Travel – Page 18

Categories: Travel

Labor Day Getaway

Last Saturday, at the disgusting hour of 5:30AM, I boarded my first-ever airplane. My mom and I had planned a whirlwind weekend in Georgia with family for the Labor Day weekend and I was psyched when tickets to Atlanta dropped to a very reasonable rate. Our flight up was easy and I was like a five-year-old with my face planted against the window, watching the city fly by.

We arrived in Atlanta at 7:30 in the morning and met the smiling faces of my aunt and uncle. I think everyone has people in their family that make family functions more fun and easier to bear. They are the ones who get you. My aunt and uncle are these people. We went out for breakfast, where I nommed on a delicious omelet. (I’m obsessed with omelets lately.) After that, we headed to their home! They live in Cartersville, which is a little less than an hour from Atlanta. It’s honestly one of those places that gets etched on your heart and is unforgettable. I love this little town.

Around lunchtime, we headed out for a hike! My mom had mentioned wanting to hike a trail my aunt walks/runs on and I was up for it as well. Hiking would be fun! The exercise! The endorphins! The views! The sprained ankles?

Oh, yes. It was an unforgettable hike. The walk up was tough. It was SO steep and hilly and I seriously think it took me an hour to hike the one-mile to the top. Luckily, I had a buddy in my 10-year-old cousin, Mallory, who would stop and wait for me. She was good company. But the way up was tough and felt like it went on forever. But I kept on going. Kept climbing and walking and huffing and puffing. I would see the top eventually.

And boy, was the view something spectacular. The view from the top was incredible.

We stopped for about 20 minutes or so (well, 20 minutes for me. Everyone else arrived at the top way before me!), and then started to make our way down. The way down was so much easier than the way up. I was behind my uncle and two cousins, until my younger cousin wanted to be carried by my uncle so they stopped and I took the lead.

BAD IDEA, STEPHANY. BAD. BAD. IDEA.

I was intent on maintaining a fast pace and though I was looking down and watching where I was going, I ended up stepping wrong on a steep decline and twisting my ankle. I heard something snap in my ankle as I tumbled down, also landed hard on the knee on my other leg. It hurt like no other. My ankle started throbbing immediately but after a 5-second sit-down, I got up and tried walking on it, more scared it was broken and I would miss Six Flags the next day than anything else. (Yes, I am eight years old.) I could walk on it, but it was extremely, extremely painful. But there was nothing else I could do. I had to continue down to the end of the trail.

I had about a half-mile to go to get to the end and it was slow-going. Luckily, nobody complained and they let me set the pace as I hobbled my way down, trying to bypass as many rocks as I could. It was awful and hard and I think I whimpered the entire time. I remember pleading with God, “Please, just take the pain away for now. Just lessen the pain.” I made it to the end. The way down was a billion times harder than the way up in a way I could have never imagined.

After our hike, we all went to a cupcake shop where I had a delicious cupcake that I didn’t get a picture of! I actually wound up being terrible at taking pictures on this vacation but oh well! The cupcake was fabulous but my ankle put a damper on everything. At this point, it was still throbbing immensely and the adrenaline of hiking down was wearing off. I needed some ibuprofen, a chair, and ice STAT.

I spent the majority of Saturday in a chair with my foot propped up, icing my ankle and bruised knee. Fun, right?

Ouch.

On Sunday, we had plans for Six Flags and I didn’t want my ankle to ruin all the fun so my mom bought me a brace at CVS and I was prepared to spend the day in a wheelchair. Luckily, the pain lessened thanks to the brace, ibuprofen, and walking around on it and I was able to keep up pretty decently without the need for a wheelchair. The lines were disgustingly long so I only ended up going on three rollercoasters but they were all SO amazing and reaffirmed my love for adrenaline-pumping rollercoasters! We stood in line for probably two hours for a water ride, but it kept getting closed down due to lightning in the area so we finally left.

It was a super fun day, though, and it was the most fun to spend it with my favorite family members. They are good people. 🙂

Monday was a pretty low-key day for all of us. My aunt and my mom attended a boot camp at my aunt’s gym (my aunt seriously has Kelly Ripa arms. I need her to put ME through a boot camp!), while I did about an hour on the recumbent bike. Not my favorite gym equipment but it was the only piece that wouldn’t put too much pressure on my ankle. My aunt whipped up chocolate protein shakes afterward (SO good!) and then we just lazed around.

I love lazy vacations. I love vacations where I’m super busy and on the go, seeing the sights, but lazy ones are good for recharging and getting away. We ended up going bowling and then out for an early dinner, before coming home and my uncle making us to-die-for cookies.

We left Tuesday afternoon for our flight home, which was another easy-peasy flight. (Although navigating around the Atlanta airport is another story!) And I was able to see the cloud more clearly and took about 15 or so pictures of my view. So, so amazing and surreal.

All in all, a very successful and fun trip. Aside from my sprained ankle that is on the mend, but still not 100%. I still need to use my brace to get around. It was a blast to hang out with this family with just my mom and me because we’ve always been surrounded by other family members when we do see them. I know this wasn’t a one-time thing and something we want to do again.

Have you ever injured yourself while on vacation? What’s your favorite city to visit?

Categories: Travel

Carnival Paradise | Cozumel Cruise | Zip-Lining Excursion Recap

On our cruise, Saturday was all about Cozumel.

This was my second time there, my first time being a bit of a shock. Between a disappointing excursion and trying to walk through their shopping district without getting accosted, I was a little put off by Cozumel and its people. But I was still excited to go back, to be more open and explore new parts of the city.

My mom and I booked another zip-lining excursion, after enjoying the zip-line so much in Jamaica. The weather report was pretty nasty: an 80% chance of rain and all we’d been seeing for days were gray, cloudy skies. We were hoping the zip-lining wouldn’t get canceled but with the rain and high winds, it wasn’t looking good.

Thankfully, the weather report was way off.

It sprinkled for about five seconds when we entered Cozumel but that. was. it. The rest of the time, it was simply cloudy, although the sun did make an appearance in the afternoon.

After checking in, signing our lives away, and waiting for about 20 minutes, we were off for another fun adventure in a foreign land! The ride to the zip-line was short and sweet and before I knew it, I was being fitted into the zip-line gear by an adorable Spanish guy.

We had a small group of eight, including us. There were about six tour guides, all of who would meet us at various stopping points along the zip line. We were given instructions, including how to stop. Unlike the zip-line in Jamaica, we were given work gloves where one glove was fitted with a wooden block on the palm. That was our stopping glove. We would put one hand (our less dominant hand) on our front cables and with our other hand, the one with the block glove, we would reach back as far as our arm would reach behind us and hold directly onto the line. When we wanted to slow down, we would grip the line more tightly and pull it down. When we wanted to speed up, we would loosen our grip on the line. It took me quite a few turns on the zip line to get used to stopping and I still crashed into the guides more than a few times. (Not that I was complaining… heh.)

This zip-lining experience was much, much scarier than Jamaica. I don’t think I was ever fearful in Jamaica. I enjoyed it, the tour guides made it relaxing and fun, and the only time I felt real fear was during the 30-foot drop but that was more fear of the drop than losing my life. Based on the shortness of breath and tightness in my chest, I believe I might have been having a panic attack during this experience. It really wasn’t all that fun for me. Jamaica made me want to zip-line all over the world. Cozumel made me never want to zip-line again.

What made it so much worse than my previous zip-lining experience? I think a combination of the height, having to stop myself on the line, and the tour guides. I was well aware of how high up we were since we were in more of a jungle setting than a rainforest and as we were climbing the (shaky!) stairs to each platform, it brought into focus how high up we were. I never felt 100% safe.

The tour guides were pleasant, some better than others, but they didn’t offer the same level of comfort and ease as our Jamaican tour guides. Zip-lining with them felt fun and playful. They cracked jokes and I felt completely comfortable with them. They had big personalities and I felt like I was on an adventure with them, rather than they were working for us. In Cozumel, they were very businesslike and professional. No joking around and only a few of the guides actually made an attempt at being friendly. I didn’t feel as comfortable with them and believe me, you really want to feel comfortable with someone who is locking you into a line hundreds of feet off the ground.

We went through the series of zip lines twice and I was actually very happy when our time was up. I was ready to climb down from the shaky platform, take off my equipment, and restore my equilibrium once again.

I hate to be so negative about this excursion, but I have to be honest about my own experience. My mom, on the other hand, loved it. She agreed it wasn’t as amazing as our experience in Jamaica, but she enjoyed it more than I did. We were able to buy our entire CD of photographs for just $38, which is a steal.

After zip-lining, we headed to a resort where we could enjoy a refreshing dip in the pool, a free drink, and lunch. My mom and I took a swim in the pool and then laid out for a short while before we decided to head back over to the shops and do a little shopping! I ended up with a new sling bag, a t-shirt, and a key chain. We also ended up buying my brother a t-shirt and my nephew a maraca, a tambourine, and a t-shirt. (When he was opening the bag that held the tambourine, his eyes got real big and he said, “It’s an instrument!” Cutest ever.) She also ended up buying herself a t-shirt and the cutest bag in the history of bags. Seriously. I’m jealous I didn’t see it first.

After shopping, we found our way over to Senor Frogs! The restaurant was located in the shopping district towards the front and you could tell it was a party in there! We ended up sharing a drink (and I left my souvenir glass in the restaurant! I’m still so sad about that) because the glasses were 28oz! No way could I have finished that on my own. The atmosphere there was so fun and light! The music was loud, the drinks were delicious, and the food was yummy! Sure, maybe it’s not totally authentic but we had fun and didn’t want to venture too far from the boat.

And that was Cozumel. Another excursion that I wasn’t totally happy with, but there’s something about this little island that has stolen my heart. I love the flavor of Cozumel and it’s a place I know I’ll be returning to again and again.

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?