I haven't blogged since Christmas. I started to make an entry a couple of times, but nothing too earth shattering to report, so I didn't make the effort.
The new job started on Jan 3. It is going well and I really like my new office people. Jeff and Gina have done a good job of making me feel welcome. In return, I have transferred about 100 policies to the agency, and I worked an entire 2 weeks before taking off on vacation.
I will post Cruise pictures under another post, becasue they take so long to do. But for now, the stories!
We will start with Friday the 13th. Bennie went into work late Friday morning so he could drop me off at work and we would be able to leave as soon as I got off work. Great in theory.
Well, we woke to the news that Costa Cruises had sunk a ship. Very distressing new to someone getting on a cruise ship within the next 24 hours. As those stories develop, it is more and more distressing, and unless something unknown surfaces, I hope that cowardly asswipe of a captain gets life in prison. Arrogant coward. Anyway....
Bennie gets to work and the firemen are unhappy because one of their firetrucks has a booboo, and they want it back. Now. WAH! So Bennie takes the firetruck to the shop, waits 2 hours for the booboo to be fixed, and then is driving the truck back to the fire station. At a narrow spot in the road, an oncoming driver decides to play chicken and Bennie scrapes a tree that needs to be chopped down and guess what? The fire truck gets more booboos. Now the firetruck is out of service, still, and Bennie gets a free drug test. By this time, he is ready for vacation big time.
So he picks me up at work, and off we go. We drove to Jackson and stayed the night there. The weather is getting colder my the moment. My dashboard is doing weird things. When we get to the hotel, it is 31 degrees. The car won't lock. I know electronics sometimes get hinckey in cold weather, but come on. 31 degrees???I can't wait to see what it does if it gets to 20! But we finally got the car locked, ran inside and slept real quick so we could head to New Orleans the next morning.
Saturdays highlights- We didn't get off at the Tchisupoituts :) exit like we should have, so we crossed the river and made a big Uturn. Guess what. You can leave the city for free. But to get back, you have to pay a toll. LOL! So we paid our dollar and went back to Tshouotrysous street and got on the boat. Dont listen to the satellite bitch. She is not always right.
We boarded the ship in record time. A benefit of a smaller ship! We checked out our room, which was the size of a shoebox. Worst room ever. Drawback of a smaller ship. And we head off to explore the ship.
Check my blog for the last cruise we took on the Fantasy. I think I swore to never get on the Fantasy again. HELLO- This is the sister ship to the Fantasy. But no real complaints. It was clean and no sewage smell. So no complaints.
We all paid extra special attention to the muster drill this time. And then we were dismissed to scatter around and do as we please.
Well, we are on a ship with a bunch of loudmouth Saints Fans. (Are there any other kind?) And they had the playoff game going in 2 different lounges. The Saints had the theater and the other team, whoever they were, had the Tiffany dining room. And we did not pay much attention to anything, except we walked past the theater at what we thought was the end of the game and the Who Datters were screaming and whooping and happy as clams in tequila. So we assumed we were in for a week of loud obnoxious Who Dat! So we went running away so as not to get stampeded by happy Who Dats. And being the football fans that we are, we didn't know until the next day that the WhoDats got beat in the last 6 seconds. TeeHee. Shut them up anyway! LOL! Sailing out of NEw Orleans makes me hate the Saints!
Sunday was a Sea Day. Nothing going on. The weather was very windy, but warm. Since we didn't have any plans to do excursions, we decided to try the spa for the first time. I got a hair treatment and haircut, and Bennie got a facial. I have been after him to do something about his ever increasing growth of black area on his face. So they had a men's special, and we hooked him up. He loved it. So did the girl. She upselled him on product like you wouldn't believe.
Monday was port day. We were in Progreso. We chose to stay on the ship. We went to the Serenity area and enjoyed the sun and gentle breeze.
Now for Monday nights entertainment. There wasn't a show Monday night. But we went to one of the lounges that had one of the boat groups or whatever youcall them. We had walked past them a couple of times on the Promenade and they sounded really good. Didn't pay much attention and kept walking. But for this show, we got a window seat and settled in to listen to some music. Well, they all looked like foreigners, but I had not noticed them singing with an accent...So....Well as they were setting up, they sere speaking to each other in their native tongue, whatever that was. So I knew I was in for a fun night.
They started their first song. For the life of me, I don't remember what it was. But the word Babe is prominent in the song. And probably from the 70's or 80's. Something we listened to on the radio. And after hearing the same verse for the 4th time, I leaned over and told Bennie they couldn't figure out how to end the song. He said it was the whole album side version! LOL!
well, they finally finished that 4 minute song about 4 minutes later. Then they did another one, and another one. Me getting more and more tickled. They only got half the word anywhere near right. And then they started on the #1 lounge song in the world, Margaritaville. And nope. They didn't know the words to that one either. Well, I was trying not to make a scene, so mercifully, the next song was a slow song, and a few people got up to dance, and we waltzed out the door.
Tuesday was Cozumel day. Again, been there several times and didn't really want to do anything, so we caught a taxi and went downtown. Got a few pictures, but I really don't like being harassed by the locals. I know it is their job, but it makes me very uncomfortable. And being unable to find a restaurant that was a good old American Chain restaurant, we went back towards the ship. The little area around our pier had a nice area and not so many beggars. So we went through the shops, bought me a couple of tshirts, since I kept on spilling stuff on mine, and stopped at Fat Tuesdays and had some nachos and just looked out at the water and the ships. I swear, if I could, I would just find me a spot that looked out over that pretty blue water and just stare at it for years. It is one of my happy places. Minus the Mexicans.
I ordered a Strawberry Dacquiri. Had I known that it was the most wonderful dacquiri in the world, I would have ordered the super king size. There were little bike carts carrying drunk people down the pier.
Well, the next cruise Bennie wants to take is from Galveston, on the Carnival Magic. And it was docked next to us in Cozumel. I got some pictures so he can come home and drool.
As usual, there were the brand new 18 year olds on the ship and a few horror stories about being at Carlos and Charlies with alcohol being pour stright down their unwilling throats. We watched them in Progress whell one girl to the gangway in a wheelchair. When they tried to stand her up, she just crumpled. Stupid.
Last sea day, not much going on. I was able to win about $20 in the casino. The "shows" that the Carnival usually put on that I hate so much, were greatly improved this year. I really enjoyed them.
The comics were good, but they were playing the shows so late at night, we only made it to one night.
So that about sums up the cruise. The ship got back to NEw orleans about 5:00am. We were going to do the self-assist thing, and they started announcing to let people off. We were still lounging in bed, so we jumped up, threw our clothes on and the rest of the stuff into the suitcases and ran out the door. We are off the ship and out of the garage by 8:00!
So we started to head home. First stop- Cracker Barrel. A must. After a week of powdered eggs, we wanted real eggs, and biscuits. And then after driving 5 hours, we decided the Cracker Barrel at Batesville would be a fitting place to stop for salad and veggies.
I will close my cruise blog with the best Bennieism yet. As usual, I was yakking and he was ignoring me. I announce I was about to smack him....To which he answered, Who is Chris Mackey?
