Crappy Days in Paradise

OUR TRIP

So, we had a blast on our trip. I would say it was about 3-4 days too long as far as being away from the kids but I would have stayed on vacation forever. We were on vacation for 13 days. So, I already wrote about our trip to San Diego so I'll just get right into the cruise. First of all, if you haven't cruised you should do so. It was awesome. I could get used to cruising.
THE CRUISE

There were 8 of us all together that went on the cruise. Me, Derek, Alisha, my cousin Kaleah, my parents and some friends of the family Cathy and Rick. When we first got on the ship our rooms weren't ready, which we expected, so we went to the pool deck and sat and drank some drinks. The drinks were a little strong and before we knew it we were all acting a bit silly. I don't know how we managed it but we had to go to the safety briefing where we find the life boats and practice wearing our life vests. We were totally "those people." I'm afraid if anything bad happened on the cruise we might drown.

So, I don't know how we made it to dinner that night but we managed. Our server must have thought we were crazy that first night. The food was phenomenal. We really enjoyed the dining room. My mom was smart, having cruised before, and she planned our rooms very carefully. She wanted us all in deck rooms so she took a look at the floor plan and put me and Derek next to her, but in the middle of us were the elevators and the service area so our decks were huge and we spent a lot of time on them. There was a wall in between our decks but we had them opened and then locked open so we could use both decks. Our rooms and the decks were just perfect. On the way down to Mexico we had the sun in the morning and then on the way back when we were just relaxing and hanging out on the deck a lot it was sunny on our side in the afternoon. So we got to hang out on the deck at sunset which was just amazing.

On one of the nights we went to see a hypnotists. Kaleah decided "What the heck. I'll try it." So, I told Alisha she should go up with her. So she did. Kaleah started the whole hypnotizing process but then woke up when a larger guy leaned on her so she got off the stage while Alisha seemed to have no problem being hypnotized. It was hilarious. At one point the hypno guy told them they had poison ivy on their butt and it helped to rub it on other people so Alisha and this other girl were rubbing their butts against each other. She did several other wonderfully embarrassing antics. The hypnotists told them they would not remember anything until they went to the bathroom. Immediately after the show two guys who had been on stage came out of the bathroom yelling at each other after realizing that they had been dancing together and all sorts of craziness. It took Alisha a little while to have to go to the bathroom so when she did Kaleah and I had to go with her. She started giggling all of a sudden and when we asked her why she was laughing she started singing "I Like Big Butts." The hypnotists had them dancing for a "dance compitition" and she had been up there shaking her booty like no other to that song. It was great. Of course then she remembered all the embarrassing stuff after that and was bit humiliated. It was a good time though. There was no flash photography so the pictures aren't great but I am sure you can get the point.

On our second night at sea they had a formal night. There was always a dress code for the dining room but this night everyone was supposed to dress up. Since we very rarely have the opportunity to dress up it was a lot of fun to get all gussied up for dinner.

ACAPULCO

So, our cruise stopped in Acapulco, Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa and in Manzanillo. So, I'll start with Acapulco. My mom had done some research for a previous cruise and found that the easiest way to see thw city was in a van, so we hired ourselves a tour guide for the day. Our tour guide's name was Michael. He drove us all over Acapulco, starting with the cliff divers. The dive show was not at all like I was expecting. The divers throw themselves off the side of a cliff into this tiny little inlet. It was crazy. Then we were off to explore Acapulco. The driver was very excited to show us how to vacation in Acapulco. He showed us many hotels and shopping areas. He also took us to the Flamingo Hotel where the guy who played Tarzan used to spend a lot of time and eventually even died there of old age I think. Then after some exploring and a little bit of overpriced shopping we headed off to Senor Frogs. We had a blast at Senor Frogs. We drank too many margaritas and the waiters brought shots to my parents for their anniversary. We sat eating drinking and watched the sun set over the city. It was beautiful. After the day was over our driver took us back to the ship but we still had a couple of hours left. Everyone was ready to call it a night but Derek, Kaleah and I still wanted to do a little adventuring and shopping so we didn't go right back to the ship. We walked on the beach, did some shopping and found a little bar to drink some margaritas at. It was great being grownups and being able to just wander around on our own. When we got back on the ship they had a midnight buffet for those of us that had too much to drink and needed some food in our bellies. It was a great day.

Zihuatanejo
Zihuatanejo was our only port that did not have a dock for us. So, we had to tender...basically the ship parked in the middle of this little bay and they used some of the life boats to take us back and forth to a smaller dock. It was kinda fun.

Zihuatanejo was the total picturesque little Mexican village. We could just walk down the little streets, which we did and did not feel like you were going to get run over by anything. We went on a fiesta tour. Well, all of us but Derek. I'll get to him in a minute. The fiesta tour is basically an entertaining 1/2 mile walk. It started with everyone receiving a clay shot glass to put around their neck with the instruction to just raise your hand anytime you wanted it filled. So, at about 10AM we started raising our hands for shots of mezcal. It was cheap mezcal but it was all good. First they put on a little show with a paper mache bull (see the pictures so that I don't have to explain it) and I got to be one of those bull people that hold up a flag to get the bull's attention. It was sill and fun. Then we walked a little bit until we came to a guy who did a lasso show. After the show we walked through the village to a little restaurant for great food and some great entertainment. They had a 15 types of tamales. They had to be the best tamales I have ever had. The show was great. It was traditional dancing from different areas of Mexico and a lot of drinking. At the end they asked for volunteers. Kaleah's elbow was on the table, so being the nice cousin that I am I grabbed her elbow and raised her hand in the air. They called on her. Haha!! So they made her do a shot of tequila and yell. It was hilarious. Then they proceded to give her lots of kisses. It was great. After the tour we went shopping for a bit and the sat on the waterfront to eat Guacamole and drink margaritas. Alisha, Kaleah and I walked down to the beach and got our feet wet. Since the bottoms of my pants got wet I decided to just say screw it and started playing in the water. It was awesome. Derek finally found us soon after that. He had gone on a scubadiving trip. It sounds like it was a great couple of dives and he had a really good time, although he was jealous that he didn't get any tamales.

Manzanillo

We were told that Manzanillo was not a town to see without a tour. None of us were really feeling an actual tour so instead we went on an ATV adventure. It was me, Derek, Alisha, Kaleah and my dad. It was called a jungle beach adventure. So we were picked up in a bus and taken to the ATV place. I'd never really ridden on an ATV so this was a new experience for me. We had to drive ourselves over a mountain to get to the beach with a little jungle detour. It was a lot of fun and we all got dirty and hot. When we got to port in Manzanillo we understood why we needed a tour to see the town. We docked in an industrial area and not in the middle of a town. Not some place you just go wandering around. My parents had already been so they knew where to go after the ATV excursion. So we all went into town to do some final shopping for vanilla and tequila. This town was not like the other towns. It was not really set up for tourists. So we did some shopping and then headed back to the ship. Once we got back to the ship I looked at Manzanillo from the other side of the boat and saw that it was actually a pretty little town in some areas. There was a beautiful sunset as we set back off to sea.

Back to Cruising

So then we were back to cruising for a couple more days before getting back to San Diego. Words of advice for anyone looking into a cruise. Make sure you have a couple of days of cruising before the cruise ends. That was the most relaxing time for us. We laid by the pool, ate a lot of food. Played games and drank. Go figure. The second to last night was the second dress up night. We had every intention of going but after playing some cranium (which requires some pina coladas to help your drawing skills) we had the brilliant idea of going up to the hot tub. It was great.

One day Kaleah left her bra out and the steward found it amusing to decorate her towel animal with it. She left it out again although this time she hid it a little bit and found it on top of her towel animal again. So we collected up all the bras we could find and made a big heart of bras on her bed. Of course the steward had to retaliate so he hung up all the bras on the ceiling along with a towel monkey and then just to top it off took a pair of Kaleah's jeans, filled them with towels and placed it under the bed to look like someone was under the bed. It was great.


On one of our days at sea they had a walk for breast cancer. It was a mile long on the top deck. To make the walk great that was the only time that anyone saw whatels on the ship. Kaleah saw some tails while the rest of us saw some spouts and whale humps. We saw some a little later from our deck. I happened to be talking to Ethan at the time so he got all excited too.
Overall our trip was wonderful. We had a wonderful time and were sad to come back to Washington. If we could have stayed in California or Mexico longer so that we could soak up more sun I think we would have. It is amazing how great the sunshine makes you feel. I hope all of you get a chance to go on a cruise. I hope you enjoy all of our pictures.