Putting Out Fires

Ryan and I took our very first cruise in December. We decided on a short one to see if we liked it. Here's the mistakes we made: 1) Picking Carnival Cruiseline, 2) Thinking we might get over our "we are NOT cruise people" attitude.

We took the 4 night cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada with a whole 'fun day' at sea. It was equal parts "um, which lame activity should we force ourselves to do next" and "this food is terrible! but we have to eat..." and "omg, I am SO SEASICK!". Ok, that's a lot of quotation marks, and a lot of negatives. But look at how happy we were when we first got on the boat!

And look! Life jacket!

We don't have many pictures of the first night or the Fun Day at Sea because, again, SEASICK. (side note: found out after the fact that Carnival is the worst offender of SAYING they have stabilizers, but they don't actually USE them because it uses too much precious fuel) Walking down the hallways you could look ahead of you and see people fighting to walk a straight line. It didn't help that I was stupid enough to believe that the inside cabin was the best for seasickness. Seasickness + claustrophobia. Ugh.

But look! Cute towel animals!

First stop: Catalina. We got downstairs as soon as the tender boats started running, thinking it was going to be a stampede to get off the boat. Huh. No one here. Cruise lovers are so interesting! It really seemed like more stayed on the boat then got off. Anyway... we got to the island and rented at golf cart. This was a really good idea because we got to speed around at our own pace, and the views were gorgeous.

Ha! I couldn't resist. I was so excited to see a deer that I didn't realize he was pooing until after I took the picture. The best part of Catalina (besides the absence of rocking under our feet) was walking through the town looking at the houses. They are adorable! And the people seem to really like it there.

When we got back on the boat, we decided the best course of action to fight the rocking was...

Ensenada was the next day and we booked an excursion. Horseback riding. I've only been once and I was about 10 years old. So yeah, I was nervous, but excited to try something new. Until I met this:

The horse from hell. First off, this horse HATED Ryan's horse. Our horses got into a biting fight with us on them when we were posing for the traditional "Yay we're horseback riding!" picture in front of a giant wagon wheel. Then we get going and it takes no time at all to figure out that my horse used to be the leader of the pack, but now he's been relegated, with me on his back, to second from last. He was PISSED. And oh did he love to take off and run through tall, mean desert bushes. For two hours he did his best to make a run for the border with me attached and the trail guides flanking us from either side.

Ensenada itself is fine. Predictibly lots of beer and tequila. THAT is a sport I'm good at.

So that's it. Sad, huh? Do I sound like a spoiled brat? Truthfully it wasn't fair to this particular trip that our last big trip was the most amazing ever. The cruise didn't have a chance. But really, if I'd JUST had good food, or a stabilized boat, or less sugar-loaded kids running through the adults' only area.... But let's be honest, I could always have fun with this man, no matter where we are.

1 Comments:

hg said...: Ah, this post made me laugh. FF and I went on a cruise last winter (Carnival too!) and we HATED it. For all the same reasons - brutally rough, terrible food, nothing to do and super expensive..... We did the token horseback riding on the beach with starving animals and dangerous equipment.

Thought I'd share that you're not alone in the anti-cruise campaign.; 6:53 AM

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