Our last day of the cruise was Wednesday, November 30 and it was a relaxing, at-sea day. There were a lot of activities happening that day, and there were a few I wanted to do, but I was also committed to another quiet, low-key day.

I didn’t make it out of bed until around 9:30am, giving us just enough time to get ready and then have breakfast on the lido deck before they closed down the buffet. Then, we snagged some great lounge chairs on the Serenity Deck and relaxed in the sun for a bit. Eventually, it just got too hot to be comfortable (next cruise, I’m choosing a ship that has a pool on the Serenity Deck!), so we went inside and sat at a window seat near the casino. It’s a great people-watching spot! I read my book in the midst of the people watching.

Eventually, we were dragged into a game of charades by one of the cruise employees. There was nothing in me that wanted to play charades (social anxiety much?), but it’s hard to turn down a perky cruise employee! So my mom and I participated and it ended up being a lot of fun, even though some of the clues weren’t great options for a game of charades. (My first one: An American Werewolf in Paris. I had zero ideas of how to communicate that to my mom!)

After playing charades, we went back to our cabin to relax. My mom took a nap, but I decided to listen to a podcast and color because I wasn’t very tired.

Around 2:30, we left our cabin to walk over to the Fantasia Lounge for BINGO! After playing BINGO on my cruise in May 2015, it’s now my goal to play it at least once every cruise. It’s not cheap to play (I opted for the $30 package, which gave me six squares to play off), but it’s a lot of fun. And, shocker, my mom won the second game! Unfortunately, nine other people also declared bingo at the same time so she had to share the prize money. Still, she walked away with $50 while I walked away $30 poorer, so she comes out on top.

Once BINGO was over, my mom and I realized we were both starving (we skipped lunch!) so we got a shared plate from the grill on the lido deck to tide us over until dinnertime. We sat outside on the deck to enjoy our meal, which allowed us to do more people-watching. 🙂

Once we finished up, we went back to the cabin and chilled for a while before getting ready for dinner.

We went down for dinner around 7pm and had our last meal with our beloved waiter, Isabelito. He was truly fantastic and made our whole cruise even better. He was kind, welcoming, and easy to talk to. It’s funny how these waiters totally steal your hearts and then you don’t see them again! Wah.

After dinner, we decided to check out the comedy since the other comic on the ship had a PG show at 9:15. (My mom and I can do many things together, but listening to R-rated comedy together is not one of those things…) I was pleased with how funny this comic was. He had me in tears at certain points. He more than made up for the lackluster comedy we saw earlier in our cruise.

And then, it was back to the cabin to pack, sleep, and get back to reality on Thursday. Short cruises are no fun! 🙂

Even though the cruise felt super short, it was a really fun time with my favorite travel companion. Somehow, we’ve managed to take a cruise every year since our first one in 2011! My next cruise will be my tenth and I’m not sure where I’ll be going or when I’ll be taking it. Hopefully in 2017, but time will tell. 🙂

Our fourth day of the cruise was Tuesday, November 29 and we were in Jamaica! YAY!

Jamaica has long been my favorite cruise destination, and the excursion my mom and I booked was the exact same one we did four-and-a-half years ago. Sorry I’m not sorry? It was just such an amazing adventure the first time we did it and my last two zip-lining adventures haven’t been as fun as that one (see: having a panic attack while zip-lining in Cozumel and spraining my ankle while zip-lining in Puerto Rico). I wanted to get back to the zip line, and back to a tour I knew would be amazing.

Since we had to meet our tour group early in the morning (8:15), we woke up pretty early to get ready for the day and have breakfast. Soon enough, we finished up and headed over to the theater located on the other side of the ship to meet our group. And that’s when the fun happened!

About halfway to the theater, my mom trips over her own feet and falls down hard on the tile floor. She immediately grabbed her knee and said, “It hurts! It hurts!” Her knee started bruising immediately and she also cut her elbow. It’s never a dull moment with her, that’s for sure! Thankfully, a Carnival employee saw her fall and came over to help us. We guided Mom to a chair and then he left to get ice for her knee, as well as a bandage for her elbow.

I honestly didn’t think we’d be able to go on our excursion. My mom’s knee looked bad and I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to walk on it, much less go zip-lining. She even asked me if I would zip-line by myself and I said an emphatic, “Nope!” But, gradually, the pain subsided and she was able to limp over to the theater before our group left the ship. Woohoo! We were going on our excursion.

As we left the ship and entered the beautiful Ocho Rios, Jamaica, I felt nothing but pure elation about being back on this gorgeous island. I know, I know. I’m not seeing the real Jamaica, and maybe one day I will, but man, Ocho Rios is goddamn beautiful. There’s something about this island that draws me in and makes me feel so good. Maybe it’s the incredible views or the friendly people or the chill vibe. Whatever it is, Jamaica has my whole heart.

Our excursion took place at Mystic Mountain, a rainforest where I felt like I stepped into an entirely different world. First things first, Mom and I took a chairlift that brought us right to the heart of the park. It took about 20 minutes and soared us high above the treetops, where we were given the most incredible views. I kept snapping pictures, putting my phone away, and taking it out again for more pictures. I couldn’t help myself!

When we got into the park, we started with a quick bobsled ride. The bobsled is so much fun, but I don’t think I took full advantage of how fast it could go. (You know you’re going slow when your mom tells you to speed up…) It was still fun, though, just zooming around the rainforest in the bobsled. 🙂

After the bobsled, we poked around in the gift shop for a short while before heading over to our main event – zip-lining. Yay!

We got suited up in our gear and headed down a set of steps to the first zip-lining platform, following one of our tour guides. One of the things I most love about zip-lining at Mystic Mountain is that the tour guides make things so much fun. They joke around, pretend they have no idea what they’re doing, and put everyone at ease right away. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in a 45-minute period as I did that day.

Some gems:

• “My other tour guide is getting a drink at the bar, but it’s fine. It’s, like, his second day or something.”
• “Okay, I saw this on the DVD…” (<– they constantly referenced this “DVD” as if they had only watched the DVD and never zip-lined)
• “Wait, wait, come back!” (One of the tour guides said this to my mom after she took off on the first zip-line. When I stepped onto the platform, I scoffed at him, “We’ve done this before. We know all your jokes.”)
• “Did you see that bird? That there is a… flying bird.”
• After someone in the group pointed out a tree that had red marks up and down its trunk: “Oh. Yeah. We lost someone last week. Went flying straight into the tree. And then it rained.” (Morbid, perhaps, but Mom and I giggled.)

In any event, I wish I could do the tour twice because I had so much fun zip-lining and even more fun with the tour guides. Some of the people in my group didn’t seem to get their humor, which made me sad, because I felt like these guys really put on a fantastic tour.

Even better? My mom told one of the tour guides that yesterday was my birthday to which he replied that today was the other tour guide’s birthday, so on our last zip-line platform, they sang to us! How cool!

And then, as if that wasn’t cool enough, I tandem-zipped with the tour guide on my last line. It was truly one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I still don’t think I have fully processed it. I keep reliving it over and over in my head and wish I could go back to Jamaica and experience it again.

After zip-lining, Mom and I decided to go back to town and had lunch at Mama Marley’s where I ordered jerk chicken before realizing, Oh yeah, Steph. Your taste buds are wimps! I tried eating around the “jerked” part, but basically just slurped down my mango daiquiri and French fries. Sigh. We strolled around the shops for a bit and I was pleased to be offered rum punch in one of the stores and then given two shots of chocolate rum just because. I still have no earthly idea why I didn’t buy a bottle of chocolate rum because it was incredibly delicious!

After that, we went back to the ship and I took a short nap because, whew, I was one tired girl after such an active morning/afternoon! I woke up around 3:30 and took a shower, and then it was time for some fun: a massage! Carnival had generously given me a $50 spa gift card for my birthday and I decided to use it on a foot and ankle massage. As someone who has sprained/broken her right ankle three different times and deals with arch cramps constantly, I knew having a masseuse spend an hour massaging my feet and ankles was exactly what I needed. Certain parts of the massage were painful (as a highly sensitive person, massages are usually more painful than relaxing for me because my nerve endings are so sensitive), but overall, it felt really good.

My mom also opted to get a massage, the same one as I did, so we were both feeling good on Tuesday night! After our massages, we went back to the room, got ready for dinner, and then had an early-ish dinner before escaping into the game room for a cutthroat game of Sorry!.

At this point in my vacation, I was feeling a little mentally fatigued. I wasn’t ready for the cruise to be over – not by a long shot! – but I was feeling a little overstimulated by all the activity on the ship and the stuff we were doing. We weren’t even going crazy every night, so I’m not even sure why I felt so fatigued, but that’s just my body, I guess. It needed some quiet time, so after playing in the game room for a little bit, we went back to our cabin to play Phase10 (which, you may notice is the game I played with my girlfriends in The Villages that I said was a horrible game. Turns out, much better to play with just two people! I actually enjoyed it this time. And won a few rounds!)

I stayed up a bit to finish the book I was reading and then it was lights out and time to celebrate our last day of the cruise. Wah. Five-day cruises are just too short!

Our third day on the ship was Monday, November 28 and it was my birthday! Yay!

We didn’t have to meet to leave on our excursion until 10:00, so we slept in a bit, got ready, and then had breakfast on the lido deck before leaving the ship for the day. We left early enough that we were able to poke around in the shops around the port. I didn’t see anything worth getting, but my mom bought two cool shot glasses.

Our excursion was going to be a low-key and easy one. I wanted to go to Stingray City again (I go there every time I go to Grand Cayman!), but none of the offered excursions seemed worth the price, so we settled on a beach-type excursion that included lunch.

The White House in Grand Cayman is a beautiful destination, just breathtaking. Mom and I decided to set up shop by the pool, though the water was just a little too cold to be enjoyable. After about an hour of lounging, we were summoned for lunch, which might have been one of the best lunches I’ve had on a cruise excursion! I only managed to get a photo of the appetizer and dessert, mostly because I dug into my main course the minute it arrived. We had a choice for main courses, and I settled on chicken and potatoes. The chicken was juicy and cooked to perfection – yum, yum! It might have been the best meal I had all cruise!

After lunch, we had some more time to lounge and I read my book while relaxing in a cabana. Eventually, it was time to go and on our way back to the port, we got a great history lesson from the bus driver. One of the things that stuck out to me is that he said that police officers on Grand Cayman don’t carry guns because they believe in a lawful society and that the people of Grand Cayman believe that everyone working together to instill peace and order leads to a peaceful society. Hearing this was a breath of fresh air after everything that’s been happening in the US for the past month! I mean, granted, the Cayman Islands have a tiny population compared to the US, but it’s an interesting concept.

We got back on the ship around 2:30 and played a game of cards before I decided to take a nap. Around 6 or so, I showered and got ready for dinner. I was nervous about dinner because I knew I was going to be sung happy birthday in front of a full dining room (eeks), but I made it through and the cake I was given was pretty good. I also took a shot of Fireball because birthdays, amirite?! This is after I had a fruity cocktail, so I was feeling prettttty good afterward, haha. Ahhh, vacation!

Once we were done with dinner, it was time for one of my favorite events of any cruise: the Love & Marriage Show! We had a couple that had gotten married four days ago, a couple married for 16 years, and a couple married for 57 years. Let me tell you – Ed, the husband married for 57 years, became everyone’s hero throughout the program because his answers were hilarious! I will say that seeing those two was a little bittersweet because they could have been my grandparents. Ed’s wife is the same age my grandma would have been, and it made me realize how much life cancer stole from my grandma.

After the show, we headed back to our room to prepare for bed because tomorrow we were going to be in Jamaica!

My ninth cruise is in the books and, well, in more ways than one, it was quite the memorable experience! As I like to do with every cruise, I want to recap my time away with pictures and notes, so here we go.

We cruised out of Miami on Saturday, November 26 and I was so ready for a relaxing five days on the ship. The most “adventure” I would have would be my zip-lining excursion in Jamaica on Wednesday, but other than that, I planned to take it easy. I tried to take a nap every day (usually right before dinner), downloaded six books to read, and tried not to plan our days so much on the ship. There are so many activities that one can do on the ship, especially on at-sea days, and I tend to want to do them all, but this time around, I let it be okay to be my little introverted self and sit in my cabin playing cards with my mom or reading my book.

Sunday was our first at-sea day, and we chose to sleep in, eat a late breakfast, and then spend some time on the Serenity Deck. Eventually, we made our way inside so I could watch some of the Dolphins game. Unfortunately, the area where the games were playing was really loud and chaotic, and it got too much for me. (This is when I realized what it really means to be an HSP, as I developed a headache and a grumpy attitude from all the noise, sigh.) We ended up eating lunch and then I took a nap.

Later on, we ate a lovely dinner where I tried roasted duck for the first time (very yum!) and watched a comedy show that wasn’t very funny. It was more of a motivational speech than a comedy show, which is odd. We got to the show super early and right next to the lounge, they were playing the Sunday Night Football game, so I pulled up a chair and watched some more football (this time, in a much quieter environment!) before the show began.

Then, it was bedtime and my last time falling asleep as a 28-year-old! Tomorrow was my birthday and a relaxing day in Grand Cayman!