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Let FREEDOM ring! A picture review of our 2/25/17 cruise!

watermelonqueen99
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MomofTheBoy

MomofTheBoy

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*cue the music, pop the fireworks, and bust out the champagne"

Congratulations on reaching that goal of 15!!!!

 

The Sensation just got Alchemy so I will have to try a few of those concoctions. I cant get Cheers since it will just be me and my son. The Road to 15 is in my future though!!

 

Sent from my SM-T377P using Tapatalk

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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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*cue the music, pop the fireworks, and bust out the champagne"

Congratulations on reaching that goal of 15!!!!

 

The Sensation just got Alchemy so I will have to try a few of those concoctions. I cant get Cheers since it will just be me and my son. The Road to 15 is in my future though!!

 

Sent from my SM-T377P using Tapatalk

 

Thank you, thank you! :D:D:') Keep your eye on the prize, and someday you too shall reach the elusive 15! ;p

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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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Monday, February 27th

Today was another sea day, so we slept in. (Translation: We were still hungover from the night before and physically could not get out of bed until mid-morning without calling our room stewardess for assistance.) When the alcohol-induced double vision and temporary paralysis from the night before finally did wear off, we got ourselves presentable and headed to Blue Iguana for a breakfast burrito. (No pic again, I literally inhaled the burrito. Don't judge, that's how they taught us to eat in finishing school.*)

 

(*By "finishing school," I mean the alternative high school I went to my sophomore-senior years because I was a naughty little hood rat back then.)

 

After breakfast, we moseyed (that's a hot word) down to deck 3. I was feeling a little dehydrated from the previous night, so I called upon my knowledge from nursing school all those years ago and recognized that I needed fluids. So I ordered one of these and felt good knowing that I made a healthy choice seeing as how there is fruit involved:

 

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We decided to go roam around deck 3 a little bit. We ended up walking through the dining room. (I'm sorry to crush the dreams of you barrels of fun who feel like your lives have been ruined by the lack of tablecloths in the MDR. While we did cut through the dining room on this day, I actually took these pics on day 2, formal night, which is why there are tablecloths.):

 

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We roamed the ship a little more and peeked down into the Victoriana lounge and got a quick pic:

 

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We ended up going outside on deck 3, watching the water, reading, and just relaxing. As I gazed out at this view, I started thinking about ways I could make money without actually working very hard so that we could start cruising every month. P*rn and p*ostitution seem like respectable occupations, and they have a lot of flexibility with good pay, so I've decided to actively pursue those avenues:

 

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This bench is on deck 3, so this is where you can sit when you've been at the Atrium bar for hours, and you stumble outside for some fresh air while regretting having that 9th martini in 30 minutes:

 

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We eventually ended up going up to Lido for a late lunch. The rest of the day was spent playing cards, people watching, and striving for that goal of 15. We spent the evening at Alchemy, but it died out around midnight, so it was another early night for us.

 

To be continued......

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miss tea

miss tea

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Saturday, February 25th, 2017

Embark day! I sprang out of bed, opened the curtains and started singing.* Finally, the day had arrived that we were boarding the Carnival Freedom! We got ourselves presentable (I put on the classiest t-shirt in my suitcase: “Oklahoma: Teabagging Texas since 1907”) and we headed downstairs. Being from Oklahoma, biscuits and gravy is practically a food group. I make them from scratch quite often. I remembered from our stay at this hotel in 2014 that they not only served biscuits and gravy, but they also had salsa packets to go with it. I stepped into the dining area, and as I did, wind started blowing, and Adele started playing: “Hello…..it’s me.....” Then everything went south. I glanced over at the counter and realized they no longer served biscuits and gravy. Everything then started happening in slow motion. (No it didn’t.) My knees buckled, and I started a slow descent to the ground. (That never happened.) C had to rush to my side and dramatically save me from crashing to the floor. (No he didn’t.) I somehow made my way to a table. As an act of rebellion, I decided not to eat anything for breakfast. I pouted while C ate his sad little eggs and toast. I decided that as soon as I got home, I was taking this missing biscuits and gravy issue all the way to Corporate. (Not really.)

 

*Disclaimer: That is a complete fabrication. I looked more like this as I dragged myself out of bed:

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C finished up his poor excuse for breakfast, and we headed outside to grab the hotel shuttle back to the airport. We (I) decided to use Galveston Express this time, because I’m basically the female, 2017 version of Ebeneezer Scrooge, and we would save $20 round trip by using GE vs the Carnival Shuttle. We get back to Hobby and make our way to the shuttle. It’s 95% full, so C and I have to sit apart. We had a brief Jack and Rose moment, and I promised him I'd never let go. We sat there in the parking lot for what seemed like forever, apparently waiting for another couple. I was trying to figure out where in the world they would put these people. Strap them to the top of the van? Were they gonna sit on our lap? Ride in the back with the luggage? Anyway, our driver eventually gave up waiting on them, and we were finally Galveston bound. Traffic was fairly light, so we got to port in about 45 minutes. The whole mood on the shuttle shifted when this hot chick came into our view:

 

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By 10:00, we had dropped our luggage with the porters, and found a bench to wait for our 10:30 check-in time. Eventually, we made our way to check-in, and were seated in the terminal by 10:45. Apparently, the ship was 30 minutes late getting back to port that morning, and had also visited Belize, which equals extra clearance time for the coast guard. We didn’t start boarding until after 12:00. But, by 12:30, we were onboard and in line for a Guy’s Burger. We find the food on Carnival to be mostly inedible, but we do love us a Guy's Burger. We had one every single day of the cruise. By day 3, I asked C if he would go ahead and contact TLC and ask them if I could audition for "My 600 Lb Life." I'm a certified Zumba instructor, ya'll, so I know better. But I can't help myself when it comes to Guy's Burgers. I bring shame to my family name. But that didn't stop me from shoving this into my mouth on the daily:

 

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After we had consumed all 38948594385 calories fr***** that burger, we decided to keep with our cruise tradition (in case you haven't caught on by now, we are not the poster children for good decisions) of getting a FunShip from the Atrium bar and people watching. (Side note-We do not cruise without the Cheers package. One major downfall of cruising out of Galveston is that you cannot start using Cheers until day 2. This is a major turn-off for us, and I'll touch on that more later.) Well, hello, gorgeous:

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I don't know about ya'll, but we love to sit in the lobby on embark day and watch our fellow passengers board:

 

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To be continued....

Can you tell me how much it was for Galveston Express

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DreadPirateRobert

DreadPirateRobert

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Loving it.

We must have gone to very different nursing schools. Mine was way too hung up on "alcohol is a diuretic, and not suitable for rehydrating" Yeah right...Find me a practicing nurse who doesn't drink. But I digress.

Have you ever thought about writing travel guides? Most are focused on culture. Your niche could be a drinking guide to ......

If the "alternative career choices" are successful you could combine them with writing drinking guides.

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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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Loving it.

We must have gone to very different nursing schools. Mine was way too hung up on "alcohol is a diuretic, and not suitable for rehydrating" Yeah right...Find me a practicing nurse who doesn't drink. But I digress.

Have you ever thought about writing travel guides? Most are focused on culture. Your niche could be a drinking guide to ......

If the "alternative career choices" are successful you could combine them with writing drinking guides.

 

"The Borderline-alcoholic Former Nurse's Guide to World Travel" does have a nice ring to it. :'):'):')

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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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Tuesday, February 28th, 2017

Today was our first port day, and we were visiting Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We didn't have an excursion planned so we slept in a little and then had a healthy and balanced breakfast (translation: a handful of sunflower seeds and a Long Island Iced Tea). We had been to Montego Bay before, and very much enjoyed our day there at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort, but this was our first time in Ocho Rios. Although we had a wonderful experience in MoBay, I had heard many horror stories about Jamaica in general. I had heard that the locals will offer to sell you drugs, invite you to "private parties," and I had even heard of women being groped by Jamaican security officers, so I was pretty excited for this port. But before we got off the ship, we took some pics from one of the upper decks:

 

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Around 10:00, we made our way off the ship. On every cruise, we buy a magnet and shot glass from the ports we visit, even if we've been there before. So that was our only goal for the day, to score a couple of souvenirs. We walked down the gangway, plastered on fake smiles for the Carnival paparazzi, and headed for the shopping area. We immediately regretted it. Not only was it extremely windy and hotter than Richard Simmons' striped shorty shorts, but the locals were like vultures. They were on us like a Kardashian on a silicone implant. They were relentless in trying to get us to go on their tours. We've been to 12+ different ports, and these were by far the pushiest vendors we had ever encountered. We somehow made our way to the shops, found what we were looking for, and headed back to the safety of the bar. (Freudian slip. I meant we made our way back to the safety of the ship.....) I snapped this pic of the Freedom before we got back on:

 

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Feeling a little rattled from the pushy vendors, and disappointed that we didn't get offered a we*d brownie or get touched inappropriately by security, we got back on the ship and headed up to Lido so we could drown our sorrows in that Donkey Sauce that they put on a Guy's burger.

 

To be continued......

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MomofTheBoy

MomofTheBoy

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Awwwww poo you didnt like Ochi. Thats one of our stops my next cruise. My vacays to Jamaica are usually land vacays. They have awesome food and even better drinks!!! You should have gotten you a rum punch for the walk back to the bar....er ship.

 

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watermelonqueen99

watermelonqueen99

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Awwwww poo you didnt like Ochi. Thats one of our stops my next cruise. My vacays to Jamaica are usually land vacays. They have awesome food and even better drinks!!! You should have gotten you a rum punch for the walk back to the bar....er ship.

 

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The water was beautiful, but the vendors were ridiculous! I would definitely recommend an excursion or just stay on the ship. And you're right, I shoulda grabbed a rum punch. That's the very first drink I had at our very first port ever, Montego Bay. It was so good! :hearteyes:

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