Merry Christmas, a wonderful time of the year

We do not decorate elaborately, but my Sherry must have some Christmas decorations at this season.  Son Jack's help, before we left on the cruise She decorated our Motor Home.

 She did the decorating in Orlando, then we moved North to Wildwood. This is what it looks like stripped for travel. Appropriately those are orange trees in the back ground.

 Here we are at night, I think she done good!

 This is the inside put back together, the bottles on the right come from Niece Peggy of Shelby.

Merry Christmas to our family scattered across the country and to our friends here on Blogspot. Our family wishes yours the best for this season and for the coming year.

With smiles, love and HUGS, to all a good night.

And to the Shipslog, Good night.

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 The reason for the Season!

An American Business!

Cozumel

This was a 5 day cruise with two ports of call. Cozumel was number 2. Fortunately this is a port where the skipper can tie up at the pier and passengers can walk off the ship.

 These pictures are our view from the balcony as we tied up to the pier.

Not everyone knows until you  take a cruise, that as a general rule, cash is useless on the ship. When you go aboard you assign a credit card to cover your expenses. You are issued a 'do it all card'. It is your door key, ID, and how you purchase things. (One exception, I am told, is the casino). At the beginning of the cruise as you go on the ship your picture is taken and digitally placed on the card. After that when you depart or return, your card is scanned and they can see your picture and compare it to you. There is one main departure  point and everyone goes and returns there. At the end of the day, before sailing the computer knows exactly who is missing, if anyone is. It is definitely a tight system.


One more thing. WE forgot to take any aspirin (etc), so I needed to purchase a small bottle of Ibuprofen.  I ran down to the ships store used my magic card and was charged $11.50 for the small bottle, word to the wise take some standard meds with you!

There are shore tours in every port, only two of our crew chose tours. From my experience, if you are going to take a tour ashore, use the ships tours. I scheduled our own tours on the net for one cruise and two of them never materialized and I got no response from the net to fix it.

We walked for a mile or so. Seeing the largest Thatch roof I had ever seen, it happened to be in the Grand Park Royal.

WE thought it might be fun to do a carriage ride, $70 per person. Down town and back. (For truth after the taxi ride we took, I realized it would have taken the Horse hours to do the trip, so $70 would not have been bad, but it would have been too much for me to enjoy.)

 Lots of scooters and motor bikes to rent. But we B too old for that.

We decided on a Taxi for $65 and a tour of down town.

The water at the beaches is fantastic.

Good by to our taxi driver, he was a good guide and the price was fair.  Of course I took 100 pictures. I tried to select a sampling.

I find myself getting tired after a day. I am heading to my 77th birthday next month, I think I am beginning to feel it.  The blog entry does not do Cozumel justice, it is a lovely place.

Nite Shipslog

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1955 Olds, Packard and the Pontiac

Georgetown on The Grand Cayman Island

The Cayman Islands are south of Cuba and about half way from the west tip of Cuba to Montego Bay in Jamaica.  WE departed Tampa Bay (Black line) rounded Cuba and anchored at Georgetown on Grand Cayman Isle. 

(Side note: Just south of the east end of Cuba where I have a red arrow is the approximate location of GITMO, Bay where we lived for 42 months, WE rate it the best place we ever lived!)

 Many ports do not have piers in water deep enough to accommodate a large ship, so passengers must be ferried in, such is the case at Georgetown.  Here are some of the ferries awaiting their time to take on passengers.

Above was a novelty ship for charter, if you want to go back in time.

We did see an old friend, a small Iguana climbing in the hedge. I love these dudes. We were used to them in GITMO, some were near 4 feet long, this little guy was about 16 inches.

Sherry and I did not do anything here except walk about a mile up and down the streets, the views were about the same.

Shops located along the water front. Sorry no more pictures, but se did not go anywhere.

I guess it is easy to tell it is the WATER that holds my attention. The color is beautiful the blues and aquas.  Note another cruise ship about to anchor. 

Jude the dude!

It was also a great place for conversations.  It was so nice to just engage in small talk and family stuff with no pressures and no one looking at a hand held device or texting!

Lots of casual dining on the eleventh deck. the kids liked this because they could look straight down thru the angle glass.

Sherry on our balcony and Son Mark one balcony over. At times I talked to Megan who was on the balcony between the two.

No cruise is complete until you enjoy the food art, this was one display. There was actually less food art on this ship than we were used to, but this is beautiful none the less.
Leaving Georgetown we headed directly west, we left at about 8PM, cruising all night and arrived in Cozumel the next morning.

Nite Shipslog
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Ahhhh, the Edsel from Ford.

At Sea towards our first port

Once in the Gulf of Mexico we enjoyed the beauty of the blue and aqua waters.  We have snorkeled a lot in these waters and the beauty is hard to explain.  The water is clear and on a smooth day I have seen the bottom when the fathometer read 125 feet (In the Key West area)

The Cayman's are around the west end of Cuba and then below them.  I made a mistake by not thinking of the family and those new to the sea experience. I should have brought or advised Dramamine for those who were not used to the moving deck, however slight. We had a couple who had to get their 'sea legs', but it didn't take long.

The second night was suggested Formal. Most of the ship does not go formal, but more sporty. There are still the men in a tux with their lady in a gown. This is Mark's crew we ran into.




Stella wasn't in the mood for a picture, but that didn't last long. 

The Food is always good and too much of it.

We also ran into Jude and his mom and dad (Jennifer and Stephen) 

I didn't get everyone but we had two tables adjacent so dinner was together, when anyone wanted it. Our dinner hour was at 8:30PM, a little late for Sherry and I, but we made it most nights.
I believe this was the night we had our Great Grands to ourselves while the grown-ups took in a show or time on the dance floor or in the casino.  But Great Grandpa and Grandma had a good time.

This was our day at sea on the way to our first port.

This is my favorite place, the balcony over 
looking my love the sea.

This was my balcony on the USS Independence. The flight deck safety net! ;-)  

But it was the same Ocean. I cannot imagine why anyone wouldn't want to live on this. (Of course only if they had their lover)
Cruises are great, the food is good and plentiful but for one thing distractions are less. If you want cell phone or internet service it will cost you on this ship, $20 a day. We chose to be off our leash. That gave me time to sit and talk one on one with my grands, Grandloves, as the ladies up in the North woods call them.
Nite Shipslog
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This beauty is a 1956 Ford convertible.