Eric Holen

Earlier this month, Yvette treated me and herself to a 4-day cruise aboard the Carnival Ecstasy for my 40th birthday. Like last year, Yvette let me decide what I wanted to do and I chose the cruise to celebrate. This was our sixth cruise, our fourth time traveling to Cozumel, our third time departing from Galveston, our second 4-day cruise, and our first cruise in December. Except for the weather, I could not have been happier with the cruise.

I brought the idea up the idea of a cruise to Yvette in August and when we found a deal for $269 per person, she was sold. It had been almost 20 months since our previous cruise. I was little nervous about it only being a 4-day cruise, given that our last four cruises had been 7-day affairs. While I won’t give up the longer cruises, one of the great things that Yvette and I agreed about with the shorter cruise is that there was a lot less stress from planning and packing, giving us more time to enjoy ourselves.

The cruise departed on a Thursday. That morning, Yvette and I tucked the “kids” into their cages and drove to Galveston. The drive wasn’t bad, but we had a late start because we were so relaxed. We still made it to Galveston with plenty of time to spare. It was cold that day and we were bundled up in our coats. Yvette made a comment about whether I thought Carnival would have any Christmas directions, which I thought was funny. Since this was our sixth cruise, we received our gold Sail & Sign cards which serve as our access to the ship, onboard charge card, and room key. When we reach our 10th cruise, we’ll graduate to platinum cards. Carnival was taking the H1N1 virus seriously and had short questionnaires for guests to fill out before they boarded. We probably spent an hour working our way through the security checkpoint, registration and on to the ship, but its part of the fun and it only builds the anticipation.

We got on the ship and immediately admired the Christmas decorations in the main lobby. Then we headed off to our room to drop our stuff before exploring. The ship had gone through a refit within the last several months and we were very pleased with how she looked. While the bathroom wasn’t as big as what we had on the Carnival Conquest, they added lighting which opened it up. The room had a flat panel television while the bed had a thick comforter that felt so soft. We couldn’t unpack any luggage because it had not arrived so, after admiring the room, we headed off to explore the ship.

While the ship has the same over design as Carnival’s other Fantasy-class ships, it’s still fun to explore its differences. With the recent refit of the ship, Carnival added large fake palm trees on the Lido deck, giant water slides on the back of the ship, an adult’s only quiet area with a hot tub, and a 9-hole miniature golf course. Yvette and I agreed that the ship looked great.

On the first day, even before the ship leaves port, we had been required to participate in a life boat drill. Each cruise we would take pictures of ourselves in our life jackets during the drill. However, Carnival has replaced the life boat drill with a safety briefing that did not require us to bring our life jackets to our muster station. After the drill, Yvette headed back to the cabin to wait for the luggage and unpack while I continued exploring and taking pictures.

One of the surprises on any cruise is who your dinner mates will be. On this cruise, we ate dinner with Mark, Joey his partner, Nancy who is Mark’s employee, and Lisa who is Nancy’s daughter. This was their first cruise. Nancy was going for her birthday and had brought along her daughter. Mark was going just because Nancy went, and he brought along Joey. This was the best group of dinner mates that Yvette and I have had on any of our previous cruises. We had lots of conversation and laughter each night. It was also the first cruise where we hung out with our dinner mates outside of the dining room.

On our first day at sea, Yvette and I signed up for a spinning class. Our hope was that the physical activity would help offset the good food and drink. I unfortunately had a collision with the bike when my foot flew out of the pedal, which came around and then gouged me in the shin. I finished the class while watching the blood run down my leg into my sneaker. I was able to wash my sneaker in the room and Yvette, who had packed a first aid kit, bandaged me up.

With the cold weather, Yvette and I did not sit out on deck. Instead, we spent time playing in the Casino, shopping, playing games with each other and reading.

Our arrival in Cozumel was uneventful and since we were doing this trip on the “cheap”, we skipped the shore excursions and opted for shopping. Cozumel is one of our favorite destinations. While we were shopping, a storm rolled through so we stopped and ate lunch in port. With shopping complete, we headed back to the ship. The ship’s departure was delayed for almost 30 minutes while waiting for a family of 5 to return. That evening, we and several others, commandeered one of the bars in the back of the ship and watched the Florida/Alabama and then the Texas/Nebraska football games on large flat-screen televisions. The crowd kept growing and getting louder throughout the games, but we all had a great time. In addition, Mark, Nancy and Lisa joined us to watch the Texas game.

Later that evening, I played a round of laser tag in a large inflatable arena. Out of the five of us who played, I came in second behind a teenage girl.

It was warmer on our second day at sea, and people were lying out by the pools. Yvette and I headed up to play some serious rounds of miniature golf. It was close, but in the end I managed to beat Yvette.

While Yvette and told me that we weren’t going to take any formal portraits on my birthday cruise, which lasted all of a couple minutes. We ended up taking lots of pictures and walked away with a couple or poses that we really liked. The only formal portraits that Yvette and I have of us were taken on cruise ships. This was also the first cruise were we bought the picture that they took of us getting off of the ship in port. Yvette said we looked good in it.

Unfortunately, the cruise had to come to an end; however, we were in for a surprise. I really enjoy watching operational stuff, so I got up early on our last day to watch us arrive in port. However, when I got to the front of the ship, I noticed we were in thick fog and moving very slowly. Later, the cruise director would announce that the Port of Galveston was closed until later that morning. We ended up arriving at the dock just before 1:00 PM, which after getting approval to leave the ship, getting our baggage, and clearing Customs, put us back into Austin at 8:30 PM.

Even with the weather, Yvette and I had a great time and would do a 4-day cruise again, just not in December.

In my birthday card, my mom included a letter titled “The Story of Eric”. The letter touched me and I wanted to share it with you.

You were conceived in March 1969. You were the result of a very much wanted and very planned pregnancy. (Eric’s Note: Parts removed for privacy, but I was my parent’s second child; they lost the first after a very premature birth.)

You were due on December 3rd. On December 3rd, 4th, and 5th your father came home from work to find me sitting on the couch crying because I hadn’t gone into labor yet. On Saturday, December 6th I went to the hospital with contractions but was sent home with a Seconal because I wasn’t dilated far enough. I went to the kitchen and cooked scrambled eggs and while I was carrying breakfast to the dining room the sleeping pill kicked in and I collapsed to the floor spilling scrambled eggs all over the carpet. I crawled up the stairs and went to bed and slept all day.

I woke that afternoon. The contractions were stronger so we went back to the hospital. You were born at 5:57 PM. In the delivery room when I heard you cry, I broke down and sobbed “He is alive. He is really alive.”

I stayed in the hospital for 2 1/2 days. In 1969 fathers were considered “dirty” and every time they brought you to my room to nurse, he would have to leave. On Tuesday morning we were both discharged. The nursery nurse came into the room with you in your crib. When I got your “coming home” clothes out of my suitcase the nurse asked me if I wanted to dress you. I told her “No, you can do it.” Actually I was afraid to dress you because I was afraid I would break your arm putting your shirt on.

A few days after you were home one of my neighbors (a women in her 30s with 3 kids) asked me where I gave you a bath – in the kitchen or in the bathroom. When I evaded her question she realized that I hadn’t given you a bath yet so she showed me how to do it. I don’t know how you managed to survive.

Since Christmas was coming I took a “naked baby” picture of you on a blanket. I got a dozen copies of the picture so I could send it to all of the relatives in my Christmas cards. However, when I got the pictures back you were so skinny that your ribs were visible. So I never sent the pictures.

In May, when you were 5 months old, I got pregnant with Beth. In July, I stopped nursing you and put you on formula.

Your brothers and sisters owe you a debt of gratitude. You were the baby that I “practiced on”.

Note: I wrote this entry in December, but forgot to post it until now.

I celebrated my birthday earlier this month. For the last two years, the celebration included renting a margarita machine and having friends over at the house for a barbeque dinner. In early November, I had a change of heart about this year’s celebration and told Yvette that I wanted to spend a weekend with her in Fort Worth instead of having a party. It surprised her for a minute, but then she shot back “It’s your birthday and we’ll do whatever you want.” (I knew there was a reason I still love her so much after almost 12 years)

We departed Austin on Friday (Dec 5) and worked our way up I-35. In Waco, we detoured to a Sonic so that I could have a Caramel Java Chiller, a cross between an iced coffee and a shake. Yvette decided that she wanted to try their new chocolate cheesecake bites. The coffee was good, but the cheesecake bites were too sweet for us. With Yvette’s diabetes and my struggle with weight, we don’t eat that much sugar.

We continued on to Dallas where we stopped by the side of the highway to take pictures of Texas Stadium. From there, we headed on to Los Colinas to see The Mustangs of Los Colinas sculpture and museum. We had heard about the sculpture during previous trips, but had not stopped by. This was probably one of Yvette’s favorite stops because of the horses. We spent about an hour and then took a break for lunch.

We stopped at Sonny Bryan’s a Dallas-area barbeque restaurant. The food was good, but we like our Austin-area barbecue better.

Following lunch, we traveled to the Gaylord Texan Hotel in Grapevine to see ICE! At Gaylord Texan. The exhibit, which is housed in a 14,000 square foot tent kept at a chili 9 degrees, featured many large ice sculptures and scenes carved out of 2 million pounds of ice. They bundled us up in bright blue parkas before we entered. I asked one of the attendants whether the cold would affect my camera, he said “no” since I would only be in there for 15 minutes. Well, I was in there approximately 20 minutes and I could feel the cold in every part of body. The sculptures were beautiful.

From the Gaylord, we stopped briefly at the Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine. It is much bigger than our Cabela’s in Buda. By this time, Yvette and I, who were both suffering from colds, decided to call it an early evening. We continued on to Fort Worth, stopping at Wal-Mart for medicine, and the hotel and dinner. In the hotel that evening, I figured out that Fort Worth had a Federal money printing facility that gave tours; unfortunately, it was only open on the weekdays.

On Saturday morning, we headed off to the Fort Worth Stockyards where we walked a lot, shopped a little, and saw the cattle drive. I convinced Yvette to ride a mechanical bull, but she convinced the operator not to toss her off. I ran through a stockyard maze trying to find four stations with hole punches that spelled out MAZE. It took me 14 minutes, which was a little
worse than average. Yvette and I also took a tour of Billy Bob’s, which was smaller than we both expected.

We took a bus downtown, thinking that we would find something. We ended up eating hamburgers and then walking several blocks to the see the Fort Worth Water Gardens. I climbed down into one of the fountains, which was permitted, while Yvette watched. Afterwards, we struggled to find a bus back because a “holiday run/walk” had many of the downtown streets blocked off. We finally made it back and then decided to go dancing and play poll at a small bar just west of the Stockyards. We stayed late then walk back into the Stockyards for a snack before heading back to the hotel.

On Sunday morning, we stopped at a Hispanic grocery store and restaurant, similar to one in San Marcos, had a great breakfast and then headed home. In all, besides feeling sick, it was a great birthday trip.

Check out the some of the pictures from out trip.