Cruise Around South America

February 16, 2009
Day at Sea

This will be my last live blog. I will continue to blog, but will not post them until we get home. This is day 44. Hard to believe, but now I’m SO ready to be home. Prob one reason is because I’m feeling like CRAP. I’ve lost my voice, guess I finally caught what has been going around the ship for the past 4 weeks. I’ve been very careful, but ended up yesterday on a bus with a bunch of SICK people. All coughing and carrying on. I was very proud that I had dodged it for so long.

Actually, I’m not really feeling tooooo bad, but it’s hell not having a voice. Makes it really hard to be my “social” self… hahahah.

OK on to yesterday. We were in Acapulco. It was all (& more) than I had ever dreamed it would be. We hired a private tour bus (there were 10 of us)… our guide and driver (Antonia) he took us everywhere. We got to see all the highlights of the “old town” and the “new town”… we got to visit the (now run down and decrepit) Hotel Casablance where Elvis stayed and filmed “Fun In Acapulco” .

Then we went to the Hotel Mirador to watch the “cliff divers” OMG, it was amazing. We had lunch at the hotel restaurant (where you watch the cliff divers from). That was by all means the best part of the day. Our tour guide was great so we learned a lot of history of the area.

We stopped at the local pharmacy and I bought 3 boxes (20 in each box) of amoxicillin (500 mg) for total $5.50. Antibiotics are very cheap and sold over the counter.

We saw our first Wal-Mart store in 43 days. Didn’t stop and shop, but we did drive by.

We stayed in our cabin for dinner, and you are not going to believe this but I didn’t even go to the QUEST game. I was just punee. But our “Hornblower” team did win. (Just w/o me as their leader !!!!)

Today (Monday) went by so fast. I got a lot of our stuff and junk packed. I’m leaving a lot of things here or giving it away.

Tomorrow we are in Cabo San Lucas. We don’t have anything planned, but will prob get a group together for a city tour. Right now, I’ll just say we need to wait and see how I feel then.

Saturday, Feb 21, 2009

Golly darn, somehow I just didn’t find time to finish the blog. I was feeling “icky” for the remainder of the cruise. In Cabo, we did get off the ship, tendered to port, walked around, it’s a beautiful place, but considering we had been to lots and lots of beautiful ports in the past 45 days, we were about “toured” out.

We were invited to Rick and Bobbie’s for a sailaway party, but I was still having some tummy issues and declined the invite, altho they have the “best” parties ever and we hated to miss it.

Last day at sea, we totally got up and packed. Everything in the cabin. Didn’t want any surprises that night when it was time to put the luggage in the hallway. Everything fit. Thank goodness we are flying 1st Class (so we can check 3 pieces of luggage each and each can weigh 70 pounds)…. We even did a trial pack of our carry on bags (which we each have a small suitcase on wheels)…..

Now it was time to get the presentation/viewing of the “leg 3” DVD produced by our dear friend Patrick. What a fantastic job he does. We are so thankful for these 3 dvd’s.

We had very sad news this morning. One of our fellow “Hornblower’s” died this morning at 0430. He had serious heart problems and had been down the last 3 or 4 days. Long ago he told his dear wife Penne he wanted to die on a cruise ship, his wish came true. He had a wonderful 45 days on this awesome cruise. May he rest in peace and our thoughts and prayers are with Penne and family

We were honored with a “special” performance from Carol Channing this afternoon at 2pm. She is 88 years old, and still as spunky as ever. This was the “best” of the best performance on this entire cruise. She is such a lovely woman, and we got to meet her husband of 5 ½ years. They were high school sweet hearts, and found each other again 6 years ago. What a heart warming “love story”….. She made us all fall in love with her.

After the show, we got dressed for dinner and went down to the concierge lounge for “our last” social hour and visit with friends. What a great group of folks we had the privlage to sail with on this journey.

You all that know me, know that I absolutely hate good byes. So Roy and I strolled out as if we were going to dinner.

Didn’t get much sleep that night. Tossed and turned, anxious and sad all wound up together. The alarm call was 5 minutes after I totally went to a deep sleep.

Up and attem, it’s time to go home. We had to go thru immigration between 630 & 730 am. The line was about 3 miles long, took us 50 minutes. (but we visited all the way since the line wrapped around, we got to see lots of our friends and lots of “one last huggs” . Then we went back to our cabin to hang out til it was time to head down to the promenade to wait for our “luggage tag color” (blue 2) to be called so we could disembark the ship. At 1035 our color was called and away we went, as soon as we stepped off the ship I was so glad I had prepurchased our transportation from Port to LAX. We got a porter, collected our luggage, and went right out to the bus. 15 minutes and we were on our way to the airport. Again we got a porter that took our luggage, checked it in for us, we went thru all the safety check points and next thing we knew we were setting in McDonalds having a burger and fries.

We just had a about an hour wait before boarding our plane. WOOZA…….. I could get use to flying 1st class, too bad it’s so expensive (and will be our one and only flight in that class), I got a little sleep, but the lady right behind me was coughing her head off. I wanted to scream, but prob not near as bad as she wanted to.

Atlanta, finally we were back in Georgia. Horray.

Only about 45 min layover and we were headed to Augusta. Home sweet home.

Just like Dorthy said…………..

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME !!!!!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine’s Day……

Huggs and Kisses to all

The headliner entertainer was very good. We laughed and laughed, so that’s always good. After the show, it was dinner time, we had a nice dinner.

We lost a couple dollars in the slot machine, then we went to the show “Liars Club”… It was Abe (cruise director) Captain Johnny and Simeoen (staff). It’s sorta like a “To Tell the Truth” game show. OMG, it was so funny. One of those things “you would just have to have been there.

I forgot to tell you kids that I sent Abe (cd) the family pic we had made last year in the yard (kids and grandkids). He does a morning show and he always has a picture of the day. Hopefully, he is going to get me a copy of yesterday’s taping before they erase it. It was great, he at first covered everyone but Roy & I and said that he has seen us all around the ship and ask about our family and couldn’t believe that we have 6 kids and 22 grandkids. He said “OK, I’ll go ahead and say it, Pat looks younger than my mom and she only has 3 kids and 2 grandkids. Then he read all the kids names, then all the grandkids names and then said “Tyler is the oldest at 17 and Ella is the youngest at 9 month. He said “the only thing that Pat had to say is “it sure is fun at our house during the holidays”……
OK, I hope all that made sense. It was AWESOME……

I was gonna get some stuff packed today, but life got in the way.

The movie “Dirty Dancing” was playing in the theater, so of course I had to go watch it considering it’s my favorite movie EVER. But the Producer and Director and Stage manager of the movie are on board, so they did a question and answer session when the movie was over. Quite interesting. Did you all know the movie was filmed in 28 days (low budget), in North Carolina and Virginia. The cost to make the movie was 1.5 million dollars and has grossed over 500 million. The script was passed over by everyone in Hollywood, they finnally got a “semi” well know producer on the east coast to read it and he said, burn it, cuz it was NO GOOD…. I probally learned a lot more too, but that was 2 hours ago, so I forgot it already. (Quit Laughing)

We have now traveled 12908 nautical miles.

We will arrive in Acapulco tomorrow morning. We are going to go and see the cliff divers. We don’t have an excursion booked, we are just gonna hop a taxi with another couple. Then tour around “town”…… I’ve always wanted to go to Acapulco (to see Gigit), so I’m really excited.

We are gonna dress up in our “RED” tonight for dinner since it’s valentines day. I’m gonna wear my “new” Red dress (if it still fits) and Roy in his black suit with red shirt and red/black tie.

For Valentine’s Day, I cut a heart out of the “daily compass” and wrote “I love you” in lipstick on it. I taped it to the curtain by Roy’s side of the bed. (So far, I have not received ANYTHING….. Which is quite unusual, but it’s all good)

Ok, I’m gonna sign off for today and try and get this posted early.

Love and Miss you all….

I’m ready to COME HOME!!!!!

February 12 & 13, 2009

What a busy time these next few “last” days of our adventure.

Yesterday was Costa Rica, we got up early to bright sunshine, and 95 temp. Whew it was hot,hot,hot…..

Off the ship at 830 and on our way to see the monkeys in the jungle. We got to feed them. They were so cute. They would come down the tree and take the banana right out of your fisted hand. I got some really good pics of Roy feeding them.

From there we stopped at a local market for fresh watermelon, pineapple & papaya & mango’s. Yum yum. The watermelon was SO good. I had a big ole slice. Everyone back on board the bus because we need to get to the river. Upon arriving there, we boarded a long skinny boat that was only about 2 feet out of the water. It held about 80 of us. We saw all kinds of birds and fauna & then we got to the ALLIGATOR (we actually saw a lot of alligators on the way) of all alligators. Our boat driver beached us up on a muddy mound and got out of the boat, sunk knee deep in the mud and had a dead skinned chicken in his hand. He beat the chicken in the water a here come the “Granddaddy” alligator. He crawled up on the mud and they driver made him stand up and take the chicken outta his hand. OMG, I was scared he was gonna eat the driver, there was no way he could get away if the alligator wanted to eat him because he was sunk way beyond his knees in the mud. Amazing. We went down the river all the way to the mouth of the ocean. Pretty awesome.

From there we went to eat local Costa Rican meal. I had beans, rice, chicken & salsa. It was very good. (Roy had the same).

After lunch we headed back to Pourta Inglesis, we stopped along the way to purchase local coffee. I did a little shopping at the pier, since we have been to Costa Rica before, all I was really interested in buying was coffee.

We got back to the ship at 6 pm and we sailed at 630.

I was SO dirty and tired. I had so much bug spray on the NO BUG was even near me. But did you know that bug spray will take off your nail polish???? My nailpolish was so sticky, when we got back to the cabin I looked down at my feet and my pedicure was ruined. Did I care. NOPE….. All I wanted was a shower and clean clothes.

It was dark when we sailed away, night time sailaways are lovely.

We got cleaned up and went for our “visit” with friends in the concierge lounge. Then to dinner. After dinner we made our way back to the cabin, and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. So NO blogging yesterday.

Friday, February 13.….

Less than a week left of our cruise. I woke up this morning and realized I’m ready to COME HOME. Yep, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I miss my KIDS, I miss my GRANDKIDS, I miss Jasmine and Linda and I miss my PETS……

So, I woke up to room service. They brought me oatmeal today. I love oatmeal. (PLUS and big ole donut) and coffee. YUMMY. I ate on the balcony, with the sun shinning on me (actually caught a few rays). Then I rinsed out the clothes I wore yesterday (remember the bug spray.. Yuck)… didn’t take them long to dry on the balcony.
There was a knock on the door with an invitation to a private party for a few of the “special” hornblowers. Little did I know at the time that Captain Johnny and his wife, and also the cruise director (abe) would be there.

Anyway, before the party, we had a quick lunch of pizza, and then off to the movie “Gotta Dance”….. It was such a good movie.

After the movie it was time to get ready for the party. NOW, I know how it is now to “hob knob” with the “big whigs”…… .of course I felt like a duck out of water, but we did have a good time and everyone likes me cuz Imma nut . The party was sponsored by a couple in there “state room” They had it catered, with waiters wearing white gloves. The Cpt and wife were there for probablly an hour. He is wonderful and so personable, his wife is lovely and we got lots of pics with both of them.

Now we are back in our cabin, it’s 640pm and we are going to the production show at 700pm.

I wanted to get a blog posted today, so you all will know we are still having a great time (and that I’m ready to come home)

Love and miss you all !!!!!!

February 11, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE AND GRANNY !!!!!

It’s Wednesday evening and we will be in Costa Rica tomorrow.

We had a wonderful day. The days are zooming by, we will be home in 2 shakes of a dogs tail.

Got up early to room service delivering breakfast. We had coffee and fresh fruit(and a donut). I packed up a few more things in the large zip bags. I figure if I do a little every day it won’t be a mad rush NEXT Wednesday night. When Roy got up and around we went down to the promenade (so Jose could clean the cabin).

I took the laptop and transferred pictures from our camera cards to the computer and visited with everyone that walked by. A little afternoon Carol stopped by and invited us to have lunch with her in the dining room. After lunch I went on down to the theatre and got in line to get into the Cloris Leachman “One Woman Show”….. The doors opened at 130, and I got 3rd row center stage seats. She put on quite a show for us. She is a hoot. And yes, I did get my picture made with her. She is really a LITTLE woman.

After the show we went to the Hornblower Poker game. One big game we all paid in $5.00 and each drew one card outta 5 separate decks. Best hand won (full house)….. Dang, I didn’t even have a pair. Oh well, it was fun.

We then went to the photo kiosk to check out our pic’s. We bought the one that we had made the night of the Masquerade Ball, at our dining table. And the one getting off the ship in Arica, Chile.

And here we are back in the cabin, Roy is having alittle nap attack, I’m here in bed with my foot up on a pillow cuz my ankle is all swollen. ????? Don’t know why. Hopefully, it will go down.

So that is really all the “happenings” of the day on a cruise ship.

Michelle, I got your long email today. Just love getting those emails. I’m so proud of your weight loss. You are doing great. Poor baby Ella. I do hope she is feeling better really soon. Tell Lily, I know she made the BEST valentines ever…..

We’ve gone 11,914 nautical miles.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Well, actually it’s Monday night and we just returned from the Masquerade Ball. It was absolutely wonderful. When we got to our dining room tonight, our server had placed us fancy feathery mask(for the ladies, regular mask for the guys) to wear tonight at the “Ball”. We had an awesome dinner. Went right to the “ball” after dinner. We had the “Jimmy Dorsey Band” playing ballroom music. We danced and danced. It was so fun. Of course we had our picture taken with the “phantom”…… (It wasn’t General Hospital, because No one was killed, no bombs exploded, no fights broke out and no fires……..)

SO we have one last chance to learn how to fold napkins the fancy way….. Just have to get up and get there at 1100.

Nikita, your email tonight was so cute and funny. I think you are missing your momma!!!!

As of right now we have traveled 11,200 nautical miles.

Tuesday evening…. Have I totally confused you on what day it is???? Well…………… it’s been such a busy day for us. We got up semi early (that means late) anyway….. I took abunch of stuff outta the closet and packed it in those 3 gallon zip lock bags. Ready to put in a suit case. It won’t be long before I actually HAVE to pack to come home. How sad is that????

OK….. Today was napkin folding at 1100 am. Roy & I got ready and we were there at 1100, remember I’ve been trying to get to this napkin class for 5 weeks (it’s only offered once a week). So one of our friends walk up and says she had been standing in line on the pool deck for an hour to buy a tshirt that says “Equator Crossing” , and the line was about a mile long and they only had 1500 tshirts. WELL…………. Immediately we leave the napkin folding class and go get in line to get one of these tshirts. You know it’s just not meant to be for me to learn how to fold the darn napkins. OH, but I did get a tshirt…….. (WHEW)

We walk thru the casino to go to the dining room for lunch, I just happen to have $5.00 in my purse. Why not, I decide to put it in my new favorite penny slot machine. To make a long story short I walked out 2 hours later with $546.00 (and a “casino jackpot winner tshirt) I won on that penny slot. Oh happy day…… I’m finished in the casino…. I’m bringing the money home with me (or buying jewelry at the next port).
At 2pm we ran from the casino to the movie. “Young Frankenstein” was playing on the big screen. It was so funny and of course we had seen it before. But remember Cloris Leachman was in the movie and when the movie was OVER Cloris (and ABE the cruise director) came out on stage and had a Q&A session. I ask her what her favorite moment was on Dancing with the Starts. She said when she was doing the Passo Doblay, that she thought for sure she was gonna die right there doing that dance. OK, so she is older than dirt, but let me tell you she is so funny, she had us all cracking up. She is really little. I was surprised. I bet she is only about 5’4” tall. I always thought she was TALL. Tomorrow at 2pm she is doing a “One woman” show. I can’t wait to see it. Haven’t got my pic with her yet, but I’m pretty sure I will before she gets off the ship day after tomorrow.

At 500 pm we crossed the EQUATOR…. It was a big ceremony. King Neptune was on board again, and wouldn’t let us cross with out holding a trial to prosecute all the polywogs for doing bad deeds on board the ship. It’s just a fun and crazy ceremony. WELL…. Captain Johnny had to be thrown in the pool. We were all laughing hysterically. I did get my pic with a soaking wet captain. So King Neptune then granted us permission to cross.
OK….. Anyone notice the mention of eating yet today????? You know you are suppose to eat every 30 minutes while on board a cruise ship. This has been a very very busy day. But we did grab a sandwich on our way tooooo….. join some friends in the concierge lounge for social hour. I’m gonna really miss that.

We are now in our cabin to get ready to go for dinner, but I think we just decided to stay in and order room service.

We have now officially traveled 11, 523 nautical miles.

Tomorrow is another “at sea” day. Then on Thursday we will be in Costa Rica.

Good night.
Love ya all