Mood:
smellyTopic: Travel
I know you've all been dying to read about the remainder of Angela and I's trip aboard the Carnival FUN Ship...so here goes.
Our first night on board, we decided to kick off the evening by popping a bottle of Wilson Creek Winery's famous Almond Champagne. To do so, we needed a fresh bucket of ice. Enter: our room stewardess. She promptly arrived with a large bucket of ice, at our request. Once she got in our room she said she would be happy to fill the bucket each night.
"Oh no, we just need it for tonight," Angela said.
"Oh, just tonight...champagne?" she asked.
"Yes!"
So she said she would bring us two proper glasses. When she returned with said glasses, we tried to strike up a little conversation—learning her name for starters: Prappa. She rolled her R's like a pro. However, we dubbed her "Prappa don't preach." for the remainder of the trip. Even in her absence, she made us laugh with those famous towel animals—a lobster-looking thing, an elephant, a monkey (which Angela said looked like a towel-head..heh), and something else I can't remember.
After downing the bottle of champagne, we headed off to the dining room for our first meal in the formal dining area. Upon arrival of our assigned table, we met Adam. Sweet Adam, a law student at Tulane in his last semester. He said his friends would probably take up most of our table, but they were off drinking somewhere. Soon enough, they arrived—all law students, all a little tipsy, very hungry, and pretty loud. Oddly, they all had the same names...like Will, Adam, and some other common name. It was a group of 12, who all shared three names, and were celebrating their last spring break.
Later two other guys joined us...a pair that we wondered the entire trip if they were gay or what. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
After dinner, we made it to the nightly show where we saw the dancers and also met Jenn the Cruise Director. She had that Australian accent that made me think of The Fabulous Life of...so that was a running joke throughout the entire trip ("Why stand up in ze showuh when you can sit? Jenn the Cruise Director has a chair in her shower aboard the Carnival Triumph)...harr harr.
Friday was our first official day at sea, which meant we had serious plans to drink, get some sun, drink, sleep, and uh, drink! We kicked off the morning with a trip back to the dining room for breakfast where we had to sit with the most boring family in the continental United States. Meet dad, the type of guy who drinks V8 with his meal and adds salt. Then there's mom, your typical no makeup, part down the middle, milk-drinking mom, who has a terrible tick of mouthing words to herself and sticking her tongue out at inappropriate moments. It annoyed the shit out of me. Then there's the three daughters. All slutskys.
On the other side we had the married couple that was lactose-intolerant. Did the grits have milk? What about the scrambled eggs? Can we get two strawberry jams? Oh, I'll have a croissant. Whatever.
After breakfast, we needed a stiff drink and a deck chair, pronto. After finding a pair of chairs next to some plastic ladies, we got a bucket of beer and got to it—and by it I mean a pretty nasty sunburn. We ate plates of Mexican on the deck, ordered rounds of cocktails, and passed out for awhile. Awesome. That night was formal night in the dining room, so we pulled on our little black dresses and hopped to it. But we were the only ones at our table...one thing was clear, we had pissed off our table mates.
Saturday we arrived in Cozumel! We met up with our excursion group—the Mexican cooking class. We walk to a row of busses where we hear the best news of the day—unlimited drinks all day. Hola senior! So we hop on the proper bus and it's like we boarded the school field trip...kids everywhere and parents who aren't controlling them. I got lucky enough to sit next to the kid with problems. Not only did he talk to himself the entire trip, he used an entire roll of film taking pictures out of the window. Luckily him, nor his family, were in the cooking class.
Once we arrived in class, we got set up at a station with two other ladies who were out to eat, drink, and laugh—a perfect match. We met our chef, Louis, a funny guy but also slightly perverted. Whatever. So we put on our aprons and chef hats and got things cooking. We made a three-course meal: an appetizer with homemade tortillas and chorizo, an entree of tilapia and veggies wrapped in banana leaves, and a dessert of cookies and rice pudding. It was delicious, but then again, after about 6 cocktails what doesn't taste great? During the meal, we sat next to some annoying lady who was bragging about going on cruises every week of her life. She was also sharing horror stories about getting left at the pier. While Angela and I were both drinking, one thing was for sure, we would not get left behind.
After lunch, we wanted to make the most out of our free drink wristband, so we proceeded to down multiple cups of Mexican beer as fast as we could. We made it back to the bus, our fists full of beer, just in time to see the kiddies board. Their parents weren't happy to see us. However, we arrived back in the shopping area where we witnessed a wondrous Michael Jackson impersonator. We also did a little bit of shopping—I picked up some cigars for Mr. Big and a bag of Mexican coffee for myself.
We found a Fat Tuesdays and enjoyed 20-ounce margaritas with our friends from cooking class. Then, it was time to board the ship. Once aboard, I promptly passed out and missed the best dinner of the vacation—filet mignon and red snapper! Ugh...instead we caught the late night buffet of something I can't even recall.
Sunday was our last day at sea, and unfortunately, our last full day of vacation. Sadly, it was raining, but I guess our sunburns could use the rest. Since it was the last day, we wanted to enjoy more cocktails and really have some fun. We kicked things off with drinks and a round of Movie Theme-Song Trivia! I'm not as good with movie songs as I am with TV themes, but I knew a few...Home Alone, Beauty and the Beast, Titanic, The Lion King, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Pink Panther, Aladdin, Dirty Dancing, E.T....just to name a few.
Angela and I hung out in our room for a bit, watching 500 Days of Summer (we drank every time someone said Summer). We also got Prappa don't Preach to bring us more ice for our second, and last, bottle of Almond Champagne. We made it to dinner, alone again, and then arrived at the Hollywood Club for the Michael Jackson theme-hour...which was very interesting...
All in all, a fabulous trip! If I left anything out, which I'm sure I did, Angela might do you a favor and fill you in...we always have fun trips and visits—the cruise was no exception! Thanks again, friend :)
