Here's the cast of characters:
John & Laura (married 10 years):
Robert & Stefanie (dating 1 year):
Misti & Nathan (married ~10 years):
And, of course, me and Mason (married 3 years):
So on Sunday Robert & Stefanie picked us up and we all drove down to Galveston, chatting the whole way. We got there on the early side so we could meet John & Laura at a sports bar and watch football. That night the 6 of us all stayed at the La Quinta, while Misti & Nathan were staying somewhere else in Galveston.
MONDAY
We woke up SUPER early, and Mason did a little "Is it time to go yet? Why isn't it time to go yet?!?" dance. Everybody else was ready on the early side as well. :-)
So we all got on the boat as early as we possibly could, even though our rooms weren't even ready yet that early and we had to hang out on the Lido Deck with our luggage.
I snuck off as a surprise to decorate all 4 of the cabin doors for us and our friends
We were let into our rooms, we got our luggage, we had our inaugural all-group dinner at our 8:15 dinner seating at our perfect round table for 8. There was kerfuffle about whether the Texans' Monday Night Football game was playing on the big screen outside and then whether it was playing anywhere on the boat at all and it all ended up really annoying and disappointing and I won't recount it.
I woke up hungry in the middle of the night so I went to the 24-hour pizza place and they told me that I could get gluten-free pizza, but they needed a day's notice. So I told them I was giving my notice that I wanted gluten-free pizza tomorrow. I ate some of the gluten-free bread I brought instead, and was glad I'd brought it.
TUESDAY
Mason & I woke up effortlessly early and we read and drank coffee and got omelettes. Why isn't it so easy to wake up at 6:30 in regular life?!?
Today was an at-sea day. John & Laura met us for trivia at 9:30 and we retired to the hot tub after, we went to the one way in the back away from the loud music on the Lido Deck.
At 12:30 it was back to the Lido Deck because Mason, Stefanie & Robert had ALL been picked to participate in a Mixology contest. Of 5 contestants, 3 were from our group. Crazy! They each had to make up a drink, and the winner would get a trophy, bunch of ship bar credits + their drink would be a featured drink for the rest of the cruise. EVERYBODY turned up to cheer on our 3 contestants.
And the winner was: Stefanie with the Bananarchy (although the people who made the signs advertising it at the ship bars mis-spelled it)!
After that I ate my gluten-free pizza, and then after that it was time for high tea. Darjeeling tea and macaroons and strawberries & cream. After that we watched the Couples' Challenge (entertaining!) and I napped while Mason went to the casino and to Progressive Trivia with some of our friends (that's when you have to go to multiple trivia contests and your points add up over the days).
That night was Formal Night at dinner, so everybody got all glammed up.
Nathan & Misti wore their matching outfits that they'd worn for their engagement photos way back in high school. Whoa. Fitting into your high school clothes.... Mad respect for THAT!
Our dinner seating wasn't until 8:15, so we decided to meet in the ship library at 7:00 to play Cards Against Humanity beforehand. The game was fun and the library was full of all this wood and stacks of books, and it made such a lovely backdrop for my gorgeous, glittering friends, laughing and having a great time playing cards. Wish I had a good picture of this, but it's one of my favorite memories. At dinner we ate lobster tail and prime rib, and we all lingered so long over dinner that we were still sitting there when they turned up the house lights to shoo out the lingerers. Nathan commented that he loved how we were closing the place down. Agreed. During dinner I had a moment where I looked over at Mason and he was listening intently to something somebody was saying and I had one of those moments where it's like I saw him again for the first time and fell in love all over again. (Awwww).
After dinner, Laura wanted to go dancing, so most of us went to the dance club, where it was 70s/80s night. When we got there, the dance floor was empty and Mason led us all onto the empty dance floor. Within 2 songs, the floor was half-full. Within 2 more songs, the floor was PACKED. It looked like a commercial for fun in Vegas. I told Mason that he is fearless and the one that creates and brings the fun all the time! He was delighted about the way we created that packed dance floor by starting it up. I am thrilled to be married to such an extraordinary guy, the Bringer Of Fun. :-)
WEDNESDAY
Today was a port day. Everyone was in for the same excursion, except for Misti & Nathan because they wanted to see ruins instead of cenotes. This port was Progresso, which is a really weird port. First we had to take a shuttle just to get off the pier because it's 5 miles long.
Then we met our van for our pre-arranged private tour to the cenotes. But first, before the cenotes, a stop in a tiny little town to get some fruit at the market and to see the random ruins in the middle of their town square.
Then, on to the cenotes. Or, more accurately, to the spot where we get on a horse-drawn cart that will take us deep into the woods where the cenotes are only accessible by horse and the way there is only known by the locals.
But once you get to the cenote, you can see why the Mayans thought these were sacred spaces and also why they thought they were connected to the underworld. From the ground, peering down into the cenote, it looks like a bottomless hole. Once you've climbed the ladder down into the cenote you find this gorgeous underground cave with a turquoise lake in it. A 60-foot deep lake! That we swam in!
We got back on the horse cart and visited a second cenote where we could get down into the cenote, but there were no steps into the water -- the only way in was to jump and the only way out was to pull yourself up using a rope. Mason & Robert were the only ones brave enough to jump into that one.
After cenote #2 we cracked open the cooler that our tour guide had brought and had beers, waters, and sodas, and celebrated our day.
It was a long 90-minute van ride back to Progresso. I noticed on our long drives that driving here is a game of chicken, with very few cars -- mostly mopeds, mopeds with carts attached, bicycles, and dump trucks.
But once we got to Progresso, our private tour guide took us to a little hole-in-the-wall to get good, authentic, AMAZING tacos that we ate right there in the van.
Back on the shuttle bus up the long pier.
On the ride back, John said thank you to Mason for setting this excursion up. He said that the cenotes is the kind of thing that, if he was on his own with Laura, he'd want to do it, and he'd maybe try to do it, but it would be a big fail and it wouldn't happen. Basically that cenotes is something you only accomplish with a group backing you up and cheering you on, and a good tour guide. I agree with that assessment.
That night Misti & Nathan missed dinner because they were doing the Chef's Table, but we decided to all have a pajama party in John & Laura's room. So we whiled away our after-dinner hours chatting & having fun.
THURSDAY
Today was our second port day, Cozumel.
We had breakfast in the main dining room and they had gluten-free toast right on the menu! Nice! At breakfast you get seated with random strangers and it turned out one of the other guys at the table had graduated from the same high school as Mason. Ahhh, Galveston boats. Then the whole group met up to pile into one van for the 15-minute ride to the Nachi Cocum resort. Yay!
We got to Nachi, checked in, ordered drinks, and Mason immediately took his margarita and headed into the ocean. :-) Other thing that happened included: I wore a thong swimsuit at my husband's request. Nathan crossed "get a drink at a swim-up bar" off his life list. John & Laura took over and made sure everybody left Nachi on time to get back to the boat. And Robert got so sunburned it hurt just to look at.
By the time we all got back to the boat after a day of sun, food, and unlimited sugary alcohol, we were all pretty wrecked and we all went to sleep. But Mason still wanted to do the next round of Progressive Trivia (you can't miss any rounds if you want to win!), which was at 4:30. At 4:26 he woke up and realized he was late. In his haste, and because he didn't want to wake me up with the light, he put on his shorts backwards and he could only find one shoe. So he booked it over to the other side of the boat barefoot and with backwards shorts. By the time he got there, trivia was half over but -- surprise! -- Laura was already there! Laura who doesn't do trivia! She was the only one of the whole group who had gone! And she'd written down all the questions she didn't know. So between the two of them they still managed to represent the team well at Progressive Trivia.
After our dinner seating was something Laura, Misti, and Mason had been particularly looking forward to -- karaoke in front of a live band! Misti ended up being too wrecked from the day to wait for her turn to come up, but Mason rocked Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name and Laura REALLY rocked Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker.
We'd intended to stay up for the midnight burlesque show, but nobody could make it that long so as soon as Mason sang we called it a night.
FRIDAY
Cozumel sand is SUPER sticky! Even after a shower I was finding random sand grains stuck to my legs, my hair clip, my bag....
Today was an at-sea day.
Messed around all morning, read some book, bought a latte, got in the hot tub with Misti. Nobody else was remotely interested in being outside after yesterday in Cozumel and all the sunburn. I think Misti & I were the only ones who didn't get any burn at all. I wrote John & Laura a letter and slipped it under their door, thanking them for making sure we all got back to the boat on time the day before and thanking them for being my all-around Break Glass In Case Of Emergency people.
We all met for lunch, and then I read while Mason hit the casino for blackjack with some of our friends.
At 3:00 was High Tea again, but this time all 8 of us went. Tea, scones, macaroons, cheesecake, cucumber sandwiches. A free fun thing that the boat does every at-sea afternoon. Everybody seemed to really enjoy the High Tea, even the guys. I'm really glad it turned out to be such a fun experience.
After tea we all went to Progressive Trivia for the last round, and then all the rounds were added up and our team won! A trophy and a bottle of champagne! (Although I have to say that our trivia team was mostly Mason and Misti, LOL).
We took our champagne to the broadway-style show that night, then spent dinner talking about how racist that show was (WOW!). After dinner was adults-only comedy. There were two comedians, and the first one was actually funny, but we were all too tired to stay up long enough to see the second one.
SATURDAY
Disembarking and driving home was much quieter and more subdued than the drive down and the embarkation. We were all exhausted, but in a good way. I must say it was nice to get home and still have plenty of time to do laundry and slog through my week's worth of work emails before starting the workweek.
So much fun. We're already talking about doing it again. Doing a vacation with your good friends is REALLY AWESOME. Maybe Alaska this time.
OMG, Alaska?!?! You should!
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