​⛴️​ LIVE from Allure ​🎠​ out of Galveston - Ozark_Kid and brillohead team up for a duo-thread: Jan 22, 2023

[xpcdoojk]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

Y'all... I am officially NEVER doing another Live Thread again.  Y'ALL ARE BAD JUJU!!!!  THIS STUFF NEVER HAPPENS TO ME!!!

Had another wonderful day at Maya Chan.  At 8:00am, I met some first-timers at the Schooner Bar to show them the way to the meet-up spot, and we were off.  Arrived, got hugs, pet Rodas the black Lab, got my massage appointment made, everything was wonderful in Casita Six as always. The day progressed exactly as it always does at Maya Chan.

 

Then I went to go pee around 3:00, in preparation for my 3:30 taxi time.  And as I'm entering the dining/bar area, I meet two over-beveraged women -- we'll call them Drunk1 and Drunk2.  "YOU'RE DEBBI!  WE'RE GOING TO FOLLOW YOU BACK TO THE SHIP!  JULIE SAID SO!"  Turns out these women were also taking the last taxi back to Allure.  In the half hour from when I met them until when we climbed into the cab, they had two more tequila shots and two more drinks EACH ... and they were nowhere near sober to begin with.

So Drunk2 got in the front seat of the cab, ignoring my instructions to get into the back seat, so I sat in the back with Drunk1.  Drunk2 (who I later found out was also under the influence of "edibles" and Valium!) spent most of the ride asking the driver annoying questions, and he didn't speak a lot of English, and she THOUGHT she could speak some Spanish, but she really couldn't. 

For example, she tried asking him where he was from, and he replied "Veracruz" only she thought that he was saying he was from a cruise ship.  So she asked him where his mother was from (or rather, she TRIED to ask him where his mother was from.... it came out something like, "Donde esto mothero" and the poor cabbie glanced at me in the rearview mirror as if to say, "W T F????" and I said "madre" and he said his mother was from Veracruz as well. Which Drunk2 interpreted as, "Oh, so you inherited the cruise..."  You cannot make this crap up! 

 

In the meantime, Drunk1 kept talking about how we were going to miss the ship, blah blah blah, and I pointed to the ship and said, "We still have 45 minutes until all-aboard, we're just fine.  The cab will get us to the port at 4:00, and then you'll have 30 minutes to walk to the ship.  You'll be fine."  I think I've blocked out whatever Drunk2 was talking about at this point.  Let's just say it was 30 minutes of my life that I will never get back.  I did recommend to Drunk1 that she tip the cabbie VERY well for having to put up with Drunk2 next to him for the whole drive.  

So, the cabbie drops us off at the inner security gate and we walk across the parking area and are just approaching the first vendor, when Drunk1 says, "Where's my phone?"  Just kill me now, please!!!!  The cab is LONG gone, of course.  She also had to pee really badly, as in doing the peepee dance.  So I sent her forward and told her to pee and come back, while I go about attempting to retrieve the phone. It's probably at least 4:05 at this point, and all-aboard is 4:30.  I have never in my life come even CLOSE to being a pier-runner.... until today.

So I look up Maya Chan's website and find a number in Mexico and a number in the USA.  I tried the MX number first, but didn't get an answer and didn't see the point in leaving a voicemail.  So I called the US number and a woman answered, "Maya Chan."  

Brillo: Is this Jane?
Jane: Yes...
Brillo: So, I just left Maya Chan half an hour ago, and Julie put me in a cab with two drunk girls, and one of them just realized that she left her phone in the cab, so we need to try to find out which cab and get him to come back and all-aboard is in 25 minutes, so time is of the essence here.
Jane: OK, let me give Julie a call!  
Brillo: Thanks, let me know what you find out!

In the meantime, Drunk2 is trying to use "find my iPhone" to locate her friend's phone, and I hear her talking to someone on the phone and telling them all kinds of incorrect stuff ("we were at Costa Maya Beach," etc.) and I asked who she was talking to, and she said it was the cab driver, he found the phone, and I said to give me the phone because she was too drunk for this conversation, and the other person hung up.  So then Drunk2 keeps going off about how rude it was of him to hang up. 

I keep questioning her and she said that HE called HER... which I knew didn't make any sense because if the cabbie found the phone, he wouldn't know who to call.  Turns out that when you're drunk and trying to use "find my iPhone" you instead end up googling a scam website and giving them your phone number, and when the ONLY sober person is trying to tell you that you did that, you don't believe them.  *sigh*

So it's been about ten minutes and I haven't seen Drunk1 return from the bathrooms, and I don't want to go look for her because I am still hoping that the Fates will shine down on us and we can get her phone back. It's 4:15, and I text Jane to see if they've had any luck finding the cabbie. She texts back that they're searching the vehicle now.  Drunk2 keeps wandering off and I have to sit her in a chair with a "Sit/Stay" command.  At 4:18, another text from Jane to go outside the port gate, because the cabbie won't be able to come inside, and the taxi cab number is 216.  Hallelujah!

Now I have to wrangle Drunk2 back out of the parking area, through the first security gate, and down the road to the exterior security gate.  I had made the mistake of telling Drunk2 that the cab number was 216, and she went staggering up to the guard that controls the gate across the road and makes some drunken attempt to tell him what's going on, using more of her version of Spanish.  He points her over to the guardhouse in the center boulevard, and she's off again, telling that poor guard, "Dos Uno Six" like the guy has ANY idea what any of that means.  She keeps trying to talk in "Spanish" and I'm pretty much beyond fed up at this point and tell her, "JUST SPEAK ENGLISH, or better yet, just shut up and let the sober person do the talking!"  

I explained to the guard that Taxi 216 is going to be bringing a phone that another drunk girl left in his car, and a couple minutes later up came our poor driver, who probably sobbed when they told him he had to go back to the drunk girl again!  Drunk2 goes running up to the car and launches herself into the backseat, while the cabbie got out and handed me the phone (and I handed him another cash tip and thanked him profusely).  Now I have to convince Drunk2 to GET OUT OF THE CAR BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE THE PHONE, which took a lot longer to get through her skull than it should have, and now we can head back into port and try to locate Drunk1.

When I say we are the only people in the port area at that time, I mean it.  It was kinda spooky.... just vendors and us.  We walk by the bathrooms but nobody is there, and Drunk2 is yelling Drunk1's name over and over.  I told her that Drunk1 is probably back on the ship, but Drunk2 kept insisting that she was going to get left in port because she didn't have her phone and SeaPass.  No matter how many times I kept telling her that they BOTH had lanyards for their SeaPass, her friend didn't need her phone to get onto the ship, it just didn't sink in.  

I wrangled Drunk2 all the way through the port, and she kept wanting to stop and "take a little rest".  All-aboard was a minute ago, you're half my age and half my weight -- keep walking!!!!  Past the pool and dolphins, around the massage hut, and now she's talking about how she's going to message Drunk1's husband to tell him that she lost her.  ABSOLUTELY NOT -- hand me that phone -- you are WAY too drunk to be messaging anyone, and she's probably on the ship already!

 

We go past the silver store, into the liquor store, take a left, no you CANNOT stop to rest, keep going, show the guard your SeaPass -- he's not going to scan it, just show him the front of it -- now keep walking down the pier, yes, I know it's a long pier, no you can't stop to rest.  We're halfway down the pier when my phone rings from WhatsApp....

"Mom, are you okay?  Royal just called me....."

My son is listed as my Emergency Contact on my check-in paperwork.  I tell him I'm on the pier now and I'm fine, hold on, now they're calling me....

Guest Services called me finally... I explained that I was currently on the pier, and that I had, "Hey Drunk2, what's your last name?" I was drunk-wrangling Drunk2 LastName down the pier at the moment, and could they please check that "Hey Drunk2, what's Drunk1's last name?" could they confirm that Drunk1 LastName was on board already.  I hear him typing away on his keyboard, and he confirmed that Drunk1 was on the ship, and I told him that we were almost on board too.  

Lots of cheers and jeers from the people watching the not-running pier runners as we came up the pier.  (Of COURSE this had to happen at the port with the longest pier in the history of piers!!!)  A security guard approached and asked what our room numbers were, "Hey Drunk1, what room are you in?" and he wrote it on his latex glove and radioed it in.  

Finally climbed up the gangway, and the Captain is there giving a scolding, "try to do better tomorrow, yada yada yada" and I told him that I have NEVER done this and I DON'T EVEN KNOW THIS GIRL!!!!  We go through security/x-ray and there stands Drunk1 waiting for us, and she tells me that she lost her purse and wallet (which also had her passport!) when she was in the bathroom. 

 

She didn't yet realize that I had managed to retrieve the phone, so she was ecstatic when I handed it to her.  Then she asked the security person if they had a lost-and-found, and they pulled out a box and lo and behold, her purse/wallet/passport and her sunglasses were there -- she had left them on the conveyor when she went through the x-ray machine.  It also looked like she had GONE SHOPPING after she went to the bathroom, and that's why she didn't come back to us.  

I wrangled them both up the escalator and questioned them on their room number.  They were in the front of the ship, and we were at the front elevators, so I took them up to their floor and dropped them off, and I was SO GLAD to see the backside of them!!!!

Now I'm off to dinner, and I might treat myself to an extra dessert after all of this!






 

That might be better than the story of when I got mad at my wife in Italy for losing our passports, when I forgot I had put them in the secret compartment of my backpack almost 20 years ago.

 

jc

[Ozark_Kid]

14 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

I can’t get this to play but now that I am quoting a picture is showing up.  So, is this an edited 360 view or just a regular 180 view????

 

Were you able to view the other videos I posted today?  I ask because they are all edited 360 view that were loaded to my phone Gallery.  From there I down graded them from 4k to 720 so that they load easier. When editing they frame as a regular recording and no longer provide a 360 view.  I have never tried it before but I don't think a 360 would work of CC.  At least I have never seen one. 

[brillohead]

35 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Don't even know what to say... 😳

I made OB speechless!  WOW!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I did post an abridged version of this story to the "literature of Face" roll call group for this cruise, and so far the comments are mostly "I would have left them on their own!"  

I just didn't want anyone to think that I was an ACTUAL pier-runner if they saw me out and about in the next couple days, so I wanted the real story to be out there!

[Ozark_Kid]

@brillohead wow Debbi, wow.  I too had to stop and start over to read it to Sharon. 

What a good heart you have to stay with it. Good job.  Being there the week before made the story so real.  That long bumpy ride back with them would be so crazy.  And the loooong pier trying to drag a drunk with you. 

I know you are so good at sharing but please try not to share an extra voucher with them if you see them later. 

I hope you have a great, relaxing, quiet evening. 

[cruisingpeople]

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. You definitely have the patience of a saint. I think I would wear a hat for the next couple of days so nobody will see your red hair and go...... "THERE SHE IS".😂🤣

[brillohead]

2 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

@brillohead wow Debbi, wow.  I too had to stop and start over to read it to Sharon. 

What a good heart you have to stay with it. Good job.  Being there the week before made the story so real.  That long bumpy ride back with them would be so crazy.  And the loooong pier trying to drag a drunk with you. 

I know you are so good at sharing but please try not to share an extra voucher with them if you see them later. 

I hope you have a great, relaxing, quiet evening. 

We had The Quest tonight... and no worries, I won't be sharing ANY drink vouchers with either of them!!!

 

2 hours ago, cruisingpeople said:

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. You definitely have the patience of a saint. I think I would wear a hat for the next couple of days so nobody will see your red hair and go...... "THERE SHE IS".😂🤣

That's why I posted in the social media roll call group... I wanted to make sure everyone knew that *I* would have been on board in plenty of time if I hadn't been drunk-wrangling!!!

[brillohead]

So, The Crazy Quest is back!

 

 

I'll let you guys guess which guy won the Hairiest Back contest:

 

 

 

This team's male captain went above and beyond... not only is he in a minidress, but he also took his boxers completely off so they didn't show, and went around wiggling his bare cheeks at everyone:

 

 

 

My team's captain won the drag competition, but it still wasn't enough to win us the game.  I should note, however, that we had maybe a quarter to a third the number of people as the first place group, very small audience in our section, and we still came in a very close second!

 

 

 

One thing that I noticed was that there were a lot more *specifics* in the post-COVID version of the game.  For example, instead of "method of birth control" it *had* to be a "male prophylactic device" -- only a rubber would qualify, no vasectomy, no birth control pills, no "alternate methods".  And instead of "three thongs" they had to be "three red thongs" -- even using the flip-flop interpretation of a thong, we didn't have a single RED one in our group of maybe fifty people with a median age well over 50yo.  And "four pairs of women's shorts".... not many old women wear shorts to an ice rink (we didn't have a single one in our team's group).  

Mad props to the gal who donated the white dress for our drag competition, though -- she was only wearing panties underneath, and she just sunk down on the floor and pulled the dress off and stayed hunkered down.  Someone handed her a jacket to put across her frontal region, but that takes some real dedication to your team!

[A&L_Ont]

9 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

That might be better than the story of when I got mad at my wife in Italy for losing our passports, when I forgot I had put them in the secret compartment of my backpack almost 20 years ago.

 

jc

For some reason I bet Mrs JC hasn’t forgot. Mrs A&L certainly would not have. 

[A&L_Ont]

@brillohead at the end of your story I was waiting for you to say that your sea pass wouldn’t unlock your cabin door. 🤦‍♂️
 

You deserve a medal of saint hood.  From now on you will be known as Saint Brillo, The Patron saint of the Foolish and Drunkards. They should also hang your portrait at Maya Chan and give you free passage for eternity.

 

On a more serious note, if we book Maya Chan for the Bell cruise… do you want to share a taxi back? 😂

Edited February 3, 2023 by A&L_Ont

[dani negreanu]

7 hours ago, cruisingpeople said:

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. You definitely have the patience of a saint. 

 

+ 1

 

 

9 hours ago, brillohead said:

so far the comments are mostly "I would have left them on their own!"  

 

+ 1, without a nanosecond hesitation too. The drunks were so lucky that you're who you are 👍 

[xpcdoojk]

2 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

For some reason I bet Mrs JC hasn’t forgot. Mrs A&L certainly would not have. 

I am sure she will mention it at my funeral….

[LATTELOVE]

12 hours ago, brillohead said:

Y'all... I am officially NEVER doing another Live Thread again.  Y'ALL ARE BAD JUJU!!!!  THIS STUFF NEVER HAPPENS TO ME!!!

Had another wonderful day at Maya Chan.  At 8:00am, I met some first-timers at the Schooner Bar to show them the way to the meet-up spot, and we were off.  Arrived, got hugs, pet Rodas the black Lab, got my massage appointment made, everything was wonderful in Casita Six as always. The day progressed exactly as it always does at Maya Chan.

 

Then I went to go pee around 3:00, in preparation for my 3:30 taxi time.  And as I'm entering the dining/bar area, I meet two over-beveraged women -- we'll call them Drunk1 and Drunk2.  "YOU'RE DEBBI!  WE'RE GOING TO FOLLOW YOU BACK TO THE SHIP!  JULIE SAID SO!"  Turns out these women were also taking the last taxi back to Allure.  In the half hour from when I met them until when we climbed into the cab, they had two more tequila shots and two more drinks EACH ... and they were nowhere near sober to begin with.

So Drunk2 got in the front seat of the cab, ignoring my instructions to get into the back seat, so I sat in the back with Drunk1.  Drunk2 (who I later found out was also under the influence of "edibles" and Valium!) spent most of the ride asking the driver annoying questions, and he didn't speak a lot of English, and she THOUGHT she could speak some Spanish, but she really couldn't. 

For example, she tried asking him where he was from, and he replied "Veracruz" only she thought that he was saying he was from a cruise ship.  So she asked him where his mother was from (or rather, she TRIED to ask him where his mother was from.... it came out something like, "Donde esto mothero" and the poor cabbie glanced at me in the rearview mirror as if to say, "W T F????" and I said "madre" and he said his mother was from Veracruz as well. Which Drunk2 interpreted as, "Oh, so you inherited the cruise..."  You cannot make this crap up! 

 

In the meantime, Drunk1 kept talking about how we were going to miss the ship, blah blah blah, and I pointed to the ship and said, "We still have 45 minutes until all-aboard, we're just fine.  The cab will get us to the port at 4:00, and then you'll have 30 minutes to walk to the ship.  You'll be fine."  I think I've blocked out whatever Drunk2 was talking about at this point.  Let's just say it was 30 minutes of my life that I will never get back.  I did recommend to Drunk1 that she tip the cabbie VERY well for having to put up with Drunk2 next to him for the whole drive.  

So, the cabbie drops us off at the inner security gate and we walk across the parking area and are just approaching the first vendor, when Drunk1 says, "Where's my phone?"  Just kill me now, please!!!!  The cab is LONG gone, of course.  She also had to pee really badly, as in doing the peepee dance.  So I sent her forward and told her to pee and come back, while I go about attempting to retrieve the phone. It's probably at least 4:05 at this point, and all-aboard is 4:30.  I have never in my life come even CLOSE to being a pier-runner.... until today.

So I look up Maya Chan's website and find a number in Mexico and a number in the USA.  I tried the MX number first, but didn't get an answer and didn't see the point in leaving a voicemail.  So I called the US number and a woman answered, "Maya Chan."  

Brillo: Is this Jane?
Jane: Yes...
Brillo: So, I just left Maya Chan half an hour ago, and Julie put me in a cab with two drunk girls, and one of them just realized that she left her phone in the cab, so we need to try to find out which cab and get him to come back and all-aboard is in 25 minutes, so time is of the essence here.
Jane: OK, let me give Julie a call!  
Brillo: Thanks, let me know what you find out!

In the meantime, Drunk2 is trying to use "find my iPhone" to locate her friend's phone, and I hear her talking to someone on the phone and telling them all kinds of incorrect stuff ("we were at Costa Maya Beach," etc.) and I asked who she was talking to, and she said it was the cab driver, he found the phone, and I said to give me the phone because she was too drunk for this conversation, and the other person hung up.  So then Drunk2 keeps going off about how rude it was of him to hang up. 

I keep questioning her and she said that HE called HER... which I knew didn't make any sense because if the cabbie found the phone, he wouldn't know who to call.  Turns out that when you're drunk and trying to use "find my iPhone" you instead end up googling a scam website and giving them your phone number, and when the ONLY sober person is trying to tell you that you did that, you don't believe them.  *sigh*

So it's been about ten minutes and I haven't seen Drunk1 return from the bathrooms, and I don't want to go look for her because I am still hoping that the Fates will shine down on us and we can get her phone back. It's 4:15, and I text Jane to see if they've had any luck finding the cabbie. She texts back that they're searching the vehicle now.  Drunk2 keeps wandering off and I have to sit her in a chair with a "Sit/Stay" command.  At 4:18, another text from Jane to go outside the port gate, because the cabbie won't be able to come inside, and the taxi cab number is 216.  Hallelujah!

Now I have to wrangle Drunk2 back out of the parking area, through the first security gate, and down the road to the exterior security gate.  I had made the mistake of telling Drunk2 that the cab number was 216, and she went staggering up to the guard that controls the gate across the road and makes some drunken attempt to tell him what's going on, using more of her version of Spanish.  He points her over to the guardhouse in the center boulevard, and she's off again, telling that poor guard, "Dos Uno Six" like the guy has ANY idea what any of that means.  She keeps trying to talk in "Spanish" and I'm pretty much beyond fed up at this point and tell her, "JUST SPEAK ENGLISH, or better yet, just shut up and let the sober person do the talking!"  

I explained to the guard that Taxi 216 is going to be bringing a phone that another drunk girl left in his car, and a couple minutes later up came our poor driver, who probably sobbed when they told him he had to go back to the drunk girl again!  Drunk2 goes running up to the car and launches herself into the backseat, while the cabbie got out and handed me the phone (and I handed him another cash tip and thanked him profusely).  Now I have to convince Drunk2 to GET OUT OF THE CAR BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE THE PHONE, which took a lot longer to get through her skull than it should have, and now we can head back into port and try to locate Drunk1.

When I say we are the only people in the port area at that time, I mean it.  It was kinda spooky.... just vendors and us.  We walk by the bathrooms but nobody is there, and Drunk2 is yelling Drunk1's name over and over.  I told her that Drunk1 is probably back on the ship, but Drunk2 kept insisting that she was going to get left in port because she didn't have her phone and SeaPass.  No matter how many times I kept telling her that they BOTH had lanyards for their SeaPass, her friend didn't need her phone to get onto the ship, it just didn't sink in.  

I wrangled Drunk2 all the way through the port, and she kept wanting to stop and "take a little rest".  All-aboard was a minute ago, you're half my age and half my weight -- keep walking!!!!  Past the pool and dolphins, around the massage hut, and now she's talking about how she's going to message Drunk1's husband to tell him that she lost her.  ABSOLUTELY NOT -- hand me that phone -- you are WAY too drunk to be messaging anyone, and she's probably on the ship already!

 

We go past the silver store, into the liquor store, take a left, no you CANNOT stop to rest, keep going, show the guard your SeaPass -- he's not going to scan it, just show him the front of it -- now keep walking down the pier, yes, I know it's a long pier, no you can't stop to rest.  We're halfway down the pier when my phone rings from WhatsApp....

"Mom, are you okay?  Royal just called me....."

My son is listed as my Emergency Contact on my check-in paperwork.  I tell him I'm on the pier now and I'm fine, hold on, now they're calling me....

Guest Services called me finally... I explained that I was currently on the pier, and that I had, "Hey Drunk2, what's your last name?" I was drunk-wrangling Drunk2 LastName down the pier at the moment, and could they please check that "Hey Drunk2, what's Drunk1's last name?" could they confirm that Drunk1 LastName was on board already.  I hear him typing away on his keyboard, and he confirmed that Drunk1 was on the ship, and I told him that we were almost on board too.  

Lots of cheers and jeers from the people watching the not-running pier runners as we came up the pier.  (Of COURSE this had to happen at the port with the longest pier in the history of piers!!!)  A security guard approached and asked what our room numbers were, "Hey Drunk1, what room are you in?" and he wrote it on his latex glove and radioed it in.  

Finally climbed up the gangway, and the Captain is there giving a scolding, "try to do better tomorrow, yada yada yada" and I told him that I have NEVER done this and I DON'T EVEN KNOW THIS GIRL!!!!  We go through security/x-ray and there stands Drunk1 waiting for us, and she tells me that she lost her purse and wallet (which also had her passport!) when she was in the bathroom. 

 

She didn't yet realize that I had managed to retrieve the phone, so she was ecstatic when I handed it to her.  Then she asked the security person if they had a lost-and-found, and they pulled out a box and lo and behold, her purse/wallet/passport and her sunglasses were there -- she had left them on the conveyor when she went through the x-ray machine.  It also looked like she had GONE SHOPPING after she went to the bathroom, and that's why she didn't come back to us.  

I wrangled them both up the escalator and questioned them on their room number.  They were in the front of the ship, and we were at the front elevators, so I took them up to their floor and dropped them off, and I was SO GLAD to see the backside of them!!!!

Now I'm off to dinner, and I might treat myself to an extra dessert after all of this!






 

Oh Man, that's incredible.  

Sad part it's not funny.  Those woman's

were very lucky to have a person like you.

Hope they remembered you after they were 

sober and thanked you.

[aubreyc1988]

2 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

+ 1

 

 

 

+ 1, without a nanosecond hesitation too. The drunks were so lucky that you're who you are 👍 

would have totally left them behind, I am not missing the ship! 

[cruiselvr04]

Drunk 1 and Drunk 2 are very lucky.  The DH and I would have made sure they got back into the port gate but then they would have been on their own.  And one of them left the other one not knowing if they made it back? Great travel companion. They were probably too drunk to remember that great person who helped them not miss the ship.  

Once after a cat excursion the DH helped a lady get her significant other back to the ship.  He was too big for her to handle by herself.  She was sober and embarrassed and we felt sorry for her.  
 

 

 

[Sea Dog]

@brillohead You are a saint! Funniest story I have ever heard. Kudos to you for staying calm and helping them. Unfortunately they will probably forget everything that happened but they owe you big time.

[bobmacliberty]

Add me to the list of "I would have left them there" people.  I agree with Andrew's title of Saint Brillo.

[aubreyc1988]

22 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Add me to the list of "I would have left them there" people.  I agree with Andrew's title of Saint Brillo.

AT MOST, I would have gotten them to the pier, showed them the ship, and said "hope to see you onboard" and got on the ship.  This would be me at my most charitable lol

Edited February 3, 2023 by aubreyc1988

[helen haywood]

I consider myself a very kind person…but obviously I’m not because I wouldn’t have helped them either!  No good deed goes unpunished.

[luvcruzing]

OMG! I was so stressed reading your account of what happened after leaving Maya Chan, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  Hope you tell the people at Maya Chan the next time you’re there to not offer up your babysitting services ever again.

 

Edit to add: By the way, did you text them what happened after you left?

 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by luvcruzing

[Fontaid]

@brillohead aka Saint Brillohead aka Guardian Angel Debbi...  Under the category of "you can't make this stuff up"...

 

It would not surprise me if those two women were at Guest Services this morning complaining very loudly with a screwdriver (not from Maintenance, Lowe's or Home Depot) in one hand and a cell phone in the other, which they want to turn in because it's not theirs. They were still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, stains and all, and smelled like they had been in the gutter on Bourbon Street in New Orleans for 24 hours at Mardi Gras. First, they want to know why the ship is still spinning around in one place. It hadn't done that since... yesterday.

 

Yes, they are complaining that they went to Maya Chan and only had one or two drinks (they didn't mention the 15 drinks they had before they left the ship). They know they almost missed the ship; they had to wait for this unknown 3rd woman because Maya Chan said they had to share a taxi with her. They don't know how much this other woman had to drink, but it had to be way too much. This third woman took one of their cell phones and stuffed it in the taxi cushions as a prank so they would have to look for it and miss the ship.

 

They wanted to talk to the Captain, in person. They wanted to promise the Captain it wouldn't happen a 3rd time. Then, the Captain, against his better judgement, decided to dock in Cozumel as scheduled - on the good chance they might not make it back to the ship in time today. "Ahhh" he was dreaming, "such a peaceful journey north through the Gulf it would be."

 

Poof! And just that quick, "The Quest" became yesterday's news... lol.

 

Note: Poetic license taken...

Debbi - Start your Allure Novella now!!!

[brillohead]

2 hours ago, luvcruzing said:

OMG! I was so stressed reading your account of what happened after leaving Maya Chan, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  Hope you tell the people at Maya Chan the next time you’re there to not offer up your babysitting services ever again.

 

Edit to add: By the way, did you text them what happened after you left?

I did message Mark and Jane to tell David and Julie that there's a new Maya Chan rule -- drunks have to leave A MINIMUM OF TWO HOURS before all-aboard time!  Mark and I talked about the "Shame Walk" on the pier.... they had their daughter's wedding at Maya Chan and he left his ship card in his shorts at the resort and had to go all the way back to get it and then have that lovely pier-runner experience. 

 

 

 

Mark called me a saint, also, and thanked me for my efforts.  

I wonder if I'll get any Good Doobie Karma Points for this the next time I buy a lotto ticket?  🤣

 

 

 

9 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

On a more serious note, if we book Maya Chan for the Bell cruise… do you want to share a taxi back? 😂

Sadly, I'm not going to be on the Bella Cruise so YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!!!!  

And I HIGHLY recommend the Maya Chan experience -- everyone that I've taken there (or has gone on my recommendation) has thoroughly enjoyed their time there.

 

 

And I did get a FB message from Drunk1 right after we got back on the ship, thanking me profusely.  Haven't heard from her since.... I have a feeling that they didn't make it to The Quest last night!  😴😴😴😴

[brillohead]

So, today was Cozumel, and my first time at Sky Reef.  Thanks for the recommendation on that -- I'll definitely be back!

The couple that sits near me at dinner met me at the Schooner Bar (which we've nicknamed the Scooter Bar, although there aren't quite as many scooters as I'm used to -- I guess Texas doesn't have as many retired/handicapped folks as Florida!) at 9:00, and we were off.  Got a taxi to Sky Reef easily enough.  

Here's the Taxi Fare sign, for those who didn't catch it when John posted it:

 

 

 

We got to Sky Reef at the perfect time -- we were some of the first folks there, so we grabbed a few loungers and an umbrella right in the front row.  They each paid $20 to rent snorkel equipment and get a "free" drink, I have my own gear so I didn't have to pay.  I plopped my bag on a chair and headed for the water -- I was there to snorkel!  They settled in to read for a while.  

The snorkeling is good here because it's rocky... which is not so good for the feet and such!  I might look into getting some diving socks that I can wear for situations like this.  I wear my athletic shoes to/from the beach (my knee situation requires stable and supportive footwear), and just go barefoot on the beach once I get there, but the "beach" here is man-made and the sand is rocky and there are huge jagged rocks you have to walk on in the beach area. 

As reported by others, there is a wooden bridge that takes you over and into the water.  The bottom two steps are SLIPPERY with algae and what-not, so definitely hang on to the railing!  The last step off stairs and onto the ocean floor is a larger drop than normal, too, so anyone with knee/hip issues is better off going down backwards like a ladder instead of like stairs (this also lets you hold on to the railing while on the slippery last step). 

The water depth there was upper thigh (not very deep -- I'm only 5'2" / 157cm tall)-- not really deep enough to swim yet.  I walked out farther to put my fins on the first time, and I don't recommend that -- again, the rocks underfoot are slippery and VERY uneven and uncomfortable, and there were random big holes up to 8" deep that you had to navigate; the second time, I put my fins on while sitting on the stairs, then just back-stroked to deeper water.  

The quantity of fish wasn't super high, but the variety was there!  After checking out the sea fan coral area, I swam out to the buoy line and the whole length of it and then back in.  Saw trunkfish, grunts, blueheads, sergeant majors, four-eyed butterflyfish, a barracuda that had to be at least three feet long, blue tangs, rock beauties that were just shy of being dinner plate sized, two different yellow stingrays (little), and one big spotted eagle ray that had at least a six foot wingspan, if not bigger.  And bunches of other fish that I don't know the name of and/or have already mentioned.

My dinner friends were surprised at how long I snorkeled, but it was only about two hours.  They had gotten in the water to snorkel while I was out, too, and they were thrilled with the fish situation at Sky Reef.  They had done a Royal catamaran snorkel excursion on Wednesday and she only saw one fish, which is just inexcusable with all of the excellent reef areas to snorkel in Roatan!  So seeing all the different fish in the sea fan coral at Sky Reef really was a great way to end their cruise.  

It started raining around 11ish, so the couple took our bags up into the covered restaurant area while I went out for another snorkel adventure.  It poured for much of the time I was in the water, which was a weird sensation to be swimming in.  Visibility wasn't as good and I didn't see anything special on my second snorkel.  Went back up to join my new friends and drip-dry a bit, and it looked like the skies were starting to clear, so we waited another ten minutes and then got a taxi back to the port. 

 

We all went our separate ways at the port -- I went across the street to the farmacia to pick up a couple things, he went back to the ship, and she went shopping.  It was so nice not having to wrangle a bunch of drunks back onto the ship this time!  LOL  

On my way back to the ship, I grabbed some mooring line pics for @Sea Dog, and also noticed that they were drilling footings for another pier, maybe? This was right near the "elbow" of the Royal/Celebrity pier -- you can see bollard 3 in the drilling pic, and then in the next pic you see bollard 3 with the mooring lines for Allure:

 

 

 

 

When I put my hand on the mooring line to take this picture, the line moved down several inches, catching me off guard!

 

 

 

 

I was back on board at 12:30 (no drunks this time!) and took myself off to Park Cafe to check out the salad options.  No ham today, but they did have bleu cheese dressing, so it wasn't a total loss:

 

 

Back to the room, showered, scheduled my Uber for Sunday morning back to Hobby airport, and posted here.  Will probably read until dinnertime, and then I'm off for the 9pm showing of @Ocean Boy's favorite show!  

 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by brillohead

[Sea Dog]

@brillohead Great mooring line shots! Winner!!

[#1packerfan]

@brilloheadat Maya Chan do they have loungers with umbrellas other than those hard wooden chairs?  It looked like they did from the pictures but want first hand confirmation. Those wooden chairs are a total dealbreaker for us but would love to try it there. 

 

We normally go to Nohoch Cay.

 

Thanks!!

[Luckynana]

3 hours ago, jagsfan said:

The k

 

The tomalley is kind of revolting, since it’s like a paste, but it has a strong lobster taste. We always feel lucky if we get it. 
Which is pretty surprising for me since on my first trip to Maine,  I looked at the lobster on my plate and told Dick’s aunt it looked like a giant cockroach. 
I loved lobster, but had only had tails. 

By the end of lunch I was ripping lobsters apart like a native. 

Mimi, I had a wonderful lobster tail in Puerto Rico when I was 18 years old.  After coming home, I went on a Blind Date with my girlfriend and her boy friend to a restaurant in Queens, called Stella D'Oreo...I ordered a lobster, expecting a lobster tail, and was horrified when an entire scary looking lobster was placed in front of me.  I said there's no way I will eat that!  Thank goodness my friend took charge and pulled the lobster apart for me!  Needless to say, I never saw that Blind date again, and will joyfully eat a whole lobster since the day my friend showed me how delicious an entire lobster is to eat!😁