My first girls' trip and first cruise!



Where to begin?  Grandma Deb surprised Aunt Heather, Aunt Jaymie, and I with a weekend cruise to Mexico!  She spent many months planning for it and helping us to get ready, and I am so grateful for her and for the time the four of us enjoyed together.  I had never gone on a cruise before, let alone a girls' weekend, and, well, now I completely understand why people do it.  It was energizing and relaxing and FUN!

 

Our trip started on Friday, April 12th.  (It was a great weekend for Jason to be with the kids--no Boy Scout camp outs, no baseball games, just time to play!)  Mom, Heather, and Jaymie flew into the Long Beach airport and I picked them up from there.  I didn't have too many problems driving down--I just don't like passing semis in LA traffic. :)  From there we grabbed a nice lunch at a Red Robin and then parked at the Long Beach port, where our "terminal" to the ship awaited.  We got there around 1:30pm, so the lines were really short.  (Note to self--get there early!)  We showed our booking passes and passports/licenses and were given plastic cards for use on the ship.  Those little cards were pretty important, like our "ship licenses."  They were our room keys, our entrance to dinner in the dining rooms, our drink cards, etc.  We also had our pictures taken and linked to our cards, so it was a pretty good security system. 

 

We were all pretty happy to find we could take care of our own bags and keep them with us.  Several people used porters who delivered their luggage right outside their staterooms on the ship, which sounded like a good idea until you saw luggage up and down the hallways, free for the taking!  At least one person had their luggage stolen that I was aware of.  No thanks!

We checked out our staterooms on the Empress Level (Deck 7), unpacked, freshened up, and then walked around to familiarize ourselves with the ship.  I remember we took a tour of the spa and gym(fun but pricey), and some of us bought drink passes, for unlimited sodas and juices.  (That cost about $22--if I do this again, I'd probably pass and just drink water the whole time.  I think I got one glass of Sprite and then cranberry juice at dinners, but that was it.)  We viewed art at a gallery on the same level.

One really neat thing about the cruise was the diversity of those employed on the ship.  They all wore tags with their names and country of origin, kind of like missionaries, ha-ha!  Hungary, Dominican Republic, Croatia, Philippines, South Africa, etc!  Most spoke English well, too.

 

  



A view of our ship, the Carnival Inspiration, at Long Beach Port. 

The stateroom I shared with Jaymie.  Mom and Heather were right next door.  I loved the window!!!
 

View looking up from Deck 7
 

For breakfast and lunches we ate very well at buffets, but at 6pm each night we met for a fancier dinner in the Mardi Gras dining room.  The first night was dressy casual.  We were shown to a table set for 10 people--Mom was confused because she'd worked it out through her travel agent for us to have a table to ourselves.  Jaymie and Heather went to try to fix that, but in the end we were glad to be at that table and meet some new folks, who we shared the same table with each dinner.  We met Ryan and Jenny, Keith and Ivy, and Karla and her hubby (didn't get his name).  I think they were all from California, if I remember right.  They were fun, interesting, and polite.  They were amazed that Deb would take her daughter and daughters-in-law on a cruise!  We also had the same servers the entire cruise--Jimmy from the Philippines, Consuela, and a guy who served drinks but I can't remember his name.  They memorized all of our names the first night, so we felt like we were with family.  Heather and Jaymie came up with a "rule" that you had to try something new at every meal, so I went crazy and ordered escargot from the appetizer menu (snails, with LOTS of garlic and butter--they tasted like tough mushrooms).  We were also forbidden to mention weight, calories, or exercise, ha-ha! :)

Mom and I experienced a little motion sickness for the first time at dinner that night.  I think we got pretty lucky--it was a mild, almost imperceptible rocking movement.  I used wrist bands and Dramamine; Mom had a bag full of tricks that she used, too. :)  We got along pretty well!

Before we went back to our staterooms for the night, we enjoyed watching some karaoke. There were a couple people who got up who I could have listened to all night long--they were great! 

That night Jaymie and I experienced what the phrase "booze cruise" means.  Around 11:00pm, some young men started screaming and cussing in the hallway right outside our room.  For 2 straight hours we endured this.  It was so bad, that it got to the point where I was more bothered by the noise level than the constant swearing.  We both thought the other was asleep and didn't want to bother each other, but once we realized we were both awake, Jaymie jumped up and called security.  It died down pretty quickly after that, and we squashed it quick when the same thing happened the following night.  Thankfully Grandma and Heather slept through the whole thing!  It was eye-opening to learn that many people got drunk and stayed drunk the entire weekend, to help them deal with hangovers.  Craziness!  Guest services tried to reach us several times that weekend to check in and see that we were taken care of--I thought that was nice; I just wish there had been some kind of "brig" where we could throw those guys!

Saturday morning Heather and Jaymie got up and hit the gym.  We all had some breakfast, and then we got ready to get off the boat and explore Ensenada, Mexico.  We were in for some fun times that day!

 

We paid a couple dollars to get on this bus that took us into Ensenada.  I'd imagined that we'd just park it there and do some shopping, but there wasn't much to see.  The guide on the bus did a good job convincing us to take a tour to La Bufadora (a famous marine geyser, one of 3 in the world), and some commercial markets.  We paid another $15 and got ready for the ride of our life, about a 45-minute drive.

 

I think Mom, Heather, and Jaymie would agree with me when I say we got our money's worth with the tour guide, Alejandro.  He was fantastic and kept us thoroughly entertained and interested.  I'm pretty sure I would have been throwing up the whole drive over if it wasn't for him--the drive was scary, windy, and the driver was going really fast! 

 

Alejandro taught us how to barter, too--

 

1) First you ask, "How much do you want for this?"

 

2)  Whatever they say, you offer 40% less, and don't worry about the "need to feed my family" bit.  They're still getting a profit.

 

3)  If they don't budge, you start walking away.

 

4)  They'll scramble back to you!  Deal's on!

 

I used this "strategy" to get some nice Mexican blankets, the one item I planned on buying.  One merchant wanted $135 (US dollars) for a large one, and I balked.  We worked each other for about 15 minutes, and I felt okay about walking away with 2 blankets for about $60!  Woo-hoo!  Of course, the rest of the morning I had to lug the blankets around and every other merchant said they would have given me a better deal, ha-ha!

 

We had a great time that morning looking at the marine geyser and shop, shop, shopping.  Mom bought some good Mexican vanilla; Jaymie, Heather, and I purchased things for the kids.  Unfortunately (but still kind of funny), both Jaymie and Heather had to leavesome of their purchases with security on the ship temporarily.  Apparently whips and sling shots send up signal flares!



 

 

Heading into the commercial market area

I thought the pineapples looked cool--I took a picture for my two Psych fans Rhiannon and Wade

Did I mention Alejandro was a flirt?  We learned he has a son and a wife--they've been married for 19 years.

I love this picture--we were so happy and adventurous that day!

Great shot of La Bufadora

What a memory!

This man played music in the background while we viewed the geyser.

Too funny!  Yep, I used it.  And I thought the restrooms were surprisingly clean!
 

There were lots of things to enjoy the last day and a half of our cruise.  We laid out at the pool and fought for a turn in the hot tub.  One hot tub was overrun by kids, but you couldn't blame them because the pool itself was freezing.  We also got a little "entertainment" when this very drunk woman started throwing these large bean bags at people near the pool and hot tub.  I couldn't get out of there fast enough!

We dressed up for dinner Saturday night, took pictures and saw a "Vegas"-type show that evening.  On Sunday morning we treated Mom to a manicure and massage, and we went for a walk on the jogging track at the top of the ship.  It was cold up there, but after all I'd been eating, it felt good to get a little exercise!  We did a little shopping, continued to eat well, saw comedy shows, and sat in an art auction.  There was always something to do--it was great!

On Sunday morning we got a huge laugh when we went to look at all the "professional" pictures we'd taken the night before.  Some of them turned out pretty well, but there was this one, taken by a nice Hungarian woman, that was super awkward and funny.  She'd had us pose in these uncomfortable positions, and when we looked at the photo, it looked like I had an extra thumb growing out of the side of my hand.  You'd have to see it to believe it, but I chose to leave that bad boy on the ship and save $20! I'm laughing out loud just thinking about how weird it was!!!!!!

Yep, I went down this slide really, really slowly.  I felt old. :)

Mom (hidden) dancing with Jimmy at dinner

Looks like she had fun!

There was a different towel creation waiting for us each night in our staterooms.  I liked this gorilla the best. :)

Our last dinner--they were dancing to Gangnam Style.

What fun!

By Sunday night we were pretty much packed up and ready to exit the boat early Monday morning.  We were off the boat in really good time and got to the Long Beach airport by 9, after a yummy iHop breakfast.  Hard to believe it had only been a few days--I felt like I'd had a week-long vacation!

I know I'm missing lots of things, but, bottom line, we had a fantastic, memorable time and had soooooo much fun together.  I love you, ladies--let's do this again someday! :)