Bonney's
Vacation Sagas

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I'll Be There for You

I'll be there for you
when the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
'cause you're there for me too...

Another day at sea gave us time to rest and start packing our bags that would be collected at midnight. We had time to explore parts of the ship that had thus far not been visited. Patsy, Rich ad I spent more time at the pool. What's a little more sun when there's plenty of recuperation time at home? Lesley took advantage of the last day in the casino and Rich left early to check his tickets on some door prize drawings. Randy wandered by when Lesley returned, so we all took a break for hamburgers and pizza.

Carnival whale tail.	Carnival whale tail.

Bonney and Patsy gossip about everyone who didn't come on the cruise.

The sun set on our final evening at sea.

Packing is another challenge. A key strategy if you plan to be out past midnight is to wear something that will fit in the baggage you carry off the ship. By the time, most people donned previously worn outfits to our final supper. This is also when you have to be really careful to leave out all the morning necessities to pack in a bag that you'll carry. You must also remember not to pack your passport or they won't let you off the ship.

Our entertainment between the main course and dessert was a farewell song from the staff. Afterward, it was a desperate rush back to the casino for Olga and Lesley. I think I collapsed sometime around 2:00 AM.

Our ship arrived in Galveston at 8:00 AM.

The night before when we were packing and putting our luggage outside our door, we were given colored tags to attach. These were indicators of the pecking order to get off the ship, unless we opted to carry all our own baggage. In that case, we wouldn't put our luggage out and we we could get off early.

James and Silvia opted to carry their luggage off and were off the ship by 8:30. The rest of us were not called (according to baggage tags) until about 10:30 or 11:00, but could not wait in our rooms because the stewards were getting them ready for the next group of travelers who would leave at 4:00 PM. We gathered in the buffet area and chatted until our time to leave.

Once off the ship, we were deposited in the terminal to find our bags and take them through customs. The lines were horrendously long. Little did we realize, until Patsy and Rich disappeared, that if we had summoned a baggage carrier, we would have been promoted to the front of the line. So, about an hour and a half later, we were up to the last 75 or so people in line. All the time we had been winding back and forth, waving at other members of our group who gathered their luggage quicker than I did. This is where they separated the Canadians from the U.S. citizens. So, again, Lesley and I got to go to the short line, this time with about 5 people in it. You'd think clearing customs would give you freedom. Wrong. There was yet another line for the bus to shuttle us to the parking lot. This was another half hour wait. At last we were in the car heading over the bridge back toward Houston.

I drove from Galveston to Conroe, then asked Lesley to drive the rest of the way. During our drive home, I started getting that little tickle in my throat and more sneezes than usual. Surprise, surprise! I was sick for 3 1/2 weeks with a cold that I thought was over in a week, that turned into a persistent sinus infection that took much longer to discourage.

From Bonney

From Randy

"Once upon a time not so very long ago in a land not so very far away, a small group of merry pseudo-sailors related by matriculation set out on a sea voyage of pleasure. They boldly set forth to unveil the mists and shadows left within the tales of earlier wayfarers sailing similar vessels of pleasure and delights.		Here's the Leader of our Merry Band of Nautical Misfits and her friend... the First Mate?? Maybe, maybe not but a Winner at Slots all the same!
Our ship The Carnival of Fools. Perhaps we should have paid more and taken a better ship!	These vessels were known in tales as changers of coin and were soon found by our hearty souls as not changers as told but reapers of nearly all their gold. Along the way there appeared repast set before them such as few had ever beheld much less partaken and all their earthly needs were met, fulfilled, and replenished as by magic and as by intuition where nearly a simple wisp of thought brought all desires to fruition, all done to lure their sensibilities and ease the loosening of their purse ties.	Bait used to lure...US in!!
Minions of the deep, shadows in the night, fleeting images roaming at every turn offering an illusion of completion for a need they themselves created all seeking gratuity from the few. At evenings end with lights dimmed to ease the mood and sway thought to other venues few could afford elegant mini-visions were presented and performed in a riot of color, movement, and form teasing both mind and mood, again lulling the senses.
My cabin mate. I hardly knew she was there! Alas and alack! A fisherman's woe... a good bite, good play, but 'twas The One That Got Away. Behind the scene resolution of an inequity in gratuity disbursement.
By voyage's end all were left in somnolence and ill prepared for reality's bold and harsh glare. A week or more it took our sailors-few to shake the turpitude, regain self-control, and adjust to self-reliance that was so absorbed by this voyage of ease and pleasure. So went the voyage and recovery of our hearty few. Some would return at slightest cause, others not so soon. All sought, some found, others lost, but all would say now as their fellow farers before them told, it was the voyage that mattered, not the result."

From James and Silvia

From Bobby and Barbara

From Lesley

Photos from our trip will be posted here: