bert425

You're 14. trust me, there are many other "classics" that you likely have not been exposed to, and should give a spin. just a handful of suggestions: "Tommy" the Who "Sgt. Pepper" the Beatles "Rumors" Fleetwood Mac "Destroyer" KISS "Let it Bleed" the Rolling Stones "IV" Led Zeppelin "Ten" Pearl Jam just to name a handful.

looks hella fun, and a good reason to go back to BGW for a return visit in 2018.

Seriously? Robb's site, his rules, he asked for no pics of this particular thing. Really. . what is so hard to understand about the rule? sheesh.

Initially that was kinda funny, as there are plenty of us gays among coaster/park fan circles... but dang, gridr is sleazy no matter how you look at it! OK, it's still funny nope you were correct, Grindr is sleazy. . . I don't begrudge those that use it, but nope, not for me!

Not mine, but found online some good footage of the slides. you can see why I referred to the Green Slide as "Disco Fabulous" [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

wow.. how nice to see this report. and what a beautiful setting near the water for the coaster. can't wait to see more!

those photos are spectacular. . . thanks for sharing. looks like you're having an amazing time, and so envious of your trip!

Thanks. i do wish Nick had felt better on most nights, so I didn't end up solo doing so many events . . .but is what it is. are y'all still considering CP to meet Bill & I ? . . .or is Michael not gonna be up for it?

I would have gone for the poutine fries too. . . glad to hear they were good!

cool to be able to see some of the La Nouba acts in such an intimate environment!

Day 7 (Sea Day) and Day 8 (disembark) On the final day, we both woke up by 9am, despite being able to sleep in. Although there wasn’t much on the agenda today – mainly we had used our OBC to book lunch at Sabor, the Mexican Upcharge restaurant with Anjeanne – we were up, so got out of the room and decided to go to Windjammer (for only the 2nd time for breakfast). We knew we had a big lunch in a few hours, so planned to eat light. That worked out fine, as with the previous breakfast experience at the buffet, the majority of the offerings were pretty disgusting. We ate fairly light, sticking to the pastry and fresh squeezed orange juice – which honestly is SO much better than what is offered for free, RCCL should be embarrassed by what they are serving for “free”. We ended up sitting at a table with some extra seats, and were happy to share with a group of younger (20’s) folks who asked could they sit with us and the table next to us. The younger group was quite entertaining, and we chatted for a while, as they asked us about our lanyards and Arno’s group. They seemed to be enjoying the cruise, but they commented how it looked like our group had been enjoying it more (yep, we had been)! After breakfast, we wandered down to the adult pool to see what was going on, as today was the “singlet ladies’ party, starting at noon. I had brought a leotard that would work as a singlet and had fully expected to participate, but I knew we had Noon lunch reservations, so weren’t gonna be able to do any swimming until after lunch. We still headed down that way, and spent a bit of time visiting with the folks that were out by the pool, before heading down to the Photo area, to purchase the couple of photos (the Hot Tub & the Belieze ones), and to wander the Promenade for a bit for Lattes, and to see if there was *anything* at all we were interested in from the shops, or the last day sales going on. Nope – we didn’t need watches, jewelry, alcohol, or any RCCL clothing. . so we still had quite a bit of OBC left. So we headed over to Schooner bar (across the hall from Sabor) and waited for Anjeanne to meet up with us for our reservations. We were seated pretty quickly, in a nice restaurant with an impressive mural going up one wall and all the way up the ceiling. . but no windows looking out at the ocean at all (odd). They came by with a cart, and made us some fresh guacamole (two versions: spicy for Anjeanne and I and mild for Nick). The Guac was very good. . .and then another cart came by and they made Anjeanne and I fresh Margaritas – mine was a spicy and sweet version. . also very good. We had mentioned to Gerald yesterday that we had reservations at Sabor for lunch, and invited him to join us with the assumption that we were a group of 3, so for sure there would be a 4th seat at the table not being used, so shouldn’t be an issue if he decided to meet us. He did show up, and sure enough, no issue seating him at the table with us. the group ordered a sampling of the Appetizers, and several options of the mains, and I wish I could say the food was ‘good’. . but it wasn’t. Others have had a better experience at Sabor, and I’ve seen raves about it – and yes, as noted the Guac and margaritas were great – but based on what we had? Food ranged from mediocre to terrible. I think Nick Is really the only one who “loved” his dish, he had the Cheese Quesadillas, and my Empanadas were acceptable (not blow me away good, but I finished them). .but Anjeanne ended up sending back her main, Gerald didn’t finish his man, and the sides were uniformly awful – either undercooked (the beans), underseasoned (the rice), or so overcooked that they were inedible (the “fries”, the fish tacos, the flautas, and the house made tortillas that if you didn’t eat immediately turned to concrete). The replacement dish they brought out for Anjeanne (the Red Snapper) was ok, she said, and they also brought out some sort of tacos that were decent but he didn’t’ tell us what they were – we all detected a bit of duck flavor, but when we asked after, were told they were chicken. That was some funky tasting chicken then! the Desert tray was also hit or miss, but the benefit there is that there were a lot of options so even tho some of it was only so-so (the flan, the bread pudding), the good stuff (the churros) counteracted that. Overall, if it hadn’t been the last day anyways? No way in hell would we have gone back there to eat again on the cruise. The saving grace was the company. . we had some wonderful conversations, and ended up hanging around the table talking for a long time among us, and were almost the last folks to leave from the lunch crowd. It was past 2pm by this point, so Nick and I headed up to the pool to check out the scene (with the intention of changing into the singlet and going swimming after). Apparently the Ship had moved far enough out of the Caribbean that the wind had turned a little chilly, and honestly, it was a bit too cold for us to want to swim. We looked and tho there were a few folks braving the singlets, we pussed out and just decided to blow off swimming, and to head back to the Casino for a few hours before the Farewell Meet up/ raffle. We still had over $100 bucks in OBC, so we traded it in at the casino for scratch offs, and we sat at the casino bar and scratched (and “won” a little bit.. something like $30). . . but it ate up a good chunk of time, and we had fun doing it. Not recalling what we did after this, but probably wandered Promenade or Schooners and visited with folks, and then it was time to go meet up for the final gathering. Tonight’s show, was one I wouldn’t have minded seeing, to be honest, “Saturday Night Fever” but the final meet up was at the same time as the earlier show, and the later show was when our dinner reservation was. . and you know by now how I feel about the buffet. . so we blew off this show too (minor complaint tho, if I really, really wanted to see it, I would have pushed to just eat at Windjammer Buffet and skipped the final MDR dinner) but we didn’t do that. . . . so in the end we really didn’t do any of the evening RCCL shows, but had a great time on the cruise anyways, and we DID see the Ice Skating show during an afternoon (and the shows I did peek in on, I was very underwhelmed anyways). Anyways, we showed up to the Star Lounge for the Farewell cocktails and raffle, and what’s funny is that I think this was really the 1st time we saw the whole group together. There were people at this meet up, that I had *not* seen the whole cruise (seriously). . . I mean, there’s no requirement that you do the “Arno” stuff when you cruise as part of his group, but it was so weird seeing some people on day 7, that I hadn’t seen yet! I guess you offer to give things away in a raffle, and folks are gonna show up We joined some of the folks that we had been talking to throughout the cruise, as well as some of the guys we had met the prior day at Cozumel beach party – including one guy with a fantastic beard, that the prior day he had let a little girl bead (Bo Derek style) on the beach. . >LOL. . but sadly, he didn’t keep it in for the final day. Despite not taking many pictures on this final day, I did have my phone with me for this gathering, and got some pics of the group spread out taking over the whole Star Lounge. Arno made a quick speech, and we all applauded and cheered. He really did a wonderful job, and he talked about his upcoming cruises (which I really want to do the one in 2018), and talked about the Disembarkation the next day (we weren’t to put our luggage in the hall, since we were riding buses back to Houston, we’d hand carry our own bags, and meet in Dining Room in the morning to Disembark as a group). Arno then drew tickets (to match what was laminated on the back of our Multipass badges) to give away OBC for next cruise, discounts on next cruise, and a free cruise. Spoiler - we didn’t win bupkis, but still had a fun time hoping to win. After another round of applause and a toast, the crowd dispersed to spend some time prior to dinner. We went back to the room and did the majority of the packing and filling out Customs forms, before we headed down to MDR at 8pm for the final sit down dinner with out table. This final night had Scallops on the apps menu, that were very good. Interestingly, we heard from Jeff (who went to the buffet for dinner) that they had Lobster tail on the buffet. Not that it would have convinced me to go up there, but still. . found it interesting. We took our time at dinner, and afterwards, headed to the Schooner bar for final evening of cocktails and visiting, before it was time to turn in and go to bed. . . since we had to get up in the morning and leave the ship : ( The ship was really chugging along too, we think the Captain was trying to beat a storm coming in from the gulf, so the ship was hauling and there was a lot of movement this night. Which made it a little hard to fall asleep, but we managed eventually. We got up a bit earlier than we had set up the wakeup call, but we had already pulled into Galveston (sad!), so took a couple of pics from our balcony, and then we headed with luggage down to our meeting place (1st floor MDR). There was a little miscommunication, as the crew directed us to join the long line of folks that were self disembarking, so we stretched back all the way thru the casino (but at least we had places to sit at the slot machines) while we waited for the line to move, and once they started letting folks off, we were allowed to move into the MDR to wait for a little bit before Arno flagged the group that it was time to leave. We headed out down the gangplank and towards customs. . and just before we got to Customs, there was the Cruise Director waving at everyone and thanking us for cruising with RCCL – as I may have mentioned earlier, this is the first time he bothered to acknowledge our group on this cruise. I absolutely *should* have said something to him when we passed, as it really did annoy the crap out of me that he didn’t even bother to come greet our group at any of our gatherings, or at least say hello.. .but here he was waving goodbye? Screw him. anyways, since we had our luggage with us, it moved relatively quickly, and we made it thru customs, and out to where we were supposed to meet the buses (prepaid for), 2 buses going to Houston Intercontinental Airport), and 1 bus going to Hilton Americas back in Houston. Here’s where we hit a bit of F-ery.. although absolutely NOT Arno’s fault. The driver of the bus going back to Houston pulled up, and demanded that Arno supply him an extra $60 for parking at the port. Arno told him that was not in the contract and refused to pay him, so the driver said he wasn’t allowed to part without an open slot, and he would go around and come back. Meanwhile the other 2 buses came in, found slots, loaded up and the two groups going to Intercontinental headed off. About 40 minutes passed and the bus hadn’t come back for us yet, and folks were starting to get annoyed/concerned. Arno was contacted and he called the bus company, and they were unable to get hold of the driver. He refused to pick up the calls and no one could contact him (and remember, it was Sunday morning. . . ). After several back and forths, and promises the bus was coming back, and broken promises, and a couple of hours (Seriously) we got the message that the bus was *not* coming back, and that Arno was very sorry, and that we had to find our own way back to Houston and please keep receipts and Arno would reimburse. I should note here too, that RCCL and the Galveston Port people were spectacularly unhelpful. . Not only could they not advise on anything, nor contact anyone, nor let us know if there was ANY way to contact transportation for a large group from the port without it being pre-arranged – but they ALSO closed up shop and all disappeared from the Bus Pick up area, about 2 hours after disembarkation, and went over to the side for folks coming for the next cruise embarkation. That I found very annoying. Folks started to scatter at his point, and some went and joined the long line of people waiting for Taxis, while others starting cutting deals with the car services that were dropping people off (FYI, Galveston doesn’t have Uber). . . . some folks climbed into a Limo and took a limo back to Houston .. LOL I called Dad and told him what was going on, but wasn’t going to ask him to come down to Galveston to pick us up – traffic had started getting bad as people were arriving for the next cruise, he’s 80, and he’s still grieving over Mom,. . so no way was I going to ask him to drive. We lucked out and happened to be standing next to Esteban & his hubby, Darryl, who are tech-savvy, and were going to Hobby Airport (which happens to be fairly close to my Dad’s house). . and Darryl was able to book a ride via “Come Get Me” and we joined them going to Hobby Airport. Darryl paid for all of us, and Arno will reimburse him. Once we got to Hobby, we wished Darryl/Esteban a safe flight, and then we made our way down to baggage claim and I booked us on Super-Shuttle to get us to Dad’s house. (we won’t be reimbursed for that, but we were planning on taking a taxi from the Hotel to Dad’s anyways. . so no worries). Of course, we really hadn’t eaten all day. . . no breakfast in MDR, and we had gone right there from room. So all we had munched on was the remaining popcorn that had been in Arno’s goodie bags. So when we finally pulled up at Dad’s, we dumped luggage inside, and we almost immediately hopped in the car and we went to Five Guys for burgers/fries. (and yeah, it put Johnny Rocket’s to shame. . LOL). That’s really the end of the report. . . we spent the night in Houston visiting w/ Dad and telling him all about the trip – he seemed very happy to see the pics of everyone wearing Mom’s hats. So we went to bed on a very good note. The next morning, we had breakfast with him, before heading back to Austin. . and along the way I said to Nick, “I’m not feeling so hot”. . .and by the evening I had come down with the “Cruise Crud” that hit most of the folks we travelled with. Luckily, I didn’t go back to work until Thursday, so although the “Cruise Crud” lasted about 4 days, I never had to miss any work (just worked from home on Thurs/Fri), and never went to the Doctor. . . just let it blow thru my system. Overall, a wonderful trip, and I look forward to the next Cruise Adventure. I enjoyed writing this up.. hope everyone enjoyed reading it and seeing the pics! bert Waiting for Nick to get dressed to go to Windjammer for Breakfast (yuck). realized i hadn't posted a pic of the 5 rooms with the dividers open. . so stepped down to Marce/Neal's room and took a pic looking back. then went down to Robbie/Tim's room and took a pic looking forwards. It was nice having such a long balcony. Up at the pool. . the sun was out, but it was chilly breeze I didn't get many/any pics of the Singlets, but Mark was participating, and I got his OK to use this in my report (love the face he's making). Pic by David Ham Farewell cocktails. . look at all dem bears! Some of whom we hadn't seen the whole cruise. too bad he took out the Bo Derek braids from his beard, they were adorable. awwww Arno doing his speech Arno doing his speech Marce dressed for last evening dinner (she brought different dresses for each night) big red doggie. . not really sure why. .but noticed him every night, so finally took a pic. from our balcony. . back in Galveston Back in Galveston Looking back at the ship, from where the bus was *supposed* to pick us up. a very confused "Yellow" cab.

Considering Skyscreamer, the Oil Derek and Titan are closed?. .yeah, likely high winds. no idea on JRS tho

oh, it was. . . lots of drinks, parties, dancing, and just all around fun. by the way, here's a pic of the stinker that cost us over $1100 (the bill WAS almost $1400 from the vet, and we went and discussed it with them, since we *had* checked do not treat until contacting us). At least they were willing to waive some of the fees. . sheesh.

how has no one posted this yet?? [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

I do try not to be political. . but I'm sorry, THIS is funny

I got a survey from them yesterday all about the games.. and they asked about a couple of specific games, with options to answer such as "I've never seen something like this in a park before" so maybe they are talking games, rather than rides?

Day 6 (Cozumel) For the last port, we actually had a meet up at a sensible 9:30 (on the dock even), so there was no reason to get up early. But as usual, when on vacation, I was up pretty early, and was out on the balcony as we started to pull into the port – alongside 3 other ships that were already docked. and when I say “along side”, I mean really/really along side – we were so close to the Celebrity ship, we could see into the rooms easily, although there was no reason to look into the rooms, since almost all of the passengers seemed to be sitting out on their balconies staring at us as we pulled into the dock (in robes, that WE didn’t get, as we only had balcony cabin, not a suite..sheesh, RCCL, really?). Luckily, we had pants on, because yeah, they all seemed to be trying to get a peek at what was going on over on our ship. . . There was also some time-change screwery going on, that even tho we gained an hour when we pulled into Cozumel, the ship asked everyone to stay on ship time, which was an hour behind. . so that seemed to have messed up a lot of people in terms of waking up. For sure, there were way more people down in the MDR for breakfast this day than any other time we went. Nick was kind of awake, and was feeling pretty good, considering how much walking we had done yesterday at the ruins. . but him turning in early-ish had helped a lot and he woke up feeling OK. So I got him to go down to MDR, and we bumped into Adric in the hall who joined us for breakfast - where once again my eggs benedict were overcooked. Then we headed to get our Vanilla Mocha Lattes, and back up to the room to change for the Cozumel excursion (a “beach party”). . . . We were still well over an hour before it was time to meet up, but decided that we’d go ashore and do some shopping for a while before we had to meet up. Even at the early hour, there were already people drinking at the Senor Frog’s on the dock (I think that’s what it’s called), but we bypassed that, other than posing w/ some pics of the Liberty behind us, and decided to do a bit of shopping for Magnets and such. Now remember at the very start of this trip report, we dropped the dog, Roxxi, off for Medical boarding? (she’s diabetic and needs insulin shots twice a day (21 units each), as well as *completely* blind, and needs 3 different eyedrops each day (to keep the swelling/glaucoma in check). She’s going deaf in her right ear. . . She also has a number of tumors (we call her “lumpy” sometimes) which we’ve never had biopsied, as we don’t plan to treat them as long as her quality of life is good – which it really is still, she loves her walks (tho I walk her on a short leash so she doesn’t trip on curbs or sidewalk uneven-ness) she plays with her squeaky toys (tho when she flings them she can’t find them and runs back to her box to get more. . so we end up with squeaky-apocolypse on the living room floor if she’s been playful that day), and she still eats and poops with regularity.. she’s adjusted to the blindness/deafness and has a good quality of life still. So when we dropped her off, we gave them Nick’s number, since his phone is international, and mine is not (so mine was basically just a camera for the trip – which is why it was frustrating for Nick that he couldn’t find me sometimes when he turned in early). Anyways.. apparently Nick had (for some reason) turned his phone OFF while we were at sea, and so when we got ashore at Cozumel, he turned it on and had 5 missed calls, and a voicemail from an Austin number. He mentioned to me the calls, and asked “what is the vet’s number?”. .and I recognized it as soon as he read off the number. So I stepped out of the store we were in, and listened to the voicemail, and immediately called the Vet back, speaking to Roxxi’s “regular” vet, since the one who had called multiple times (Dr. Hopper) was a doctor at this clinic whom we hadn’t used in years, switching to Dr. Schubert since she’s always in on the Wed or Friday when we drop Roxxi off for Glucose Curves, check ups, etc. . . . Dr. Schubert told me that Roxxi hadn’t been eating (she’s usually a bit finicky when we board her) and when she did she was throwing up. . and that concerned them, since they couldn’t give her the insulin if she didn’t eat. I told Dr. Schubert that why didn’t they just let her re-eat what she threw up (ew. .but she’s a dog, she licks her butt), and that way the food ends up in her regardless. . .and she told me that’s what they did. But they were worried that she also seemed to be having trouble peeing. . and that they had tried to call us, but couldn’t get hold of us (since Monday, and this was Friday), so they had run cultures, and started her on antibiotics. Dr. Schubert said she was doing much, much better, and that we shouldn’t worry and enjoy the rest of the cruise. We hung up the phone, and I said to Nick, THAT is going to be expensive, even tho we had checked the box on the paperwork to “do not treat unless you contact us first” but there was nothing we could do about it now, and at least she was doing better. So we continued shopping and taking a few more pictures. I got a Day of the Dead magnet for a friend, and a magnet of a monkey masturbating for us (because, why not? It’s Cozumel!. . LOL), and then also bought a T-shirt, and Nick ended up buying a Texans (football team) shoulder bag, that he wasn’t intending to buy, but the cart-guy kept dropping the price, and he got it for something like $20, marked down from $38. . in the port shopping area too! I was shocked they lowered the price like that right on the docks, basically. After shopping a bit more it was time to meet under one of the big Palapas for our excursion. We didn’t know much about it, other than it was a “beach party” with a “semi private” beach for our group. It turned out it was at a pretty well known Tourist spot called “Playa Mia”. . . that bills itself as “Grand Beach and Water Park” and it was only about 15 minutes away from the port. It actually was way better than I had been expecting from the excursion, as although the place is rather large (with several large pools, some waterslides, food pavilions, bars, watercraft rentals, a shopping center area, and a large beachfront with chairs/umbrellas), the resort had cordoned off a separate area of the beach just for our group, and set up a separate buffet and bar for us under large tents that also had quite a bit of seating. All food, drink, and most of the activities were included for our group. The separate section was great -- It was very, very nice, and we didn’t have to mingle with all the other guests of the resort, unless we wanted to. The only down-side was that the water near our portion of the beach was very, very rocky, and I wish I had brought my aqua-shoes with me on the trip. . but that’s a minor thing. The water was a little chilly, but very refreshing, and I actually spent quite a bit of time in the ocean bobbing, and visiting with others from our group. . . tho I didn’t do any of the “floating waterpark”.. several of our group did go put on the life vests and play on the water trampolines, and slides anchored off shore, while others paid the slight up-charge and jet-skied or parasailed. We, for the most part, stayed in the cordoned off section for our group, where we all had loungers (plenty available for us), and everyone got giant umbrellas too!. I did go with Jeff over to the waterslides, and we rode those, which were very fun and not too crowded, since they were tucked back in a corner behind the main pool, away from the ocean. Had a great time . . think we were there about 5 hours? I drank MANY of the (weak) strawberry margaritas – but hey, if you drink enough of them you still feel it a bit, and partook in the buffet, with most of the food of a better quality than we had been seeing on the ship! But a traditional Mexican buffet with lasagna on it?? . .yeah, passed on that, but otherwise the food was really good in particular the Flautas, and the fajita meat -- and they replaced it with fresh as soon as the bins started to get low, so very good service here and the food remained fresh and pretty dang good. All too soon, it was time to start heading back to the buses. Several folks stopped in at the shops that you pass thru on the way out of the park, and we went into the Chocolate shop (free samples!) on the way out. We didn’t’ stay too long, as the display of chocolate soaps got to me (I always brought Mom soaps as a gift from any trip we went on), and I had to get out of there before I was a giant mess. . heck, I’m tearing up a bit now, just remembering. Upside tho?. . I bought no chocolate, since we got out of there so quickly, although the couple of sample pieces I had were tasty. Here’s the website for the place if you wanna look at pictures of it, since the only pics I took were from our “semi-private” area, which isn’t really on their site. https://www.playamia.com/ a quick bus ride back to the ship, with time to stop at the port stores and pick up a couple more things (a Cozumel Tank-top for me, and a Corona T-shirt/Cap combo for Nick), and we were back in line to reboard the Liberty. We had some nice conversations with folks around us (again, people we really had not seen on the ship the whole trip thus far) as they asked us about the group, since they had seen us around the ship. We went up to the room to relax for a bit and I looked at the Cruise Compass and noticed the waterslides on the ship were open while we were still in port. .and we hadn’t even been up to that area yet, and it was day 6! It was still pretty early, and we were still in swimsuits, so I talked Nick into going up to the pool-decks, and yep, lots of the bears were already back out at the pool. We walked to the back of the ship, and since Nick wasn’t interested in the slides, I went ahead and rode them alone. The Orange slide wasn’t really anything special. .it had clear portions in the slide, so the sunlight came thru and made patterns while you went down. . but the Green slide? Wow.. disco fabulous!. . this sucker had L.E.D. lights inside the enclosed tube, and was super cool, and super fun! I recommend taking a spin on Green if you ever find yourself on the Liberty. We hung out and watched the people do the Flowrider while I drip dried (no thank you. . looked like a high-powered enema to me, every time someone fell off the board!), and I didn’t bother doing the other “slide” that required two people to share a tube (since Nick didn’t want to ride it). . . we walked back to the pool, and peeked at “Sprinkles”. .which everyone seems to rave about, but I don’t’ get it. It’s basically soft serve ice-cream in a cone. . and they don’t even have toppings! Certainly no “sprinkles”. . .so yeah, I never had the free ice cream while on Liberty After visiting at the pool for a bit, it was time to go shower and change for dinner, it was 2nd Formal night. I had gotten a little sunburned – silly me hadn’t put on any sunscreen after we got back to the ship, so I was out with no sunscreen at the pool/waterslides, so really wasn’t feeling like putting on heavy dress-up, but luckily, I had packed a short-sleeve shirt, and a clip tie (which lasted until we were seated I the dining room, and then the tie ended up clipped to my shirt pocket – hey, technically, I was still wearing the tie!). We stopped at the Schooner’s Bar, and helped with the trivia (themed to disco tonight), and then headed to the Main Dining Room. It was lobster night, and tho not the greatest quality lobster (the full lobster I had upgraded to the night before since we had OBC still, was a beautiful Maine Lobster, these were. . .um. . not). But still, we were encouraged to order multiple tails, and so we did, and took our time enjoying dinner, and eating way too much, again. Nick was starting to feel a little worn out, but tonight was the 5th Element/80’s Disco party, and since he had missed the white party, I wanted him to come with to the 5th Element party, even if just for a little while. We had bought “Diva Plavalaguna galactic Tour” t-shirts to wear, and he hadn’t gotten to wear his White Party outfit, so I really wanted him to come. He reluctantly agreed, and we got dressed and headed down to Studio B for the 5th Element/80’s disco party. I may have noted somewhere earlier, but tonight the ship was having a 70’s disco party on the Promenade (that apparently lasted about 45 minutes. .tho I never really saw it) . . . we heard some of it as we were headed down to our party, and yeah, as had been the case with the trivia, it sounded like all they had was the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack. But I do hope the folks that attended had fun regardless . DJ Marcos was playing great stuff, and by now the ship “knew” and they had a bar set up on the dance floor, as well as several around Studio B. Nick sat in the seats near the top, and only hung out for about 20 minutes, since he felt that he was “cramping” me, but causing me to stay up there with him, instead of being down on the floor with everyone else, and dancing. It was early and I was tired, but I really didn’t mind staying with Nick, tho after I ran off a few times to get pictures of folks coming in costume, I think he just felt bad I was staying with him, so he said his goodnights, and went up to the cabin, while I joined the Canadians down on the dance floor. I honestly don’t remember how long we stayed at the party, it ran for sure past 1am. . but I knew we could sleep in the next day, the final Sea Day, and there wasn’t really anything planned for the morning, so I recall dancing for a bit, then wandering up the mostly deserted Promenade taking a couple of pictures, as I made my way back to the room, to conk out after a very full and busy day. Next: Day 7, final Sea Day. waking up as we pull into Cozumel. . and several other ships already docked! wow. . we're gonna be CLOSE to this Celebrity ship you can see it outside the windows of the MDR. . . I realized i had never gotten a picture of the MDR, so stopped to take some looking up. Our group was the whole left 1/2 of the top floor for dinner seating at 8pm. on the dock, looking back at Liberty Nick in front of Senor Frogs with an egg. . no, I'm not sure why there's an egg there. Me with the egg. Smiling, as he hadn't turned on his cellular data yet, so we didn't know about the missed calls from the vet yet. Stripper missus frog, in the shopping area. I'm sure no one has ever taken a picture like this. . . is it assault if it's a statue? and.. . you know. . an anthropomorphic frog? settling in at Playa Mia, in our roped off section with lots of chairs and umbrellas Nick sunning (under the umbrella) beautiful sand beach, and very well organized in our special section. Bears on the Beach! Selfie before I get into the water. Ricky and his Mom, Marg Bears on the Beach! those blue towels are the ones that Arno gave us all in our goodie bags. Nice size, and very comfortable. Our section was separate from the main food pavilion (you can see it in the background of this pic. . looks like tentts) But we didn't have to go to the main pavilion. .they set up a huge tent area with seating and bar, and buffet just for us. Robbie's happy swimsuit View up the beach (the main section of the resort is behind me, so this was the non-populated view up the beach) With the fairly weak Strawberry Margaritas but they were "free" and if you drank enough of them, you didn't mind they were slightly weak. Eric in the food tent Brian and hubby in the food tent More of our section looking towards the main resort it's a nipple. on a bear. on a beach. in Cozumel. Looking out at the "floating" waterpark that's part of Playa Mia, and someone parasailing. aww.. time to go?? Yeah.. we've got to head back to the ship. . . because after spending time at the pool and waterslides, it's time to leave Cozumel and head back to Galveston. Leaving Cozumel Nick taking a stealth pic of me watching us pull away (and making a face) all dressed up for dinner (and blocking the staircase to take a pic). .but damn, we look good, even with a clip on tie. Awww AWWWWWWw (and the elderly couple coming down the stairs told us what a cute couple we are). . . 13 years as of Jan. Me at the 5th Element Party with Diva Plavalaguna, in my "tour T-shirt" Me at the 5th Element Party with Diva Plavalaguna, in my "tour T-shirt" Ruby Rhod (s) with a bandage Lee-Loo Ruby Rhod and Lee-Loo better pic VIP Stewardesses! VIP Stewardesses! Most of those who came in costume, group shot before the party really got hopping. Diva guard, and Baby Ray! having fun at the 5th Element party having fun at the 5th Element party having fun at the 5th Element party (one of the best pics of me from the party. . photo from J Alfonso Espinoza) Anjeanne and Marce at the party, resting Deserted Promenade. . . but I remembered I never got a pic of the cows! Deserted Promenade a monkey/sloth? . . .one of the best ones Arlene did!

was waiting for the "got any pictures of the Joker???" post. someone must be taking a nap.

yep. .it tried to kill me. one and done! (but I'm excited for several of the coasters at CP)

the whole "hanging out over open air" thing.

Bill.. remember this for me! Bert based on what you thought of Skyrush just follow the seatbelt trick - keep the belt tight and the lapbar loose, and you'll be fine. Yeah. . I HATED Skyrush, and am wondering how i''m going to feel about Gatekeeper. I'm way more often a 1-and-done coaster guy, but since we're going for Coastermania, gonna try to do as many rerides on things as Bill wants to (and I can tolerate)

Bill.. remember this for me!

Hope you get to do it, now that Michael is on the mend. I'm surprised Viking has to be booked so early. . I know most "big" cruise-lines, you can book up until near last minute (I have a friend who lives in Atlanta, and makes the trip down to Ft. Lauderdale every couple of months to grab great deals on last minute bookings when the drop the prices to fill the cabins). We only booked so far in advance this time, since we were going with Arno's group.. . and actually, we need to get on it for booking with him for the 2018 cruise!

it's a pretty good size. We spent over an hour there, and could have taken a few hours longer if time allowed. here's the wiki write up on it, it gives some more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahal_Pech

absolutely loved "Woodstock Express" at King's Dominion, and could have marathon ed that all day!