I woke up at 7:30am on the last day of my cruise. Sleeping in is a thing of the past for me now, even on vacation!

My mom and I decided to eat breakfast in the dining room since it’s usually better food and it surely was! I ordered an English muffin, omelet, and sausage and it was so delicious. The service is usually slower but the food more than makes up for it! We also ordered mimosas, which was just the icing on the cake. Yum, yum!

After breakfast, we headed down to the Serenity Deck where we found two chairs together. It was overcast on this day, with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds every once in a while but never enough to get the full effect. I didn’t mind, though! It still felt really good to be out on the deck. I did my usual: reading and people watching and trying to sleep. It was a wonderful, wonderful morning!

For lunch, we decided to dine in the dining room for the first time on this cruise. I’m usually not a big fan of eating in the dining room for breakfast or lunch because they seat you at a table with strangers and it just feels very awkward for me. Luckily, on Paradise, they had all the tables sectioned off so we were able to eat by ourselves. I was very happy about this!

The lunch was okay, but nothing spectacular. And at the table next to us sat an older couple who complained for the entire meal. It was very annoying!

Anyway, after lunch, I decided I wanted to nap in the cabin so that’s what I did! I took a beautiful three-hour nap and it was all sorts of lovely. I really miss those mid-afternoon naps, for sure!

I woke up leisurely and then slowly got ready for dinner. There was a family-friendly comedy show at 7:30 so we got ready early so we could see that before going to dinner. We weren’t too impressed with the adults-only comedy so we were hoping this would be better. We ordered our last drinks of the cruise to watch the comedy and then settled in for some laughs!

…or not.

It just wasn’t very good and the comic recycled a lot of his jokes from the night we saw him last – just tamer and without the curse words. What a bummer! I’m hoping the comedy on my next cruise is much better than this one.

The last dinner is always sad, as everyone talks about preparing to leave the next day. I was feeling very thankful for my 15-minute drive back to my house from the port since two other couples (who live in North Carolina) have a 10-hour drive. No, thank you!

This was the first cruise I’ve been on where everyone seated with us comes to every meal. We had a really fantastic group – which is funny considering I thought it was going to be the worst group I’ve had! There were funny stories told, inside jokes made, and memories that will stay with me forever. We all sat around the table long after dinner was complete and gave hugs to everyone when saying goodbye. I was so sad to leave these fabulous people!

The rest of the night was fairly low-key. None of the performances interested us, so we poked around in the gift shop and then went back to our cabin to pack and prepare for debarkation the following day.

And there you have it! The recap of my wonderful, fabulous, oh-so-fun 2013 cruise. We booked this trip a bit spur-of-the-moment and I didn’t see any new islands in the Caribbean, but it was still amazing, amazing, amazing. I can’t wait for my next one!

Day 4 was Cozumel day! We had a crazy day planned, but our excursion didn’t start until later in the morning so we had the opportunity to sleep in and take our time with breakfast. I woke up at 6:30am (thanks to my lovely internal alarm clock!) but lazed around in bed before getting up and ready for the day.

(We were side-by-side another Carnival ship when we pulled into the port! There was also a Royal Caribbean cruise docked so Cozumel was filled with tourists!)

In Cozumel, we signed up to participate in The Amazing Cozumel Race, a mini-version of the reality TV show The Amazing Race (a show my mom and I are both addicted to and yes, it’s on my “30 Before 30” list to audition for the show.) The reviews of the excursion were great, gaining 4.9 out of 5 stars from 60+ reviews. We weren’t running to win any medals, just wanted a different type of excursion that allowed us to see and do more in Cozumel.

We got off the boat, checked in, and picked a team name (The Stella’s, after my mom’s favorite beer! Ha.) We were given a race packet with a map and items we would use during the race, as well as a working cell phone to use if we ever got lost. There was one woman doing the excursion alone so she joined our team. This was both good and bad. Good because she was fluent in Spanish and had no problem asking random strangers for directions. (This is not our strength!) Bad because she was very overbearing, a bit bossy, and kind of annoying. She just had one of those personalities that I clash with. I don’t do well with loud, overbearing personalities. But, by the same token, I’m not sure we would have done as well as we did without her so she was a worthwhile member of our team. It just soured the experience just a bit.

The race started with everyone hopping into a van and heading over to Margaritaville, which is in the heart of downtown San Miguel – Cozumel’s largest town. We took a race photo, learned more about the race, and were handed our first clue!

The easiest way for me to recap the race without detailing every single thing we did (mundane!) is to make a list of all the fun (and not-so-fun) things that happened during the race. (Also, I took about 0 pictures during the race itself, because I was too focused on winning! No, not really. But I was focused on the race and not on taking pictures.)

• Walking about a mile in downtown San Miguel in the heat of the day, ankles burning, and seeing team after team run by us. This is when I started regretting signing up for this excursion and cursing myself. We’re only 10 minutes into the race at this point so not the best start. Not the best start at all.
• Exploring an authentic Cozumel history museum. All the information plaques were in Spanish, French, or Italian (which made it hard to look for clues!) but it was still very interesting to walk around all the artifacts and fill out our worksheet, which would lead us to our next clue. (And, quite frankly, I was so happy to be in the air conditioning after walking around the streets for 20 minutes!)
• Hearing all the local shop owners shout at us, “Amazing Racers!” every time we were in the streets. I had heard that the local community gets really involved and helpful but it was so neat to witness it firsthand. They would let us know how many blocks to go until our next destination and shout and cheer as we passed. It was really, really cool!
• My mom getting a henna tattoo! The tattoo had a Mayan symbol on it that would lead us to our next clue.
• A really annoying boat ride that would take us to a sunken ship where we would find another clue. I had mentioned to my mom and our partner that I wanted to snorkel for the clue. It just seemed fun and I was really excited to get in the water and do it. (Plus, I just wanted to cool off!) But our partner decided she wanted to snorkel, too, and took over. At this point, we had been racing for a little over an hour and I was hot, tired, and hungry and just wanted to get done soon. So I decided to let our partner snorkel and my mom and I stayed in the boat. I’m bummed I didn’t get the chance to snorkel, but it was for the best, I suppose.
• Working with another team to decipher a long clue that would give us our next destination to find. It felt like we were really in The Amazing Race, especially after we followed them to find that destination and beat them to the lady holding the clue.
• Racing through the streets of the real Cozumel. Thus far, I had only been to the very touristy sections: Mayan ruins, a resort, and a zip-lining place. With this race, we were running along the streets, passing local businesses, and seeing the locals just going about their day.  It was… eye-opening. Life in Cozumel is a hard life and it was evident in how run-down the city is. But then there is just something steadfast and strong and welcoming in these people. People who aren’t afraid of hard work and a life filled with only the necessities.
• Knowing the answer to one clue within seconds and being able to pass two teams in the process. I read that knowing Cozumel’s history would come in handy so I did some light research. And by light research, I mean I spent 5 minutes on Cozumel’s Wikipedia page. I had about 3-4 questions I kept quizzing my mom on and one of the questions I was quizzing her on ended up being the question for a clue! Go me. (And to get the answer, teams had to find people milling about the streets in a very deserted part of town. They weren’t allowed to go into any of the local businesses. So glad we didn’t have to do that!)
• Having my teammate almost get hit by a car. YEAH. That was frightening! She was crossing a street and looking backward, asking people for directions to our next location and I had to shout at her to stop and the car had to swerve. The car was moving pretty fast, so it really wouldn’t have been pretty.
• Being in a real Mexican grocery store. One of our clues directed us to this place where we had to find a vegetable and a shoe. I felt very lost during this task because there was a huge language barrier and most of the time, even our teammate who spoke decent Spanish was feeling misunderstood. But this place, man. Like, it was COZUMEL. It was dirty and unkempt but raw and beautiful and earthy. It was a real grocer with a meat shop and a vegetable shop and dirty walkways. Not the pristine supermarket I’m used to! I wish I could have taken a picture. It was just so beautifully Cozumel.
• Finding the finish line! Oh, my goodness, you have NO FREAKING IDEA how fabulous it was to come upon a cantina and see a black-and-white checkered flag waving right outside. We ran to it and came into the cantina to the cheers of all the other teams! We finished! YAY!

We wound up coming in 6th out of 11th with a time of 1 hour and 45 minutes. In contrast, it usually takes teams over 2 hours to complete the race so we all defied the odds. The winning teams finished about 15-20 minutes ahead of us so we weren’t too far behind. I was proud of us for not coming in last – my only goal!

Everyone got a free drink so I ordered a strawberry daiquiri (the strongest daiquiri I’ve ever had! I couldn’t finish it!) and my mom had a pina colada. I ordered food, but it wasn’t very good. At this point, we were very tired and hot and wet from the boat ride and we decided to go back to the cruise port.

The rest of the day was pretty low-key. We walked around the shops, ate a very lunch late on the ship, and took a long nap until dinnertime. I was wiped after being up so early and running around in the Cozumel heat. Dinner was fun and eventful, like always. (We received applause again for surviving the race!) After dinner, my mom and I went to the talent show which was a surprisingly good show (two singers and a cheer squad). There was a Mexican fiesta deck party going on but we decided to go back to the cabin to sleep.

Our last day on the ship will be recapped on Friday!

When I left off on recapping my 2013 cruise, I had finished my parasailing excursion which was one of the most awesome moments of my life. I wholly recommend anyone who’s up for a crazy adventure to try parasailing. It’s an incredible experience!

But back to Grand Cayman. After everyone had a chance to be up in the air, the boat brought us to the Seven-Mile Beach which was already super crowded with people. Mom and I both felt kind of meh about it so we opted to go back to the cruise port instead. The other two times we’ve been to Grand Cayman, our excursions have been long, and haven’t left any time for exploring the island. At this point, it was barely 10am so we had plenty of time to spend in the port before going back to the ship.

It was fun to actually get out of the port square and walk around the island. We didn’t venture too far away, mainly just walked over to Margaritaville and all the stores and shops in that center. Very touristy, very crowded. I wound up buying a shirt but nothing else really caught my eye. Around 11:30, we made our way back to the ship. Just a few hours spent on the island, but there really isn’t a ton to do around the port. Grand Cayman is always fun to visit, but since I’ve been there once a year for the past three years, it’s safe to say I’m ready to move on to other Caribbean islands and destinations.

We were back on the ship by noon and enjoyed a delicious Caribbean meal of jerk chicken, red beans and rice, and beef stew. So good! We had a fabulous view of the Caribbean and the ship was quiet and calm, with most people out exploring Grand Cayman.

 

After lunch, we headed down to Serenity Deck where we scored two fabulous deck chairs with an umbrella! Seriously, with only a few deck chairs that have an umbrella, it is a prime location and I was so happy we snagged it that we spent about 6 hours outside on the deck!

We read, we napped, we both enjoyed a Mango Swirl, we had a snack of cookies & ice cream. We watched the ship leave Grand Cayman and start sailing to Cozumel. It was SUCH a wonderful afternoon. So calm. So peaceful.

 

 

I wrote in my Notes app about how I felt at that very moment: “I just feel so happy right now. So alive. So content. I could stay here forever.” It was one of those perfect afternoons where everything feels as it should be. I felt so at peace.

Around 6:30, we headed back up to our cabin to get ready for dinner. By that time, we had spent over 10 hours in the sun! Yikes. (It felt amazing, though. I wouldn’t have it any other way!)

When we came to the table at dinner, everyone applauded us for surviving the parasail, which was cute. We became the “Twisted Sisters” of the group! At dinner, we all chatted about what we did during the day in Grand Cayman and it was just a really great dinner. All of the dinners ended up being amazing and I really, really loved our dinner companions. It was one of my favorite parts of this cruise and usually, I get really stressed about the dinners and being social. It was a nice change.

After dinner, there wasn’t much going on by way of entertainment so we took some pictures of ourselves in the atrium, strolled around the gift shop, and then headed back to our cabin. We were in bed before 11 and ready for what awaited us tomorrow – Cozumel!

On Wednesday morning, I woke up to discover we were in Grand Cayman. I was super, ridiculously excited for what the day had in store for us:

My alarm went off at 6am and I must say, it wasn’t so hard to wake up from that alarm since it meant a fun day in Grand Cayman awaited me. Showers were had, bathing suits were put on, and a backpack was filled with necessities for the day. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the buffet and then headed downstairs to meet the tender boat.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but the ship has to drop anchor in the middle of the ocean when stopping in Grand Cayman which means taking a tender to the port terminal. In most ports, you simply walk right off the ship and to the terminal but Cayman is different. So it’s always a little crazier since you have to factor in time taking the boat to the shore.

In any event, we were on one of the first boats to go over, and soon enough: we were in Grand Cayman!

We found our excursion tour guide without any issue, signed our life away, and before we knew it, we were walking over to get on a boat that would take us parasailing!

In all the excursions I’ve done so far with Carnival, tour guides can easily make or break your experience. For the most part, we’ve had great tour guides but the guides for our parasailing adventure stand out as two of the best. They were young, cute, and had great accents. What’s not to love? Oh, and they also made us feel completely comfortable and safe. We were basically putting our life into their hands!

We had 14 people in our group, including a 7-year-old girl. (Brave little thing!) It was a pretty great group of people, aside from one lone guy who talked too much. Once we were in the boat that would take us deeper into the Caribbean to go parasailing, it all started to feel real and I started getting super excited.

Obviously, the number one thing everyone was worried about was the worst-case scenario of the rope breaking and us crashing into the sea and possibly being eaten by a shark. We weren’t deep enough to be in any shark-infested waters, obviously, and they assured us if the line did break, the parachute would slowly float down into the ocean and since we would all be wearing life vests, we would simply bob out in the water and they would circle back to pick us up. The likelihood of this happening was almost nil, but it was good to know what to do just in case.

We were the fourth pair to go up and after seeing three couples go up together, I was so excited for my turn! Once the couple ahead of us was safely in the air, the guide started setting us up with the harness and life vest. The harness came up over my thighs and tied around my chest, creating what was essentially a seat so when we were hanging in the air, it felt like we were sitting. (It was very similar to a zip-lining harness.) When it was our turn, we walked to the front of the boat and sat down with our backs to the water. The guide locked us into a bar with clamps and soon enough, we were floating into the air!

It was a slow climb into the air, but it took no longer than 30 seconds until we were flying.

We had a fairly long time up, around 6-7 minutes. It was the perfect length; it didn’t feel too long or too short. It was enough time for me to take lots of pictures, take in the beautiful views, and drop my eyes a few times to realize, whoa, we are up really, really high. I could basically see all of Grand Cayman while we were up there, but I mainly kept my eyes on the water and how incredible it looked.

I won’t lie, though, it was a bit scarier than I imagined. We were high. We were really, really high. My body was thrumming with adrenaline, but also a dose of fear. Which I think is natural. Even with the fear, it was still one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Flying through the air like that was something I will never, ever forget. I can see myself doing something like this again and again and again.

Towards the end of the ride, the driver in the boat started moving faster and faster, which was another thrill, though it didn’t feel as fast in the air as it did on the boat.

The guide slowly started lowering us down and then dipped us waist-deep into the water! Love. (I held my camera high above my head and it didn’t get wet at all. I was very nervous about bringing my camera along, but it didn’t prove to be much of an issue.)

We were told at the beginning to lift our feet up when we’re coming down so that when the rope guides us back in, we simply slide back onto the back of the boat so I reminded my mom to do that as we started coming back in.

And then it was over! Just like that! Poof.

It was short and sweet, but it also felt like the perfect amount of time. Would I have enjoyed going up again or having more time in the air? Of course! But it was well worth the money spent.

We were detached from the parasail and gingerly made our way back onto a seat on the boat. (It was very rocky, as the boat was still moving!) We were given an SD card with around 60 photos of us, which came to $30. It’s fun to have photos of us from the boat’s point of view

Once everyone had a chance to sail, we made our way to the 7-Mile Beach where the second part of our day would begin. I’ll talk more about our time in Grand Cayman and the third day of our cruise in my next post since this one is getting lengthy. I’ll leave you with some more awesome pictures of my mom and me parasailing!

 

 

 

 

I woke up around 8:30 on our second day after such a great night of sleep. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, so a good night of sleep was much needed.

I let myself wake up leisurely, which meant lounging around in bed for a good 45 minutes before finally getting up and getting ready for the day – which involved putting on my bathing suit, cover-up, and pulling my hair into a ponytail. Life on a cruise ship – so tough! My mom and I made our way down to Serenity around 9:30 where we were able to snag two deck chairs next to each other.

I went upstairs to the lido deck to get breakfast and brought it down to the deck to eat right in front of the ocean. Best view ever? Yes.

We spent a little over two hours on Serenity, sunbathing and reading and spending some time in the hot tub. It was relaxing and just perfection. Exactly what I needed! Unfortunately, it was hot, hot, hot and we were directly in the path of the sun with no shade so we finally packed up and went upstairs to find a table in the shade. We found the perfect location where we got the feel the cool sea breeze and also have a fabulous view of the ocean.

Around 12:45, we went inside. I must have drank a liter of water while I was outside so I wasn’t hungry at all but just wanted to go back to the cabin to take a nap. I found that I couldn’t take a nap while on the deck because too much was going on (and I was terrified of falling asleep for hours and waking up with an awful sunburn) so my best naps happened in the comfort of my cabin. I took an epic three-hour nap and woke up around 3:45 famished.

We left our room to grab a very late lunch and then spend a few hours on the Serenity Deck. By this time, the crowds had thinned out immensely and the sun wasn’t as intense so it just felt good to be outside. I sat back to read, people watch, and ocean watch. It was so nice, so relaxing (because, you know, I needed time to relax after such a long nap…) and honestly, just the absolute best.

Tuesday’s dinner was elegant night, which is something I used to stress about on past cruises. This time, I packed a dress I already had and really didn’t stress about what to wear. On this cruise, I went super casual with most of my dinner outfits. Some people go super fancy every night with dresses and high heels and intense make-up. Me? I was in jeans, sandals, and a nice tee most nights. Carnival really isn’t a stickler with their dress code. (I mean, you can’t waltz into the dining room in your bathing suit or cut-off shorts, of course.)

Almost every night, a photographer comes by to take photos of you at dinner. Most of them turned out terrible but our formal night pictures turned out pretty nice. But they were $22 a piece and there were three we wanted, so I… um… may have taken photos of them with my phone as surreptitiously as possible. I have seen photographers force people to delete the photos from their phones if they see them doing this but I somehow didn’t get caught. BOOYA! (Also, kids, don’t do this. It’s wrong. I feel bad. But not bad enough not to keep the photos. Muahaha!)

At dinner this night, we got to talking about what everyone would be doing in Grand Cayman the following day. My mom revealed to the table that we were going parasailing, which astounded the whole table. They thought we were absolutely crazy. (One of the guys even had a moment of silence for us at the end of the meal, in case something happened to us. It was cute, though it did make me a bit more apprehensive about parasailing.)

After dinner, we headed over to the Queen Mary Lounge for another adult-only comedy show, this time the female comic. Since the comedy the previous night had been good, we thought we would try out the female. I wasn’t very impressed with the comic, though, and was pretty much over the adult comedy by then. There is so much more to comedy than sex jokes. Am I right? I think I am. At least for me. I want more from my comedy!

Anyway, after the show, we went back to our cabin since we had an early start to our morning. Next up: parasailing in Grand Cayman!