OCTOBER 18-22 2004
This particular adventure began one day with an invitation to a friend's wedding. Thida, whom I met and roomed with for a month in New Zealand last year on my volunteer trip, was getting married to her boyfriend (Nik) of nearly 12 years, who had finally proposed to her when he came down to join her for her final week in New Zealand. Aww, how romantic! This particular wedding was set to be held aboard the Paradise cruise ship to Catalina, California and Ensenada Mexico in October 2004.
Well...I think we all know how often I pass up a chance to travel by now...so the planning began. As it turned out, another good friend of mine (from England), whom I met on the same New Zealand trip last year, was also invited and planning to attend. We decided to go together, so Vicky booked her flights and arrived to spend a week in Texas with us prior to the cruise. We even managed a quick trip from Dallas to Amarillo so she could experience Cadillac Ranch and Palo Duro Canyon, of course.
But on to the Mexico Curise... Drew dropped us off at DFW for our 10:20am flight to LAX where we had a bit of a wait for additional cruise members to join us before we shuttled out to our ship at the dock. By the time we got to the ship Vicky and I were tired and a worn out site from our day of traveling, but that didn't stop the cruise line from snapping a couple of quick photos as we boarded. We were issued our "Sail and Sign" card, which would ensure a large tab at the end of the journey, half of which most guests would swear included charges they don't remember making... next we were off to find Stateroom M20.
It took us a while to get our bearings. The ship was huge. In what was left of that first day, we had a boat drill, wear we put on our life jackets and made our way to the designated areas in case of emergency. I watched from the deck as we pulled out of the harbor. It drizzled a bit as we began our cruise. Little did we know that the weather would continue like that throughout our journey. That night, we also enjoyed the first of many terrific dinners. The food was definitely the best part of the cruise, next to the wedding, of course. I was a little dizzy and off-balance in the room, but just fine walking about or topside.
Day 2: Woke up to the sound of the anchor lowering when we reached the port of Catalina Island. Enjoyed a stroll topside in the morning with a great view of Catalina as the fog rolled in and out throughout the day. Today was Thida and Nik's wedding and it was lovely! Very short and very nice. They wrote thieir own sweet vows. Their reception was great fun, with an open bar and great horsd'oeuvres. They are so happy together and it was so wonderful to get to be a part of such a great day in thier lives. We had lunch at the 24 hr pizzaria and watched "gangway" from Catalina. Tonight was formal night on the ship, so we dressed up and headed out for cocktail hour with the Captain and crew followed by another fabulous dinner.
Day 3: And the heavens rained down... we had booked a horseback excursion in Ensenada, Mexico for today, but due to the weather, nearly every excursion ended up cancelled. It was a terrential downpour and most passengers elected to stay on board the ship and didn't even venture out. Vicky and I, being the crazy sort that we are, did venture onto the mainland into the monsoon for a few hours. It was very windy, rain was heavy, and the flooded streets made it difficult to walk. We eventually made it back to the ship, out of our wet clothes, and took a quick nap to recover from our latest adventure. We had another dinner of perfection, but tonight we followed up with a "pub crawl." Oh my. The funny thing about the pub-crawl was that no one showed up for it, except the six of us girls (we've been joined at this point, but another friend of ours from New Zealand, Belle and her friend Randy, plus two girls we met up with on the ship Destiny and Melody). And, well, what ensued was a LOT of liquor consumption, brief bit of dancing, a quick bit of kareoke, and lots of fun. I even managed a shot here and there. By the end of the crawl we'd picked up a few more passengers and Thida and Nik caught up to us as well. After the pub crawl, the casino was a big draw but I called it a night and went back to find our third towel animal on my bed. They were another favorite of mine. First was "Sweazy the Swan" next was "Dopey the Dog" and tonight's was "Floppy the Elephant" whose head kept falling off as the boat rocked with the rough seas. I was glad to know it was just me imagining all the rocking. At one point, the ship had to stop so a helicopter could fly and in and make an emergency medical evacuation of one of the passengers. That was a bit odd, and apparently a bit difficult in the dark with rough seas.
Day 4: The fourth day was spent entirely at sea as we headed back home. Despite all the clouds enough people were trying to take advantage of the couple of outdoor hottubs so that really wasn't an option. Instead we lounged around on the back of the main deck and watched the occasional military aircraft fly over practicing their runs. We'd also catch an occasional glance of a huge ship not to far off behind us. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all snacks were great, of course. In the room that evening "Wally the Walrus" was awaiting our return. We packed our bags and drifted off to sleep.
Day 5: The next morning I was up with the anchor once again. Vicky slept in just a bit, her flight wasn't scheduled to leave until later that afternoon. I had an earlier flight, so after breakfast, I was one of the first passengers off the ship. It went much quicker than I had anticipated and I was off the ship and back at the airport within an hour. I had about 3 hours until my flight was to leave, so I hopped on board the next flight out, which actually left about 20 minutes after I got to the airport and I was back with Drew with extra time to unwind.
This was my first and likely my last cruise experience. Being able to be there for the wedding was the best part of the trip. But I learned that I am not a cruise ship person. I liked the ports of call. I like traveling. I never even got sea sick or anything like that, but I guess my preferred mode of transportation is not one where I'm stuck on a ship with thousands of drunk folks running around all the time. I much prefer flying on into wherever then taking smaller, more personal excursions from there.