Saturday, July 5, 2014

Cruisin

I went on an amazing cruise with mom!!

We left out of Galveston then cruised down to Cozumel and back. Mom had her first cruising experience earlier last year. She and dad went on an Alaskan cruise for her birthday. They left out of Vancouver, funnily enough. The two of them visited Vancouver before I ever did! They had an absolute blast and now it's mom's ideal vacation. Our's was a shorter trip, just Thursday to Monday.

We boarded the boat Thursday midday and set sail Thursday late afternoon. Our restroom had a handy-dandy bottle opener attached to the wall!


We didn't do much the first day. I took a nap before the boat even left! Then we found the spa on board! Got manicures that night and signed up for pedicures the next day. We had a great dinner and managed to stay up late enough to watch Frozen played on the big screen at the pool. Mom had never seen it! It was the sing along version so it had all the words across the bottom with a bouncing indicator so we can all follow along. It was pretty entertaining. I think the cruise planners weren't quite on target though, because the average person on the cruise had just graduated high school. Though, with Frozen, I think that might actually be the perfect target audience... Disney knows no bounds.


Friday was our day lying out on the deck! I wanted a tan for the wedding, so in typical fashion I didn't put on sunscreen. This is not recommended. We really weren't outside for very long, yet I still wound up as red as the awful tile in the bathrooms. We didn't make it very far out that night because I was in some substantial pain. This was also the day I found out I didn't do well on large ships. On a small boat where I can feel the boat move and see the water at the same time, I don't have any issues. The cruise ship was just too big for me. I didn't feel the rocking of the ocean, so when I looked out and saw water flying past, my stomach started to flip circles. This led to me trying to stay indoors for the remainder of the trip. Dinner was fancy attire only that night, so we traipsed back up to the top deck for some buffet treats.

Saturday was the day at Cozumel! The boat docked there around 9 am. We grabbed breakfast on the ship and then ventured out into the vast regions of Mexico! You exit the ship and have to walk a decent way down a boardwalk that seems like it will go on for days. To then enter the country, you have to proceed through the largest duty free shop I've seen yet. This dumps you out into a massive shopping area with all sorts of jewelry, alcohol, and touristy garbage. We waded our way through all of this and out onto the main front street promenade, the fanciest place on the island. Then we saw him. Speedy Gonzalez. The horse of our dreams. He and his driver, Freddie, were offering tour rides around the island! We figured it was the easiest way to see the place. We had no interest in shopping, but the sight seeing is always up our alley. They showed us all the best spots, and we got the insider scoop on the local places! It was quite an adventure!

We went back earlier that day. The ship was going to leave at 4 pm, so we went back around 1 pm. We grabbed lunch and snagged a chair on the top deck that was in the shade! It was really nice to be outdoors with the breeze and still covered. The perfect spot! We read and lounged and had frozen drinks! It was absolutely fantastic! Right after the ship left, we went back to the spa for our free ladies party. We got facials and a foot analysis. We felt pampered and delightful and ready for dinner and the NBA Finals! It was awesome to watch the Spurs beat the Heat on the top deck of the boat, with the wind in our hair and a crowd full of Spurs fans!

Sunday was the most fun! We participated in a couple of trivia contests! The first was a Musical Trivia Contest. Mom and I dominated! They played part of a song from the show and you had to guess which one. We got 16 out of 20, tying for first place with the group of gay men at the corner of the bar. The cruise guy leading the contest only had one ship on a stick prize to offer, so we had to do a rock-paper-scissors play off to see who would walk away triumphant. Disregard the fact that there were 6 of them and 2 of us. Fine. We'll take on your best rock-paper-scissors player. We lost. That's alright. We tried again at the Disney Trivia Contest! Only, we got 14 out of 20 on that one. Oh well. It was still tons of fun!

Sunday night we went to the piano bar! There was a circular bar in the middle of the room with fake piano keys around it. The piano was in the middle with the microphone for those drunkies brave enough to sing along. We had a couple of drinks and sang a few songs and had a splendid time overall! Also, the roof was all oysters...



Monday was back to shore. We wound our way off the ship and back to the car. The trip was absolutely incredible. It was amazing to have some one-on-one time with my mom, and visit Mexico for the first time. Also, we stopped at Shipley's on the way home!