I was "that" person

It's starting to become a tradition that every winter I go on a cruise down south. Every winter I wonder, "Why!? Why did I move to Boston? It's freakin' cold here!" And then the other seasons (yes, we have full blown seasons here) come and I love it. Well, this year was no exception. This year I had the opportunity to travel down to New Orleans for a couple days before catching a Carnaval Cruise ship to the Western Caribbean and here are my thoughts/adventures.

New Orleans....interesting city. The Big Easy, the birthplace of Jazz and of course, Louis Armstrong, and let's not forget that the Saints won their first Superbowl. "Who dat" is a common phrase heard wherever you go down there - makes me glad I only heard it for a weekend! My roommate, Cami, and I spent a couple hours in the French Quarter taking in the sights...the amazing street musicians and break dancers, Bourbon Street, Royal Street, a Voodoo shop (didn't stay long), cemetaries (the people are buried above ground....so imagine that and the flooding of Hurricane Katrina...not a pretty picture). In my opinion it's great to see and visit for a couple hours unless you're the type who likes to bar hop starting about mid-morning and lasting until the wee hours of the next morning. It's definately eye opening and not for everyone. But now I can say I've been there, done that. Glad I wasn't there for Mardi Gras...oh, and it's a dirty city.

After touring around the French Quarter Cami and I went for a drive around the outlying areas. I wanted to see a gator out in the wilds of the bayou. One thing that definately hit me was the poverty and rundown places. Now this is my opinion without anything to back it up, but with the standard of living so much lower there than where I grew up or here in Boston, I'm betting a lot of the rundown areas I saw wasn't just the effects of Katrina - it's been that way a long time.

I also had the opportunity to visit Oak Alley. A plantation outside of the city. Can one say gorgeous?! Yes, please! It's been used in a couple movies including "Interview with a Vampire" and Beyonce did a music video out there. Oak trees line the front and back of the house on both sides of a walk way that leads out to the Mississippi River. Cami and I took a moment to imagine what it would have been like to live the era of Southern Belles while enjoying the warm 65 degree weather. (People there thought it was cold and were wearing sweaters and jackets. Silly people...they don't know what cold is!)

We dragged ourselves away from Oak Alley to go to church. I generally try to go to church wherever I may be while on vacation and so Cami and I went to Baton Rouge to a singles ward. I wanted to check it out. Not that I'm ever planning to move to Louisiana, but I can at least see what it's like and if there are any cute guys. :) Well, in my opinion, not much in the cute guy department in this branch of 40 people We stayed for Sacrament meeting and no one spoke to us the entire time (and I was sitting next to the missionaries! tsk tsk). It made me glad I was not an investigator!

Monday was the big day! Cruise Day! New Orleans was nice, but this is what I was really looking forward to. It was my first time going to Mexico and I was looking forward to soaking up some warm sun. It's best to describe what happened by day.

Day 1 - Monday. Checked out the ship. and I were in the late dinner seating and were grouped with two girls that were roommates and a gay couple that were on their honeymoon. The group was great and fun to chat with. After dinner we checked out the ship's entertainment and headed back to our room around midnight. Now, those that know Carnival, know that it's a party ship and there's a lot of drinking going on. The first day was no exception. Cami and I, as I said, headed back to our room. I opened the door, turned on the light, and there was a man in our room! Ever had that daydream that one day you would meet tall, dark (or blonde) and handsome waiting for you? Somehow, I imagine him in a tux. lol. Well, this was not the case. This was a 50 something, in his PJ's, drunk man who appeared to be lost! My first thought was 1) Are we in the right room?, followed by: 2) Do our cards open other people's cabins? and 3) Did this guy invite people to a party in our room because the drunk 20 year olds passing by were ready for a party with us! Senor Drunk Guy apparently was lounging in Cami's bed and drinking our soda, and though realizing it wasn't his room, decided to chill for a while. In his drunken state he couldn't remember his room number and apparently had told some passing cruise employee that our room was his and that he was locked out. This lovely person, whoever they may have been, let Senor Drunk Guy in. An hour later, after determining that nothing had been taken and filling out security reports our exciting Day 1 of the cruise ended.

Day 2 - Fun Day at Sea...and might I say frio! My how that boat rocked side to side a good portion of the day. You would not have thought Cami and I were sober the way we were staggered down the hall ways! Not sure how drunk girls in high heels did it!

Day 3 - Oh, day 3. A day that I will always remember. This is the day we landed in Progreso, Mexico. The area is known for it's Mayan ruins, which fascinate me. My secret dream is to discover ruins that no one has ever found and see them in a non-tourist environment....like Indiana Jones and without spiders! Cami and I braved it and decided to not buy into the ship excursions, as those are always way more expensive than what one can pay if they plan it themselves. Umm....that was a good and bad idea. Good in that, "Yay...we're having an adventure", and bad if things don't work out they way they're suppose to. We had both. Just keep in mind that our ship sets sail at 4:00 p.m. Yep, you probably see where I'm going with this, but on with the story. Cami and I rented a car. I, of course, didn't tell my parents anything about this as I knew my mother would worry about about two American girls who barely knew Spanish driving around in Mexico, but I did tell my Spanish speaking brother! That count's for something, right? We caught a bus to Merida, the capital of the province we were in, and then walked 20 blocks or so to the place we were suppose to rent the car. That's when the adventure began. Apparently our car rental was reserved at the airport and we went to the wrong office. As they weren't willing to transfer our rental to the office we were at, we rented a car with a different company and went our merry way through the crazy roads of Merida with Cami behind the wheel. Let me tell ya, she did a good job, especially when there were so many divider lines in the roads you didn't know which lane to stay in through busy traffic. Our main purpose was to go and check out the Mayan ruins called, "Dzibilchaltun". Don't ask me how to pronounce it...couldn't tell ya. It was pretty cool and one of the few sights where they let you climb on the ruins. After climbing around and taking pictures and going to it's museum we headed back to Merida to return the car. Yep...we rented it for about 3 hours. Those of you out there shaking your heads at this have lost your sense of adventure! By the time we returned the car and left the rental office the stress started. A buses leave Merida for Progreso every 20 minutes and by the time we got back to the bus terminal to go back to Progreso it was about 2:45 p.m....good timing if you have no delays....like multiple stops, some of them 50 meters, if that, away from each other. By now Cami was praying we'd make it back to the ship in time and I'm thinking of a back up plan if it leaves without us trying to take it all in stride. I don't know about anyone reading this, but I can usually get a gut feeling if something is going to work out or not...and let's just say on this occasion, I got nothing. I couldn't tell ya if we were going to make it or be renting a car to drive out and take a ferry to Cozumel to catch our ship the next day. After a never ending bus ride, we finally came to the bus terminal in Progreso and Cami and I started running. We missed the connecting bus out to the ship and got a taxi who seemed to go incredibly slow...even if that was the speed limit. We then ran through the shops and towards the ship with some Mexicans yelling that we missed the boat and others telling us to hurry on our way. Security let us right on by and suddenly I could hear people telling us to hurry. I thought it was the ship personal way down at the other end of the ship were the gang plank was urging us to go faster...and as it turned out, it was the amusement we became for the people already on board looking down at the two girls who were clearly the last ones aboard the ship. Thankfully they waited for us instead of setting sail, but it was a close one. We were "those" people. The people that can't get to the ship on time and you figure they're probably drunk and lost track of time....yeah, that was us...except the drunk part. Luckily, no one knew it was us and while embarressed, we got a good laugh out of it....once our nerves settled down! Prayer works!

Day 4 - Cozumel. Beautiful white beaches, amazing blue water, temps in the 70's and snorkeling. In short: a paradise! Went to a couple beaches, snorkeled and lounged while working on our sunburns. (Note to self - SPF50 only works if you apply it every couple hours.) After a late lunch at Poncho's Backyard with some yummy guacamole and a little shopping, we made it back to the boat with plenty of time to spare. For some reason we didn't want a repeat of the day before's performance!

Day 5 - Fun Day at Sea. Read a book, pretty much all day on the deck. Good day. :) Pretty uneventful.

Day 6 - Leaving on a jet plane. Flew from New Orleans to Boston and since I can't sleep, I'm writing away at this blog.

All in all, an entertaining and adventurous trip!

Also, for those who are interested in finding out which cruise line I would recommend (because I am now an expert in cruises with only two under my belt, one on Royal Caribbean and the other on Carnival) lol....I would say Royal Caribbean. Here are the reasons to go with RC:

1) The staff that regularly serve you know your name.

2) The food is better

3) The entertainment is was definately better

4) We didn't find strange men in our room - to date

5) The ship is grander and has more activities besides drinking and the hairy chest competition

6) Communication. Regarding Senor Drunk - after the incident with Senor Drunk, we had to clear up charges made to our account by Senor Drunk and our room steward, security, and the concierge apparently didn't communicate well together regarding our incident

Don't get me wrong. It was a great trip. It was just what I needed...a little adventure mixed in with warm sunshine. :) Next cruise is already planned for the Mexican Riviera next February. Guess which cruise line? Hoped this post proved entertaining!