We recently took a cruise out of Galveston to the Mexican Caribbean. We were joined by two other couples who are friends from Island Presbyterian Church, Bette and Jim and Syrena and Gene. Here we are on Sunday right after we boarded.
From let to right that’s Wayne, Jim, Gene, Bette, Syrena, and me.
This is the view from the hallway outside our room looking at the the Grand Promenade one floor below us.
The first full day was an at sea day so we checked out the Grand Promenade and all the shops. Here are Syrena and Bette resting up from shopping.
And here is Gene taking pictures. I’ll post some of his later when I get them.
Monday night was formal night. Here we are in our formal attire:
Marynelle and Wayne
Syrena and Gene
Jim and Bette
We were seated on the main floor of the three story dinning room. After dinner we went to a show in the La Scala Theatre. It was a production number called Music in Motion.
Our Steward left us a towel elephant on the bed.
Day three was spent in Cozumel. Bette and Jim went to Tulum. Gene was supposed to do a cooking class but that’s another story. Syrena and I went shopping, and Wayne stayed on the ship. Gene join Syrena and me for lunch and a little more shopping. All of the shopping is located along a street that faces the ocean.
Here is a view of our ship along side a much smaller ship.
That night we got a puppy dog on our bed.
Day four was spent in Grand Cayman. We had to take a tender in. This is our ship from the tender.
Wayne, Jim, Bette, Gene, and Syrena went shopping. I went on a Dolphin Discovery/Turtle Farm shore excursion. This is one thing that has always been on my “Bucket List." The first thing that happened was the obligatory pictures with the dolphins.
After the pictures we swam out into deep water and took turns having the dolphin pull us as he swam on his back and we held onto his flippers and then on a bogie board as he pushed us across the water fast.
The turtle farm was across the street from the Dolphin Exploration place so I walked across the street to look at it.
They serve as a breeding facility for two types of see turtles.
You can even get up close and personal with the turtles.
There are also Iguanas roaming around the facility.
Here are the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles like the ones we get on Padre Island.
This was a very pretty house on the grounds of the turtle facility.
This Iguana posed for me.
I still had some time before the bus was ready to leave so I went back to the Dolphin facility and watched our trainer work with the dolphins
We had been unable to dock at Georgetown this morning and these waves give you an indication of why not.
That night for dinner we began with an onion tart. It was so pretty I had to take a picture of it.
After dinner we went to see the Ice Odyssey Showtime in Studio B.
There were two sets of pairs skaters and multiple single skaters. 
There was even audience participation.
These are multiple hoola hoops that this woman is skating with.
Today was our Twentieth Wedding Anniversary and Wayne had these beautiful roses delivered to our table at dinner.
Tonight we got a towel penguin.
Day five took us to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Here are Jim and Bette at breakfast.
And here are Gene and Wayne.
The six of us signed up to go to the Appleton Plantation and Rum Distillery. The brochure said it was a 90 minute ride through the country to the plantation. It was really at least two hours and maybe more. The roads were curvy, narrow, up and down, and not so great but we did see the country side. There were orange orchards;
Large plantation houses;
Goats;
Mountains;
We finally arrived at our destination.
After a rum punch, they took us on a tour of the rum making process. This is a sugarcane press that they used before modernization came along. The cane was fed into the press and the donkey turned the wheel.
The remains of the sugarcane stalk provided food for the donkey.
This is more modern machinery to do the same job.
This is the distillery building that we toured. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside.
The grounds were very pretty. This is an old waterwheel.
There were peacocks roaming the grounds. 
This one spread his tail a little for us.
I think this is supposed to be a representation of the entire distillery process as it was done prior to modern machinery.
After the tour they fed us lunch and then we began the long trip back to the dock.
That night in the dinning room the waiters sang for us.
I think this is two swans necking.
Day six was an at sea day terminating in a formal dinner. This was our waiter showing Gene the wine selection for the evening.
Here is a better picture of Syrena and Gene. Notice his fun meter. Gene and Syrena have the patent on Fun Meters and when we cruise he puts “Friends That Cruise” on the meters and we all wear them and pass them out all over the ship.
Here are Jim and Bette.
And here are Wayne and me.
Our waiters performed again tonight.
We got our waiter to take a picture of the six of us together.
The show that night was Broadway Rhythm and Rhyme. Another production number.
Our towel that night was a rabbit.
Day seven was another sea day. The buffet that day had ice and melon sculptures for us to enjoy.
There were three watermelon sculptures:
The horse sculpture rotated and was lit from below.
This is looking down from the 12th floor.
Our waiters sang a farewell song to us.
Our entertainment on the last night included comedy juggling as well as the Royal Caribbean singers.
Sunday we disembarked the ship and headed to Nola’s to pick up “Trouble.”
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