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Published: March 13th 2012
I’m sorry that I didn’t update our travel blog sooner. Traveling with Karen is much different than traveling with Al or Rick. She has been making me just relax and have a good time. I’m not the driver or captain on this trip. Also it is expensive to use the internet on the ship. ($0.75/Min.)
Friday and Saturday, February 24 and 25 On Amtrak
We had a pleasant trip on Amtrak. Papa Gerry and Eli gave us a ride to the Amtrak station in Wisconsin Dells. The train left at 12:10 PM. Gerry is taking over my duties of watching Eli and Jonah until Eric starts his vacation later today. Good luck, Gerry and Eric. We arrived in Chicago around 4:30PM. It was very windy and cold in the Windy City so we spent some time waiting at Union Station for our next train. We boarded our train,”The City of New Orleans”, at 8:00 PM and spent a long night trying to sleep in our coach seats. The seats have plenty of leg room and sort of recline so we actually did get a few hours of sleep. We got to New Orleans at 3:00 PM on
Saturday. I thought the most interesting part of the trip was when the train traveled alongside Lake Pontchartrain when arriving in New Orleans. We had a very nice hotel room thanks to Eric’s Choice Hotel points. Had dinner at Huck Finn’s in the French Quarter. I will try to include the video of the train trip in this blog.
Sunday, February 26 New Orleans
This is the big day! We took a taxi to the Port of New Orleans to check onto our ship; we and 1,950 other people. They were very efficient and in a half hour we were checked in and on the ship eating lunch. An hour later we ran into our old New Orleans friends, Larry and Carl. We have known Larry for 35 years from when he lived in the Green Bay area. Tim, another old friend from Green Bay, is also with them on this cruise. Larry has done this cruise many times before, so he is the tour leader and will see to it that we have a good time and not get lost. They had very good luck sneaking beer, wine and booze on the boat, so maybe
we will have a very good time.
The weather wasn’t the nicest when we left the Port of New Orleans; 55 degrees, windy and rainy. We started the trip down the Mississippi at 5:00PM. The Gulf of Mexico is about 100 miles down-river from New Orleans. This is Mississippi delta country. Since it was dark during most of the river trip all we saw were the lights of oil refineries, oil tankers and all the facilities that service the Gulf oil industry. It was midnight when we entered the Gulf of Mexico.
Monday, February 27 At sea in the Gulf of Mexico
Today we spent most of the day learning our way around the ship. The Norwegian Spirit is 882 feet long, 105 feet wide, has 13 decks and has a crew of 950 to transport, feed and entertain 1,950 people. The ship was built in 1998 and is the oldest in the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet, but it appears to in excellent condition. We are on the 11
th deck in an inside cabin. Our friends are on the same deck in an outside cabin with a balcony. (NICE) It is only a short walk
to the stern of the ship where we can go out and get some fresh air. The main buffet is located just one deck above us. It is open all day and most of the night. Only your appetite determines how much food you can eat since it is included in the price of the cruise. Control yourself, Wayne!
Tuesday February 28 Costa Maya, Mexico
The ship has a viewing area behind glass windows where you can look into the bridge; where they operate the ship from. Karen and I were in this area when we arrived at Costa Maya. The 1
st officer, a young Asian lady, looked to be in control of the ship when we came into the dock. It was a smooth landing considering we had 25 MPH winds blowing us away from the dock.
The Mexican Government built a long dock along a deserted beach about 100 miles South of Cozumel . There is very little here except beaches and tourist shops. There are tours you can take inland to see Mayan ruins and other sites. There is room at the dock for 5 cruise ships, but we are lucky. Our
ship is the only one at the dock. That means bargains are available at the tourist shops. We took a taxi for a short trip to one of the beaches where we found some shade and cheap margaritas. Karen and Wayne both took advantage of having massages on the beach. The price was right and we needed something besides margaritas to relax us. It was a very fun day and we managed to not miss the boat when it left at 5:00PM.
Wednesday, February 29
th Belize City, Belize
Another beautiful day in the Caribbean. Sunny and 80 degrees. Today we had to take a launch from the ship to land. Thanks to Larry who has visited Belize before we were able to get a reasonably priced tour of Belize City and Mayan Ruins. Altun Ha is one of the more recently discovered Mayan ruins and is one of the largest. It is about a 30 mile road trip through the jungle to get to the site. We enjoyed the trip very much as our photos indicate. It was Election Day in Belize and based on the number of banners promoting various politicians, they have a vigorous
democracy. Belize is the former British Honduras and received its independence in 1981. Their big referendum on the ballot is whether or not to allow offshore drilling along their coast. That would be a tough decision. The coast is very beautiful with its many reefs, but it sure looks like the economy of the country could us some cash.
Thursday, March 1 Roatan, Honduras
Roatan is a 27 mile long, 3 miles wide island off the coast of mainland Honduras. It still maintains its traditional look and feel even though a number of cruise ships stop there. We hired a taxi for the day and saw the sites and spent most of the day on another lovely beach at an area called West End. The water was refreshing and the sun was warm. Life is great!
Friday, March 2 Cozumel, Mexico
Cozumel must be the Wisconsin Dells of Mexico! Lots of toursists. We counted 8 cruise ships docked, including the largest cruise ship in the world. The “Allure of the Seas” is more the twice the size (gross tons) of our ship and holds over 4, 000 passengers. There are lots of shops and
places to take tours. Karen and I booked a 4 hour snorkeling and beach visit on a 65 ft. catamaran. The catamaran stopped near a reef and we, along with 100 other people, went snorkeling. I was not very impressed with the reef since we saw very few fish and little color. Karen referred to it as an underwater desert. I am sure there are nicer reefs in the area, but not convenient to visit. We had time to spend one hour on a private beach along with what seemed like half the passengers from the “Allure of the Seas”. We still had a good time. “Free beer and margaritas.”
Saturday, March 3 At sea in the Gulf of Mexico
While we sail back to New Orleans I can tell you about a few of the activities we have been engaged in on the ship. There has been plenty of time to sit around and do nothing except maybe read or doze off. Karen reads and I doze off. We don’t spend a lot of time in our cabin, except to sleep. There are plenty of public places inside and outside the ship to hang out.
One of our favorite places is the Galaxy Lounge which is on the 12
th deck at the bow. There are large windows and comfortable chairs where you can look out at the sea. In the evenings there are always good bands or orchestras playing with very good singers . We also enjoyed attended evening shows in the Stardust theater. Singers, dancers, a comedian, a magician and acrobats were part of the entertainment. We saw more shows in one week than we normally see in 2 years. Then there is the food. We ate our breakfast and lunch at the buffet and evening meal at one of two nice main dining rooms. There are 6 or 7 specialty restaurants aboard which cost extra to eat at. We found the food in the main dining rooms very much to our liking.
Sunday, March 4 New Orleans
When we woke up we were tied up to the dock in New Orleans. We disembarked and went through customs. It was a great cruise. We arrived at our hotel before we could check in. While we waited in the lobby, a mother and her daughter had their purses stolen while they
dozed on a couch. Karen and I were only 20 feet away and didn’t see a thing. Now I know why Karen’s purse is permanently attached to her body. After checking into our hotel we did some sightseeing. We visited the National Aquarium, where we got to see the colorful reef and fish that we had missed seeing in Cozumel. It is a great place to visit, but Sunday afternoon is a little crowded with kids that are Jonah and Eli’s age. We also went to see the movie “Hurricane on the Bayou” at the I-Max theater at the Aquarium. It was very appropriate to watch this in New Orleans. We ate at the Gumbo Shop in the French Quarter and walked down crowded Bourbon Street. Crowds on Sunday night?? I guess they like their bourbon here?
Monday, March 5 New Orleans
Another sunny warm day in New Orleans. We started our day out by walking the 8 blocks to the World War II museum. It’s a large museum with many displays from both theaters of the war. We watched a very good 4-D movie about the war. The 4 Ds must be “see, hear, feel
and smell” because we experienced them all. It was narrated by Tom Hanks. We managed to walk through the Pacific War when Larry called to ask if we wanted to go sailing. Well, I guess the war in Europe will have to wait until we visit New Orleans again. Larry has an Irwin Citation 34 which he keeps on Lake Pontchartrain. We didn’t have a lot of wind, but it was sunny and warm and we were sailing in March. It can’t get much better than that.
Tuesday and Wednesday, March 6 and 7 On Amtrak
We left New Orleans on Amtrak at 2:00 PM and arrived in Chicago at 8:00 AM the next morning. We didn’t get a lot of sleep, but we can catch up tomorrow. The train to Wisconsin Dells left a 2:30 PM and arrived at 6:00 PM. It was a great vacation, but it is always nice to get Home.
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Ann Dahmen
non-member comment
Welcome Home!
Welcome back, Wayne and Karen! Hopefully you are now catching up on some lost sleep, but oh so worth it! Wayne, you should be a travel writer - this was a fun way for me to "travel" in March, you did a great job describing your trip! We enjoyed it very much. I always wanted to travel by Amtrak and oh yes, take a cruise! This looked like a good one to be on. The pictures were beautiful. Now you can enjoy the spring weather we are having in Wisconsin! Take care, Ann