CRUISING! (cont.)

Just as it was time for our ship to sail away from Progresso, as we stood on our balcony overlooking the pier, we noticed that one of the gangplanks was still extended onto the pier.  Sure enough, here comes two women and a couple of minutes later a guy hurrying to the ship.  NOW, the ship's gangplank was lifted and we were ready to set sail!

NOT!!  We noticed that the ship was still tied to the pier, and the deck hands were not making any attempt to release the ropes holding the ship in place.

 Uh-Oh!  The forward gangplank has been extended once again as a Military Police boat hovers nearby......

...meanwhile we are enjoying another incredible sunset as all the "drama" plays out down below on the pier.....

 .....no way, not another ambulance!  Of all the many cruises we have been on and never having seen an ambulance take a passenger from the ship, now today this is the second ambulance we've seen!  (Remember, there was an ambulance waiting for us on the pier when we arrived here this morning, and it removed a passenger.)

 Now here we are again with some sort of medical emergency.  As the sun sets deeper on the western horizon we wait to see what transpires below on the pier.

 Well, finally two black women exit the ship with a couple of small pieces of luggage.  What a nightmare it would be if this were happening to us!  Having to disembark the ship in a foreign port and watch as it sails away and leaves you behind?  How traumatic this must be for these two women as they are apparently waiting on a family member or friend who is too ill to continue onward on their cruise and has to be taken from the ship and transported in an ambulance to a hospital in Mexico! 

 Finally, the paramedics are rolling a gurney, carrying a quite large black woman, down the gangplank to the ambulance.  Hope everything goes well for her.  How awful to imagine something like this happening to me! 

Well, immediately following the ambulance pulling away, the bow lines are released and our ship was edging away from the pier.....more than an hour later than we were scheduled to leave.

This is our cabin steward, Dennis, who takes excellent care of our stateroom, and makes all those towel animals.

Before we go to dinner, Tom and I walk thru the Lido Buffet dining room to admire all the watermelon carvings.

                        Pretty incredible artistry by some of the chefs!

We were blessed to have wonderful dinner companions each evening.  Marv and Laura are from Virginia (near Roanoke).  Marv is an Episcopalian minister/Psychologist, and I forgot what Laura told us she did for work.  Their youngest daughter is about to be married and she will be moving with her military husband to El Paso, Texas (Fort Bliss) 

 We saw Laura EVERY morning up on the Jogging Track.  She is a runner.  She ran every morning, 55 laps around that walking jogging oval, 5 miles!  There she goes, in the pink shorts/white top!

Our other dinner companions were Dan and Lee from Spokane, Washington where they own a wedding venue.
www.bigelowarborschapel.com

Fun dinner table companions!  Interesting and lively conversation each evening!

When we went back to our stateroom we found BooBoo up to her usual antics!  Tonight she was swinging from the ceiling hanging onto our cabin steward Dennis's latest towel animal, a monkey! 

Our last day on the ship, it rained some.  It looked like a towel animal parade out by the pool but with the rain falling down no one was hanging around to enjoy it.

We spent a relaxing day just wandering about the ship, eating, joined in a little trivia games, people-watched, eat some more, reading our books, napping.

After saying goodbye to our dinner-mates, Marv & Laura and Dan & Lee, we found this serpent on our bed in our cabin, our last towel animal of this cruise.

I will miss having my room cleaned twice a day, having all our meals prepared (and the dishes all washed), all the great guest services that Carnival Cruise Lines provides during a cruise.  I feel so spoiled!  I love it!

We go up to the walking track on the final morning of our cruise to get in a walk before breakfast.  (One observation Tom made is that there are close to ten restaurant/cafes on the ship and they are always crowded, but only one gym and one walking/jogging track and we encounter only a few hardy souls each day, exercising in any form.)

  As the ship makes its way slowly up the Mississippi River to the Cruise Terminal, we enjoy seeing the lights of New Orleans and its surrounding suburbs.

 

Since this was only a 5-day Cruise, and today is only Thursday, that means we have some extra days left on our vacation, time to explore New Orleans.  I will save that for my next post.

 

{Also, I have went back and made a correction on my first "Cruising" entry.....the town of Merida that we toured has a population of over one million, not 100,000.}