Six days ago, I boarded a cruise ship for the second time in six weeks. This cruise came out of nowhere, a special rendezvous that my mom’s work organized. I had to pay my own way and it took me a lot of hemming and hawing to decide. On the cons: it would require taking more time off work (most of it unpaid) after I had just taken a week off in May and I wasn’t sure I was willing to take such a large hit on my finances. But on the pros? IT WAS A SECOND CRUISE! My favorite way of vacationing. I talked it over with my boss and when she basically told me I had to take this opportunity and run with it – we were set.
The Carnival Paradise’s deck plan was almost exactly similar to the deck plan of my first cruise ship, Carnival Inspiration. They are both older ships, but my mom and I actually liked the deck plans of these older, smaller ships than the deck plan of Carnival Freedom, the cruise ship we took in May. It was easier to get around and the Serenity Deck was located at the back of the ship, away from the hustle and bustle of the Lido deck.
On this cruise, we had at-sea days on Friday and Sunday and spent Saturday in Cozumel, Mexico. I plan on spending an entire post on our time in Mexico because it was an adventure! Actually, this entire cruise was its own adventure! Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know Florida and the Gulf of Mexico got pummeled this weekend by Tropical Storm Debby. We definitely felt the effects of it on the ship. It was rocky and everyone was unsteady on their feet. We all looked drunk and it caused a lot of people to get seasick. The good news is that through this experience, I found out I don’t really suffer from getting seasick!
Aside from the rocky seas, we still had an incredibly fun time. With the early dining time, we got to see more shows. We caught two comedy shows, a fun breakdance show, as well as a handful of other smaller shows. Some of the shows were better than others. (The woman comedienne spent half her time chatting with a 9-year-old who really didn’t have much to say and then a good 10 minutes on the effects of menopause. This show was filled with young kids so I’m not really sure why she thought that was appropriate but gah! A wasted 30 minutes.)
We played putt-putt golf at the top of the ship in the pouring rain. We learned the fun that can be had while playing Scattegories. We took lots of naps, both on the Serenity Deck and in our room. I spent $20 on a coconut that I’m not sure I’ll ever use again. I started dreaming about a November birthday cruise while on this one.
The biggest downside to the cruise (aside from the gray weather!) was the service at dinner. Maybe we were spoiled by Panda (pronounced Pon-day!), our head waiter from our May cruise. He was so amazing. Friendly and personable, fast with his service, and completely adorable. This time? Completely different. The waiter barely spoke to us and the service was sloooooow. Incredibly slow. Our wait times between appetizers to entree to dessert was just ridiculous. And I know: first world problem. But it was still annoying.
Our room was much smaller than our room from our May cruise but we made it work.
Breakfast on Friday morning. I pigged out on the breakfast buffet and took it out on the Serenity Deck. Ah, perfection.
This was basically what the weather looked like for our entire cruise, save for a few hours of sunshine on Saturday afternoon.
Lido Deck!
My favorite view.
The bluest waters of Mexico. Sigh. Love it.
My $20 coconut. (To be fair, it also had an alcoholic beverage in it – Miami Vice, a mixture of a strawberry daiquiri and pina colada. YUM!) How cute is he, by the way? His name is Parry, the Paradise Coconut. I’m so creative.
See? His insides were so yummy.
I tried to take a picture of how crazy the seas were on Sunday. This doesn’t come close.
Raise your hand if I’ve scared you away from taking a cruise in the future! And, on a more serious note, what the heck should I do with my coconut?
You could start collecting cute drink cups from your cruises and other vacations and then display them. My husband and I collect shot glasses (unique, I know; but to be fair they fit easily in carry-on luggage/back packs which is essential for our European travels. Also, we make sure to get unique ones that have the local flavor; ie, murano glass from Italy, steins from Croatia and Belguim, cut crystal from Ireland) and we have some steins and beer mugs from our time in Germany. Any time we use any of them, we’re reminded of great trips and good memories with friends. And since ours are on display right by the kitchen, they get seen a lot and spark lots of fun conversations too.
Oh, fun! We now have 3 different souvenir-type glasses/mugs from our cruises so it’s a fun thing to collect. 🙂 I’ve thought of buying shot glasses but I’m not big on knick-knacks so I’ve been trying to find my *thing* to buy when traveling. I still haven’t figured out what it is yet!
That REALLY sucks about the crap weather! Sounds like you had a great time anyway though! I remember in Greece the biggest ferry we took rocked a LOT… And it was massive- there was a parking lot underneath! It was a small cruise ship practically. People were sick EVERYWHERE. Luckily my friends & I took some Gravol but going into the ladies’ washroom was just awful. I’m NOT a fan of boats. I would take 8+ hour ferries and just pray for it to be over. I’m weird like that, ha. I love flying at least?
It’s so sad that all your vacationing is now over, but on the bright side you can plan for what’s next! Yay!
I thought about you during my whole cruise and how I kept reassuring you that you never feel the rocking of the boat. UM, LIES! It was SO rocky and sometimes hard to just stand still without stumbling. I guess June is just not a great time to be at sea — but most especially during a hurricane. 😉
Your room on this ship was much better than the two I had when I was younger. They were incredibly small, and one cruise we had eight people to a tiny little room. On your cocunut, though. I bought one at a race several years ago and used it to collect spare change, then I would take it to the bank to convert it to dollars. Well, I actually didn’t take the coconut, because I thought that’d be weird, lol. So glad to see you had a good time in spite of Debby!
I’m okay with small rooms. The bathroom was a good size and that’s all I really care about! A tiny bathroom can be the worst. Ha.
Good thought on the coconut! I almost never keep actual money on me, but it’s a possibility! He needs to have a purpose. 🙂
The second cruise I was one was pretty rocky… in fact, a couple of times it woke me up in the middle of the night! But I never once felt like I wasn’t safe and I think the crew does a really amazing job of making everyone feel good.
I don’t get sea sickness either… I wonder if it comes from all the years of reading in the car during long trips. I have so many friends say they can’t even do that without feeling sick. How awful would that be?
I can’t wait to hear what you did and thought of Cozumel. That is one of my favorite places!
Carnival did an EXCELLENT job of making us feel safe & taking precautions. We ended up being 4 hours late to the port because of all the precautions they took. And I never once was worried something terrible would happen. (It’s kind of hard when it’s all fun & games on the ship anyway!)
Ah! Car reading is one of my favorite childhood past times! I used to have a book specifically in the car JUST for car reading when I was younger, hehe.
I was going to say the same as Lauren, use it for spare change to save for your NEXT cruise! 🙂 I love gray days on the ocean. My favorite.
I liked them, too! I just wish they weren’t coupled with sprinkling rain. Ha.
Oh wow, sounds like an interesting experience… And, um, I wasn’t kidding when I said I live under a rock in my tweet yesterday because I honestly did not know your region was getting hit by a hurricane. Not sure how I missed that. I read the news at work, but never saw a story about it. Oops!
I like the spare change idea for the coconut!
You should have a drink from your coconut every Friday to celebrate the end of the work week! It’ll help the weekend feel like a mini vacation. 🙂
I had no interest in ever taking a cruise until I started reading your blog! They seem like the epitome of relaxation. Also, that coconut is amazing. 🙂
That is the BEST compliment! I’m so glad to hear that. And yes, you should. Perfectly relaxing vacation — with a lot of fun mixed in!