The Athni family had never been on a cruise. Many other extended family members had been on cruises in the past, but we had been reluctant to go. We thought, "What is there to do on a boat for 7 days?" or "We will get sea-sick." or "We will not have anything to eat as we are vegetarians."

After much thought, Sudhir booked the entire family on a Caribbean cruise for November 2007. Prior to the excursion, we were excited and a bit scared. We drove down to Orlando on Friday, November 2, and stayed in a hotel. The next morning, we drove to Port Canaveral, where we boarded the ship. Our first sight of the ship was from almost 4 miles away, when we drove over a tall bridge. It looked like a multi-story building, although we figured it was the ship. Our first look at the ship close-up was amazing. The ship was 14 stories ABOVE water, and we were later told that the ship has 2-3 floors below sea level.

The check in process was very smooth. We dropped off our luggage and the family, while Sudhir parked the car. We walked into the terminal with only our hand bags, went thru security clearance, then checked into the ship like a hotel. We boarded the ship around 1:30 pm, but they promised our luggage to be delivered to the room before 7 pm. As promised, our luggage arrived before 7 pm.

We had booked an interior stateroom, which we initially found to be quite small. But within a few hours, we realized it was more than sufficient. Sudhir, Aswini, and Tejas' room was 1377 on the first floor, while Ajji & Tata's room was 6409 on the 6th floor. Since neither of our rooms had windows, both rooms were identical.

Saturday evening, we just roamed orund the ship, getting easily lost. We must have walked more than 2-3 miles on the ship that first night, as we did not know where anything was. We had asked for a late dinner (8 pm), so we slowly found our dining room that evening. Our waiter was Argentina from Romania. She was excellent, and took care of us during dinner for the entire cruise. Unbelievably, one of the options for dinner that first night was a "Indian vegetarian thali", which was fantastic. We asked Argentina to serve us vegetarian Indian food every night, which she honored. For the entire cruise, we ate an Indian vegetarian meal for dinner, consisting of Roti, dal, soup, various vegetable dishes, with basmati rice, and Bedaker's pickles !!

The next day, Sunday, was a "fun day at sea", which meant we were on the ocean for the entire day. We took plenty of pictures, saw many vegas-style shows, ate 3 stomach-stuffing meals. We were very relaxed and met numerous fun people from all over the world.

On Monday, we landed in Cozumel, Mexico. We had booked a submarine tour. Upon landing, they took us in a car to a place called "Atlantis", where they put us on a speed boat, and took us to the middle of the ocean. There, we hopped onto a submarine, which descended over 100 ft into the Gulf of Mexico. It felt like we were only 5 feet underwater, as the submarine ride was very smooth. We were able to see the ocean bottom, as well as numerous fish and other sea animals. We also saw some scuba divers who were diving in the local area.

On Tuesday, we landed in Belize City, Belize. We had booked a tour to an ancient Mayan temple, called Xunantunich. We hopped on a bus, and traveled 2 hours into the country. During the bus ride, our tour guide educated us about Belize and the Mayans. When the bus ride was finished, we got on a small boat to cross a small river. This boat was "hand powered", where a local cranked a gear, which allowed the boat to move. We then got on a small car, and traveled up a steep hill to the ancient site of Xunantunich. The site was very peaceful, well maintained, and very pretty. After the tour, on the return trip back to the ship, they stopped at a local restaurant, where we ate local Belizean food - tasted excellent.

On Wednesday, we landed in Isla Roatan, Honduras. It is a small island, which is very hilly, reminding us of a "hill station" in India. Having tired from the prior two days, we decided NOT to do any excursions. We just went to a couple of shops for shopping. One of the shops was a place called "Stone Castle" where an Italian artisan carves scenes and pictures into concha shells. This is an art practiced in Sicily, Italy, but he wanted to live in the Caribbean, so he has his own studio in Isla Roatan.

On Thursday, we had another "Fun Day at Sea" where we traveled from the Caribbean up north to the Bahamas. We spent time on the ship wathcing shows, eating, drinking, and talking. Also on Thursday, we celebreated Tejas' 7th Birthday. We ordered a cake, which was shared with all the kids in Camp Carnival. The cake and "mini party" was a total surprise to Tejas.

On Friday, we landed in Freeport, Bahamas. We went to the beach and marveled at the crystal blue-green ocean, with white sandy beaches - what a contrast to the Atlantic coast beaches. That evening, we celebrated Ajji & Tata's 44th aniversary. Once again, a small cake was ordered, which was delivered as a total surprise during dinner. A small surprise gift (a 2008 calendar with Tejas' pictures) was also given to them by the waitress.

On Saturday, we returned back to Cape Canaveral, and drove home.

On the cruise, the head chef was Indian, with 50% of the on-board employees from India. The rest were from Indonesia, Eastern Europe, Australia, and South America. The "pizza guy" who made us fresh pizza 24 hours a day was from Madras. The cashier at the photo studio was from Banagalore!

On the ship, we spent some time in the on-board pools, which had a 3 story water slide! Tejas and Sudhir had a lot of fun with the water slide. We also had fun with water balloon fights. Many of the more adventurous adults on the ship took part in "Hairy Chest" contest. For the more sedate adults, there were Trivia contests, Newlywed games, and other fun PG-rated adult games etc. During these "sea days" and on the evenings of shore days, we had a lot of fun watching Karaoke, putt-putt golf, going to Art seminars, watching art auctions, eating pizza at any time during the day, salivating over hundreds of chocolate sweets (if we ate all the chocolates, we would have all gained 20 lbs each).

Each day, our cabin steward cleaned our rooms and bathrooms 3-4 times a day! Each evening, he put a "towel animal" on our beds (these are animals made out of towles). The ship also gave everyone a "galley tour" where we were allowed to see the main kitchen and watch how they prepare so much food for so many people - a truly amazing site. The kitchen spans the entire length of the ship, with 2 dining rooms on either end of the kitchen.

One of the best parts of the cruise was the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. Since we were on the ocean, many sunrises and sunsets an water horizon. We planned many of our activities around these sunroses and sunsets (yes, we got up early just to see the sunrises).

For little children, the cruise line offered a service called "Camp Carnival", where we dropped off Tejas each day (we dropped him off at different times depending on our days activities), and they kept him occupied till 10 pm. He had such a good time that he felt very sad to leave them on the last day. He probably enjoyed the Camp more than the shore excursions.

Since our cruise was during the school year, we had to obtain permission from tejas'school to go on the vacation. He was given homework, but since he had so much fun, he did not find time to do the homework on the cruise. When we got back, he spent 6-8 hours on Sunday doing a week's worth of homework. He also wrote a journal during the cruise, which was shared with his class and teacher.

Overall, we had a fantastic time. While we were on the ship, we had totally fogotten about the "real world". We are already looking forward to our next cruise - Alaska! For anyone that has never been on a cruise, we highly recommend taking a cruise at least once in your lifetime.

Carnival Glory - November 3 thru November 10, 2007
Saturday - November 3 - depart Port Canaveral at 4 pm
Sunday - November 4 - Fun Day at Sea
Monday - November 5 - Cozumel, Mexico
Tuesday - November 6 - Belize City, Belize
Wednesday - November 7 - Isla Roatan, Honduras
Thursday - November 8 - Fun Day at Sea
Friday - November 9 - Freeport, Bahamas
Saturday - November 10 - arrive back at Port Canaveral