It’s just 74-1/2 hours until we board the Carnival Ecstasy in Galveston, Texas for a 5 night cruise with our entire family of 5!

We have been looking so forward to this cruise for a long time and now it’s almost time to actually start packing and making final plans for the voyage.

It will be my 3rd cruise, the second one for Ruthie and the first cruise ever for Josh, David and Jon.

Note: for sanity reasons, we opted for our own cabin and the boys will be sharing a cabin. It’s a big ship and we can get lost (see large image) if the noise level gets too high.

Ruthie and i plan to just relax, read and explore the ship, plus take many cool shipboard photos. I’m bringing my small Sony portable and my Canon DSLR camera, so i should be able to get lots of great shots.

Josh, David and Jon have vowed to gobble down a huge share of the vast amounts of food on the ship. There is a 24 hour pizza joint, a (read a review) very good hamburger stand, buffets and formal dining available for all to enjoy. They also plan to spend many hours in the workout room to balance this out.

More on the cruise after we get back on August 23rd.