Mother's Day Weekend On Board Navigator

So, yesterday I mentioned that I was having trouble deciding between two blog topics that were floating around in my head.  But I was sort of hamstrung and had to write about the No Socks Day topic since that highly anticipated holiday only comes around once a year.  Since today is only Lost Sock Memorial Day and much more solemnly celebrated, I now have time to cover the other topic I was considering.  So today let me tell you about my weekend plans.  I know.... You're riveted!  Right??!?!?!

You may recall that a few months ago, I was very excited about the possibility of going to Galveston and boarding Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas for a ship inspection. I had planned a big weekend around it driving to Nacogodoches first to pick up my parents and then going to my Aunt Lou's house in Texas City to visit her and my cousin Jan. Aunt Lou even invited some of my other aunts and uncles over to visit while we were down.  It was all very exciting.  On the day before we were supposed to go visit the ship, we were invited to attend an educational event with our Royal Caribbean Business Development Manager near the Galleria in Houston.  I went to that and then went back over to my aunts house where everyone was visiting. After I got there, my cousin Jan told me that there had been a collision near the Texas City Dike between a barge and a ship and there was an oil spill resulting in a closing of the ship channel. The end result was that the ship channel remained closed all day Sunday and we didn't get to board the Navigator at all.

I know what you're thinking... poor Susan!  How do these things always happen to her???!?!?!   Now realizing that the 3,000 passengers on the ship were all late in returning and many probably missed flights and perhaps even a day of work and the 3,000 who had planned on boarding Sunday didn't get to until the next day and then the ship didn't leave Galveston until Wednesday only going to one port instead of the 3 that had been scheduled, you can see how this was really a tragedy for ME in particular. This affected ME very dramatically. It was actually very hard to go on.

An email went out the following week saying that perhaps we would try to do the ship inspection again some other time. But I, quite frankly, didn't expect that to happen. I did find out that the passengers who were supposed to have gone out on Sunday were refunded the price of their cruise, given a discount on their next cruise and were invited to spend the week on board anyway free of charge which was, I thought, very well done of RCCL.

Then a few weeks ago, while I was out of town, I got an email saying that Royal Caribbean was inviting travel agents to board Navigator on Saturday May 10th along with their families for a one night stay free of charge.  I didn't see the email for several days and assumed that it would be too late to react when I finally did.  So, I did nothing.  Then last week I got another email saying that there were still openings available and that I could take myself and 3 other people on board.  They are providing 2 cabins per travel agent and we'll be spending Saturday night on board and disembarking on Sunday morning. So, I decided to take my parents for Mother's Day.  I also invited my niece to share my room.

I can hardly wait to spend a free night on board with plenty of time to see all the updates to Navigator.  I'm hoping to be able to talk my niece into doing the FloRider so that I can have a photo of someone I know on it to share with you all instead of photos of strangers.  I'll finally get to see for myself if the Virtual Balconies are as amazing as they are hyped to be. Plus there will be new photos of more amazing food to upload!!!! I'll naturally have a drink or two.  So you could see a few photos of those floating around on Facebook as well.

The only issue will be to keep all ships from colliding near Galveston for the next 48 hours or so.  It'll also be imperative that they keep all the passengers who are currently on board covered in Purrell so that no one contaminates the ship between now and then resulting in a fumigation that lasts for 12 hours and keeps us from boarding.  If you are on board Navigator right now and reading this, I have two things to say to you.....

1. Really?  You're paying $1 a minute to read my sweet little ol' blog??!!?!?!  How flattering!
2. COVER YOUR MOUTH WHEN YOU COUGH AND DON'T DOUBLE DIP IN WINDJAMMER!!!!!

I swear if anybody jumps overboard as that ship is coming back into Galveston on Saturday morning in an attempt to ruin my weekend, I will HUNT THEM DOWN!  I've worked hard for this weekend and I won't let anyone ruin it. My dad had to cancel because he is having back problems.  He'll be having back surgery next week after we return.  He feels that he won't be able to sleep on the ship and will have trouble moving around.  I totally understand and don't want him to be in pain.  So, I am letting him off the hook. But I'm forcing my Mom and my niece to go anyway.  There is no way I'm letting either of them out of this.  If I have to tie them up, gag them and drag them on board the ship kicking and screaming, they will go with me and we will all have a Happy Mother's Day damn it!

So have a great weekend.  If all goes well, perhaps this weekend or Monday at the latest, I'll have photos of Navigator to share with you all.  Happy Mother's Day!