Welcome to my travel blog!  After I retired a couple of years ago, my wife and I have done some traveling, both on land and at sea, and I thought it would be fun to document what we've done and provide the stories and pictures for anyone that wants to see.

I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog lately, so only five months late I present our Christmas 2008 cruise.  We've done a Christmas cruise for the last several years and really enjoy it, but I think next year we need to find something from another port.  Galveston is very convenient for us, but there's not much variety in the cruises from there.  If anyone from Royal Caribbean is reading this, I think my ideal cruise from Galveston would be Key West, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.

.After years of going on three cruises a year on Royal Caribbean, my wife and I have decided that we will no longer be loyal customers anymore.  A lot of things have led up to this: rising prices; lack of summer cruises out of Galveston; the Voyager of the Seas is just too big, but the last straw was Royal Caribbean's recent change to benefits given to loyal customers.  When we signed up for the Crown and Anchor Society, we were told that once we completed 10 cruises, we would get special benefits, including discounts on balcony rooms and access to the concierge lounge.  Now that we've reached that level, Royal Caribbean has changed their mind done away with those two benefits.  They've replaced them with a free picture (value $15).  Frankly, we've got all the shipboard pictures we need and feel we've been lied to.  This summer, we're going to try Carnival Cruise Lines.