Vacation Update! Jan 26-27

What's up, everyone???

I'm back from my cruise! I had SO. MUCH. FUN. and can't wait to share some highlights with you guys. I took the last week off of blogging (got back late Sunday, went back to work Monday, got sick Tuesday and Wednesday, and then was busy the rest of the week). So here goes!

The cruise is way too much for one post, so I'm dividing it into sets of days/ports. First up, Jan 26-27, which was our trip down to Galveston and the first day on the boat.

The drive down wasn't too bad, aside from our friend's car losing a bolt on the brakes in the Middle-of-Nowhere, TX. Luckily, one of the guys on the trip was able to fix it, and we were back on the road.We stayed the night in The Woodlands, TX, which is north of Houston.

{chilling out in the hotel room before our final push into Galveston. photo taken by my friend, Jen.}

{Galveston!}

{our first real view of the ship, RCCL Mariner of the Seas}

{drug dogs sniffing bags--strangely, they didn't sniff our carry on bags, though we did go through security...}

{we literally walked onto the ship at deck 4, saw the bar (Boleros), sat down, and ordered drinks from the coolest bartender ever, Paul from Romania. this was a bitchin' amaretto sour...one of many}

{checking out the pool deck--happy photo}

{lest we forget the sad face photo}

{our stateroom on deck 6}

{with a balcony! totes worth the extra $}

{gorgeous 3-deck dining room. our table was right inside the door. photo by my friend, Jen.}

{are we drunk already at first dinner? maybe.}

{delicious spinach salad, first course}

{one of three marinara nights. freaking delicious}

Everyone asks, "How was the food?" I would have to say that before the cruise, that was one of my chief worries. When putting down my deposit for the cruise way back in like Jan/Feb 2012, I had also submitted a list of can't eat/can eat foods (sometimes people have differing opinions of what "vegan" means...). The only thing we had to do at that first dinner was tell our main waiter about being vegan. He said, "You need to tell us a day in advance so we can make food changes for you" (kind of a little difficult having only just then boarded the ship). But it totally worked out! I think I only ate one sub-par meal the whole time on the ship. Our AWESOME waiter, Ciprian, would bring us the following dinner's menu each night to peruse. There wasn't much they had to alter. The biggest thing was leaving off raita (yogurt sauce) from a curry. And on the times we went to Windjammer Cafe for breakfast/lunch/dinner, they had food labeled very well, and there was a lot I could eat. I'm kind of proud to say that I made it through the cruise eating completely vegan (to my knowledge).

I'll be back tomorrow with more!

Jes