Showing posts with label read. Show all posts
Showing posts with label read. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Readership Cruise: The Trip Back

 We went to our room to rest for a bit.

Our room steward left us this cute creation.

We ate lunch in the Windjammer and enjoyed the views as we left Cabo. We saw quite a few dolphins and whales.

Breaching whale

Group photo before dinner Monday night

We had dinner with our tablemates.
Left side: CL, Natalia, Angela, Jen, Karen
Right side: Me, Rachel, Susan, Scarlet, Claudia

Some pictures of my food. Note that multiple of these dishes were shared with my sister.





Pretty sunset!

We went to see Sonic Odyssey. Twice. It was amazing! The earth harp and the drums were all super impressive. As was the whole show. Definitely recommend!

In between the two showings of Sonic Odyssey, we went to the Shush party where we wore headphones and danced to the music only we (and everyone else with headphones) could hear. There were two channels so not everyone was listening to the same songs. Actually, people without headphones could often hear the music thanks to those with headphones singing. Fun time!


Tuesday morning we woke up due to the movement and groaning of the boat. There were 12 foot swells plus we were going against the current. It did not help that we were in the back of the 13th floor for book clubs most of the day. So lots of ginger! I did enjoy the book clubs. The swaying, not so much. Each author did a book club: "Julia" was led by Traci Abramson, "Frontier Grit" was led by Sarah Eden, "Rules of Matrimony" was led by Sian Bessey, "Winterset" was led by Esther Hatch and "Georgana's Secret" was led by Julianna Donaldson. They were all enjoyable. There was also a bonus book club with "The Maid of Sherwood Forest" with Sian.
Sarah gave everyone who came to her book club a signed "Seeking Persephone" movie poster. My family is so excited!

Julianne, Esther, Traci, Sarah and Sian during the bonus book club. They asked Readership readers to answer questions about which author would be most likely to do something as it pertained to the world of "The Maid of Sherwood Forest" and then had the authors guess who they thought the readers would choose. It was funny. Apparently both Julianne and Sarah are accident prone.

Julianne during her book club.

We got dressed for the Regency Tea Party (which had no tea, just pastries)
Cheryl-Lynn and Me in our dresses

Julianne, Esther, Sian, Sarah and Traci. They had a bunch of rapid fire questions for the authors which was fun. Sarah gave us some behind-the-scenes info about "Seeking Persephone." They taught us some Regency dances and we had the book exchange.

Sarah rapping "Ice Ice Baby" while everyone else dances. It was really fun.

During the dancing.


Do you see Me and Cheryl-Lynn? We are in there.

We had our last dinner in the dining room. CL and Me ordering a lot of food was basically a running joke at this point with our table and wait staff (although most other people were ordering multiple of things as well so I guess we were rubbing off on them). Our waiter told us we could have all the desserts (as opposed to recommending one or two). It was funny. Pictures of my food, some of which were shared with my sister.
Appetizers

Main dishes

Dessert

Left side: CL, Me, Natalie, Claudia, Scarlet
Right side: Rachel, Susan, Angela plus our wait staff: Sikelela from South Africa and Biki from India

Pretty scene

After dinner, we went to the comedian and to a family game show. 

We woke up Wednesday knowing we would soon be disembarking. We packed up and got ready to leave. 

Enjoying our last meal on the boat. The French toast was delicious!

My badge from the cruise. Each of the writers plus a few other people had ribbons for us. It made our badges quite long!

Me in the Readership shirt she won. (She won two shirts so gave this one to CL.)

A few pictures of our room. We had an oceanview room which was nice. I sure am glad we were on the 3rd deck with all the movement on the boat.



We waited as long as we could to get off the boat since our flights weren't until the afternoon. We ended our cruise how we started it: chilling in the Two70 until they kicked us off the boat.

Our boat!

CL and Me with Quantum of the Seas


Overall I enjoyed the cruise, especially the time with my sister. I will note that my world rocked quite significantly for a number of days after getting off the boat. While it was nice when I was being rocked to sleep, it was challenging when I swayed when standing.

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Readership Cruise: The Trip Out

 Friday morning, mom and dad dropped us off at the cruise port.

Quantum of the Seas

Me and CL

We grabbed some lunch and hung out in the Two70 until we could go to our room.
It was a nice area with lots of big windows.

Cheryl-Lynn and Me

We went on bumper cars.
Me

Cheryl-Lynn

We went to choir practice for our Sunday devotional and then found out logistical info from the Readership cruise organizers. There were around 230 of us in our group!

Cheryl-Lynn and Me split escargot as part of our dinner. We met our tablemates. There are 4 sets of sisters plus two friends.

After dinner, we went to Star Water in the Two70 lounge. It was interesting. Strange? No real story line. Then we wandered around the ship so CL could get steps.

Saturday we were able to sleep in, eventually making our way to the main dining room for breakfast. It was good. I even had key lime pie since it was so delicious the night before.

Fruit plate

Eggs benedict and hashbrowns

The towel animal our room steward made for us.


We made Dorset buttons and played some games with Readership cruise people. Then we got in our fancy dresses and went to the author trivia. That was so hard! Intentionally so according to what the authors said.

Group photo after author trivia

There were 4 people with Me's name in the Readership group (although two spell it with "My" instead of "Me). Here is a photo with three of us. I never did meet the 4th.

We then went to dinner where we had some yummy food and enjoyed visiting with our tablemates.

Yummy lemon tart with dinner.

Me won the higher/lower game which was crazy! Here she is with her prizes.

We walked around the decks some more so CL could get steps. We had 7 foot swells so there was a decent bit of rocking.

Sunday morning, we had a devotional with Paul Eden (Sarah's husband) sharing what it is like to be in the Tabernacle Choir (you have to like to sing a lot). Tyler gave a message on serving the least of these. Traci Abramson talked about being kind and magnifying our strengths. The choir, which we sang in as altos, sang "Glorious."

We went to the author signing/meet and greet.

Julianne Donaldson, CL, Me

CL, Traci Abramson, Me

Esther Hatch, CL, Me

Sian Bessey, CL, Me

Me, CL, Sarah Eden

Me and CL

We booked the free North Star Experience for the first time slot available and were able to be up there as we were coming into port which was super cool! We got to see some whales as well as the Cabo arch.
Angela, Natalie, CL, Rachel, Me

Me with the arch in the background.

We ate lunch and prepared for our time off the boat.