Sunday, December 13, 2009

Thanksgiving Cruise 2009 to Cozumel

The 2009 Chatt Thanksgiving was spent on the ocean on a cruise from Tampa, Fl to Cozumel, Mexico. Jennifer was not excited about making Thanksgiving dinner nor was I. So... we decided to try out the Carnival Inspiration which left out of Tampa on Thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving day we made the 1 hour trek to the Port of Tampa. We arrived right on time and Grayson was fascinated with how large the ship was. We checked into our "stateroom" and later that evening headed off to our Thanksgiving dinner. I had to have turkey and Jennifer probably had fish or something. It was very good and we were seated at the late seating at 8:15 PM with a great group of folks. Mike, Heather and Ben were seated at our table and Ben and Grayson hit it off. By the way, the picture to the right was the person who prepared Grayson and Jennifers make to order eggs each morning. They were enamored by his ability to flip the eggs without a spatula each morning. I told them both..."That's easy, I do that every time I make eggs." This morning I showed Grayson my best egg flip without breaking the yolk, "yah, whatever dad," he said....Where's the love?

The second day on the cruise was a day at sea on our way to Cozumel. Grayson had a blast in the aft of the boat at the water slide area. They had a BIG water slide and two smaller one's. Grayson immediately hit the small water slides and soon there after became bored since there was a huge slide right next to the smaller one's. "Dad, will you go on the big slide with me." "No way, see the tubes, they are closed up and it takes about 10 seconds to get down the slide and I won't like the slide in the dark." "Mommy, will you go down the slide with me?" "Honey, not right now, you can do it alone. Go up and have some fun." Grayson sat there for a few minutes pondering the BIG slide or the small slide and soon began the three story trek up to the top of the slide. Once he went down there was no stopping him from going over and over again. Lucky for us Grayson met up with Ben on the Big slide and the water slide marathon began. Up and down, up and down...over to the small slide, up and down, etc.


The next day we woke to ourselves being in Cozumel. We proceeded off the boat and ran into Mike, Heather and Ben. We agreed to catch a taxi together into the shopping district of Cozumel. Ben and Grayson had a blast having fun together as we all shopped. It was all fun and games until Grayson dropped a piece to a stone chess set and broke the piece. I handed our credit card over the shopkeeper reluctantly and became one of few tourists that paid full price for anything in Cozumel. I was prepared to leave the chess set behind since the thought of lugging around a heavy stone chess set around Mexico for a good portion of the day was not my idea of fun. Our new found friend, Mike, came to the rescue and said "what are you crazy? We will help you." With Mike's help we were able to hold on to the chess set throughout the entire day. Anyone need a nice stone chess set from Mexico?

The last full day was a day at sea and we continued to have fun with Mike, Heather, and Ben. It was a great cruise and thanks to our new found friends from Georgia it will be one to remember. We hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving and hope your holiday season is productive and in good health!


Thanksgiving 2009 Late night Seating