Amy, Anand and Rohan's Cruise

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4/8/12 - Galveston– We plan to start around 8 am but as usual are late. We leave the house at 8:30 am and start the long drive to Galveston. Rohan is his usual cooperative self, taking a nap most of the way. We stop at the rest stop in Columbus, TX and feed him and let him stretch his pudgy little legs. We reach Galveston at 1 pm and park at the EZ parking lot very close to the Cruise terminal. We catch the shuttle to the ship and are checked right away and are on the ship in less than 20 minutes. We love our room with a great balcony and lots of storage area to store Rohan’s stuff. We go to the Lido deck (Deck 10) and get some cheese pizza, the first food we had since the morning. After going back to the room and a quick feeding and diaper change for Rohan, we go to the Northern Lights dining hall for our ‘Choose your own time dining’. After a good dinner we retire to the room, unpack our bags and turn in early to bed.

4/9/12 – At Sea – We wake up around 8 am and after a bottle for Rohan go to the Southern Lights dining hall for our breakfast. After breakfast, we travel around the ship and check out the common areas. After a short nap for Rohan, we go to the Southern Lights dining hall for lunch and ask for a vegetarian lunch. After a short discussion with the wait staff, we are provided with one and are told that we will not have to worry about getting vegetarian lunches for the reminder of the cruise. We go back to the room and after a short nap get dressed for the formal dinner. We ask our stateroom steward Sri from Indonesia to take some pictures of us and then head to dinner. After dinner, we pose for some portrait photos and then take Rohan to Camp Carnival for babysitting while we catch a show and a comedy. We are sorely disappointed with the lack of quiet in the baby sitting room and vow to never use Carnival’s so called babysitting services again. After we return to the room we go to bed.

4/10/12 – Key West – Our ship docks in at Key West at 10 am. After a late breakfast in the Lido buffet and a late morning nap for Rohan, we get off the ship and walk thru the very touristy Mallory square area. We find a hop-on/hop-off trolley ride and buy the tickets. After a 20 minute wait, we board the trolley and take the ride to the Southernmost point in the Continental US. After posing for photos and some coconut water, we walk a few blocks to the Hemingway house. After a short visit there, where we saw the Hemingway cats (most of them have an extra toe), we catch the trolley back to the cruise terminal. We stop at a CVS Pharmacy on the way to stock up on some baby food and then head back to our ship. We order room service lunch and Anand starts feeling bad afterwards. We watch a beautiful sunset from our balcony and Anand goes to bed early while Amy goes out to catch a comedy show.

4/11/12 – Freeport – We wake up late and Anand is not feeling well this morning. After breakfast and a nap for the baby, we head out to the beach. Amy wanted to go to the Taino beach but we learn that taxis in the Bahamas are really vans that are shared to reduce the cost. Since there is no one to go to Taino, we would have to pay $55 instead of $10 to the Port Lucaya beach. So we go there. We walk thru the Port Lucaya market place shops selling touristy knick-knacks and make our way to the public beach. It is beautiful and the water is gorgeous. We get some lounge chairs and get Rohan ready for his first encounter with the sea. The water is cold and Rohan doesn’t like the feel of the sand on his feet and had enough with the beach. His idea of relaxing is to sleep on mommy for a bit and then sleeps all the way back to the cab. We get back to the ship, rest, have dinner at the Lido deck and watch a show each and head to bed.

4/12/12 – Nassau – Anand is feeling much better today and the family is taking a shore excursion with the cruise line since getting a day pass in the Atlantis resort on your own is supposed to be a big hassle. We get off the ship after breakfast and are given wrist bands for Atlantis. We see three other ships docked next to our ship – another Carnival ship, a Disney ship and a Norwegian ship. We are then escorted to the Harbor cruise boat which after a brief cruise takes us to Paradise Island, which is where Atlantis is located. The Atlantis tour includes the Dig, a reconstruction of how the ruins of the mystical city would’ve looked like with fishes and stingrays swimming all over the ruins, and the Aquarium. There is a huge group of tourists from the four cruise ships and the tour is hurried. So, we stop for lunch at Virgil’s BBQ and then return back to the dig a couple of hours later and find that the exhibit is much less crowded. After spending half an hour at the Dig, we take a cab back to the cruise terminal and do some shopping before we board the cruise ship. After a shower and dinner, Rohan and Amy, who is not feeling good go to bed while Anand goes and catches a couple of shows.

4/13/12 – At Sea – We wake up early at Rohan’s insistence and after breakfast at the Lido buffet, we check out the sports area on deck 12 which consists of water slides for kids and a miniature golf course. We play a round of golf under the weary eye of Rohan and then go back to the room for his nap time. While Amy and Rohan nap, Anand returns back to see an ice carving demonstration at the Beach pool and has lunch at the Indian fast food place, Tandoor. Anand and Rohan go to tea time at the Southern Lights restaurant and after an excellent tea and pastries return back to get ready for dinner. We eat dinner at the Lido buffet and then it is time for Rohan’s bath and bed. Anand goes back to catch a Showtime show and a Close up Magic show with two Indian magicians, who he finds out are from the place where he went to college. He has a nice conversation with them after the show.

4/14/12 – At Sea – Amy is feeling a little better today and the family has breakfast at the Southern Lights restaurant and then goes to a funny show called ‘Game of Love’. After Rohan’s nap, we put on our swim wear and go to the swimming pool where Rohan gets his feet wet and is very excited to see other kids running around the pool. He tries to crawl into the pool. After spending some time at the pool, we return back to the room and get ready for dinner. We start our packing right after Rohan goes to bed. It takes a couple of hours. In between Amy goes to watch a show called the ‘Gender Showdown’ while Anand watches two shows called ‘Carnivalaire’ and ‘Carnival Legends’ both of which prove to be disappointing. The bags are picked up from outside our room at 10:30 pm and we go to bed around midnight.

4/15/12 – Galveston – Our ship docks in Galveston at around 7 am and the debarkation starts. We are in group 26, which seems to be at the very end. We leave our room at 8:30 am and after breakfast in the Southern Lights restaurant, we go to the pool side theater and wait for our group to be called. Our group as we suspected was one before the last group to be called at around 10 am. We debark and find that there is a long wait to get a porter. After waiting around 25 minutes, we finally get a porter and then have to wait a while at the Customs and Immigration. We finally get out of the cruise terminal at 11 am and catch a shuttle to our car and start for home around 11:45 am. Rohan has a diaper leak and we stop at BabiesRUs to fix it. We eat at Chipotle and start the drive home around 1:30 pm. After a couple of stops at rest areas to feed Rohan, we reach home at 6:00 pm to find two clingy cats waiting for us. We unpack and then head to bed around 10:30 pm. Thus ends our cruise vacation.

For more photos, please click on this link

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