Travel – Page 17

Categories: Travel

Carnival Paradise | Cozumel Cruise

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?

Categories: Travel

Carnival Freedom | Western Caribbean Cruise | Ship Details

I’ve talked all about my excursions for the past two weeks. Biking in Key West, swimming with stingrays and kissing dolphins in Grand Cayman, and zip-lining in Jamaica. But the excursions were only a small portion of my cruise. I spent the majority of my time on the ship and I want to take some time to talk about all the fun I experienced while on board the ship!

Our Room

Our room was perfect. It was bigger than our room on our last ship, including a much bigger bathroom, a window seat, and a couch. We actually spent a lot of time in our room. One of my favorite things to do while on the ship was taking a nap in my room right before dinner. It is so easy to be lulled to sleep by the rocking of the ship. This is probably why we slept in until 11:00 or noon on both of our days at sea. (Whoops?!) One of my favorite things about this room was the window seat. It looked right out over the water and I spent a few mornings there, journaling and just enjoying the view. There is something so calming and peaceful about watching the ocean roll past you.

The Dinners

We had a fun table this time around! We had a gay couple who were seriously so fun and kept the whole table laughing, two best friends who were around my mom’s age, and then two males who worked together (one around my mom’s age, one around mine.) The crowd was boisterous and loud and the flow of conversation was easy and fun. We had a great waiter who had just gotten back on a ship after being home for two months, so he definitely had lots of homesickness. From him, we learned the staff on the ship stays on the ship for 6 months and then gets 2 months of vacation. And when they come back, they’re assigned to a different ship. (Also, the staff loves cruise ports that have a Walmart!) We went to every dinner, although sometimes there were just four of us, sometimes six, and the last night was the first time all eight of us were present at dinner. And I’m not even going to get started on the delicious food. Bread and appetizers and entrees and desserts. Oh, my! It was all so good. I tried sushi for the first time (not a fan) and my mom tried frog legs for the first time (she’s a fan). The last dinner of the cruise is always so sad. The waiters do a little song & dance for us, everyone takes a bunch of pictures, and we talk about the crazy morning that lies ahead of us. (Especially for those that are taking flights back home!) But we had a great group this year and while I’m tempted to ask for a table for just my mom and me on our next cruise, forcing myself to be more open and conversational with people is good for me. And I met some great people because of it!

The Entertainment

With an 8:15 dinner time, it was hard to make it to too many of the nightly entertainment. They had comedy just about every night but it started at 11:45 and was more “adult-like” comedy which isn’t my favorite. (And 11:45 is still too late for this old lady. Even on vacation!) We did manage to make it to an “adult” game show that promised to make me uncomfortable but was pretty tame from what I was expecting. (The most “outrageous” thing they did was make guys put on women’s clothing. And it was more hilarious than uncomfortable.) We also made it to the talent show but oh. my. goodness. The worst. The absolute worst. We went to the talent show on our last cruise and the people were actually pretty good! Not amazing, but good for a cruise ship talent show. This year? Horrendous. While the first guy, a singer, was pretty stunning, the acts that followed were so bad. We had a lady doing some sort of show with twirling balls – except she kept dropping them and hitting herself on the head with them. She mentioned at the end she sometimes does this act with FIRE. I’m surprised she’s still alive! Seriously. Then there was a newly married couple who had taken, like, 10 dance lessons and proceeded to amaze us with their ballroom dancing skills. Except they were terrible. And the girl wore Crocs. We left halfway through the fourth act (a singer. Not terrible, but the song was approximately 49,389 minutes long.) because we couldn’t handle the terrible any longer. (I mean, I give them props for even getting up on stage. I really do. But man, at least have a little talent. Am I right?) That was the only entertainment show we went to, mainly because the rest were either too early (while we were eating dinner) or started too late. We ended up at the casino on our last night but I’m not much of a casino girl so after 10 minutes on the slot machines, I was good. I’m hoping with an earlier dinner time on our June cruise, we’ll be able to do more nightly entertainment.

The Decks

I mentioned more than a few times how much my mom and I enjoyed the Serenity Deck on our first cruise. It was located at the back of the ship, away from the hustle and bustle of the Lido deck, and quiet. We had a great view of the water. This time, the Serenity Deck was located right near the big water slide and just steps away from where all the music and entertainment were happening. It was also the windiest part of the ship. We were very disappointed, to put it mildly. We didn’t enjoy the Serenity Deck this time around, as there wasn’t anything serene about it. Instead, we formed our own Serenity Deck. We found a quieter section of the ship, close to the front. (Yes, I realize how boring this paragraph makes me sound, being on a cruise ship and all. Whatever.) *** We really did have a blast on our cruise, though. We enjoyed each one of our stops and had amazing experiences in them. My six days went by in a blink of an eye and I’m already looking toward my 2013 cruise and the locations we want to sail to this time around. (We’re thinking Puerto Rico!) And, of course, we’re just 15 days away from leaving on our second cruise of 2012! This was my second Carnival cruise and I just love this cruise line. I fully recommend booking a cruise through them because they are affordable and really, a whole lot of fun.

And can we just talk about booking a Bloggers On a Carnival Cruise trip? Because this needs to happen!

Categories: Travel

Carnival Freedom | Western Caribbean Cruise | Zip-Lining in Jamaica

I wanted to write a separate post on my zip-lining experience in Jamaica. Because it was the best part of my cruise and if I ever make it back to Jamaica, it is the one thing I know I will do again.

When we booked this excursion, I’ll admit I was pretty nervous. I live a small life, I don’t venture too far outside my comfort zone, and the craziest thing I’ve done so far in my life is swimming with domesticated stingrays. Flying through a rainforest? File that under: Things I Never Thought I Would Ever Attempt In My Life.

But when I was scouring the excursions, zip-lining is what pulled my interest the most. The other ones seemed fun, but nothing as exciting and thrilling as zip-lining. And the fact that it was done in a rainforest? Made me even more willing to try this.

I’ve already talked about the amazing Mystic Mountain, which is where we did our bob-sled and air tram adventure. It’s also where we did our zip-lining. After we finished with the bob-sled and looked around in their little shop, we headed straight over to get suited up for our adventure.

Not my hottest look, for sure. And I really should have ditched my sunglasses.

We followed our tour guides down a series of steep steps to get to where our zip-lining adventure would begin. I loved our tour guides so much. They were adorable, for one, with the best Jamaican accents and really put everyone at ease from the beginning by joking around (one tour guide mentioning it was his first day on the job and he didn’t really know what he was doing) and making sure we all knew what we were going to be doing.

What followed was the most amazing experience of my life.

We had a group of about 10 people, all of us first-time zip-liners, and we would zip-line from one platform to the next. Each time, one of the tour guides would zip-line down to the next platform first (usually upside down…) and they would catch us as we landed on that platform. The other tour guide would get us locked into the zip line and wait on the “call” from the other tour guide to let us go. (It seriously sounded like a birdcall!)

The first time I went I was second-to-the-last and as I was leaving the platform, the tour guide shouted, “WAIT! COME BACK! COME BACK!” Luckily, I had seen him do that to a few other people in our group so I just let out a quick shout and then enjoyed my first ride! It’s hard to explain how zip-lining feels.

You feel alive. Exhilarated. Slightly scared. Awed. Amazed.

The lines were short and sweet and the platforms came up quickly. The first time I went, the other tour guide, shouted, “SLOW DOWN! SLOW DOWN!” Which freaked me out since I had no idea what he meant by slowing down! How was I supposed to slow down? They didn’t cover this in the training! But, of course, he was kidding. Yes, we got a regular bunch of comedians for our tour guides! The zip line would slow down as we got closer to the platform and it was fairly easy to step onto the platform and get unhooked.

All the different zip lines were fairly short and easy. I felt completely comfortable and god, it was so much fun! I can’t even explain how much fun it is to zip-line. You just have to experience it for yourself!

The scariest zip-line was our second-to-last one where we took a 30-foot drop from the top of a platform. Something you should know about me: I hate big drops! It’s the scariest part of a roller coaster for me. Basically, I got hooked up and then just sat, hanging in the air, until my tour guide deemed it okay to drop me. SCARIEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE! I screamed the entire time. A huge, girly, I-probably-woke-every-animal-in-Jamaica scream. And then promptly slid down one of the tour guides, legs splayed. Yep. I’m that girl.

Our last zip-line experience of the day was our longest ride yet and it’s where I managed to finally slip my camera out of the pocket of my jeans and snap some out-of-this-world photos.

Just the top of the rain forest. NBD.

And just like that: our zip-lining experience was over. It was the perfect amount of time, really, although I wouldn’t have cried if we could have had more lines to fly through. 😉

We had such an amazing experience, that we’re almost certain we’ll do a zip-lining excursion when we’re in Cozumel on our next cruise.

After zip-lining, it was time to do some serious shopping. It was only about 9:30 AM by that time so we perused the little shop at Mystic Mountain, where I bought a little sling bag and a keychain (yes, still my thing) before riding the air tram back down to the entrance and getting on the bus to go back to where we got on the bus, which was in a major shopping district.

We spent a lot of time looking through the shops – as well as getting a sample of rum poured into our Coke bottles. Too strong for me but still pretty awesome – before settling on some shirts to take back home.

And then we headed back to the ship! But not before my mom was asked if she needed any marijuana (no) and then a street vendor tried to sell me some necklaces. He came right up to me, explained what the colors of Jamaica mean, and then put it around my neck. It was pretty easy to get rid of these people so all the warnings people gave to me beforehand were unfounded – at least for me. It was actually a little sad to see how some of these people were trying to make a living and I felt a little bad not buying those necklaces! (I’m such a sucker, I know.)

We were back on the boat by 1pm and it was such a bittersweet time. I remember saying to my mom, “The next time we leave the ship, it will be for good!” We still had almost two days to spend on the boat, but all the fun experiences were over for this cruise.

But my recaps aren’t over! I still have to recap my time on the ship so expect the last two of my cruise recap posts coming this week.

Have you ever been zip-lining?

Categories: Travel

Carnival Freedom | Western Caribbean Cruise | Ocho Rios, Jamaica

One of my favorite sounds from the cruise was waking up to hear the ship setting down anchor. I can distinctly remember each and every sound the ship made as it did so and the way the ship felt. There was something incredibly exciting about knowing we had arrived at a new destination and peeking through the curtains to see where we were.

And Jamaica was simply breathtaking.

I’m not sure why I felt such a pressing need to visit this country, but I did and it was the one destination I wanted to go to on this cruise. We booked an incredible excursion and while we wouldn’t have long on the island (we had to be back on the ship by 2:00 p.m.), we planned to make the most of our short time there.

We left the boat a little before 7:30 a.m. and then I proceeded to snap picture after picture after picture of this beautiful country. I couldn’t believe I was in Jamaica and all the fun that awaited us this day! I was completely in the moment, soaking in the beauty and the people.

We were herded onto our bus quickly, with a large group of people doing this adventure with us. The bus driver was fantastic, telling us about the flavor of Ochos Rios. We learned it’s not “Yes”, it’s “Yeah, mon” and now I want to make that a part of my everyday language. There’s just something relaxing about that phrase, am I right? Yeah, mon.

The drive to Mystic Mountain was quick and before I knew it, we were standing in a rainforest.

We were given a brief introduction to Mystic Mountain, then took an air tram up the rain forest to where the shopping, bob-sledding, zip-lining, and pool were located. We rode the air tram three times: up to Mystic Mountain, a round-trip ride after zip-lining, and then back down to the entrance of the park. Each and every time was absolutely sensational and I couldn’t stop myself from snapping picture after picture after picture. To be able to travel through the rain forest, be so high that I could spot our cruise ship in the distance, and listen to the sounds you only find in nature is an experience I will never forget. The air tram took 20 minutes one-way, so over an hour of our time in Mystic Mountain was spent on the air tram. And it still didn’t feel like enough.

Once we were in the park, we headed straight for the bobsleds. Our excursion was a bobsled/zip line package. My mom was most excited about the bobsled, I was most excited about the zip line. We got into our little cars, we were given instructions on how to use the brakes, and off we went! The bobsled let you handle how fast or slow you wanted to go and I had the gears, so it was all up to me! I started out slow but then realized the bobsled was not going to fly off the track if I went full speed ahead so I went for it!

And then it was over.

It was the quickest ride I’ve ever been on and frankly, left me feeling a bit annoyed. I had so much fun on the track, making the sled go as fast as I could make it that to have it be over so soon was heartbreaking. (And while I could ride it again, it would cost $22 per person. No thanks.) I had a blast in the short time I was able to ride it, zipping through the rainforest, but I was really looking forward to the second part of the excursion: zip-lining!

Have you ever been in a rainforest?

Categories: Travel

Carnival Freedom | Western Caribbean Cruise | Grand Cayman

First and foremost, Happy Memorial Day to my American friends! This is a special day for us, honoring those who have protected our freedom to the highest sacrifice. You are never forgotten and deeply appreciated.

Today, it’s all about Grand Cayman! While I wouldn’t call Grand Cayman my favorite island in the Caribbean, it still offers some of the best excursions of my cruises.

We stopped in Grand Cayman on Wednesday, the fourth day of our cruise. The day before was dreary and rainy and gloomy but Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny. It was the perfect weather for a day on the water!

Our excursion didn’t start until 10:00 but we had to check in by 9:15 so we woke up early, showered, and headed down for breakfast. (Still missing the breakfast buffets…) In Grand Cayman, they have to put down anchor in the middle of the ocean and we ride by tender to the island.

Being back in Grand Cayman felt a little like coming back home. I remembered the place so well, this little touristy area of the Cayman Islands, full of shops and tour guides shouting about great places to visit to anyone who would listen. My mom and I wandered around the shops for a while before checking in with our excursion guide. We still had a long time to wait until we needed to check in but I was being super neurotic about time that day, so we basically just stood around for a good half-hour. (My mom wanted to look around at the shops, but I was being a pain that day.)

In any event, we were off on our excursion soon enough. Our group was pretty huge, split into three different vans. We drove to Dolphin Cove, which was about a twenty-minute ride. There’s really not all that much to see in this part of Grand Cayman (aside from the stretch of the 7-Mile Beach but as a Florida gal, I have seen my fair share of beaches). We arrived at Dolphin Cove soon enough and walked through a bird sanctuary to get to the boat that would take us to Stingray City.

As many of you know, my mom and I visited Stingray City last year and absolutely loved it so we were excited to be back again. We loved it just as much the second time:

We spent about 30 minutes in the water with the sting rays where we kissed and held the rays, as well as got to experience feeding a stingray – which is weird! Basically, you held calamari in your fist and held your fist below the water. The stingrays would come right up to you and SCHLOP! it out of your fist. It was pretty freaky! But also so fun and cute. 🙂

There were so many stingrays where we were swimming at. I can’t even tell you how many times I would just be standing around and feel a stingray bump against my leg as it was swimming past. (Yes, it’s as freaky as it sounds. But also so cool!) And I got my requisite kissing stingray photo for the year.

Sloppy and wet! Just how I like them.

Or not. I wouldn’t know.

Let’s move on.

After our time with the stingrays, we all loaded back onto the boat to go back to Dolphin Cove. The boat ride to and from Stingray City was 30 minutes each way, which took an hour out of our day. (And I’m pretty sure the boat ride from Stingray City is where I developed a bit of a shoulder sunburn. Not a fan!) We were back before we knew it and our big group split up into three different groups: the people who had just paid for Stingray City, the people who were doing the dolphin encounter, and the people who were doing the dolphin swim.

We got into the dolphin encounter group where we had a short lesson on the dolphins and what we would be doing. And then it was time to get in the water!

Our group split into two different groups of 15 and half of that group would be in the water at one time. My mom and I were in the first group to get in the water. We stood on a ledge in the pool and had about 20 minutes with the dolphin. Our dolphin was a male named Nemo and he was the Most Fun! He swam around us so we could pet him, splashed us, and then calmed down enough to do some dancing and kissing with us!

We each had a turn dancing with him. We put our hands out and Nemo would come up so we could take his fins and do a little jig! It was so much fun! I didn’t get a picture of this because the pictures were $15 a pop and I had to be choosy. (We couldn’t take our own cameras, which one of the participants complained loudly about. Whatever. There are better things to complain about, in my book.)

Once we all had a turn dancing with Nemo, it was time for kissing! We would stand close to the edge of the ledge with our hands behind our backs, leaning forward so he could kiss us on the cheek. Once he came up and kissed us, we got to kiss him back! I gave him a big ole smackeroo and when we finished, Nemo did a little dance in the water! I was the only one he danced for after kissing, so basically, he wants to be my boyfriend. (And as a side note: the trainer asked if I wanted to kiss him or Nemo. An odd comment but, um, he was cute so… both?)

Nemo played a little hard to get with my mom when she tried to get a kiss from him but after much hemming and hawing, he did.

After the kiss, we took pictures with Nemo, where we got to hold him but those pictures turned out horrible so we only ended up buying one picture. The prices were pretty expensive ($15 a picture – and they weren’t the best quality – but no sale prices for buying a bundle of pictures. You could buy a set of ALL the pictures for $80 but that included everyone’s photos which… why would I want to pay that much for pictures of people I don’t even know?!)

We wound up on the bus back to Grand Cayman around 1:00. We were starving by that time but couldn’t find too many places within walking distance to eat at, plus the line going back on the ship was already starting to get pretty heavy so we decided to get in line and eat lunch back on the ship. (Plus, hi, it’s free!)

It was a fun day in Grand Cayman and I’m so happy we did this excursion! Unfortunately, it was a long one so we didn’t have any time to shop afterward but that’s okay. Experiences > stuff, in my opinion. I thought the dolphin encounter would feel weird and super touristy, but it was actually one of my favorite moments from my cruise. The trainers were awesome and while I most definitely want to do a dolphin swim someday, I didn’t regret only choosing the encounter. We didn’t get a WHOLE lot of time with Nemo, but even just those 20 minutes were pretty awesome. I wish the picture prices were more affordable, but what can you do? It’s a tourist trap!

If you’re ever in Grand Cayman, please, please, please visit Stingray City. I know it sounds freaky – swimming with stingrays – but these stingrays are domesticated and in the two times I’ve gone there, there have been no stingray attacks. (I even stepped on one by accident this time and didn’t get attacked!) It’s such an amazing experience and just to say I’ve gone there twice is incredible to me.

In any event, it was a fun day on the island and then a relaxing afternoon on the boat. We had another lovely, yummy dinner but it was early to bed for us because JAMAICA awaited us in the morning! Bob-sledding, zip-lining, shopping, oh my!

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done while on vacation? Would you ever visit Stingray City, if you have the chance?