Cruise 2011

We sailed out of New Orleans again but on a different ship this time...the Triumph. The Triumph is a bigger ship than any other that we have been on in the past, but I still have a soft spot for the Fantasy. The Fantasy is much easier to get around on and has recently been remodeled, including the amazing Water Works park on the back of the ship. The Triumph was, however, an amazing ship....very beautiful. It's always so exciting to arrive in New Orleans....knowing that we are almost to the ship. I love that first glance of the funnel...the first sight of the ship that we get. Finally, we get that first view of the ship sitting outside the cruise terminal waiting for us to board! The lines were a little slow this time, but we were on the ship before 1:00...just in time for lunch on the Lido Deck. We spent the rest of the day hanging out on the Lido and exploring the ship. Sail away was a little late, but it didn't matter....we were already on the ship. That first day is as good as a day at sea for me, even though we are at the terminal for half of the time and still on the Mississippi when we go to bed at night. The greatest thing is waking up on the first morning and looking out to get our first glance of the open water. We spent our first day at sea doing what we love to do on sea days...eating, enjoying the sun, and relaxing. We started out with the big breakfast, complete with made-your-way omelets. Afterwards, we changed into our swimsuits and found a spot on the Lido to spend a few hours. I love just lying there watching people and enjoying the music. We ended up by a nice, fun couple, so that was fun. We had lunch on the Lido then headed to the room to rest before it was time to get ready for formal night. I love dressing up for dinner, especially on formal night. I love walking down the promenade with Jeff and choosing which backdrops to have our pictures made in front of. One thing that I always look forward to on formal night is the pumpkin soup. As always, it did not disappoint me. They only serve it on formal night, and it's something that I only eat when we cruise. I guess I could try to make it, but I don't think it would be the same. We didn't stay dressed up for long after we ate. We always like to get comfortable before we go to the shows and all of the night time activities. We arrived in Progresso on Monday, Valentine's Day. We were so excited to be back there. It isn't a big port like Cozumel, but we have always had so fun there. We had plans to visit some more Mayan ruins but changed our minds at the last minute. We decided that we just wanted to hang out and shop there all day. We just didn't want to be on anyone's time schedule. I am so glad that we made this decision because the city has grown so much since last time we were there. Before, they only had one little flea market area to shop and not much else there to do. Now, they have booths and activities all along the beach area. We had so much fun just hanging out there all day. Also, the shopping is better and less expensive than in Cozumel. We did most of our shopping in Progresso. This was our first Valentine's Day cruise. We don't usually do a lot on Valentine's Day, besides the usually little gifts or cards for each other and the kids. It was nice, however, to play into the whole thing this year...dressing up and going to dinner together. All of the ladies were given a red rose during dinner, and everyone was served a chocolate heart-shaped dessert. This is what was waiting in our room when we got back after our evening activities.We arrived in Cozumel the next day, Tuesday, and once again changed our plans at the last minute. As we were walking to catch our cab, we decided to go to a beach that we'd heard about during dinner instead of Paradise Beach. Since we had been to Paradise beach before, we wanted to try a different one. The beach, to me, wasn't as good as paradise beach, but they did offer something that we had never done before...parasailing! We originally told the lady no, but she continued to come back by us until we had talked ourselves into it. I'm so glad that we did!! It was so much fun and so beautiful up there!! I did get sick on the boat ride back to the beach but was just glad that it didn't happen before we went up. I would have hated for that to have ruined such an amazing experience. After we finished parasailing, we left the beach and headed to town. We had lunch at a small place outside of town then spent the rest of our time shopping and just hanging out. I was so sad to leave Cozumel. Jeff and I both think that we would love to fly to Cozumel and do an all inclusive there for a few days. There's just so much to do and see and not enough time to do it all in just one day. Waiting for us when we got back to the room :).We spent our last sea day much like the first one....lying out on the Lido deck and relaxing. We watched an ice carving demo while we were out there. The main show for the last night of the cruise was "The Big Easy". I had heard that it was really good and didn't want to miss it. It was a show that featured different things having to do with New Orleans. It was as good as I expected it to be. As always, our cruise was amazing from beginning to end. Each cruise I think that the next one could never be better....each time it is. I love doing things as a whole family so much, but this time with just Jeff is so great...so needed. Thank you, Jeff, for a wonderful time...again!