Senior cruise post!

Okay! Here it is before my memory fades...sorry if the notes are kind of short--I took these on my iPhone and was trying to conserve time.

Carnival Cruise Lines

Ship: Carnival Elation

Date: May 4 - 9, 2013

Departing from: New Orleans, LA

Ports of call: Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico

People: 12 CCF seniors

Day 1

We all met at the library on the ship to plan our trip for a bit. I found this ironic, because it was like we had left Fondren only to frequent the cruise library. After planning, we sat at the sushi bar waiting for it to open (typical Rice Asians).

SO MUCH FOOD!!! I tried escargot for the first time. It was all right.

The first friend we met was actually a kid named Robert who was hanging out by the ping pong tables. He was intimidated by our ping pong skills (Alvin, Heaven, and me), and later found us in the library playing an intense game of Nertz, and was like, "I didn't think I could by any more intimated by you guys, but you just proved me wrong." LOL.

I figured out that I have an inferiority complex or something, especially related to ping pong. I tend to practice just fine (as in, win most of the volleys), but when I start an actual game with a guy (e.g. my dad, Alvin), I do terribly.

It was really beautiful and amazing at the top of the cruise ship--just seeing the ship sail along (it was going pretty fast actually), smelling the salt air, and knowing we were almost out of the natural river port (estuary/delta) and into open sea. Windy and beautiful.

I was sooooooo happy to be on the cruise, relaxing, forced to relax because there was no Internet and cell phone service. My first shower on the cruise was cool too! :)

Hadn't been seasick at all yet, so that was a praise! :)

Day 2

Woke up at noon, had lunch, some down time--got persuaded into attending a free seminar on back pain, which was basically an advertisement for shoe inserts that helped with arch support--did an ink print of my foot, and apparently I have arches! I always thought I was flat-footed....

Went to tea time, which was an event on the cruise schedule. It was AMAZINGGGG. Think all the descriptions of the English tea time snacks and finger sandwiches and yum......

More down time = a nap. (Lol yeah, so far this is eating and sleeping T.T)

It was Sunday, so Hannah had the idea of doing a mini worship/sharing/praying session before dinner, so we met in the library, sang along with songs from our iPhones, and shared what we had been learning during quiet times. It was a really nice time (good idea, Hannah!).

Dinner that night was in fancy clothes. Funny person of the day was Kevin Yi. During dinner:

David: We should play spoons. We should play EXTREME spoons.

Kevin: Yeah. KNIVES. 

Aurelia (misheard me): Did you say you were Hispanic??

Alvin: *acts out pulling off a mask from my face* Steph is actually Hispanic. 

Kevin: *acts out the same motion as Alvin* She pulls off the mask, same face, same skin tone. 

LOL.

Lots of Nertz, played until nighttime, then I went running on the top deck of the ship while everyone else watched a magic show. After cooling down, I went to the front of the top deck just to look out at the ocean, and saw soo many stars! Still some light pollution, but way better than anything we have in Houston.

We went to sleep early (around 12:30pm), because we would be pulling in to Progreso the next day at 8am.

Still not seasick. Praise God for a body that doesn't get motion sickness.

Day 3

So we got off the ship kind of late, and a few of us (Aurelia, Dana, Heaven, Alvin, and I) wanted to go to Chichen Itza, which is one of Mexico's most famous, if not the most famous, Mayan temples. It was named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. However, it takes two hours to get there, and two hours back, and accounting for time in between to look at the ruins, we were cutting it really close. So when we finally got to the ground transportation area, we were frantically trying to figure out if we could still make it. Luckily, we were pointed to a guy driving a van who would be able to take us. I got to use my Spanish (yay!) and previous travel experiences (yay!) in figuring out the price he was charging was okay, that he was safe, and that we'd make it back on time. It was actually really nice once we were in the taxi--Alvin and I spoke to him in Spanish, he picked his kid up on the way, and we tried to speak in English to the kid, who was learning English at school.

When we arrived at Chichen Itza, there was some confusion at the gate as to how much tickets were, since we had been told $15, but the windows were saying something like $187. We were like, WHAT IS GOING ON, until we realized the dollar sign in Mexico did not mean dollars, but pesos. And so the final gate entry cost was like $17 US dollars, and we were like phew.

I was actually really glad I went to see Chichen Itza--it was super interesting to see ancient Mayan ruins, despite previous reservations I had. We got to see that ball court where they had to get the ball through a hoop in the wall!!! (And if you didn't....you were sacrificed.) I had only read about that in history books, so it was really awesome to see it in person. Just a good experience in general, actually seeing history.

We didn't do much at night; played some werewolf, went to sleep to prepare for the stop at Cozumel the next day.

Day 4

We had booked an ATV tour in Cozumel the night before. Riding an ATV was a lot more bumpy than expected, and I started off a bit badly (crashed into a bush/tree), but got the hang of it eventually! Pretty muddy, REALLY hot, dusty, exhaust-y (smelled bad), but it was fun learning how to ride a new type of vehicle. Afterwards, they took us to the beach (I was so excited to jump in the water), and we all went snorkeling, which was AWESOME. We only had an hour, unfortunately, but we got to see some awesome fish (including a really cool rainbow one!! And some really HUGE fish swimming under us O.O), and it was just a really cool experience in general. I think I would choose to do a semi-scuba diving tour next time (Snuba-ing), if there is a next time. Then we got back on the ship, but I wish we had had more time.

Definitely got to practice my Spanish in Mexico, especially negotiating taxi rides and tours (AND OH YEAH NOW I'VE BEEN TO MEXICO!!!!! Well I went to Tijuana when I was 3 or 4, but I don't really remember that....).

Heaven, Karen, Dana, Aurelia, and I went to the sauna and steam room--it was SO HOT, but I handled the steam room better.....and actually I felt really good afterwards, or at least my skin felt happy :) (which was really nice, considering I had just spent a day in dirt, mud, exhaust, and ocean, so I'm sure my pores were filled with unhealthy things).

I took a nap, then woke up to Karen coming into the room saying, "Oh my gosh, our room is flooding."

First thought: is there a leak in the boat? But that didn't make sense, so we realized, along with many of the crew members in the hallway, that the room next door had left their shower on for over an hour. Basically, we got a room upgrade!! =D And so did room E36, which had four of our other group members, who were on the other side of that room. (The people who had flooded their and our rooms moved into E36, which didn't have as much flooding.) So my room got split up, and Karen and I ended up with a king-sized bed and an ocean view ^^.

And then the other room's keys weren't working for a while, so they got a bunch of drink discount coupons, and then apparently Heaven negotiated for us to all have a free cocktail or glass of wine during dinner on our last night for all the trouble, so that was nice too :). (Don't worry, we were very nice to the crew, and they were super nice to us too.)

Sat at the top deck of the ship with Karen and Aurelia and looked at the stars again...gorgeous. Saw two shooting stars!!! The second one had a really long and bright tail. A few people joined us afterwards.

Played some card games and fishbowl as a group; went to sleep to wake up for the sunrise.

Day 5

Woke up to see the sunrise with Karen; beautiful. We grabbed some breakfast, went back to sleep until noon, and then went to lunch lol.

The afternoon was spent chilling outside; watched Alvin and David play a match of life-sized chess, did some ping pong; went to tea time; played Nertz till dinner; had dinner (free drinks all around! Multiple free drinks, but almost everyone only got one--the waitress was like, "You all are NOT taking advantage of this." Lol), moved to different part of ship to continue playing games (Psychiatrist--this was really funny, because we imitated the senior shepherds, as well as several CCF juniors-now-seniors hahahahah); a few of the boys went and worked out but came back later.

The staff left chocolate-covered strawberries in our room!! They were really cute. We're not sure if it was because of the upgrade (so everyone in our room's price range and above get these nice choco-covered strawberries), or if they do it for everyone on the ship, or if it was because we got flooded out of our room. Regardless, it was really nice.

Dana, Aurelia, Heaven, Karen and I talked in our room for a bit, then went to sleep. Very grateful for girl friends who take care of you....

Debarkation in the morning, and 5.5 hour drive back to Houston in the morning.

Conclusion

I had a really fun time on my first cruise!! I highly recommend snorkeling/snuba-ing/scuba diving in the Caribbean, probably over almost any other tour. Won my first game of Nertz with Dana. Realized how very international the crew was (lots of South Asians on the staff). Loved being out on the ocean, and didn't get seasick--huge praise!! (I did have a headache when I got back though, and it was mildly persistent over the next few days, most probably because I was adjusting to land again, and not rocking with the ship all the time. Haha sometimes when I was sitting or standing still, my mind would make me think that I was seeing or feeling my surroundings rocking gently from side to side....thankfully that's gone now). Yay. =]