Back From the Cruise

I'm back and I had the time of my life. I've got some interesting cruise tips, believe it or not, since this was only my second cruise.

We (120 of us) left by chartered bus to the Tampa cruise terminal last Monday at 9 A.M. Only one idiot packed their passport in with their luggage so the poor driver had to unload about 3 tons of it to get the idiot's passport back to him.

Having gone through the routine last year, it wasn't so daunting this time around. We found our way on board and headed straight to the Lido deck where the buffet was. I'd always heard about the "Lido" deck before last year but never understood that it was the life of the ship. You can eat about 24 hours a day there, swim in the pool, soak in the hot tub, or just shmooze. Aside from the casino it's where I spent most of my time on board.

We ate and then went to see if our room was ready for us (my friend, Carole, and I were sharing a room). The room was ready long before our luggage was brought to us but we didn't mind. The Lido deck awaited.

A few things confused me. First...even though you could have all the water you wanted to drink in a glass for free you had to pay $2.25 plus gratuity for a bottle of it. Second...all soda was charged to your card even if you had it at the casino. This made no sense to me at all because the amount of food supplied was gargantuan. Everywhere you went there were meals, both sit down and buffet. Even a midnight buffet. Why in the world did they charge for Diet Pepsi???

For anyone who cares, I lost all my money at the casino over a 4 day period. On Friday evening, the night before we got back home, I went to visit my money and see if anyone was still playing the slot machines. Very few were. Either everyone had been as unlucky as me or the ones still playing were better off financially.

We had a rather brief stop at the Cayman Islands and Carole went snorkelling. She bought the tour from the ship and it cost $40 for a 2 1/2 hour tour. She said the men who took them out to the reef were totally uninterested in teaching them anything and she also only spent about 1/2 hour in the water. When she arrived back at the ship she had a bit of time to take a little walk through the town and found a beautiful beach just a stone through away where she could have rented a locker for $5 and snorkelled all day for free. The people who sell tours on the ship don't tell you this, of course.

I felt the $45 price tag on an island tour was too much so I opted to go ashore and see if there were any better deals around. I'd barely set foot on the island when I spotted a lady carrying a sign that offered island tours for $20...same tour!! I took it and enjoyed the beautiful Caymans for about 2 hours. Upon returning to the ship I discovered that another couple got my tour for $10 each. I didn't realize that you could bargain that strongly!

I can't forget to mention the wonderful floor shows on a cruise. They are full of beautiful, energetic, and talented young people. I missed the first one due to a stint at the casino but the rest were great. One night there was a talent contest for the cruisers and I was amazed at the talent among us. Karaoke was held every night and, again, some of the participants gave me goosebumps. Of course, some made me want to cover my ears but even the bad ones were entertaining.

We got to Cozumel on Thursday and Carole and I packed a little lunch (including bottles of water we'd had to purchase) and took a $79 tour (purchased on the ship) to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. I can't stress how wonderful this tour was. Our guide was a very knowledgable young man who did his best to educate us throughout the tour.

The ruins were magnificent. I worried that we wouldn't be able to get close enough to them but we were actually able to touch them in many places. Then I worried that all the tourists and traffic would eventually destroy the ruins. The few buildings left are not much more than shells and many are listing and seem on the verge of collapsing. The location is perfect...right on the edge of the ocean where we could hear the surf just as the Mayans heard it thousands of years ago. I went from stone to stone touching each and trying to get some kind of feedback but nothing came. I hope I'm not losing the bit of ESP I have.

Carole and I both brought back a couple of little stones we found on the ground. These will be treasured mementos of our trip to this historical spot.

I debarked this morning with about $4 cash. I'd only saved this tiny bit in case we were going to play Bingo on the bus coming home but no-one was interested. I didn't buy much in Mexico, just 2 bottles of booze and 2 fridge magnets. The rest I fed to the slots. And that's okay!

The wonderful lady from our park who does all the organizing for these cruises is already planning one for next year. This will be a 7 day cruise to St Thomas and St Martin. I'm hoping to convince my sister-in-law, Faye, to go with me. I doubt there will be as many people from our park going to the next one but even a few familiar faces make the cruise so much more fun.

Well, I've been home since noon, done a wash, grocery shopped, ate lunch at McDonalds, did some Ebay work, and wrote this blog. Now I have to get ready for a dance we're having in the clubhouse tonight. Life is good...and, given half a chance, a hell of a lot of fun.