Original Itinerary / Revised Itinerary

Concerned that hurricane Dennis would delay our trip to Florida, and knowing that the likelihood of Royal Caribbean holding the ship for us if we were late was about the same as them upgrading us to the Royal Suite, we decided to accelerate our journey east.  We scored the last four standby seats on the first flight out of Texas, and made our way over to a stormy Orlando.  There was time for a little shopping and a nap in the afternoon before braving a squall line in Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  Note to Texans: fill your gas tank before you get to Florida.

Day 1: We Set Sail:

We had a quick breakfast, returned the rental car, took a 45-minute bus ride east, and arrived at Port Canaveral.  After whisking through check-in, we were lunching at the Windjammer Cafe by 12:15.  Before we knew it, it was time for the muster drill and cast off from Port Canaveral at 5:00.  We found ourselves alone at our table for eight at dinner - our tablemates didn't show.  Someone must have told them about us.  We all enjoyed the "Welcome Aboard" show and, afterwards, the three youngsters disappeared into the evening.  
 

We only had six hours in port today, so we had to get an early start.  We hopped a taxi over to Cabbage Beach and went parasailing.  Afterwards, we hiked over to the Atlantis Hotel to look around and catch a cab back to the boat.  While we were having lunch back on the ship, the captain announced that, thanks to hurricane Emily in the Caribbean, we would have to change our itinerary.  St. Thomas and St. Maarten are out, Labadee and Cozumel are in.  That will mess up our excursion plans, but we'll have fun anyway.  We enjoyed our formal dinner tonight.  Will was uncharacteristically adventurous with dinner: peach soup, Caesar salad, filet of beef, and Grand Marnier soufflé (but we couldn't quite talk him into the escargot).  And we discovered why Will is enjoying the evenings aboard so much...he is holding himself out as a 15-year old and sneaking in to the 15-17 year old club.

Ah, sea days.  Breakfast is served in the Windjammer Cafe until 11:30am, but that wasn't late enough for the three youngsters - all three slept right through it.  It was a lazy day, filled with sunning, reading, napping and eating.  Our dinner companions joined us tonight - the Moores from South Carolina.  After dinner, we caught the show and later wandered into the casino.  The good news: Sierra and Elizabeth won money on Texas Tea.  The bad news: Sierra and Elizabeth are now planning to spend a lot more time in the casino.
 

Another lazy sea day.  During the day, the girls scoped out the belly flop competition and laid out by the pool, Bill made a donation in the casino and learned how to juggle, and Will continued living the lie and building his social network among the 15-17 year olds.  The kid even crashed a quinceanera.  In the evening, we donned our formal duds again, caught the ice show, had dinner, and saw the production show.  Dinner update: Will courageously ordered the lamb chop, but after one bite felt "nauseous", so he medicated himself with two desserts.  Also at dinner, we laid a little Romanian lingo (which we looked up on the internet) on our Romanian waiter Sandu.  He taught us a few other Romanian words, none of which we can repeat here.
 

The kids had to crawl out of bed this morning at the excruciatingly early hour of 9:15am to meet our scuba group.  After a quick taxi ride and a classroom lesson, we hit the water for our dive.  Everyone did great, and we saw lots of pretty fish and coral.  Later, we headed for downtown Cozumel for some souvenir shopping and lunch at the infamous Carlos 'n Charlies.  Quote of the day (from the necklace vendor in Cozumel): "$18.  OK, $16.  Give me $12.  How about $10.  Alright, $8."  Tonight at dinner, we entertained ourselves with the levitating lemon and other astounding feats of magic.
 

A new record: Will slept until 1pm, and the girls almost that long.  We used the last day at sea to enjoy the remaining amenities of the Mariner, including climbing the wall and skating.  There was a 45MPH wind today, and that made the seas plenty rough.  One last dinner (including 7 desserts for the 4 of us), the farewell show, and then it was time for the dreaded packing.  After the suitcases were in the hallway, the girls took in the karaoke finals, and Will hung with his new (15-17 year old) buddies one last time. 

The youngsters were out until after 3am last night, so the 7:20am wakeup call was brutal.  Port Canaveral isn't too busy, so we zoomed right through customs, onto the bus, and on to the Orlando airport for our 1:12pm flight back to Texas.  We had a great trip - "the best ever", claims Will.  Everybody stayed healthy, followed the rules (as far as Bill knows, anyway), and we all had much fun on the high seas.

Until next time...