Sunday January 10, 2016 At Sea Between Houston, Texas and Costa Maya, Mexico

Some of what I write today may sound like complaining.  It is not, I am just describing the day as it happened.  Keep in mind that the last day of one cruise and the first day of the next cruise isn’t usually very eventful.  The day mostly consists of getting the cruisers from the past week off and the cruisers for the next week processed and on board.  So it wasn’t like we had elaborate adventures or tours planned.

We had the alarm set for 7 AM but a ship wide announcement came a little earlier than that telling us our arrival in Houston was delayed.  The delay was caused by high winds.  The passage from the Caribbean up Galveston bay is winding and narrow.  We went back out into the gulf and waited for a new pilot time scheduled for 9 AM.  This set the schedule back by two hours that eventually stretched to closer to 3 PM.

Caribbean Princess

The original plan was for us to move to a new cabin at 9 AM and then go through customs and immigration at 10:45. Around 1 PM we were moved to our new cabin.  We tried to get something to eat, but all the restaurants had closed down.  We unpacked and then went to deck 7 at approx. 2:30 PM to wait for the final departing passengers to be processed off the ship.  The in-transit passengers (us) were then led by a cruise member to customs.  If you can imagine the chaos ashore with 3000 arriving passengers and 3000 departing passengers trying to get ashore and making new travel arrangements.  We were finally ashore through customs and back on board by 3 PM.

Since we hadn’t eaten we waited in the International Café until they had salads and sandwiches ready to serve.  By the time we finished arriving passengers were starting to come aboard.  Some of them had been waiting in the terminal parking lot since 11 AM.  Many were not happy! 

We went to dinner in the Island Dining Room and were seated quickly.  Eventually two other couples were seated with us.  They weren’t together but were both from Texas.  Word is that this is the last season for Princess to sail from the Port of Houston. Subsequently many of the passengers are from area within easy driving distance.  We have heard a couple of reasons for the cruise line leaving Houston.  The most plausible is the 3 hour trip to the Caribbean from the terminal and being subject to high winds or heavy fog.  We had pleasant conversation and a good meal.  Tonight was one of my favorites, Prime Rib.

After dinner we went to the Princess Theater and caught the last of the Welcome Aboard Show.  We saw the same comedian that gave a show last week.  After the show the ship held the Muster Station drill at 9:30. Since we had attended last week, we didn’t go to the drill.

We went to our cabin and read until about 10:45 before retiring.  The ship didn’t leave port until about 10.

The itinerary of the cruise was changed.  We now with have two days at sea before arriving in Costa Maya.  We then visit Belize and Cozumel before having one day at sea returning to Houston.