Berard Halloween Cruise Vacation 2012...

A few months back my husband and I took our annual summer cruise. While aboard this ship, my husband played in a satellite poker tournament and WON!!!

Besides some cash, he was awarded a seat in the Carnival Cruise Line Poker Challenge. Grand prize, $50K! Over $100K to be split between the top 25 finalists. We were super excited!!! Pluses: Brand new ship Carnival Magic. Minuses: We left out of Galveston, Texas so we would have to fly there.

But we sucked it up and booked two tickets to Texas to relax for 8 days. Hoping to sail a calm sea after riding the tail of Hurricane Sandy. We watched the news nightly and think of how lucky we are that it missed Columbia like it did. We would have been here, our dogs and home there. How scary!

Well, when we arrived it was such a disappointment to find that this "Championship Tourney" was a computerized poker challenge and NOT a live game. My baby was ticked!!! What a waste! If we had known this prior (which I am sure it stated somewhere on the paperwork that only Eric read) we wouldn't have come.

But the new rooms were nice and spacious. The balcony was wonderful and big. I still hate that Carnival still has doors and not sliding windows like Royal Caribbean. Its just SO much nicer. The worst thing though was the cigarette smokers. Each and every balcony seemed to be occupied by one. And although it clearly states in all our boarding paperwork and during the safety briefing NO SMOKING on the balcony, everyone did it. Such a shame to not be able to enjoy the fresh sea air without that nasty smoke in your face! 

The ports visited were Montego Bay Jamaica (which was a little gross actually???) Not sure if it was left overs from the hurricane or what? But it just wasn't worth getting off the boat for. Next stop Grand Cayman which was nice. We walked around a lot and ate some food. Nothing else. We are so boring! Lol!!! Last port was Cozumel. We own a time share there so we just went to that resort and Eric enjoyed the beach while I enjoyed an 80 minute massage! It was a glorious day!

The on board activities were a riot. The majority of these images are a good bit of that hot mess. Funny what people do on vacation with a little alcohol in their system! Lol!!!
I will be downloading my cell phone images from Halloween night. It was amazing!!! The costumes were out of this world!
Eric and I rocked it too!!!

Enjoy...