday the 16th - the start of their trip to California. We had a wonderful visit with them at Fezzo's Cajun seafood and steak restaurant in Scott, Louisiana.

Wednesday was warm and sunny so we had a leisurely drive to Foley, Alabama - the home of a Tanger outlet mall. We did just a bit of shopping but we enjoyed supper at Lambert's Cafe, the home of the throwed rolls. We have now visited 2 of the 3 locations of this crazy restaurant. We had so much food left over that we had snacks for the next 2 days.

We decided to drive along the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida Panhandle on Thursday since this is a part of Florida we have not yet explored. That was fine while the weather was overcast but we decided to get on the I-10 when the rain started. The rain got worse and worse so it was a long difficult drive to Tampa. The sign below took us by surprise at one of the Florida rest areas. Perhaps it is necessary because of the pet walking area.

Friday we found a Camping World to buy a few RV supplies and look at the 5th wheels. We also stopped at Lazy Days RV center - something I would call a super mega center. Why they even have a fleet of golf carts for you to drive around their enormous outdoor showroom. Well if you want to see a particular brand, they have lots of models to look at! We must have looked at over 20 fifth wheels, but Jane wants to design her own rv taking the nicest parts of several different models. Since that isn't possible we will stick with our Titanium.

We then headed to the Tampa airport hotel,we had booked to await Jenn and Amy's flights from the north. Jenn arrived around 11:00 pm on schedule but at midnight we learned that after 6 hours at the airport, Amy had been sent back home. United Airlines now couldn't get her to Florida before Sunday afternoon so she booked a flight direct from Ottawa to Fort Myers on Westjet for Saturday morning. Although Westjet's inaugural flight to Fort Myers was late leaving, she made safely. Paul did the 2.5 hour drive each way to pick her up and now we just have to make sure United gives her a refund.

So Sunday we board the Carnival Legend and head to the western Caribbean.

Merry Christmas to all.

Second week of Christmas

During our lead up to Christmas we enjoyed our usual activities such as the Sunday night ice cream social and the Monday morning dance class which starts at 9:00 a.m. We had to pass on using the pool during the second week of December since a cold front came through early Monday morning. We saw the temperature fall over 15 degrees in less than an hour and we watched our awning get buffeted by the strong gusts of wind. We were lucky that it did not get damaged so Paul decided that he would have to roll it in before we left for Florida.

Tuesday December 11 we attended a demo of how to make different kinds of pesto given by the owner of the Blue Onion restaurant in Weslaco. After the demo, we got to sample the 6 kinds of pesto - what a treat! It was the first time the park has sponsored such an activity and we hope that they can find another restaurant to do something similar. On Thursday evening, we actually tried the restaurant - following a trip to the outlet mall.

Wednesday evening, Myrna and Dave invited a group of us to a pre-Christmas turkey dinner. Our contribution to the dinner were the margaritas and guacamole which all enjoyed despite the cooler temperatures. (I know all our northern friends are real sympatheic - since most of us were still in shorts! Ah what whiners we have become...LOL) Once the sun set, we retreated inside their house for dinner. We finished off the evening around Dave's propane campfire pit.

We started Friday the 14th at the Valley Baptist Hospital Christmas party for seniors. This is the way to a visit a hospital - breakfast, a Christmas concert by a local church's bell choir, and door prizes for all attendees. At 6:00 pm, we took the Fun 'N Sun train around the park to see the Christmas lights. It is amazing to see how elaborate some of the decorations are - especially on rv's with small storage compartments. After the train ride, we went over to the dance hall for the Texas Country Band.

Ah another week is done!

First Week of Christmas Season

Tuesday December 4 was a hot sunny day – a perfect swimming day. So by late afternoon the pool got really jammed with the people who wanted to float around the pool and Jane and her friends who were there for Aqua Zumba class taught by a young Mexican woman who comes into the park. The Zumba ladies had great fun and so did some of the by-standers although some complained that the Mexican music was too loud!!!

The Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum’s opening reception for their decorated Christmas trees was later the same day – another fun part of the Christmas season in south Texas, especially when we were in shorts and sandals.

On Wednesday, Jane and Linda began their volunteer duty in the Fred Booth elementary school library in San Benito. The shelves are such a mess that they won’t work themselves out of a job until April. They also had a quick lesson in entering new books into the automated system.


Friday December 7th was a jam packed day which started at 8:45 a.m. when Dave and Myrna picked us up to go to the Welcome Back Winter Texans fiesta in Nuevo Progresso, Mexico. We started with tamales and Mexican beer and then sampled other Mexican dishes while we watched the Mexican cheerleaders and dancers. We bought a large bottle of Tequila and returned to the park in the early afternoon.

After a short rest and change of clothes, we headed to the front of the park to await the tour bus which was to take us to the Hildago Festival of Lights. The bus was late in arriving, so we were a bit rushed at our dinner stop at Taco Olé and also missed the beginning of the concert by Estudiantina Gudadalupana. However, we had a wonderful trolley ride and were totally impressed by the displays which contained over three million lights. We hear the festival grows each year, so we will return.

We ended our busy week on Saturday night with a rock and roll dance by a local DJ/ singer who manages to keep the crowd dancing and partying for the whole evening. The profits from the 50/50 draw went to support the local food pantry which experiences an increased demand during the Christmas season.

Can it really be Dec 1st Already?

Where did the last two and a half weeks go?

We quickly settled in on our site, rushed off to sign up for Internet and our newspaper delivery, got involved in Toys for Tots, Ipad user group, aqua fitness, Friday night Texas country dances, computer club, and even aqua Zumba - just to name a few of our weekly activities. We arrived at Fun N Sun just in time for the monthly Canadian club pot luck although it was quite a small turn out.

A week after we arrived, Jennifer flew down on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us. On Thursday our neighbors, Denny and Mary hosted our K street's Thanksgiving feast. Over 20 people attended and the food was varied and plentiful.

Friday morning we arrived at Kohl's at 7:30 a.m. to get some of the Black Friday deals. We finished there at 9:00 a.m. and headed to What a Burger - a Texas burger chain for breakfast. Since it was warm day, we took Jenn out to South Padre Island to enjoy the beach and the water (although none of us got into the water over our knees).





After a late lunch of seafood at Dirty Al's, we headed back to Fun n Sun for the Texas dance. Yes, Jenn came along and started to learn the basic Texas two step. A fun way to cap off a great day.

Saturday we headed to Las Vegas Cafe for a traditional Mexican breakfast. After breakfast we headed to the Don West Flea market and stopped at Costco to pick up some salmon for our dinner.

Jenn headed back home on Sunday morning and we went to Dave and Myrna's to watch the Grey Cup game.

This past week has seen us attend two Christmas tree lighting ceremonies in Harlingen - the neighbouring town. Friday night our friends Mitch and Connie invited a group of us over to the Elks Club for a BBQ steak dinner and dancing. We all had a good time.

Today started early with a community garage sale in the Rec Hall. We did part with a few treasures, but we also came home with some new ones! In all we were $3.00 ahead. After the sale, we headed to Jackson Street in Harlingen for their market day - an open air festival / flea market with many vendors, musicians,and food. On a warm sunny 85 degree day it really is fun.

Tonight we are happy to have a slow evening - why we even got to update our blog! Next week will be busy as the Christmas season gets into full swing here in Rio Grande Valley and as more of our friends arrive in the park.