There won’t be much new content for this post. It’s the same itinerary and the same ship as the previous one. Given how close together the cruises were, most of the entertainment was the same, as well.
Embarkation
In December, we departed earlier than we expected, so I didn’t get many pics on the way out. We were prepared this time, so I got a few more. There were even a few that were usable.
Tall Ship Elissa is a landmark in Galveston. She’s a museum ship (which I have amazingly never been on) but she is also seaworthy and does sail. One day, I’ll actually get a tour in. Elissa is a great subject for Dehancer, and photo package for re-creating the look of analogue film.
Battleship Texas is also a mainstay of my photography when leaving on cruises.
Another view, processed in Dehancer:
The newest ship to be permanently homeported in Galveston is MSC Seascape. We will be doing a sailing on her in September for our fifth anniversary. We are especially looking forward to this one because we are splurging for Yacht Club, MSC’s luxury ship-within-a-ship concept. Yacht Club is all the way forward and occupies the top two or three decks.
The next two are just some shots taken on the way out of Galveston and into the Gulf of Mexico.
To conclude embarkation day, we have a shot of the Gulf taken from our balcony using my X Half camera.
Sea View on a Sea Day
The Gulf of Mexico, as seen from our balcony.
Intermezzo
We didn’t get off the ship in Cozumel, and none of the handful of pics I took from our balcony turned out.
Roatan
Roatan is the largest of the islands offshore Honduras. Like many places in Mexico and Central America, there is a growing expat population here. There is, of course, good and bad with that. Increasing the population with relatively affluent people drives up prices. Some, however, open businesses and employ locals. The better ones will do it without trashing the place.
Carnival has a private cruise terminal in Roatan, and that is where Princess docks. Our next two cruises will also visit Roatan, but will do so at the other terminal. That will make four trips to Roatan this calendar year. I’d never been before this calendar year.
It rained most of the time we were in Roatan. In fact, we got rained on while waiting for our excursion. Due to weather, no pictures.
Two pics from our balcony. This first is a shipwreck.
And just a view of the coast.
Upcoming
Our next cruise is over our birthdays. We will be cruising on Norwegian Escape out of New Orleans. The cruise terminal is on the Mississippi River, and you spend the first several hours sailing down the river. We’d been looking for a way to do a New Orleans sailing, and this worked. Due to some issued we’ve been having with Norwegian, this will likely be our only sailing on them unless they really wow us.