These pictures are not in any particular order, just wanted to share the highlights and low points of our week! This is the view from the plane as we were coming into Tampa. I was just amazed at all the water...guess growing up in the desert makes you appreciate all that blue!!
We didn't get to spend much time in Tampa. I would like to go back some time. We had dinner the first night with a couple we met while walking to a mall down the street from our motel. She is a big boss with Alsco and he is the manager of the Hotel Del Coronado ( I hinted all night to try and get some rooms comped for Mark and Erin, but he wouldn't budge....sorry guys)
This is looking at Tampa from the front of the ship
This is the reggae band that played by the pool. They were fantastic. I learned to really like the reggae... yea mon!
The pool was always packed...it was VERY small
This is me thinking..."am I really getting on this thing and sailing out on the ocean? Can I just stay here?"
The sunset as we pulled out of Tampa...it was much prettier than the picture shows.
Our stateroom - looking in from our balcony
Tracy, on the balcony, preparing for the life boat drill....
A lighted bridge that spanned the harbor. Beautiful!
Okay, here's where it starts getting interesting for us. These are pictures of Key West. I could have spent a week there. It is the most interesting place I have ever been. Beautiful homes, lots of little quirky shops, street musicians, hippies every where. We both just loved it and wished that we would have had LOTS more time to spend there.
We didn't get to spend much time in Tampa. I would like to go back some time. We had dinner the first night with a couple we met while walking to a mall down the street from our motel. She is a big boss with Alsco and he is the manager of the Hotel Del Coronado ( I hinted all night to try and get some rooms comped for Mark and Erin, but he wouldn't budge....sorry guys)
This is looking at Tampa from the front of the ship
This is the reggae band that played by the pool. They were fantastic. I learned to really like the reggae... yea mon! The pool was always packed...it was VERY small
This is me thinking..."am I really getting on this thing and sailing out on the ocean? Can I just stay here?"
The sunset as we pulled out of Tampa...it was much prettier than the picture shows.
Our stateroom - looking in from our balcony
Tracy, on the balcony, preparing for the life boat drill....
A lighted bridge that spanned the harbor. Beautiful!
Okay, here's where it starts getting interesting for us. These are pictures of Key West. I could have spent a week there. It is the most interesting place I have ever been. Beautiful homes, lots of little quirky shops, street musicians, hippies every where. We both just loved it and wished that we would have had LOTS more time to spend there. This "sponge man" was standing in front of a store... it was kinda freaky looking! 
The Stanford men love monkeys...flying monkeys? Forget about it!!!
I took this picture for the boys...thought that they would think it was cool. It was on the door to a store in Key West.
Key West was SO green!
Harry S. Truman ran the country from this home while the White House was being repaired!
Our approach to Cozumel
Tracy in Cozumel.
So, they let us off in Cozumel to spend about 10 hours. Everything cost about a bazillion dollars to do, so Tracy and I decided to walk into town....it didn't look too far. The beaches were about twenty miles the other direction, so, we didn't even try to go.
The Stanford men love monkeys...flying monkeys? Forget about it!!!
I took this picture for the boys...thought that they would think it was cool. It was on the door to a store in Key West.
Key West was SO green!
Harry S. Truman ran the country from this home while the White House was being repaired!
Our approach to Cozumel
Tracy in Cozumel.
So, they let us off in Cozumel to spend about 10 hours. Everything cost about a bazillion dollars to do, so Tracy and I decided to walk into town....it didn't look too far. The beaches were about twenty miles the other direction, so, we didn't even try to go. This is as close as we got to seeing a dolphin...there is one swimming in the netted area...as hard as I tried I could not get a picture with the dolphin above water. We were looking through a fence, cuz it cost a ton just to go look.
We literally walked for about two hours to get into "town". There were cars driving like crazy up and down the streets of Cozumel. It's kinda like Vegas in that when you are walking along people are NON-STOP yelling at you trying to get you to buy stuff, rent stuff etc. It was VERY annoying. Plus, there were jeeps driving all over that had POLICIA written on them and men with machine guns riding in the back! I was scared to death. 
Dana had told us to go to Senor Frogs if we got the chance. We just loved it. The strangest place I have ever been. Music blasting so loud you can't talk. A girl was going around giving people Jello shots and blowing a whistle non-stop (her...I wanted to choke) people singing at the top of their lungs. It was AWESOME!
Tracy was feeling very festive with his attractive balloon hat and gallon sized coke (we couldn't get a Pepsi anywhere on this entire trip!)
After lunch, we decided to walk back to the ship and found this shark just hanging around!!! (It's a fake). We were so tired that we hired a taxi to drive us back to the dock before our curfew.
We literally walked for about two hours to get into "town". There were cars driving like crazy up and down the streets of Cozumel. It's kinda like Vegas in that when you are walking along people are NON-STOP yelling at you trying to get you to buy stuff, rent stuff etc. It was VERY annoying. Plus, there were jeeps driving all over that had POLICIA written on them and men with machine guns riding in the back! I was scared to death.I took this picture for Ann and Amy...Tiffany's!!! (this must be the ghetto version)
Dana had told us to go to Senor Frogs if we got the chance. We just loved it. The strangest place I have ever been. Music blasting so loud you can't talk. A girl was going around giving people Jello shots and blowing a whistle non-stop (her...I wanted to choke) people singing at the top of their lungs. It was AWESOME!
Tracy was feeling very festive with his attractive balloon hat and gallon sized coke (we couldn't get a Pepsi anywhere on this entire trip!)
After lunch, we decided to walk back to the ship and found this shark just hanging around!!! (It's a fake). We were so tired that we hired a taxi to drive us back to the dock before our curfew.(at this point, if I could play music, it would suddenly turn dark and dreary...... ) 
Our trip took an unfortunate turn. A freak storm rolled in. The waves were 14 feet high. The ship was on lock down because it was too dangerous to be on deck. I have never felt anything like what we felt. The ground would literally fall from under your feet. My sweet husband ended up in the fetal position, on the bed or in the bathroom barfing for about 18 hours. There were barf bags lining the hallways of the ship for our convenience. If you have heard about the Tampa Bay football players whose boat capsized in a violent storm....well, we were smack dab in the middle of the same storm! Then, the toilets quit working. NICE! Let me just tell you a thing or two about Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.....THEY SUCK and THEY SUCK!! The food on this trip was AWFUL, GROSS, DISGUSTING (guess you get the idea). If you wanted the "good food" you had to pay $15.00 per plate extra! The "entertainment" consisted of gambling, bingo, and a belly flop contest. That's all folks...thanks for playing!! Our beautiful room smelled like a port-a-potty and it cost $8.00 a bottle for water to drink! (from what the "seasoned" passengers told us, the cruise industry has taken a big hit with the downturn of the economy and things used to be much better, more fun etc. Lots of the people we talked to were shocked at how scaled down everything was...Lucky us!)
We finally made it back to Tampa..got off the ship Monday at 8:30 in the morning. Drove by:
The football stadium
And then...we were dropped off at a mall at 11:00 to "shop" until our bus took us to the airport at 3:00 in the afternoon...where we found a virtual sea of people, all very pissed off!!
People were VERY angry and tired and frustrated. We finally made a flight and left Atlanta for Vegas at 10:30 p.m. We got into Vegas at 2:30 a.m. and home around 4:30... from start to finins, it took us approx. 20 hours to get home. Our airline was Air Trans and they didn't have a movie or anything...just five hours of sitting there! Not a peanut in sight, either. It was awful. We were both so tired, sick, and frustrated that we couldn't sleep!
Our trip took an unfortunate turn. A freak storm rolled in. The waves were 14 feet high. The ship was on lock down because it was too dangerous to be on deck. I have never felt anything like what we felt. The ground would literally fall from under your feet. My sweet husband ended up in the fetal position, on the bed or in the bathroom barfing for about 18 hours. There were barf bags lining the hallways of the ship for our convenience. If you have heard about the Tampa Bay football players whose boat capsized in a violent storm....well, we were smack dab in the middle of the same storm! Then, the toilets quit working. NICE! Let me just tell you a thing or two about Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.....THEY SUCK and THEY SUCK!! The food on this trip was AWFUL, GROSS, DISGUSTING (guess you get the idea). If you wanted the "good food" you had to pay $15.00 per plate extra! The "entertainment" consisted of gambling, bingo, and a belly flop contest. That's all folks...thanks for playing!! Our beautiful room smelled like a port-a-potty and it cost $8.00 a bottle for water to drink! (from what the "seasoned" passengers told us, the cruise industry has taken a big hit with the downturn of the economy and things used to be much better, more fun etc. Lots of the people we talked to were shocked at how scaled down everything was...Lucky us!)
We finally made it back to Tampa..got off the ship Monday at 8:30 in the morning. Drove by:
The University of Tampa
The football stadium
And then...we were dropped off at a mall at 11:00 to "shop" until our bus took us to the airport at 3:00 in the afternoon...where we found a virtual sea of people, all very pissed off!!There had been snow storms all over the Eastern U.S. and planes were grounded in most of the major hubs. The airport was packed with people who had been waiting for two days to get out of Tampa!!! Our plane was about four hours late which meant that we couldn't meet our connecting flight from Atlanta to Vegas!!! But, we were VERY lucky that we weren't stuck for days like some of them were.
People were VERY angry and tired and frustrated. We finally made a flight and left Atlanta for Vegas at 10:30 p.m. We got into Vegas at 2:30 a.m. and home around 4:30... from start to finins, it took us approx. 20 hours to get home. Our airline was Air Trans and they didn't have a movie or anything...just five hours of sitting there! Not a peanut in sight, either. It was awful. We were both so tired, sick, and frustrated that we couldn't sleep!On the positive side...I got a job!!! I start tomorrow. I will be working graveyards, but, in this economy, I am grateful for the blessing. The boys will be here Friday and, best of all, the room has stopped swaying. We are SO glad to be home, safe and sound and we will NEVER, EVER set foot on a cruise ship again!. If I can't fly, I ain't going. We love you all.
4 comments:
That is AWFULL! Im so sorry that your trip was spoiled...
Sounds like quite the trip! :)
At least Senor Frogs was fun!!! Sounds like things were good until the return trip. Nothing like sea sickness and the constant rocking for days after you get home!
Well...I guess I will cancel any plans of going on a cruise. I have never heard anyone have such a lousy time on a cruise. It was proof enough for me.
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