I'm home.
9 days.
3500 shipmates.
4 guys in one tiny cabin without a window.
25 meals.
7 towel animals.
$50 on satellite internet (gotta keep in touch with my boo...).
2 bad sunburns.
1 cruise I will never, ever forget.
1 cruise I never, ever repeat.
On a scale of 1-10, I give this vacation a 4. I had a good time...but seven days on a ship with only two stops (we were supposed to have three...more on that later) can make one slightly insane. Not only that, but when the girl of your dreams is thousands of miles away, it's hard to have a good time.
Here's a brief re-cap of what happened.
Sunday after church we pack Dave's car to the brim with all our luggage...
and set off to board the Carnival Splendor!
The evening is spent exploring the ship. Best part is discovering the mints on our pillows. Tommy obviously enjoys them too much.
Monday we are on the ship the whole day traveling to Mexico. We tell our housekeeper, Xavier, we love the mints.
Hours later, instead of finding one mint on our pillow, we find this:
Tuesday is another day at sea. We swim, read, relax, eat, and are very anxious to get off.
Wednesday greets us with freedom! We arrive in Puerto Vallarta and the first thing we see is a Super Wal-mart.
We hire a taxi driver and he takes us into the rain forest for a zip-line/canopy adventure.
INCREDIBLE. One of the best parts of the trip. 12 zip-lines - one over a mile long! Watch:
After three hours of of flying through the forest, we find an authentic Mexican restaurant.
I help make salsa and we enjoy a delicious meal. (It would later come back to haunt us...but not too bad).
It starts to rain but we quickly visit the beach, walk around town, buy a few things, and say farewell to this beautiful city.
Thursday we awake to sunshine and Mazatlan.
We grab a cab with no doors and drive to the beach.
The water is so warm and blue. The sand is nice. And there's parasailing! We give it a try.
Was it worth it? You decide:
We hang out on the beach all day, I find an amazing sea shell, and we stumble into the Mexican Bob Barker (who needs some spelling lessons).
 |
We hop back onto our taxi to take a tour of the town. Within minutes, we spot some familiar outfits: white shirts, ties, slacks... MISSIONARIES! |
These guys spend two years away from home teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. That book we're holding is called The Book of Mormon...El Libro De Mormon.
It's changed my life and answers questions of the soul.
Want a free copy? You're in luck - I can arrange that! Click here.
Our cab driver, Jesus (not kidding), takes one...
then takes us to a beautiful lighthouse.
On the way, we stop at a look-out and I notice how massive the cruise ship is compared to this tiny, poor village.
The money I spent to live on that ship for seven days would feed a family here for many, many weeks (or months). Really puts things in perspective and makes me realize how blessed I am.
After visiting Puerto Vallarata and Mazatlan, we can't wait to stop in Cabo San Lucas - the best port of all.
Friday morning we wake up at 7.30am to get off the boat. Instead, we're greeted by an announcement saying that no one will be leaving.
Small boats must transport passengers from the main boat to shore. Our captain says the swells are too high for those small boats and putting passengers on them would be dangerous.
We are NOT happy. Neither are 3500 other people. I wasn't as upset about missing the city as I was that we had to stay on this stinkin' ship an extra day.
Somehow we find something to do. It's formal night so we take pictures with the girls from Richmond (who happen to be the best girls on the boat).
Saturday is ANOTHER full day at sea and we're counting down the seconds until we see land again.
I stay busy thinking about one thing...
Sunday arrives and we're anxious to go home. After making it through customs, we rush to the airport where I board a plane and arrive in Virginia ten hours later.
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining because I really did have a good time and I'm grateful I could go.
I will just change a few things next time and have some suggestions if you're considering a cruise:
- don't go without your significant other.
- only leave for 4-5 days.
- be sure you have more than 2-3 port stops.
- get a cabin with a window.
- wear sunscreen.
- leave out of a port close to your house. (If you live in Richmond, leave out of Florida...not LA).
YES! I got the first look! And the fact that your cab drivers name was Jesus and you gave him some scriptures is pretty much awesome! Looks like it was fun. I don't know if I would go on another cruise. The food is good, but I would rather fly to my destination and stay there for awhile!
ReplyDeleteGreat recap, Nate!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'd agree that a cruise with 3 other guys in a window-less cabin would NOT be ideal!!
ReplyDeletePaul and I went down to the caribbean on a Carnival cruise last year for our 5th anniversary (time flies, huh!?), and it was pretty good. About a 7-8 on the scale. We had REALLY choppy water the whole trip where, for the first time ever, I felt like I might know what it'd be like to be drunk! I actually got mistaken for being drunk as I caught myself from falling as the ship rocked! We went parasailing too, but both of us went at the same time. That was the highlight for me.
I wouldn't rule out cruising all together. Different ports and different company, and maybe even a different cruise line, would make the vacation MUCH more enjoyable! Glad you had a good time altogether though.
Wait! I want to know why the part where you admit that the girls from Richmond are pretty fabulous (if if only in relative comparison to people who do not set the bar very high) is in the tiniest possible print? What is that about? After all the things I've done for you Nate!
ReplyDeleteYou guys!!
ReplyDeleteI loved this post. With my whole BYU-Idaho heart.