Linda

And here are a few photos of me.

Linda standing in front of the pyramid at Chichen Itza

Looking at silver jewelry at one of the many tables at Chichen Itza

standing on deck around midnight watching the dancers below (notice the patch behing my ear?)

Enjoying the cruise

Jamie

Here are some photos of my lovely daughter, Jamie taken while on the cruise.

standing on deck of the cruise ship

a beautiful smile

formal night on the way to the dining room

standing in line ready to enter Chichen Itza

taking pictures of the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza

siesta time on the bus after touring Chichen Itza

sunbathing on the ship's deck in Cozumel

The Carnival Ecstasy

Although this cruise ship was smaller and older than our last cruise it was still nice. There were several pools and hot tubs, a spa, mini golf, track and gym, basketball court, chess, casino, night clubs, a large theater for shows, bars, restaurants, stores and I am sure much more that I can’t recall right now. Below are a few photos of some parts of the ship.

The Grand Atrium, looking down from a higher floor

The mini-golf course on the top deck

an outside stair case

the name of our Carnival cruise liner was Ecstasy

one of the pools with a curvy water slide

a giant chess set on deck

some lounge chairs near one of the pools

Onboard Activities

The cruise ship has lots of activities to keep you busy 24 hours a day. One such activity was the Hairy Man Contest. There were several male volunteers who came up on the deck stage and one girl volunteer who was blindfolded. Each of the men came forward when called by number and she had to feel their chest and rate each one on how hairy he was. A few photos are below. Another was an ice carving exhibition that was fun to watch. One night we attended the Battle of the Sexes game and it was very funny. They asked for 2 men and 2 women volunteers to come up on stage. They had to place a quarter between their butt cheeks and walk to the front edge of the stage and drop it into a glass. It was hilarious! Another night we were entertained by more volunteers… two teams of 6 people each… 3 men, two women and one child on each team. They had parts to play… the father, the mother, the house, the woodsman, the bed and the child. The cruise director read a story involving the players and each time they were mentioned they had to run around the group, up thru the middle and take their place in the line again. First team to have their member return first scored points. It was hysterical and fast paced. Those are just a few of the fun things that kept us busy and entertained while onboard.

These were the guys in the hairy man contest

This guy was the winner, the girl feeling his chest was the judge

This was the ice carver in action

the final ice carving

The Last Day

Friday was another full day at sea. The trip back to Galveston was smoother sailing but we could still feel the ship moving at times but with our patches still intact we didn’t feel sick. We spent the morning hours sunbathing and then attended the debarkation talk that was required for our return to Galveston. Most of the day was spent in the sun and just relaxing. That evening we went to another show and it was soooo bad we got up and left. It was a man playing a sax and singing. He couldn’t sing worth a darn and his talk between songs was not funny (although he was trying to be). He could play the sax well but… oh my gosh, I don’t enjoy that type of music at all. So many in the audience got up and left right away, Jamie and I toughed it out for awhile but just couldn’t handle it any longer so we got up and left too. I am sure some people like that type of entertainment but it was torture for us. We went back for the Battle of the Sexes game and that was fun. (more about it later). I think we went to bed around 11:00. Overall the trip was a good one but comparing it to our last trip this one was not up to par. Last time we cruised on Royal Caribbean and it was a much larger ship and the entertainment was so much better and more professional. It seemed like we had a lot more to do on that ship than on this one. The food this time seemed blah… dinner was always really great but the buffets were what you find at any buffet type restaurant and nothing to brag about. The dessert areas were the prettiest but I am not a big dessert person and hardly tried any of the desserts on the cruise. Many of the activities seemed unorganized and that was a let down. I am glad we went and so glad I finally got to see the pyramid at Chichen Itza but I wouldn’t go back there again. It’s funny because so many people on the ship had gone to Cozumel before and were returning again… we kept hearing about all the bargains to be found but unless you are really into jewelry (I am not) or cheap junk then there is nothing more to purchase.

Cozumel

We arrived in Cozumel at 8:00 on Thursday morning. We didn’t purchase any of the land excursions but instead opted to go out and spend the morning shopping on our own and just walking around Cozumel. I wasn’t too impressed. Again I felt we were being hit hard by pushy people trying to get you to buy what they were selling or come into their store to shop. We did end up finding an internet café and dropped in there since it was so cheap to use. We both checked our email and wrote a few then were on our way back to the ship. We had considered taking a taxi to one of the local beaches but decided instead to sunbathe on deck. We found out we’d have to take a 15 minute taxi ride each way plus pay an entrance fee of around $13 each to get in the beach area and we’d only have about an hour or so to stay there before we had to be back onboard the ship. We felt we could do better to save that money and get our tan by laying out on deck. The water was an amazing shade of blue and we saw a huge sea turtle and some big fish from the deck. That night we went to see the show called X-treme Country which was a western type song and dance and was pretty good. We hit the casino 2 nights but I can’t recall which 2 nights it was. Neither of us lost much and we both won back around the amount we had bet so it was fun.

our cruise ship docked at the pier in Cozumel

some colorful chairs at a restaurant in Cozumel

the beautiful clear blue waters in Cozumel... amazing!

Jamie sunbathing on one of the top decks

a view of Cozumel from the ship

a view of Cozumel from the ship

a view of Cozumel from the ship

Jamie holding a bucket of her winnings from the casino

The Locals

Mexico is always so colorful. In order to enter and exit the ruins at Chichen Itza you have to walk thru tons of locals trying desperately to sell you their wares. It is overwhelming. I can’t tell you how many times we heard them saying “one dollar”. I felt bad because some of the women were trying to sell hand embroidered handkerchiefs for only $1 and I knew all the work and time that had gone into each of them only to be sold for just $1. There were lots of nice looking trinkets, all very cheap. Lots of silver jewelry too but again I hate the pushiness of trying to make the sell. Everywhere we went the locals were right in our faces trying to sell, sell, sell. Below are some photos taken by Jamie while we were walking thru the markets at Chichen Itza.

this adorable little Mayan lady was trying so hard to sell her hankies for only $1, she was only around 4 feet tall

pretty colored plates

beautiful dresses

hear no evil... speak no evil... see no evil...

Progreso, Mexico

Wednesday we both woke up feeling fantastic! The patches were a blessing. We noticed about half the people on the ship were wearing them so we know now!!! We arrived in Progreso, Mexico at 7:00. We ate an early breakfast and were off the boat at 7:00 to get on a tour bus that was taking us to Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins. It was a 2 and a half hour bus ride and we had a great little tour guide named Julian who was of Mayan descent who talked and told us a lot of interesting info. We made one stop just prior to arriving at Chichen Itza at one of the shopping areas for trinkets and junk. Finally arrived at Chichen Itza and our tour guide led us to some of the major ruins there like the pyramid and the ball court. It was very informative and oh so hot. The sun was out and the temps were in the 90’s. We ended up only having less than an hour to walk around on our own there but we were ready to leave before the hour was up and walked back thru the locals who were aggressively trying to sell their stuff. That is one thing I hate about these cruise trips… the locals overwhelm you trying to push their stuff for sale. It was fun just walking around and looking and taking pictures though. Back on the bus we were served a bag lunch with bottled water. The lunch consisted of a submarine type sandwich, bag of chips, chocolate dessert, apple, mints and the bottle of water. It hit the spot. Julian talked a little more then said it was time for a siesta and we took advantage of that to take a nap on the return trip back to Progreso. We arrived just in time to board the ship and set off for Cozumel. We went on deck to sunbathe some more and take part in a TV show theme song trivia game. I knew almost all of the older TV show theme songs but none of the new ones. It was still fun. Following that was a Fear Factor contest and there were 2 teams of volunteers. It was funny. We decided to take advantage of the 50% off at the internet café onboard the ship and used it for the first time. It was still very expensive but we used it for about an hour. Tonight none of our table mates showed up for dinner so it was just Jamie and me dining alone. We went to see the comedian after dinner and he was funny. We enjoyed his show. The lunar eclipse was this night and we had planned to go on deck since they were having a lunar eclipse party but ended up doing other things instead. There was a guest talent show so we went to that and it was great fun. We did end up going on deck after that but the eclipse was over by then. We watched some dancing then went to bed around midnight. It had been a fun day and we were both thrilled that we no felt motion sickness.

boarding the busses for the trip to Chichen Itza

we were met in Progreso by these festive dancers

Julian was our tour guide for the bus ride and while at Chichen Itza

the Mayan pyramid at Chichen Itza

Our Oceanview Cabin

We had a nice oceanview cabin with two little port hole windows. The twin beds were pushed together and made as a king size bed when we arrived but we had them separate them into two beds and it opened up the room so we had more space. We had a nice TV and actually got quite a few channels. One of the "local" stations was actually Denver, CO, so it was quite funny to hear the weather reports etc... from Denver each day. All that snow and here we were in the sunny, hot Mexican Riviera. The room seemed larger than the one we had on the last cruise and the bathroom was definitely larger. It was a comfortable room. The beds were very cozy with down comforters and the most amazing down pillows I have ever slept on! We also had 2 comfy bathrobes and 2 large fluffy beach towels provided. Below are some photos to give you an idea of what our room looked like.

the beds upon or arrival were one king size bed

the room once the beds were moved. I had the one next to the windows

Jamie's bed

the view from the bed looking toward the door (with all our junk on the desk)

the shower, it was nice and roomy

the sink and toilet area

Tuesday At Sea

Tuesday was a full day at sea. We sunbathed on deck then in the afternoon went to the Newlywed Game show which was a riot. We also went to play Bingo but the prices were steep… $10/card and they were only going to play one game of straight bingo so the chances of winning were not that great considering the amount of people playing. Instead I opted to purchase 10 scratch and win tickets for $10. I didn’t win anything on any of them but there was to be a second chance drawing afterward and you had to write your name and room number on the back of each card. I had 10 cards in the box and I would say there were probably less than 50 cards in the box at drawing time so I felt lucky! Sure enough, one of my cards was pulled and I went to the stage to accept my prize… a bottle of champagne along with some coupons for the spa and a Carnival winners medal. Whoo hoo! Jamie still felt bad all morning but as the day went on she started to feel better. Not long before dinner time I started getting sick. We had been on rough water, rocking like crazy for 24 hours by the time it hit me. It was formal night and I had really been looking forward to getting dressed up. Jamie had been dreading it. The closer it got to dinner time the worse I felt. We got to the table and it was the first night we met our table mates. Two women who were a mother and daughter and couple more women who I think were sisters. All were from Oklahoma but the daughter lived in Arkansas. We had a great dinner but I was feeling worse and worse by the minute. I couldn’t even eat the food I had ordered. One of our waitstaff suggested I have an apple and some ginger ale and she brought the ginger ale for me to sip on. The sweet mother and daughter told us they were wearing patches to prevent motion sickness and seeing how bad I was feeling and hearing about how bad Jamie felt they offered us two of their patches. Their doctors had given them a prescription and each had 4 patches and they only needed one each for the cruise so they offered one to each of us. There were life-savers! I went directly back to our cabin and put my pj’s on and Jamie went with the women to their room to get the 2 patches. Jamie placed mine behind my ear for me as I was too sick to even do it myself. After a couple of hours I thought I was feeling better so decided to go see one of the shows. Jamie wanted to stay in the room and watch something on TV so I went alone. The show was OK, but I was still feeling poorly and the stage had a part that rotated and the dancers were also running and turning around as it rotated… just what I needed… more motion!!! I left at the first opportunity and went on to bed.

the champagne, medal and coupons I won

my Carnival medal

Jamie and Linda on formal night (I was so sick when this photo was taken)

the daughter and mother who saved our trip by giving us the patches

Naughty Towels

OK, now for the naughty towels. I kid you not, this is the view we saw when we walked into the room on the last 2 nights. We both nearly fell over in fits of laughter when we saw the first one here. You will have to use your own imagination to figure out what it looks like. It took us quite a while to figure out what it was supposed to be and it only looked like a cobra once we bent the head forward and looked at it from the side. It was standing straight up like this when we entered the room. I don't know when I have laughed harder. This one will show up again... LOL. The second one here was the seal/walrus on the last night. Jamie immediately thought it looked like the female counter part to the other one. Again we laughed until our sides hurt. So here they are for you to be the judge. What do they look like to you???