Well, we're back from our cruise... and having major withdrawals! I cannot believe how much fun we had, and how addicted to cruising we are already. I mean where else can you get delicious food whenever you want (24 hr ice cream and pizza included), have your room cleaned three times a day with a mint on your pillow and a little towel guy folded nicely on your bed and entertainment at your fingertips? Oh, and its already paid for! Getting on and off the boat was, well an experience all in its own. We could easily complain about that process, but the good outweighs the bad so I'm not even going to go there. The ship was absolutely beautiful! It was decorated in a Renaissance theme, and there was artwork all over the place. It was so clean! The entire trip everywhere you turned there was someone cleaning something.
The first day was exploration, of course. Checking out our room, checking out our parents room, finding food, etc It was all good until... uh oh, I got sea sick! We were watching the first show in the "Taj Mahal" show lounge, which was located at the front of the ship, where there is the most motion. Zach and I headed back to the room where I put on the motion sickness patch. Well, somehow I got some in my eye and it dilated one of my pupils! Just one, I looked really scary for about 12-24 hrs.Zach, of course, didn't get the slightest motion sickness!
The second day we shopped on the boat, hit the casino, played some bingo, lounged by the pool, it was great! Somewhere along the way my mom got stung by a bee on her balcony. Oops! We ate at the dining room on both formal nights, and we ate at the private restaurant, which was honestly too fancy for us all. But it was fun! Zach and I mostly ate at the fresh sushi bar, we really miss it and are going to have to learn how to roll our own now!
Puerto Vallarta was not impressive. The guys went golfing, but agreed it was a pretty dirty place. My mom and I tried to go shopping, but did not feel safe at all! We ended up heading back to the boat, and going to the spa! The special of the day was a back massage, foot massage, scalp massage, and facial with a free spa product. It was awesome, although, I guess I'm ticklish! :)
Mazatlan was actually ok. It was authentic Mexico, but a little cleaner than P.V. The shopping was better, and the beach would have been if it weren't overcast. I had a blast in the cab because I got to use a lot of my spanish. My mom and Zach were just kind of along for the ride while I chatted it up with the cabby! He said I had very good spanish, I felt very proud!
Cabo San Lucas was nice. Very Americanized, everyone spoke english, but it was also more expensive. We got off the ship, walked around and then headed to our scuba lesson. We had about 15 minutes talking about scuba diving and then got into our suits! Wow, that was tough getting into that thing! We spent about 30 minutes in the pool practicing, which was very helpful. Zach was surprised how difficult it was to coordinate your breathing, I had gone before, but it still takes awhile to get used to breathing. So we finally head out, and even though everyone in our group went to the bathroom before we got in our wetsuits, we had to go. Um, the "bathroom" on this teenie boat was absolutely ridiculous. It was this door, and you can barely fit in this tiny space, well it has a top that you can pull over you if you need some privacy because when you sit down your head is basically sticking out the top. I really had to go but I thought "No way am I getting this suit back on if I try and take it off! And no way can I go in that tiny space!" That was until this other woman, about my age, said she didn't care she had to go. Well, she sure had a difficult time, but I figured if she could do it, I could. Before I could get my suit off, her husband (her 6'3" husband) ran in there. It was hilarious! The door barely covered his bum because he was so tall and the bathroom was so small! Imagine someone standing up in a limo out the sun roof! HAHA Well I finally went, woah that was an experience, but more so was getting that darn suit back on!!! When we actually dove it was Zach, me and this other fella plus the diver. So our little group was the last to dive, so in goes the one guy, and
I'm up. Im standing on the platform (looking completely ridiculous by the way) in my flippers, with this HEAVY tank trying not to tip over from the waves, oh and I have a weight belt on to make matter worse. I'm about to dive in, and up comes that guy freaking out because his weight belt came off. Oh crap. I swear, it took an eternity to get him all situated, meanwhile I'm about to DIE standing there, rocking all over, and definitely back-side heavy. Finally, I jumped in! Zach was sitting compfortably watching! The dive was great, beautiful fish, oh except the JELLY FISH that swam right in front of my face. That was scary. Our dive was kind of cut short, due to, of course, the other guy not using his oxygen wisely and running out after about 35 min. Once on the boat everyone started throwing up everywhere. It was disgusting. I guess they swallowed too much salt water?The last day on the ship was mellow, kind of sad knowing we were leaving the next day. We want to cruise again VERY soon! We're trying to plan one now actually, for the Caribbean. So that was our vacation. And now its back to reality...
