Friday, July 17, 2015

Cruise 2015

So . . . I'm way behind on the blogging.  You know how it is, kids activities, church callings, family stuff.  Plus I'm lazy.  Yeah, it's mostly the lazy thing.  So now if I hurry and do this I can finally cross it off my to-do list instead of just moving it from day to day . . . to day.

And if it looks like we mostly just sat around taking selfies, that's probably because we just sat around taking selfies.  We're just exciting like that.



 Apparently he's going for the Jaba the Hut thing.  And for the record, he worked really hard to get that much chin.  He's kind of a dork.




I've waited so long to blog about this, I don't even know what's in the background. Somewhere in Mexico. That's all I've got.




3 stops in Mexico and we took 1 shore excursion.  We had planned on going whale watching, but it got cancelled.  So we took a little ride around the water at Mazatlan.  It was ok, I guess.  It was short, the guide was entertaining, but we've been spoiled by the other Mexican coast.

So lest you mock us for doing nothing, that's what we like about cruises.  All the doing of nothing.  Plus, when everyone is off the ship, that's the best time to hang out at the pool.  (Which we did, but there is no photographic evidence of it for good reason.  You may thank me later.)


  I have no recollection of the beads.  There must be a reason?




Looking back at Mazatlan . . . 


 I found it terribly amusing that at our final stop in Mexico, what's the first thing people see?  A Sam's Club and a Walmart.   Meh.




And the US Coast Guard.






This was a longer cruise - 7 days - so it included 2 formal nights.  This is the second one.  We didn't do any pictures at the first one.  We're lame, what can I say?  But at least I got 2 pictures of him not pulling a face!


Final review of the cruise:  Ship was great (Carnival Miracle).  I would sail on it again.  It was a weird layout from Carnival's other ships - all the main public areas (except the pools) were down low (decks 2-4) instead of where we are used to (decks 7-9).  It was not as Las Vegas-y as other ships, which was a nice change.  Our room steward was the best we've ever had, but our dining room wait staff was only so-so.    I wouldn't do this itinerary again, mostly because we've been spoiled by the lush, jungle-y Cozumel side of Mexico and the west coast is not so much.  Frankly, the only reason we took this one was because air fare to Florida was crazy high, and air fare to California is much cheaper, but the cruises are more expensive.  So we got the 7 day cruise (suite included) for the same price overall as a 5 day cruise from Florida.  But I probably won't do it again.  At least not any time soon.  One last thing:  I remember why we go in September.  Spring is too cold.  Ok, so it's not super cold, but when I'm on a cruise, I want it to be hot.  And this wasn't.  And that's also why you won't find me on an Alaskan cruise.  I'll stick to the warmer, beachier ports.  And I'll go back to September cruises.  No more of this spring stuff. But this spring cruise did coincide with our 23rd anniversary, so that was cool.


The best thing was that about 2 weeks prior to sailing Carnival called me to say the ship wasn't full and would I like to upgrade to a suite?  It cost a little more, but less than half what it should have so I took it.  The room was about twice as bit (cruise ship rooms are tiny, so twice as big is still tiny), but the bathroom had a double vanity and a bathtub.  There was also a separate dressing room.  So yeah, a suite is pretty sweet.  Would I pay full price for it?  Probably not.  But it was fun to try out once.