Cruise report, Part 1

It is amazing how quickly a week can pass when you are on vacation.  On Saturday May 17^th, the CFO and I rolled out of bed very early and took a 6am flight from Bloomington to Atlanta, GA.  Once at the Atlanta airport, we hit Chick-fil-a for breakfast (of course!) and then walked to the gate for our second flight, where we met my parents.  The 4 of us boarded that flight to Houston, TX and a couple hours later I stepped foot on Texas soil for the first time.   Cross another state off my list.

I had this master plan to meet a friend of mine and her husband for lunch at the airport and then we would travel an additional 45 minutes to Galveston.  While planning the trip, I figured out that, with 4 people, reserving an SUV through Execucar was cheaper than taking the boring old shuttle van, so I booked it.  The instructions said that we should check in at their kiosk and a driver/SUV would be assigned to us… it sounded easy enough.  Unfortunately, as soon as we touched down, I received a text message from the company stating that our driver would meet us at the luggage carousel.  Normally that would be really nice, but we were supposed to meet my friend for lunch!

When we got to the carousel, I saw our driver with an Ipad that was displaying my name, which made me feel way more important than I really am.  I walked over and talked with the driver and he said it would cost $75/hr for him to wait for us to eat/chat with my friend... oh crap, I didn't plan on that! I quickly called my friend to see where they were and she said that they were circling the parking lot looking for a parking space. Instead of parking, she hopped out of the car and met us at the door of the airport.  We got to talk for about 5 minutes before our driver had our luggage loaded up and ready to go… it was a bummer since I hadn't seen her in 13 years.  So much for my brilliant planning.  We piled into the black Suburban for the ride to Galveston, which was full of local history/information from the driver (perhaps a little too much according to my parents, but I thought it was interesting).

The Pier in Galveston, no way I was getting on any of those rides!

We checked into our hotel and spent the afternoon/evening roaming around the water front of Galveston.  Overall, I wasn't too impressed with Galveston, but this was just a quick lay over before the real vacation started the following day.  On Sunday morning we woke up and could see cruise ships just over the tops of the surrounding buildings.  Time to get our cruise on!  We asked the front desk schedule a cab ride for us from the hotel to the cruise terminal and were told they would be there around 10:00 am.  At 11:00 am we were still standing outside the hotel waiting on our cab.  Evidently cab service is lacking in Galveston and Sunday is their busiest day since there are two cruise ships in port.  We could have walked to the ship in that amount of time, if we didn't have so much luggage. We waited outside with a dozen other people who were all going on the same cruise and everyone was anxiously eyeing every cab that drove past (which wasn't many).  We were very happy when a cab finally pulled up and asked which one of us was the CFO… our ride had finally arrived.  Less than an hour later, we were checked in and walking up the gangway to board the Navigator of the Seas.

We could barely see the cruise ships in the distance from our hotel

Royal Caribbean has a fleet of ships, usually having multiple ships of the same size/class.  Since our first cruise with RC (our honeymoon), they have introduced several new classes of ships, however we always end up on a voyager class ship.  This trip was no exception, the CFO and I have now cruised on 3 of the 5 voyager class ships.  At this point, we might as well try to travel on all of them.  The good news is that we are pretty familiar with the layout, so we already know our way around the 15 decks.   Even better, this one just had a multi-million dollar face lift in January.  

The main pool area

After getting on board, we all walked up 5 flights of stairs to the buffet for lunch.  Let the week of eating and eating and eating some more begin!  After lunch, the CFO and I went and checked out our room (with a balcony) and  then walked around the ship to take in the changes that were made during the refresh.  We eventually ended up at the rear of the ship where the most exciting (to me anyway) feature was located:  The FlowRider surfing simulator that was added during the refresh.  There was a guy on a boogie board riding the wave and I immediately knew where I'd be spending all of my free time. 

Ever since RC started including the FlowRider on their new ships (starting with the Freedom class), I've been dying to go on a cruise with one.  It looked like so much fun in the advertisements. For those of you who don't know, the FlowRider is basically a padded box with a floor that slopes up from front to the back.  All along the front edge of the floor is a series of water jets that fire out a stream of water along the sloped floor of the box up to a drain along the back wall.  This creates a "wave" of water that you can surf or boogie board on.  I was told that the system circulates around 30,000 gallons of water per minute and I saw, first hand, that it comes out with enough force to manhandle a 300 pound guy.  It is also strong enough to remove loose fitting swim trunks and/or bikini tops from unsuspecting riders.  Because of the entertainment factor, RC built an arc of 3 rows of stadium seats for spectators around the front of the box, providing people with a place to sit and watch the carnage.  (There was always a crowd watching whenever the FlowRider was open)

Getting some "hands on" instruction

Before I could try out the FlowRider, I had to sign a bunch of waivers (possibly not a good sign!)  I really wanted to boogie board because I thought it would be easier, but when I got there it was stand up surfing time (they alternate between the two activities through the day).  I initially balked at the idea of doing the stand up because it looked really difficult, but was persuaded into trying it by the instructor.  At the time, there was only one other person there, so the two of us basically had the wave to ourselves.  Having unlimited access to it was a good thing because the stand-up surfing is far, far from easy.  I spent more time on my ass than standing up and I quickly learned how powerful those water jets were, as they easily pushed me up the slope and into the back wall.  It only took one face first hit into the wall for me to realize that I needed to spin myself around after falling so that I could hit the wall feet first. 

 Falling...

 About to fall, again...

Recovering after falling and being blown up to the back wall...

A short video of an instructor trying to get me out into the flow

The first two days of our trip were “at sea” days, so I had a lot of time to play on the flow rider.  The first couple days were the best  because there weren't many people in line.  By the end of the trip, the line was way too long to be worth standing in it. The CFO laughed at me because a majority of the people in line were 10-20 (or more) years younger than me.  There were a couple guys older than me, but most people were probably 22 or younger.  

By the end of the trip, I was able to get on a board and push myself out onto the wave without any help from the instructors.  I slowly figured out how to maneuver the board and managed to get some good rides in, but they all ended the same, with me on my tail. 

 I'm getting the hang of it later on in the trip...

But even a good ride ends the same as a bad one...

As you can tell, the FlowRider was one of my favorite parts of the trip, I could have spent many more hours out there trying to master it... Stay tuned for the rest of the trip.