Gallavanting without supervision

THANKSGIVING CRUISING CRUSADE


As many of you already know, and others of you have blatantly pointed out to me... I am way beyond spoiled. I know this. I have an amazing family, a best friend for a husband, loyal friends, a fun job, and am blessed with so many opportunities to do awesome things. I am so thankful for this phase of my life - It seems I have everything I need and more . Well, I guess this is one more post to prove what a brat I am...

For Thanksgiving this year my younger sister and I celebrated in a nontraditional manner. We booked a cruise, just the two of us, and had a splendiferous time in Mexico! Sort of a crazy last minute sort of trip, which kind of suits us. A 4 day adventure where we made some unforgettable, irreplaceable memories.

We hopped in my car and started driving Sunday the 21st of November. It was afternoon by the time we left Provo, but with some tunes and a book on tape we got off to a pretty good start. But we must have been distracted because we nearly ran out of gas at one point. We were very grateful to see this little podunk gas station in the middle of nowhere.

There was so much wind at this stop! It was surprisingly cold considering we had made it to a place with palm trees. After our little rest stop we were pretty ambitious about making good time to Long Beach - but then the weather rolled in and the traffic hit! So much for making good time. There was an accident somewhere in Nevada that had us basically at a stand still. People started getting out of their cars and building snowmen on the side of the road. I don't think I have ever seen a line of headlights as long as that! We were going a little stir crazy, but kind of fun to look back on. The trip that normally takes around 13 hours took us a total of 19 hours.
We arrived at the port and saw our ship in the harbor. Carnival Paradise - what a beautiful site after such a long drive.


We boarded in time to catch the end of the lunch buffet, and then gave ourselves the grand tour.I never can orient myself very well on cruise ships so it's a good thing ShaNae has a better sense of direction than I do. There were a lot of levels to navigate filled with lounge areas, ballrooms, and shops.

At first we used the stairs a lot, because elevators sometimes give my motion sickness a jump start. But ShaNae had sprained her ankle a few days prior to our trip and it was pretty swollen and too much walking was not so good. So we resorted back to elevators for transportation. The glass one that is located in the middle of the ship, was very neat to ride in. We made our way up to the top deck to check out the pool and waterslide.


As you can see we were slightly loopy and extra nasty looking from our drive. We felt a bit like road kill so we decided it was time to go make ourselves comfy in our stateroom! I was actually pleasantly surprised by the size of the room in comparison to the ones I have been in before. The ghastly bright orange decor left something to be desired, but I think the down comforters made up for it. We unpacked a few things and settled in. You would think we would be pumped at this point, and be running rampant through the corridors. The fact is, we did not want to fight the sleep after our long trip and we both preferred a nice nap. The bunk bed was new to me and I liked it!

We were having such a nice relaxing time that we missed the sail away party. It was probably just a gathering on the top deck with some music and what not... I guess we'll never know. That's the great part about a vacation - We didn't have to be anywhere we didn't feel like being! We went up a little later and watched the coast disappear on the horizon. The flag on the back of the boat waved goodbye to Long Beach.

Now that we had our lovely lovely nap, and had set sail, there was nothing that sounded better than a shower! A nice long steaming shower. Both of us took advantage of the infinite hot water available to us. It might as well have been a spa, it felt so good! Before we knew it, dinner time was at and and we weren't about to miss THAT! However, we forgot to take our cameras to that first dinner so I won't be able to display the menu. We both ordered a rack of ribs - mmm!
The two of us were assigned to a table with two other very nice families. Both consisted of Mommy Daddy, Girl and boy. Sometimes it's scary to find out who you will be sharing a table with, but I think this Thanksgiving cruise was more family oriented than most Mexico cruises. We all hit it off pretty well, and now I am wishing we had taken a picture with them.

Honestly, I barely made it through dinner with my eyes open. What a day! Both of us were excited to finally be there, but were definitely exhausted from the trip. So without much in the way of night life activities - it was off to bed with us. We found a little friend waiting in our room; A towel elephant we named Frederick.


We probably would have slept in for quite some time the next morning had it not been for the morning announcements over the loud speaker. We were given instructions on how to get off the ship in Catalina. They were not able to dock on land so we would be taking little tender boats from our ship to the island. So we hit the breakfast buffet up on the Lido deck, then made our way to the exit. The little boats left every half hour so we didn't have to wait long before we were on our way.

Of course the little boats are much worse for seasickness than the big ship - but it was only a short ride and ShaNae was helping me pretend that I was somewhere else. It wasn't the imagery that helped me though, it was probably the humor of her animating it that distracted me.

So there we were in beautiful Catalina. It really is such a cute and colorful little city. As we made our entrance we noticed some great shops where we found some souvenirs. We really didn't have much of an agenda for this stop, so we took our time browsing. We didn't want to spend the money for any of the big excursions so we just wandered around finding our own fun. At one point we thought it would be fun to rent some kayaks, but the weather just wasn't suited for it. We both thought it sounded too wet and cold so we just enjoyed being there.

We made our way up the road, and considered renting a golf cart or scooters for transportation. But when it came right down to it, they just were not worth the money, and it didn't look like there was much ground to cover. If we would have known how bad ShaNae's ankle would get then it might have been worth it! But that's just spilled milk... and we enjoyed our walk up the beach. First we came to the arch passageway and took some pictures.

Then we saw a really cool building in the distance and had to go check it out... It turns out it was a huge theater but I'm not sure what else it was used for because we didn't go inside.

There were lots of cool buildings along the way. Like this cute little beach house...

And when we reached the theater we discovered that the path continued on the far side...

The more we saw the more we liked and I had fun taking a zillion pictures. Our next stop was a rocky pier that jutted out into the ocean. We spent a few minutes there looking out at the vast seascape. It was an awesome view of the ship, and felt kind of like...well... paradise (only a little bit on the cold side.)

Throughout or walk we kept noticing a small structure up on the hill. It was very prominently placed and we couldn't help but wonder how we could get up to it. We found out it was a bell-tower and decided that our next great adventure should be making it up there in time to hear the chimes go off at 3:00. We found a cab service and it was a short ride up the hill. To our dismay we discovered a fence completely blocking off the building.

We explored and found no other way to get close, so I had to leave ShaNae behind with her hurt ankle and I climbed the fence! She was my lookout and it's a good thing too - there were plenty of groups walking by to see the tower and she gave me good warning.... "Caw Caw!" (yes she said this as people approached. hahaha) I got a lot of cool pictures from inside the fence and we heard the bells chime.

It was neat to be up there looking across the cove. When I rejoined ShaNae on the other side of the fence we found a good lookout spot where we could watch the city. The colored roof tops and plethera of ships looked even better from above.

We also found a "Do Not Enter" sign near the bell tower that we found quite humorous. A subtle way of reminding us of our trespassing. I mean... who said anything about trespassing?

But our time was running short, and we had to stop basking in the glow of our adventure. The last boat would leave the island at 4:00. Since the way back was all down hill we decided not to pay for another cab ride and just walked. But we stopped to goof around here and there. Once at a big green mexican door (which kind of tipped over when we touched it), and then a pit stop to rest at a park bench.

We caught the second to last boat back to the ship and our time on Catalina was spent. Once we were back on board we took a few minutes to go look at the photo gallery and check out the pictures that had been taken of us at dinner the previous night. While we were there we noticed a few people all decked out in formal attire?! So we asked around and discovered that it was Formal night! Oh no! We had not planned for this. I thought they would have made it more clear on our schedules, but I guess we just missed the announcement or something. Anyway, we headed straight to our stateroom to get fancied up. And that we did... but not before we spent a few minutes modeling our new sweaters from Catalina!

We clean up pretty good...

We were even ready kind of early and had time to wander through the halls and turn some heads. There were lots of photo backdrops set up all around the ship so we had some fun just going to each one and posing. The photographers liked to throw out flatteries (such as "princesses") to try to get us to their station. We appeased each one and got LOTS of photos taken. At 8:30 we were still in the photo world and realized we needed to go get seated for dinner.

The menu was fabulous and we looked forward to filling our tummies (and stretching out our dresses.) ShaNae ordered her long awaited Surf and Turf - meaning Lobster and steak.

I myself could not resist the plate of prime rib with baked potato. Mmmmm. This is also the night I tried their famous "chocolate melting lava cake with ice cream" and enjoyed it immensely.
We definitely had our fill, but then we felt like we were all dressed up with no place to go. So we ventured to the top deck to frolic about in our formals. It was quite dark by this time and kind of cold too, so there weren't many people up there.

We took a turn about the golf coarse. There was something about the green turf that was reminiscent of a catwalk as we ran on it.

No, she's not doing the Y.M.C.A. --- although the hyper mood was similar to such a situation. She is mimicking the big Carnival tail Y looking thing in the background. "Salty sea air, wind blowing in her face..."

And then some bling attitude as we enter the elevators. I think this stems from knowing her dress was totally awesome and that she looked like a million bucks.

And further into the maze of corridors we did run-a-muk. Enough with the heels and dresses look! Back to our room for yet another transformation (and more silliness) And I must say I think this look is even more ravishing ---



With a shake of the hair and quick change to our luxurious robes - we were stunning.
The towel animal of the night was a fluffy little bunny. He fell victim to our frivolity and ended up looking like this...

We eventually wound down, and made preparations for sleepy time. We ordered room-service for breakfast the next morning. Some fresh fruit, muffins, cold cereal and hot chocolate. We decided the convenience of having it in our room the next day would save us some time and allow us to be in Ensenada longer. So we dreamed of these things, and the knock at the door came earlier than planned --- Knock Knock Knock. Neither of us moved. Knock Knock Knock! Still hoping the other person would get up to answer it. After the third set of knocks I felt bad enough to emerge and answer the door. But it was worth it to have breakfast delivered.

It was all there, but not quite as tasty as we had hoped. And we also had a bit of an incident with the hot chocolate. As ShaNae tasted her first wonderful sip, it began dripping all over the place. It turns out her cup had a giant crack down the side and it made quite a mess!

It didn't take us long to get ready, and then we left the dishes outside our door with a thank you note. (I'm sure they expected a tip, but a thank you note would just have to suffice.) And it was time to get off the ship! I'd been feeling a little woozy and was looking forward to being on land again. We had a few things on our list to accomplish in Ensenada. Seeing the blowhole "La Bufadora" and picking up some specific souvenirs. So as we exited the ship we boarded a bus to get downtown. We did our best to find a good excursion deal - but they herded us all like a bunch of cows and practically forced us to stay with their tour. It was okay though, because a cab ride would have been more than we ended up paying. And our tour guide turned out to be extra entertaining.

His name was Alejandro and he did a good job showing us around and taking a few pictures for us. This tour included a ride to La Bufadora and an hour shopping time in the huge market place near by. The ride was longer than I remembered, but we made it.

We walked through the market to get to the blowhole. We agreed to walk straight through as a group without stopping and then come back and go our separate ways after we saw La Bufadora. The vendors were yelling at us to come into their stores, and enticing us with all sorts of free samples and weird American phrases. They wanted to get us into shopping mode, and I guess it worked for a lot of people because no one stayed very long at the blowhole except for us.


We talked to Alejandro about where we were from and about the snow we left behind. He told us that he thought downhill skiing looked fun. So it was fun to compare cultures for awhile. I guess the tide was out, because the blowhole was not spraying as high as normal. We didn't get picture with the water spraying behind us, but it really was a pretty cool site to see. The rock cliffs and the ocean probably would have been good enough for us country girls. Then back to the market to barter for some stuff. I found a new purse, ShaNae found some jewelery for friends and a cool shirt. But it seemed like we were very rushed. On our way out we found some really cute hats.

Once we were back on the bus we compared our merchandise with everyone else. One of the girls behind us got taken and paid over a hundred dollars for her purse --- I got mine for $20. But she was still happy with her purchase (and I am sure the vendor was happy as well.) Alejandro gave us the option of getting off the bus downtown to do some more exploring or heading back to the ship. We decided we would go back to the ship for the lunch buffet and then have plenty of time to come back.

Lunch was good, but we went back out before too long. We passed a little tent where they were keeping baby lion cubs! They were so cool and their big paws were adorable. It was $20 to hold them and take pictures with them as long as you wanted so we planned to do that on our way back. We were just too anxious to go downtown, so we didn't want to stop just then.

Walking around downtown was pretty interesting. A lot of it had been very Americanized, but there were still a lot of authentic places too. We picked up some Vanilla from a supermarket, which was cheaper than in the vendors shops. While we were there we took a picture with some local kids who were doing some kind of a scavenger hunt. Our other objective was to find a T-shirt or something for Jake. I was picky and it took me forever, and the sun was already going down. As it got darker, it got a little scarier out on the streets and there was a guy selling bracelets who kind of followed us around. I finally settled on a shirt for Jake and we started back.

As a last minute thought we decided we should get something for our stateroom guy. We found a funny little bobble head turkey that made us laugh. We thought it would be good enough if we wrote a note with it that said "Thanks for your service and for spending Thanksgiving with us" or something like that. So we got that for a dollar. A the same stand ShaNae also bought Fedora Hat that we couldn't pass up.

It was really too dark to be out in Mexico by ourselves. I felt better once I saw the ship lighting our way back. It looked extra picturesque and out came our cameras.





We boarded the ship, then it hit us! We forgot to go play with the baby lion cubs! We were so mad at ourselves. Mad enough that we went back out to do it. They had been really close to the ship so we felt like we would be safe - but when we got there the little tent had been closed up for the night. I am sure they only do it until 5:00 or so. DRAT! We had missed our chance. So that is one of our big regrets for this trip I think. It was time to shower and get ready for dinner.


ShaNae looked very snazzy in her new Fedora - the picture doesn't do it justice. It even matched her pin stripe pants perfectly! I borrowed a pair of her clip-on earrings and did a cool twisty hair-do that I was quite proud of. The lady at our table even asked us if we had gone to the Salon to get our hair done... we looked that good :)

During dinner I started feeling really weird. I mixture of nauseous and dizzy and my vision was really blurred. It was different than normal sea-sickness and I was getting kind of worried because I couldn't focus my eyes. I finally remembered that it was listed as a side affect on the instructions for my sea-sick patches. It seems I had overdosed because I was feeling WAY loopy. ShaNae was pretty nice considering how much I complained. It was just so scary and weird feeling. I even had to excuse myself at dinner one time because I just felt like I was going insane. I took off the patch and took my chances for the rest of the night. It didn't get much better but I hoped it would wear off during the night.

We did make it to a show that night. It was a funny onboard version of the newlywed game. They selected three couples from the audience. One set of newlyweds, one set that had been married a few years and then one old couple that had been married a long time. It was funny to hear all the responses and the humor that the old couple had.

After that we went and listened to people Karaoke for awhile. I was very impressed with a few of the performances, but for the most part it was just painful to the ears. Lots of people trying too hard, or people who were drunk. There was even this old lady who had to be over 80 years old who walked up on stage with her cane and sang "These boots are made for walking..." We left before it was over because the D.J. was driving us crazy.

Time for bed again! Back to our luxurious robes and our snuggly beds.

Sleeping in... our specialty. The cabins stay really dark, so it is easy to stay in a sleepy trance all morning. The only thing that can interrupt the slumber is the intercom announcements. You would think they would be a way to turn it off in your room, but there is not. So we slept through a few of them but then faced the day --- THANKSGIVING DAY!

This was a day to be spent at sea. All day aboard the Carnival Paradise and surrounded by water. They anchored the ship out in the ocean somewhere and let us enjoy the day. This was the only day that we really saw the sun. It almost felt warm and we were very happy about that. It must have come out for Thanksgiving :)

We kept waiting for them to announce something exciting going on to Celebrate Thanksgiving, but we never really heard of anything out of the ordinary. Then we went to the lunch buffet thinking it would definitely be something special. But we found it to be the same buffet that was available every day. Feeling a little disappointed we grabbed ourselves some TURKEY sandwiches and then felt better. We also found some swan looking things for dessert and pretended they were turkeys.


Since there wasn't much going on, we decided to change into our swimsuits and go check out the pool. But to our dismay all the hot-tubs were packed and the pools were quite crowded as well. We should have known that everyone would have that idea. So we didn't end up getting in the pools or going down the slide at all - but we did have fun basking in the sun for awhile.


In the afternoon we spent a lot of time searching for photos of ourselves in the photo gallery. We felt so ripped off because we were just not rich enough to spend $20 per picture to purchase them! There were a lot of really great shots of us on formal night and some other fun ones too. We bought one, but were distraught about having to leave the others behind. I mean... they were already printed and they were just going to get thrown away! How sad! So we devised a scheme of how to steal them --- yes you read that right. We were so upset about being ripped off that we pondered disarming the barcode, or hiding them for us to claim after the gallery had closed. Dont worry, we did not succeed on the follow through, but we thought about it! It really was just heartbreaking to only leave with one of them. That's probably why they charge so much, because people pay it! Oh well- we really like the one we got and we try not to think of the others.

The long awaited Thanksgiving Dinner was nigh at hand. We were a little early this night because we were longing for some sort of traditional festivities. The menu came and there it was --- Turkey Dinner! It was in a fancy form, but it was still Turkey and dressing. They also had sweet potato something or other with cranberry sauce, but we didn't pay much attention to that. We both got the Turkey dinner, and an order of ribs on the side. I was also in love with the appetizer I got for this meal. It was a potato soup with cheese. REALLY good. Tasted almost like mashed potatoes to me. As we were eating a guy dressed like a big turkey came around and got pictures taken with us. But that is the extent of the holiday references. So much for their holiday spirit - I guess I expected too much for a four day cruise. But come on... it's Thanksgiving people! :)

We skipped the farewell show. I was still struggling with the blurred vision thing and we both liked the sound of our stateroom. I guess we are kind of homesick and felt drawn to our home base. We found our towel animal - I think they have swans confused with Turkeys. hahaha

We knew the following day would be departure day so we started packing our stuff. Turns out that if we wanted them to take our luggage for us we were supposed to have it outside our staterooms before a certain time. We forgot that little detail and hurried as fast as we could, but didn't put them out in time. Oh well, we would just carry them off the ship ourselves.

Morning came and we said or goodbye's to our stateroom. Good bye ugly cabin!

We made one last sweep to make sure we weren't forgetting anything then left the bobblehead turkey for our stateroom guy with a note. Monkey face in our down comforter was the final farewell.

Then up to the buffet we went. I enjoyed filling my plate with some waffles, hashbrowns and lots of bacon. Since it was our last day we didn't want to be cooped up in the dining room so we found a table outside on the deck. There was a great view of the Queen Mary docked right next to us.

While admiring the view, I set my tray down and was on my way back to get us some drinks - that's when it happened. Attack of the seagulls!!! No wonder no one was eating outside. They came out of nowhere! And those little bacon snatchers ruined my plate of yumminess. grrrr. I had to go through the line again, but it was a good story. I am sure lots of people were laughing at the site of us being swarmed by seagulls through the windows. I had my last of many soft serve icecream cones while we waited for them to call our section to get off the boat.

Once it was time for us to depart we waited in a line for quite a while - but we amused ourselves by taking picture of the ugly "Easter Egg" decor.

The customs line went quite smoothly and efficiently so we made it out in great time.

And thus ends our Thanksgiving cruising crusade. Of course the 15 hour drive home was about to begin...