The Cruise!

Finally, the promised post about our fabulous cruise to Mexico! I've been trying to figure out how to share all the pictures we took without having to post all of them and making this entry a mile long. So, I stashed them all on Photobucket.com and I'm crossing my fingers that they work out ok. Click here to go to the album.

Now, the story. The trip there was a miracle. Our flight down got delayed which is the worst thing that can happen because if you don't make it to the ship in time, THEY WILL LEAVE WITHOUT YOU. And you are stuck trying to catch up to them on your own dime. Amazingly, someone, I still have no idea who, rescheduled our flight to an earlier one so we actually made it down there earlier than we would have originally. It was great to have all that extra cushion room. We were able to get on the ship for the lunch buffet and hang out on the decks while we waited for our stateroom to be available. Now, a little word about how cruises work. You are expected to be smashed the entire time. We literally walked over the gangplank and there was a table of cocktails right there. All that costs money, of course, but on a hot day after a long flight they looked extremely tempting. Luckily the lemonade was free!

As you can see from the picture I took, the stateroom was tiny! I was expecting small but I was shocked. James and I barely fit standing up in the only floor space. It was very cozy. :) We actually loved it though. We could make it as cold as we wanted in there so we bundled up under the blankets and vegged out which was awesome! The shower was a blaster which I loved and the people who work on the ship kept the room in amazing order. Both James and I like to sleep with our feet sticking out of the bottom of the covers so each day when we got back to the room the first thing we did was untuck all the covers and sheets and rearrange. But, if we left the room for more than a half hour our kindly stateroom attendants would make our bed for us again! They also liked to fold the towels in the shape of animals. We got an elephant one day and a monkey hanging from the ceiling another day. It was so clever!

The ship left the dock around 5:30 that evening and we had the one truck on the dock wishing us goodbye. James waved at the man and he waved back! We were both so worn out we just holed up in our room and ordered room service for dinner. It was very nice. We traveled all night to arrive in San Diego the next morning.

Both of us agree the best day was San Diego. This was the first stop and we chose to spend the day at the world famous zoo there. It was so wonderful! We got there right at opening time and by some miracle we saw all the really popular stuff before the crowds so we didn't have to stand in line at all. The panda's are so popular they have a barricaded 'line' area just for people waiting to see them. We saw them first so we were able to stand and watch them and take pictures which was so amazing! When we came by again in the afternoon the line stretched all the way up the street. :) We saw so many animals, I loved it! I really loved the flamingos, the monkeys, and the big cats. There were little wild cats that looked just like house cats but they were wild. The would not have looked out of place in our living room. It was so cool. There were hundreds of birds. They had a really special aviary just for hummingbirds that you could walk into and stand there with them zooming right by your head. So incredible. The absolute best part was the polar bears. Most of the animals were pretty casual and lazy but the polar bears were having a ball. They were playing with a gunny sack, jumping and diving into the water and chasing each other through the water. They actually used the plastic windows as springboards that's how close they were. It was so exciting we forgot to take any pictures of the action. lol We finally remembered when they settled down to eat lunch. Another part I loved was the little monkeys napping on the hammock over a stream. The picture is called cuddley monkeys. These guys were SO cute! The one in front was gone to the world but the one in back couldn't settle down. He kept reaching over and checking to see if the other one was awake. He tried shaking him and inspected his fur and his teeth. We were laughing so hard! Another amazing animal we saw was the hippo. I never thought much about how they would look in real life and they were crazy! All I can say is the movies do a good job. :) The end of the day we made it to the lynx cage which were the only other really active animals we saw. They were pacing up and down in the front of the cage so they gave us great photo opportunities. I wish I could have just taken a movie of everything I saw because it was so much fun and I wish I could share it with everyone. If you have the chance to go to San Diego make sure you set aside a day for the zoo. It was a wonderful day!

We got back to the ship around 4:00 where the party was in full swing. It was hilarious to see everyone drinking like there was no tomorrow. I guess that's what you are supposed to do on a vacation. Personally, I'm glad I can remember what we did for the entire week. ;) We hung out on deck and watched the sun set. Then we hung out in our cabin until the formal dinner at 8:00pm. That dining room was amazing. Our waiters were so much fun and the food was incredible. We weren't allowed to leave until we had all the courses! So we were stuffed when we finally finished. It was so worth it though.

Whew! That's the first day. The others will be shorter because we didn't see as much. We really embraced the idea of doing nothing. :) Day three next time.