Fund Raising cARIBBEAN Cruise January, 2012!

Cruising with (and for) Kiwanis Club of Sun City Georgetown

Early on January 15th 28 of your fellow Sun City Kiwanians and another 55 of their friends and neighbors hopped on two busses bound for the port of Galveston  TX.   After a stop mid-way for coffee, we arrived and boarded Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas, which has the capacity to carry 3,114 passengers and 1,185 crew members.

Our first three days were at sea, leaving all the time in the world to swim, nap, walk laps on the deck, read, play cards and games in two game rooms, win and lose in the casino, swim in too many pools to recall, take classes in cartooning, forming  cute little animals out of towels and folding a mean napkin.  There was something for everyone, and one thing we all did was wait for elevators, ride in elevators, and give up on the elevators and take the stairs, all 14 decks of them.  We had our very own Kiwanis meeting, with a joke by Herb and inspiration by Bill.  And, of course, eat!  Wow, did we eat.  There was the main dining rooms, for elegant service and lots of courses, Windjammer Café up on Deck 11, for casual buffet service with lots of choices, Johnny Rockets for cheese burgers and great shakes, Café Promenade for coffee drinks and ice cream, and specialty restaurants:  Chops Grille, which won my group’s vote for best appetizer all week with their Mushroom Soup, and most chocolate ever served on a single plate with their Mississippi Mud Pie; and Portofino, not tried by my group but many raved about their Osso Bucco.

Ports were Roatan, Honduras, Belize City and Cozumel.  There were cab tours, bus tours, ruins tours, glass-bottomed boat tours and tours on foot.  We bought little bits and bobs of jewelry to take home to granddaughters, hats to wear playing golf, visors to wear running.  We drank fruit smoothies so fresh we watched her cut the pineapple.  There were adventures in dining and drinking ashore.  There were even bucket lists checked on this trip.

Disembarkation wasn’t quite the well-oiled machine embarking was, as Galveston port was closed due to fog.  So instead of arriving at 8am it was 2pm.  Thank goodness ours was the first group called.  I don’t know who arranged for that nice surprise but we all really appreciated the special service.  The Hempstead Jack-In-The-Box where our bus stopped for dinner had their best dinner numbers in years.  We were a happy but very weary group when we arrived in Sun City about 9pm.

We all agreed what happens on the cruise stays on the cruise, but ask around and you’ll soon learn all about a very special two-margarita lunch and one Kiwanian’s zip-line ride.

And the coolest part?  Remember, we all had a blast of a week, but this was a fundraiser.  Our Kiwanis Foundation is richer by over $3,000!

To see more photos click on the image below. (Requires free Adobe Flash Player)

1-31-2012

Article By Barbara White