Our Wander Years

Carnival Liberty Day 7: Cozumel, Mexico

Posted on February 17, 2026 by Sparky

The day started badly. I was “multitasking” at breakfast, which meant I was catching up on the emails and text messages. Marlene hates that when we are having a meal. I didn’t think I was ignoring her, but she did. She stomped away. She was pretty cold to me most of the rest of the day, which is not a good place for a relationship to be the day before Valentine’s Day.

We went ashore separately. I ran into her in one of the port shops but she walked away again. I continued on by myself, searching for a Valentine’s Day gift. I found a nice bracelet and talked the guy down a bit, but probably still got ripped off – Marlene knows jewelry values much better than I do. Then, after buying it, I had second thoughts about the color. I liked the blue stones that were in the bracelet but I knew she would be wearing red at dinner. I went back to the shop with the intent of exchanging it for the red stones. But the red was more vermillion than scarlet. I wasn’t sure. I went back to the ship, intending to ask her which she would prefer.

But I couldn’t find her.

I blogged for a bit and she found me. I explained my uncertainty and she said “I’m sure it is fine.” Then she told me about some tequila she had seen in the duty-free shop. Off I went to buy some tequila. While out – without the bracelet – I got a text from her asking if I could exchange it for red. Argghhh!

Back to the ship. By the time I got to the cabin to get the bracelet we were about an hour from “back on board time.” Too close. I guess she will get the blue bracelet.

I blogged for a bit. Then, when I realized that the ship wasn’t moving when I thought it should be, realized that I had fallen victim – again – to the Cozumel time anomaly. For reasons not obvious to me, whenever a ship is in port in Cozumel the ship time is an hour behind local time. And my phone time. So it occurred to me – to late to do anything about it – that my decision to not go ashore to get the red bracelet was based on the wrong time. I could have made it, easily. *sigh*

We had made up, more or less, by dinner. We went to the show then to the comedy show, both good but not great.

Categories: Blogging, Cruise, Mexico | Leave a comment

Carnival Liberty Day 6: Belize City, Belize

Posted on February 13, 2026 by Sparky

I don’t like Belize City. It is the most charmless city in Central America, in my opinion. But the port area is interesting. It is an old-school port; not one built for the huge, modern cruise ships. It is a shallow-water port which means that the ship has to anchor more than a mile offshore and tenders are used to get to/from the port.

The port area is filled with the usual port shops but has a wider variety of shops than the newer ports. You can, for example, get your hair braided there, if you are so inclined. And there are swings on which one can rest. Not a bad port.

And Marlene says she has never been there, which is hard to believe as this is her 25th Carnival cruise.

We bought more than I expected. Some gifts, some clothes for Marlene. All pretty inexpensive (like $5 for a nice shirt).

We had lunch back on the ship, then I blogged a bit, getting the previous post done just as the ship pulled up the anchor. We had dinner in the Golden Olympian, the middle-of-the-ship restaurant. Great service. The we spent some time (and money) in the casino before going to the evening show.

The show, as usual, was colorful and the crew did a nice job with the songs and dances. But we have seen the same show on other ships and, in Marlene’s view, this was not the best.

We also attended the late night comedy show. Pretty good.

Between the two shows I had to go to Guest Services to replace my keycard which I apparently had lost in the casino. Then I had to go back to look for my insulated cup which I must have left in the casino the day before. Found it. Good thing because Marlene would have had my scalp if I had lost it.

Categories: Belize, Blogging, Cruise | Leave a comment

Carnival Liberty Day 5: Roatan, Honduras

Posted on February 12, 2026 by Sparky

*Carnival Liberty* as seen from Mahogany Bay

Our first port was one we have visited several times: Roatan, Honduras. Specifically, Mahogany Bay, the Carnival-only port on the south side of the island.

We started the day with breakfast in the buffet, then went ashore. This is a typical made-for-cruisers port. Lots of shops and bars, all overpriced. There is also a beach which is reportedly very nice but we have never been there. We bought some trinkets and a shirt that Marlene insisted I needed, then went back to the ship for lunch.

After lunch I processed photos and blogged while Marlene hung out in the casino which was, surprisingly, open. I guess when you own the port you make the casino rules. Anyway, the previous 4 posts were due to me blogging after returning from Mahogany Bay.

I joined Marlene in the casino after blogging. Should have kept blogging. Lost too much money. Then, at 6pm, when I asked Marlene if it was time to prepare for dinner, she informed me that we were supposed to dine with Sherman and Rose. At 6pm. So, without changing out of our shore clothes, we hustled down to the dining room. And found Rose sitting alone. She said “they all abandoned me!” So we had dinner with Rose and were happy that we had been able to join her.

After dinner we played cards and Marlene reverted to form, beating me in three straight games.

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“The Fix” by David Baldacci

Posted on February 11, 2026 by Sparky

This is #3 in the Memory Man series by Baldacci. I don’t believe I have read the first two. I am sure I would have remembered (get it?). If you are interested in this book it is probably best that you read the earlier ones first as there are a lot of references in this one to events that occurred in the earlier ones.

The “Memory Man” is Amos Decker, a former homeless football player who, due to a football concussion, now has perfect memory. He forgets nothing that he reads or experiences. But he has also become somewhat autistic and has no social skills. This makes him both extremely valuable and extremely irritating to his colleagues in his new job as a detective at the FBI.

The book begins with Decker witnessing a murder – a man, walking outside FBI headquarters – abruptly stops, pulls a gun and executes a woman passing by him on the sidewalk. He then turns the gun on himself and commits suicide. Tragic, random violence? So it would seem. But the man is a respected businessman with top secret contracts with several federal intelligence agencies. The woman is a substitute schoolteacher and a volunteer at a hospice. Decker needs to find out why this murder/suicide occurred – he doesn’t believe it was random – and why it occurred outside FBI headquarters.

The answers slowly emerge, mostly due to Decker’s amazing recall and his ability to ask the right questions. The Defense Intelligence Agency gets involved because the murderer’s name was heard in chatter involving Middle East terrorists. The pressure to solve the mystery intensifies, helped along by attempts to kill Decker and his team.

The unraveling of the mystery occurs at a nice pace, thanks to Baldacci’s storytelling skill. And things come together quite plausibly at the end.

8 out of 10.

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Carnival Liberty Days 3 & 4: At sea

Posted on February 11, 2026 by Sparky

We woke on Day 3 to find that the ship was in motion but was still in the Mississippi Delta, not yet to the Gulf of Mexico. We learned that it had left port shortly after midnight. Apparently it takes over 5 hours to traverse the Mississippi from New Orleans. We also learned, by being unable to log into the Carnival Hub app, that the computer problems had not yet been fixed.

The computer problems persisted until dinnertime, which meant that the ship went an entire day without people being able to lose money in the casino. That must have cost them a pretty penny. And I was glad that I was not the poor slob who got stuck entering all of those paper bills into the computer.

We wandered the ship a bit. It seemed familiar, which is not a surprise. It is in the same class as the Carnival Conquest, on which we had cruised in 2024. But the decor was different. Not as nice as the Venezia but nice.

We had breakfast in the buffet, did some window shopping and played cards. I won handily and Marlene walked away.

We had a lovely dinner in the dining room with Sherman, Rose and Sherman’s two daughters who were also on the ship, along with Sherman’s ex-wife. I guess they get along.

The casino opened while we were at dinner, so we charged down there as soon as we were finished. We both did well – Marlene won over $300 and I won $25.

We attended the late show which was a nice song-and-dance. We have seen a variation of this show before, but of course this was a new cast on a new ship. Very nice.

Marlene went back to the casino. I went to bed. She got in around 3am, having lost all of the $300 that she had won earlier.

We got up so late on Day 4 that we didn’t get breakfast. But we did get coffee and we got a special lunch made for all the Diamond passengers. I attended at Marlene’s Plus-1. Very good – we both had short ribs and shrimp. Marlene got the shrimp; I got the short ribs. And a complimentary drink. Again, rank does have its privilege.

We chatted with Cary and Gary, a couple from Chicago.

We both visited the casino after lunch. It was unkind to me and I think it treated Marlene harshly too. She stayed; I left. I did a lot of reading. Book report soon.

I had dinner alone in the buffet. I joined Marlene there just as it was closing at 9pm.

We were both tired. Bed early.

Categories: Caribbean, Cruise, Friends | Leave a comment

Carnival Liberty Day 2: Embarkation in New Orleans LA

Posted on February 11, 2026 by Sparky

Us on the Lido Deck on the *Liberty* in New Orleans

The Econolodge was just 4 miles from the Carnival cruise terminal, but, as I have mentioned, it is Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, so getting a taxi is more difficult – and more expensive – than usual. This became an issue when we checked out at 11am. We took our bags to the office and I immediately ordered an Uber. The price was $16.57 – about $20 with tip. But then Marlene informed me that she wanted to sit and enjoy her coffee, so I cancelled the Uber. We didn’t have to be on board until 1:30pm, so no rush.

Well, that “free” coffee ended up costing us. Because when I ordered the taxi again, around 11:30am the price was $32. Uber demand pricing. With tip it would be about $38. Marlene was outraged. I think the CEO of Uber almost got a call from her. She showed ’em, though… she called a regular taxi and they said they could get us there for $20 ($25 with tip). So she ordered the taxi. But when it arrived the driver said the price was $26 ($31 with tip). Again, Marlene was outraged. I didn’t care. We took the taxi and got to the terminal shortly before noon. We got our boarding passes and were told to go to the end of a very long line of “early arrival” passengers. We did as told, but when we got to the end Marlene asked if her Diamond status got her express boarding. Yes, it did. So we walked back past the long line of early arrivals, got in the Priority Boarding line and were on board in about 20 minutes.

Sometimes rank has its privilege.

Once on board we texted Sherman and Rose, our friends from Las Vegas, and met them in the casino bar. We ordered a drink and, by getting a paper bill rather than the expected computer slip, learned that the ship was having computer problems. Later we learned that it wasn’t just the Carnival Liberty; the entire 29-ship Carnival fleet was having major computer problems. The initial announcement was that they were making “good progress” on the problem but that departure would be delayed by a couple of hours.

The actual departure was around midnight, so the problem was more severe than first believed.

This was Super Bowl Sunday. I watched the game on the huge screen overlooking the pool. But my New England Patriots played miserably, losing 29-13. They didn’t look like one of the two best teams in the NFL. They didn’t even look like one of the better teams in the NFL. Bad, bad game.

With the ship in port, the casino closed and me completely bummed out, we went to bed early.

Categories: Cruise, Friends, LA, Sports | Leave a comment

Carnival Liberty Day 1: Lehigh Acres FL to Gretna LA

Posted on February 11, 2026 by Sparky

Unlike every other cruise we have taken, this one started with an all-day drive to the port. It was 805 miles via FL 884, I-75, I-10 and US 90. It included a short detour to drop off Becky in Ft Myers where she will be cared for by a friend (and will socialize with another small dog). The trip, door-to-door, took just about 13 hours, thanks to two bio/food breaks (breakfast and lunch) and a 20-minute delay for a nasty accident near Pensacola. But it was a smooth trip, thanks to the new tires and front-end alignment on Marlene’s Toyota Camry. The weather was good and the traffic was not bad, except for the accident backup.

Marlene had packed a lot of hard-boiled eggs, chicken salad and crackers. We had those for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And we each brought a big mug of coffee. No tolls and no meal costs, so the total cost for Day 1 was gasoline. And even that wasn’t bad. The Camry averaged over 34 miles per gallon and the price of gas at our fillup was $2.62. Not bad at all.

Our destination in Gretna was the Econolodge. This is a hotel which shows its age. It isn’t luxurious (e.g., the toilet seat was cracked). But it is well-maintained, the bed was comfortable and the TV had a lot of channels. And they agreed to keep our car until we returned for the low, low price of $10 per day. Not bad considering this was Mardi Gras season – the busiest time of year for tourism in New Orleans. I didn’t realize it but the festivities start a couple of weeks before Fat Tuesday. There was a big parade in New Orleans before we arrived.

Categories: Cruise, FL, Food, Hotels, LA, Routes | Leave a comment

Carnival Liberty preview

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Sparky

We are going on a cruise next week. That isn’t exactly earth-shattering news to those who know us. This one will be special because it is Marlene’s “milestone” cruise – her 25th cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines. It will be on the Carnival Liberty, out of New Orleans. That port will also be special – the first time we have embarked from there. We would normally not even consider leaving from such a distant port – 800 miles from our home – but Sherman and Rose, friends from Las Vegas that we met on a cruise a couple of years ago – were already booked on it and they suggested we join them. Seemed like a good idea.

It may seem like less than a good idea after driving for nearly 12 hours to get there.

We will drive straight through tomorrow and will stay one night in a hotel in New Orleans. We will leave the car at the hotel. When we return we will probably drive straight through to get home. But we can be flexible on that.

One of my friends will watch Becky.

The cruise itinerary is the usual “western Caribbean” tour: Roatan, Belize and Cozumel. Nothing special there. But it is a cruise and that means we will have a fun week.

Categories: Caribbean, Cruise, LA | Leave a comment

28

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Sparky

Degrees, that is. Yes, we had a low of 28 on Monday – 4 degrees below freezing. There was frost on our windshields. Plants froze. Pipes didn’t. And it didn’t snow. But it could have.

Not Florida weather. And not weather I like. Too damn cold for anything outdoors, including softball. It is supposed to be cold all week, though only one more day of sub-freezing lows. But that is one too many.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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