Texas & Western Caribbean's Cruise (2014)

Prolog

It’s been two years since our family reunion for our bi-annual family trip.  This time I let the kids decide where we are going.  My son Odie came up with the idea that we will all cruise from Galveston, TX for a Western Caribbean’s Cruise, with the RCCL Independence of the Seas.

Emly had plans of her own to come from Israel, with her fiance David, to visit the USA, and the date was set for August, 10^th, 2014. 

Gary & Sharone already committed arriving to Austin prior to the cruise and we all decided that we shall meet in Texas, celebrate Shabbat with Odie and his family, tour Austin, and then leave on the 10^th to Galveston.

Day 1 – August 8^th, 2014

D & D Limo Services arrived to our home at 5:30 AM and we took the ride to LAX and to our awaiting Southwest flight to Austin.

When we landed at Austin International Airport, Emly & Odie were there to pick us up and we drove to our in-laws, who live in Round Rock.  Glenda and Ed Cravens are two of our favorite people in the world and we were so happy to see them.  We decided to have lunch at a local restaurant and then rested for awhile.

     

At around 5:00 PM we all drove to the home of Odie & Joy, in Pflugerville where we met the rest of our family.  We haven’t seen Sole & Orion for quite some time now and the reunion with our grand kids was a memorable event. Also invited to Shabbat dinner were Glenda Garrison (Gary’s mom) and her sister Carlinda.

        

Odie, who is one of the greatest chefs I know, cooked a delicious meal but before we started with the feast we had the Shabbat Services, chanted beautifully by Ya’ara.  The food was out of this world!  Odie really put a lot of effort & thoughts to make this perfect meal. (All kosher, by the way!)

   

After dinner we played a game where according to the a selected letter, we had to complete a spreadsheet with the following subjects:  Country or State, City, Animal Name, Foliage, Boy Name, Girl Name,, Profession, and non-living object.

We returned to the Cravens’ home at around midnight.

Day 2 – August 9^th, 2014

Odie arrived at 10:00 and took us to the hotel where Sharone & Gary stayed.  We then drove to Austin, after a short stop in Yager Lane.  Since it was Saturday, Gary did not join us as he observes the Shabbat.

     

Once we arrived to the Capital of Texas, we sat at a café, recommended by Odie & Joy and had a really great coffee.  We then walked to the Farmer Market, visited some of the stalls and then walked to the nearby Lady Bird Lake, a reservoir off the Colorado River, where we had so much fun for the next couple of hours.

 

  

We walked back to our parked cars and Joy, Odie and their kids had to leave as they have not started packing for tomorrow.  Elan & Nadav decided they wanted to join them as well.

 

  

Sharone, Ya’ara, Emly, David, Tova and I drove to one of my favorite restaurants in Austin.  We arrived to Juan in a Million a few minutes later and had a wonderful brunch.

     

Our next stop was the annual Ice Cream Festival, at Fiesta Gardens Park.  We had few scoops of delicious ice cream and enjoyed the live music and the other activities.

According to my Galaxy phone, the temperature was at 105 degrees and the humidity made it even worth.  At one point I felt bad, as I got dehydrated and Sharone ran to one of the vendors and bought me a cold bottle of water, which with a few minutes rest made me feel much better.

We drove back to the hotel and picked up Odie’s car, which was parked there while we visited Austin.

We arrived to the Cravens home in Round Rock few minutes later.

Day 3 – August 10^th, 2014

We woke up at 5:00 and drove to Pflugerville.  The family was already awake and made the last arrangements, before heading towards Galveston.  Gary & Sharone had to return their rental van at Houston’s airport and then take a shuttle to Galveston.

We left at around 7:00 and drove through the country roads.  Emly & David joined us in one car while Joy, Odie, Orion & Sole were in the other car.

The road was spectacular and reminded me of many movies filmed in Texas.  We drove through farms and fields with blooming flowers.  At one point we merged into the highway and at around 11:00 we made it to Galveston Port.  We unloaded the luggage and Odie & I drove to park the cars, not far from the port.

We embarked the magnificent Independence of the Seas an hour later.  We found our cabin #1290 on the 11^th deck, very spacious.  Few minutes later our cabin steward introduced himself.  His name was Abdul and he was from Indonesia.


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We all met (eventually) at the Windjammer Café and had lunch.  We found out that for some reason we are going to have separate tables at the dining room.  This was unacceptable and I went to talk to the Maitre d’ to fix their error and asked that we will all (13 of us) sit together in one big table.  At the beginning the gentleman was not cooperative, telling me that the ship is full and there is no way he could arrange it.  I then used different tone and after some arguing he promised to see what he could do.  He told me that he will do his best to arrange for one big table.

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 We toured the beautiful ship, sat around the pool and then rested a bit in our cabin.

We all met for dinner and found out that we are going to sit in two different tables.  I called the restaurant manager but for no avail.  I did tell him that if we will not get one table for all of us, I will then consider to subtract the gratuity significantly plus complain to corporate and plus publish in my blog how we were treated.  This did the trick as we were promised it will be resolved by tomorrow.

  

  

 After dinner we went to the fabulous theater on the 5^th deck and laughed to tears, enjoying the comedian Rick Corso, who was selected as one of Showtime's Comedy Club All-Stars and picked to be a member of Comedy Central's "The A-List."  He talked about daily frustrations, politics, relationships, his Italian family and growing up in New Jersey.  We also got introduced to the cruise director – John Perry.
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In our room we had a guest for the rest of the journey: Ya’ara decided to join the old folks!!  What a great compliment!!!

Day 4 – August 11^th, 2014

Day at Sea!

I woke up late and had breakfast at the Diamond Club dining room.  I then met Tova & Ya’ara and joined them at the Windjammer for coffee.  Sharone & Gary joined us later and we wished them a Happy Anniversary!

I went to the pool for some swimming and sat in the Jacuzzi for awhile, reading my book.  I skipped lunch and went to the cabin for an afternoon nap.

      

I woke up at around 3:00 and joined the others at the Ice Skating Ring.  Sharone, Gary, Elan, Ya’ara, Nadav, and David were practicing on the floor.


   

 

  

Tonight was a “Formal” night and we dressed up for the occasion.  Tova & I went to the Diamond Club for the cocktail hour and then joined the rest for Formal Picture session.  We then all entered the dining room to see how our issue with the table was resolved and it was!  The long table was not far from the window.  Our waiter name was Ivan from the Philippines and his assistant was Juan from Peru.  We were all happy and loud (the Oren’s are known for NOT being a quiet family!).

  

At 8:30 we to the theater for the Production Showtime called Now and Forever featuring the dancers and singers of the ship.  It was okay.

At 10:30 we returned to the theater and enjoyed an encore by Rick Corso, this time he brought the Adult Version of his show.  He was hilarious!

We went to sleep at around 1:00!

Day 5 – August 12^th, 2014

Another day at sea – On our way to Honduras!

  

After a hearty breakfast with Ya’ara, we walked Ya’ara to the “kids club” and then walked around the ship for several time, on the 12^th deck.

     

We then watched Elan & Sharone on the rock climbing wall and then watched Elan mastering in the mini-golf on deck 12.

  

    

After lunch, the whole group met in the Ice Skating Theater to watch a wonderful show “Ice Dancing’ Spectacular”.  The best performance was by a couple (I think Russians) named Katia & Slava.

               

We spent the afternoon napping.  A flock of wierd birds decided to "hitch hike" with the ship and found our balcony as a good place to rest.

At 4:00 we went to the Diamonds Club for cocktails.  It so happened that the club was right across the Rock Climbing Wall and, while sipping our cocktails, we watched Emly & Sharone competing in “The Fastest Climber” competition.  Emly came in first, followed by Sharone!!!

 

  

 After dinner we went to the theater for a comedy routine, performed by John Joseph & Johnny B.

 

At 10:00 the whole group met, all dressed with jeans and white shirts to take few portraits and then joined the crowd on the promenade for a disco show.

Day 6 – August 13^th, 2014

Happy Birthday Elan!

The ship made her way slowly to Roatan, Honduras.

We woke up at 7:30 and disembarked at 9:30. The family was divided into 2 groups.  Tova & I hired a guide for the rest of the day, while the rest enjoyed the day at the beach.




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At the port we found a local dancing group that enlightened us by their welcome routine.  We went out of the port and found our guide.  As a rule of thumb, the farther you walk away from the port, the more affordable the guides are. Our guide, Jose, was very personal and spoke perfect English.  He took us around the island and we visited some interesting places, mingled with the locals, enjoyed the views of this wonderful island and even visited Jose’s neighborhood.  At one point we arrived at a top of a hill and the views of the entire island were out of this world.

    

 While driving, Jose told us a bit about the island: 

The Island is located 30 miles off the north coast of Honduras atop the world’s second largest coral reef. The reef attracts many fish, and is world known for scuba diving. It is approximately 48 miles long, and less than 5 miles across at its widest point. The island has a number of beaches, all of which are public. 

     

Originally an English colony, and later annexed to Honduras, Roatan has a mixture of English and Spanish speaking natives. The western side of the island is the most populated and where most tourists stay, and the eastern side is more remote and isolated. Roatan has a warm climate with daytime temperatures between 80 and 90 year round.

          

Our next stop was at “Roatan Beverly Hills”.   We found some beautiful villas on the beach with an open view to the horizons.

        

At one stop, we entered Roatan Butterflies Garden.  The place really should have a different name....we didn't see many butterflies (maybe wrong time of year?) but we did see other interesting things. Our young tour guide, Oscar, was very sincere and interested in the animals at the site. It was a beautiful place. Lush plants/flowers, good place to take pictures. The Mayan statues were replicas but it gave the guide an opportunity to explain the significance of the symbols, etc so that was fine. We saw some interesting monkeys, boa snakes that we were able to see very up close.  We even had the chance to take some photos with parrots and monkeys.

        

We asked Jose to stop at West End where we stopped at a kiosk to have a fresh coconut.  First, we drank the juice and then the kiosk’s owner split opened the fruit and we consumed it all.  We walked around, took some pictures and then found Jose, who took us back to the ship, just few miles away.

Once we arrived to our cabin we napped for a while, got dressed and went down to the dining room.  After dinner we joined the “Love & Marriage Game Show” that was as always very entertaining.

Day 7 – August 14^th, 2014

I woke up rather early as the captain promised an approach to the shores of Belize that involves some extra ordinary maneuvering.  It was amazing to be on top of the ship and watched how it made circles around the reef and safely arrives to a safe spot, away from the shore. 

Last night I read a bit about Belize and found out it was actually founded by former pirates.  Years later a group of British buccaneers decided it was more lucrative to harvest lumber out Belize’s wooded interior and hence the place grew dramatically, as the demand for its wood got higher and higher.  

Thousands of African slaves were brought in to float the logs and load the ships, and before long, the European population exploded as well.  The two groups and their descendants began to mix, ultimately creating the Creole culture as we see them today.

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Odie made a lot of research and found a company that will take us to the Mayan Ruins.

   

We disembarked at around 9:00, using the tenders.  Once on shore, Odie took upon himself to make sure that everything clicks.  He ran ahead of us to find the guide and we met him few minutes after. We were waiting for some other passengers and about an hour later we were on a bus that took us to the river banks.  

   

  

The trip took about an hour and once we arrived, (about 20 of us), a warm and tasty lunch was waiting for us, which included: Rice, beans, chicken, spicy onions, fried banana, melon and soft drinks.

    

We all embarked a nice motor-boat and made our 90 minutes journey, on the New River through the Lamanai Belize Jungle , to the world famous Mayan Ruins at Lamanai.  On our way we saw some exotic birds, turtles and hydrophilic iguanas.

Our guide gave us a brief description: The ruins once belonged to a sizable Mayan city in the Orange Walk District. "Lamanai" comes from the Maya term for "submerged crocodile", a nod to the toothy reptiles that live along the banks of the New River.  The ruins at Lamanai Belize are truly ancient. Archaeologists believe the Mayan site was of moderate size as early as 1500 BC (some 3,500 years ago!). However, some of its later structures were occupied as recently as the 18th century AD, signifying over 3200 years of occupation. Although the Spanish held considerable control over Lamanai by the 16th century, even establishing a Christian church near its center, a native rebellion eventually drove them out. Unlike other ancient ruins, much of the Lamanai Belize archaeological site was built in layers. Successive populations built upon the temples of their ancestors, instead of destroying them. Although hundreds of ruins are said to remain unexcavated in the nearby jungle, three of the most impressive temples have been renovated: the Jaguar Temple, named for its boxy jaguar decoration; the Mask Temple, adorned by a 13-foot stone mask of an ancient Maya king; and the High Temple, offering visitors a panoramic view from its summit. 

After the guide’s short lecture we got all excited, knowing that we were about to visit the famous temples!


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We first visited The Jaguar Temple, and saw a stepped-pyramid structure, with a temple on top.  Fronting a 100 yard-wide plaza, the temple was built in the 6th century AD and modified several times up to at least the 15th century – a fine example of the longevity of the Lamanai settlement. The stone patterning on the lowest-level portrays two cleverly designed jaguar faces, and hence the name of the temple. David, Odie, Joy, Sole and Orion all climbed the uneven steps and reach the summit. 


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We walked towards out 2^nd destination and on our way watched a pack of monkeys showing off their acrobatic talents from the top of the jungle’s trees.  We arrived to the High Temple a few minutes later, across a plaza shaded by trees; it is the highest at Lamanai, which rises 125 feet above the jungle canopy. Few large buildings in the Maya world were built as early as this one, which was initially constructed around 100 BC. This grand ceremonial temple was built from nothing on a site that had previously been residential, which indicated a dramatic surge in Lamanai's importance at the time. Once again, the younger group climbed to the summit and came back telling us about the fabulous panoramas over the rest of Lamanai, the New River Lagoon, and plains and forests stretching out on all sides.

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We walked a bit and arrived to the last structure: The Mask Temple.  The guide informed us that work was begun around 200 BC and the temple was modified several times up to 1300 AD. We saw a stylized mask of a man in a crocodile headdress designed on part of its face. Dating from about 400 AD, this is one of the finest big masks in the Maya World, and unusual in that it is made of limestone blocks rather than plaster. A similar mask is hidden beneath the facade on the northern side. Deep within this building, archaeologists found the tombs of a man adorned with shell and jade jewelry, and a woman from almost the same date. The pair is thought to be a succession of leaders – perhaps a husband and wife, or brother and sister.


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We returned to our boat and made the 90 minutes journey back to the shore where we used the bus to return us back to the city and to our beautiful ship.  We arrived at 5:00 PM, just in time!

  

After dinner I went to the theater to watch Orion & Nadav participating in the Kids’ Club Production of Pirates Night, which was entertaining. 

You are invited to watch a video by clicking on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0i_YVbNlm8

      

  

After the kids’ show we watched the production show Ballroom forever and then returned to our cabin.

Day 8 – August 15^th, 2014

 

After breakfast we disembarked.  The time was 9:00 and as we exited, we felt the heat and the humidity of Cozumel, Mexico.  The Allure of the Seas was docked next to our beautiful ship, which made our ship to look like a little boat, as the Allure is one of the largest vessel to sail on the oceans.

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 Our excursion for the day was to spend the morning and part of the afternoon with a private cook.  Odie made the reservations in advance and the group (except Gary, Elan and Nadav, who went swimming with the dolphins instead).

We took a taxi to the address that Odie provided and a few minutes we met Josephina.  We came early and Josephina suggested that we will walk for awhile and then meet her again at 11:00. 

We walked towards the sea shore and made some shopping.  I bought a pair of pants and a shirt as my jeans were soaked with sweat and my shirt was too heavy for this weather.

    

At around 11:00 we met Josephina and went with her to the local market where she bought all kind of ingredients to make us a traditional Mexican meal.  We tagged along and at some points were wondering around the stalls, loaded with local products.




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We returned to the house and Josephina explained to us what she is about to cook.  We sat around a huge table and helped her with the preparations.  The meal included salsa & tortilla chips, fresh guacamole, soup, meat, fish, beans, rice, vegetables, 3 different kinds of hot pepper sauce, home-made margarita, and ice cream for dessert.  A jag with fresh fruits juice was served as well.

The whole event took about 3.5 hours and it was AMAZING.  The food was tasty and the experience of helping to make it happened from scratch was one of the most exciting thing I have done in any of our journeys.

With our stomach filled with the good food we started our way back to the ship and arrived at 3:00.  The first thing on the agenda, after taking a needed shower to take off the sweat, was to nap. 

      

Tonight was a formal night and we all dressed for the occasion with our best cloths. 

Dinner today was fantastic as we were given a choice between lobster tails, crabs legs, prime ribs and veal.  I still don’t believe that after having full lunch we still had space for the food we ordered for dinner.

  

At the theater we watched The Texas Tenors - a trio of great singers that we first were introduced to us in America’s Got Talent show.  They were fantastic!

We returned to our cabin, put our swimming ware and headed to the Jacuzzi for a night dip.

Elan & Orion joined us at our cabin to spend the night with us.  It was fun!

Day 9 – August 16^th, 2014

We spent the last day of the cruise at sea.

After breakfast we met with Odie, Sole, Orion, Sharone, Ya’ara, and Nadav & Elan at the theater.  We were invited to the back stage tour.  An officer of the ship showed us around and explained how everything works. It was quite interesting to see the dressing rooms, costumes and accessories used by the entertainers.

We returned to our cabin and did the most unpleasant task when cruising: Packing!

  

After dinner we all went to the theater to watch the Farewell Showtime, followed up by the amazing juggler Billy Prudhomme and then went to the promenade to listen to some Jazz music.

Day 10 – August 17^th, 2014

We woke up at 7:00 and after breakfast we disembarked the ship for the last time.

Odie & I went to the parking lot to get the cars and at around 9:30 we were already driving to Houston International Airport. On the way we stopped at Starbucks.

We said our goodbyes to Odie, Joy and the kids and then boarded our Southwest flight to LAX.

D & D Limo was waiting for us in Los Angeles.

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