Updated Itinerary

It's 9:15pm and we are now sailing slowly out of Port of Houston.  The captain has notified us that there is a minor change in itinerary.  We'll have two sea days, Roatan, Belize, and then Cozumel with the last day at sea.  I actually prefer this new change with Coz at the end.  

That also means there's a great chance we'll be rocking and rolling for the next two days at sea.  BTW...our cabin is way forward just 10 cabins from the front of the ship.  Our first!  So, we'll definitely feel something.  

We have a new a new friend who joined us onboard.  What do you think we should call him?

I haven't checked out the Internet onboard.  Hopefully, I will have decent connection inside our cabin.  If not, there might be a few days of silence here on my blog.  

Stay tuned!

So Close Yet So Far

It's 4:38pm and we're standing in another line.  We're at Kemah Boardwalk waiting to get back on a bus.  The line is snake-like long.  When we walked to the back of the line, I figured we would make the 8th bus.  All is good!  The sun came out today.  The first time we've seen it since we've arrived.  It's a balmy 71 degrees!  

Princess has scheduled embarkation to start around 5:30pm.  We have priority boarding and we're already checked in.  That means when we get back to the terminal, we have one more line to stand in for security.  Then we can immediately board the ship.  

Why do we have to go through security again?  They want to check and see if any of us are bringing more than the required wine onboard.  lol!!!   

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I have to include a post about the events from this morning.   While hubby was lounging in our room, I had a wonderful time getting to know the Princess reps, Starlin and Brittany. 

Starling is from the Houston area.  She works for three cruise lines: Disney, Royal  Caribbean and now Princess.  Brittany recently graduated from University of Houston and is working for Princess.  

They shared with me the trials and tribulations starting when the CB first cruised back in November from Houston.  I shared with them our cruising experience from different ports.  

Starlin kept telling me she would really enjoy having me work with her.  

Hubby and I went to get lunch-to-go at the Phoenicia.  I grabbed some chocolates to give to the Princess gals.  

As we were riding the elevator down to check out, we ran into a group of fellow cruisers who ended up entertaining us.  We had a nice laugh all the way down to the lobby.  

We checked out and headed over to the lounge.  One of the ladies from the elevator ride came by and asked if we were on the same cruise.  That was the start of another non-stop laughter. 

As we were getting ready to board our bus, Starlin came over to give me a big hug!  This is what life is all about.  Meeting and making new friends along the way.  Touching people's lives.  This is one of the reasons why we enjoy cruising.  

Caribbean Princess Delayed

Last night I finished the major repacking of our 3 suitcases.  I was already tired from the day's events, but I knew it needed to be done.  That way I could enjoy the morning instead of rushing around.  

We had purchased the Princess pre-cruise hotel package which also included all the transfers.  

As per our Princess letter and a discussion with the on site Princess rep, we placed our luggage inside our room near the door...ready to be picked up by the Four Seasons bellman.  

We can now lounge around until we checkout around 11:30am and meet with our transfer group in the lobby.

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Update #1:  So, you're probably wondering about the title of my post.  Yesterday, I received an email from Princess about a delay in embarkation.  Apparently, there was an outbreak of Noro onboard.  They anticipate a delay of two hours in boarding so the crew can sanitize the whole ship.  

Update #2:  When I woke up this morning I checked the cruise cam (kroooz-cam.com) to see whether our ship, the Caribbean Princess, was docked.  We were welcomed with a nice gray picture.  That would be the fog!  

I checked the cruise threads and found a post from someone who is currently on the ship.  The CP had dropped anchor around 3:30am outside of Galveston in the Gulf.  Thick, thick fog!  The captain announced they would not be able to dock the CP until 11am.  

Normally the CP is suppose to dock around 7am.  My calculations show a minimum 4 hour delay in embarkation.  

I'm getting ready to head down to the lobby and find our Princess rep.  Just want to know if we can extend our stay in our room a bit longer.  

Will be back to post the progress of our adventure...stay tuned!  ;)

Update #3:  I met with our rep.  She had extended our stay in our room until 2pm. Sweet!  Instead of leaving around 12noon, we are now leaving at 2pm.  I checked the cruise cams and it looks like the CP might be moving towards land (Galveston).  

Another Day in Houston

After a night of much needed sleep we were both ready to do some exploring.  We headed west on Dallas St until we came to Main St.  Train tracks ran parallel to Main St.  We headed north along the tracks until we came across an entrance to the "tunnel".  Houston has underground tunnels that run between the tall buildings.   This explains why we didn't see crowds of office workers walking along the streets of downtown.  

We couldn't believe the number of eateries we came across while exploring the underground.  There were many shops ranging from chiropractor and eyewear to dry cleaning and banking establishments.  

After doing "a loop", we resurfaced onto the street level.  We continued walking north along Main St until we reached Texas St.  Instead of walking around aimlessly, we decided to head to the Aquarium.  

I had no idea what a treat this place would be:

An alligator resting on one of his turtle buddies

Colorful fish

A really cool fish tank that curves overhead

A sleepy anaconda

A cool round tank

We saw so many varieties of fish.  The coral was very much alive and colorful.  The tanks were beautifully done.  We could tell that the aquarium employees took great care of their facility.  

Toward the end of our tour we came across this exhibit:

Our next stop was to pet the stingrays:

Overall we had a fun day exploring downtown.  We managed to dodge the intermittent rain showers.  Now, it's time to repack our luggage for another adventure tomorrow....

Phoenicia Food Market

In my research of downtown Houston, I came across some interesting places to visit.  I also had an idea the downtown area is a bustling city during the week days and some evenings.   On the weekends?  Not so much.  

Our hotel, the Four Seasons, is located in the middle of things.  We are surrounded  by the Houston Convention Center, the Toyota Center, and the ball park is a few blocks down the road.  I'm sure when there are major sporting events or concerts, a lot of eating and shopping establishments are open.  

Diagonally across the street from our hotel is a gourmet market and cafe called Phoenicia Foods.  

Once we entered to market, we were delightfully surprised at the different foods they carried and the variety.  I would say half the store is comprised of homemade/prepared foods.  This makes a lot sense given the area this market supports...businesses and the people who work downtown.  

Here is a small selection of produce.  The beautiful colors caught my eye.  Look how fresh everything looks:

Here is the cooked/prepared foods.  We saw a lot of curried dishes.  They even made homemade hummus!

They had two "bar" areas.  One was of course for salads and the other was for olives:

Another food station where they have wraps and salads.  Check out the meats behind the worker:

There was also a pizza area.  We saw a lot of vegetarian varieties.  Next came the bakery section.  Of course I took a picture:

So...what do you think of this dessert called the Ultimate Chocolate Blackout?

It's a good thing my iPhone takes decent pictures.  Okay, enough of the food porn!  

Houston!

For our January vacation, Hubby and I always stay at a hotel near the airport. We never know what kind of weather we'll encounter and it's our way of de-compressing at the start of our trip.  Well that's our plan anyways.  

We've had a busy travel day and was extremely tired from the lack of sleep last night.  Our pre-vacation hotel room was located in the busiest part of the hallway.  As we were trying to sleep, we could hear the hallway conversations and I thought I heard a dog yapping.  Really?

Hubby and I haven't done a long flight in years.  Yes, we're spoiled with traveling to Florida.  Our flight to Houston was suppose to be 3 hours and 10 minutes long.  We flew into Houston 30 minutes early and arrived at 10:30am.  Yeah!  

We gathered our luggage and proceeded to look for our Princess rep.  We looked.  And looked.  He/she was nowhere to be found and I didn't have a local number to call.  I contacted my travel agent and she immediately got the ball rolling.  

One and a half hours later, we met up with Noma our Princess rep.  She was very apologetic and showed me her list.  We were scheduled to arrive at 5:30pm!  Someone in the Princess office made a mistake.  No biggie!  We were just glad to be in warmer weather and ready to start our vacation.  

To make up for their boo-boo, Princess hired a limo to take us to our next destination:  The Four Seasons Houston.  

Test Post From My iPhone

I just downloaded a blogging tool onto my iPhone.  That way I can take pictures from my iPhone and post them to my blog.  Another neat feature of this tool is  the ability to write my posts offline and post when I have Internet connection.  

I also have a portable bluetooth keyboard that I'm trying out.  Because of the small size, the keys are slightly off.  I have to reach to my far right to get to the small Shift key.  So far, everything seems to be working.  

The last of my gadgets are getting packed along with our toiletries.  Anything we forget, we'll pick up in Houston.  

I'll be back to post my initial thoughts and research on downtown Houston.  Stay tuned!

Packing For a Cruise

I have a long packing list just for cruising. Over the years it has been refined.  After each cruise, the list gets updated.  Clothes get worn out and replaced.  Gadgets get updated.  Items that were not used gets removed from the list.  

For this upcoming cruise, new clothing has been added to the list to accommodate the cooler weather.  Instead of leaving from Florida as we normally do, we'll be leaving from the Port of Houston.  

We are flying in two days before the cruise and staying in downtown Houston.  The weatherman is calling for chance of showers along with 60 degree weather.  This is our first trip to Houston and we plan on doing a lot of exploring and walking around.

I've been hanging out on CruiseCritic.com and reading the reviews for our cruise.  Many are saying that it's been chilly on the day of embarkation and the first day/night at sea.  We're adding pants to our list along with a lightweight rain jacket.  Just in case.

We're 90% packed.  I've gathered all our formal wear and arranged them into a lightweight garment bag that I can pack into our 3rd suitcase before we leave.  

Our snorkel gear is packed as well as our warm weather clothes and flip-flops.  Our toiletries will be the last items to pack.  

So far, the 3 pieces of luggage are wring in under 30lbs each.  Yes, I have digital scale to weigh the suitcases.  That will also get packed at the last minute.  

We'll both carry our backpacks which will be filled with gadgets!  I've loaded my Kindle HDX with lots of eBooks, movies, and games.  This will be my first cruise where my iPad will be staying behind.  That really says a lot about my lovely Kindle.  

I should weigh my backpack before I leave.  It's going to be loaded with my full frame camera with 24-120mm lens (plus my 60mm micro lens), 2-3 point & shoot cameras, batteries, media cards, and my MBPro.  The micro lens will be used to photograph the wonderful food onboard.  

Packing tips::

- For longer cruises, I will typically do a load or two of laundry onboard.  I bring softener sheets and dollar bills.  

- I bring a Belkin power outlet to simultaneously charge all our gadgets.  On the Princess ships there are two outlets located at the desk in each cabin.  Bringing our own gives us additional outlets plus it provides surge protection.  

- I print out our flight/pre-cruise information and cruise itinerary and place a copy in each of our luggage.  Just in case.

- I pack a mini-stapler so I can attach our paper printed cruise tags to our luggage the morning of our embarkation.  

- I pack over-the-counter medicine...ones that we frequently need and use at home.  On some islands it's hard to find common medicine let alone a drug store.  The ships carry a few things, but may not have the specific brand.  

- I pack plastic clothes line clips for hanging hand washed items in the bathroom.  

On our first two cruises I used to pack 2-3 months before our cruise.  Now, with our refined list I'll start two weeks before our trip.  

Picture of Geoff's Caye in Belize (2012):

Our Cruising Experience

We've been cruising with Princess for the last 10 years.  We haven't had the urge to cruise with another line.  We originally chose Princess for their itineraries.  Our first two cruises originated out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The next one was a 14-day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale where we literally didn't come back into Ft Lauderdale until the 14th day!  That was an amazing cruise and unfortunately Princess no longer does this type of itinerary.  We're glad to have experienced such a wonderful cruise.

Since we enjoyed our 14-day cruise so much, we went back to San Juan and did two 7-day cruises (back-to-back (B2B)).  One week we did the Southern Caribbean itinerary and the next week the Eastern Caribbean.  It was neat to do a "turnaround" in port and not have to change cabins.

As experienced cruisers, it's hard for us to cruise just 7-days on a ship.  Our vacation time feels too short.  Our minimum is now 10-days.  It's just the right amount of time though longer cruises are also ideal for us.

There were times when I did research itineraries from other cruise lines, but still came back and booked with Princess.  It just feels like being "home".

Princess at Grand Turk

Getting Ready for Another Cruise!

We're still in the Holiday spirit and at the same time getting ready for our next cruising adventure.

We will be on a 14-day adventure somewhere in the Caribbean.  A B2B cruise.  Fourteen days of fun in the sun!  

We haven't been on this particular Princess cruise ship before.  This will be our 5th Princess ship and our 10th Princess cruise!  We've already been on the Golden, Sea, Crown, and Emerald.  

We've been watching our ship cruising for the last few weeks.  There have been issues with the ship leaving and/or arriving on time from the port of origination.  It's the weather that's been playing havoc on the cruising schedule.  We're prepared...to have fun no matter what.  

We've decided to participate in formal nights and will have to pack our formal wear.  This will result in packing and bringing an additional suitcase.  Three in total.  Somehow we'll manage.

We haven't been to our destination city before.  A new adventure.  Many places to explore and many places to eat.  

Our list has been updated and I'm ready to start packing.  It's time to gather our snorkel gear and the rest of our cruising stuff.  

We'll post more about our cruise over the next few days!  Stay tuned!