Cruising Adventure with Grandma

February 2014

Let me give you an update on our activities of the past week. Some time ago we signed up for a cruise which departs from Houston Texas and travels down to Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize. Our scheduled sailing date
was February 8 and we looked forward to the opportunity of spending the week on the high seas. Prior to our departure there was a lot of news about people getting sick on cruises with what was known as the Norovirus.. We tended to ignore such reports until we learned that the very ship in which we were to sail had experienced that problem the previous week. There were over 150 people who contracted the sickness and were confined to their staterooms. Judy was very concerned and suggested that we might want to cancel our trip. However, this was not to be an easy task as we had already paid full price for both the ship and our airfare, refunds were not available. So we made the determination to move ahead and hope that things worked out well. The other concern we had was our plans for flying.

We had booked our flight from Las Vegas to Houston, the only problem was that the plane left at 6 AM. As you know it is necessary to be to the airport from 1 1/2 to 2 hours prior to the departure of any flight and so it was necessary that we drive to Las Vegas on the seventh and stay overnight in order to be on time for our early morning flight.

Our drive to Las Vegas was uneventful and we were able to find the hotel without any difficulty. Believe it or not we were up early enough to leave for the airport shortly after 4 AM. In order to make things a little more
comfortable I upgraded our tickets to first class. It cost a couple hundred dollars but I believe that it was worth it. We had taken Judy’s wheelchair with this so that we could move through the airport terminal easily and have quick access to the ship. We sailed on the Princess Caribbean ship. Once we arrived in Houston there were people there to make sure that our luggage and ourselves were on the motorcoach headed for the ship. The  airport and the docks are not close together and so our bus trip took about an hour. Once we arrived at the ship the wheelchair became very important as we didn’t have to stand in any lines but were moved very quickly on to the ship. One other advantage is that I had requested a handicapped room
which turned out to be very nice and was twice the size of a normal cabin.

We set sail Saturday evening and were going to spend first day at sea arriving at Cozumel on Monday morning. You are very familiar with cruises and all of the fine entertainment and good food which is available. Things went very well that first day but on Sunday night everything headed in a different direction, Judy became very ill, she had the symptoms of the Norovirus. On Monday morning we contacted the medical staff and they came to the room and gave her a nasty shot, she said it wasn’t very pleasant. In addition, Judy was quarantined and had to stay in the cabin for the next 24 hours. Fortunately the shot they gave her seem to work and she was no longer throwing up but was still rather weak and didn’t feel well. Because of her quarantine we missed the opportunity to go to shore in Cozumel. During her confinement the only food she was allowed to have was chicken broth and rice, not very exciting for cruise food. On Tuesday after she had been confined for 24 hours we were allowed to leave the room and enjoy whatever activities the ship had in store. Our next stop was Roatan where we were able to leave the ship for a short period of time and
do some shopping close to the pier. While we were on board it was necessary that Judy used the wheelchair for moving about. Our state room was a considerable distance from the restaurant and it would’ve been very
difficult for her to walk that far. On Wednesday the ship cruised to Belize which is not far from where Danika is serving on her mission. I think originally Belize was in her mission but it is my understanding that is not the
case today. We did not go ashore and Belize as it was necessary to take a tender and travel in excess of one mile to reach the dock. Instead we stayed on board and enjoyed the activities that were there. After leaving
Belize on Wednesday evening we sailed for two days to return to Houston.

For the most part the seas were fairly decent and motion sickness wasn’t a big issue. However, once we arrived on land we still had the sensation of the movement of the boat. While on board we spent a couple of days at the art auction. The beautiful paintings which we have in our home were acquired at an auction during a cruise. I told Judy before we left that we had better not purchase any new artwork as we had no place to hang it. That turned out to be a futile endeavor as we could just not pass up some of the beautiful artwork that was there. We still have the same problem we started with that is where to hang it. We bought a number of pieces some of which we will bring the St. George and the others we will hang in our basement in Sandy. These paintings that we own appraise at very high numbers so that when Judy and I have gone to our great reward in the sky don’t let those paintings go to the Deseret Industries as they are worth a lot of money.
When you visit us at either of our homes you will be able to appreciate our new acquisitions.

We had an interesting day coming home. We left Judy’s car at the hotel where we stayed the week before and had taken the shuttle to the airport. Once we arrived back at the Las Vegas airport it was necessary to take a cab back to the spot where we had left the car. We did however have one glitch in that somehow in our attempt to get to the baggage claim area we ended up at Delta rather than the United baggage claim area, we were along way away from where our suitcases were. We had the cab driver take us to the United terminal where I claimed our bags and we were on our way back to pick up our car. Prior to heading back to St. George we stopped and had some dinner in order to be fortified us for our two hour driving trip. This all took place on Saturday and it’s interesting to note that our travel that day included, the ship, the bus to the airport, the airplane to Las Vegas, the taxi ride to our car, and our drive home. It reminded me of the old movie trains planes and buses. On Saturday morning we got out of bed at 6 AM and returned to St. George at 10 PM that night. I turned on the TV to BYU TV was able to watch a replay of the Cougars and St. Mary’s, it was quite a game but the cougars came out on top, barely. The trip wasn’t the best cruise we have ever been on due to the fact that Judy became ill. We did have a few days to enjoy ourselves and get away.

Grandpa