I went on a cruise. It was fun. So many people have been asking me isn't that just for old people though. It's funny. Really. That is what generally people think. I guess like the Professor Kelly said, that is what cruise used to be. So many old people go on cruises, they even have morgues on borad... at least that's what Professor Kelly said.
So we got there and checked in on the boat. When I am inside, I can't really tell it's a ship. It's so freaking huge that it feels like we are on the ground still... just in a huge house. The first thing we did there was eat. And that pretty much sums up my first cruise experience. FOOD ALL THE TIME!
After the buffet in the afternoon, the ship took off. I started getting sick. It totally sucked since the eating was just about to start. Water was really rough, and I guess we were also in a storm or something. We got settled in and then started checking out the whole boat, and take advantage of all the crazy stuff on the ship. Everyone went for the "happy hour" at the martini bar and had martini and champagne except me. I had to stand up all the time and "rock with the ship!" OH well, I survived. Then dinner started. We had a sit down, served Italian 3 course plus salad meal. We also went crazy, ordered 2 bottles of wine. Yeah right. I didn't even finish one glass. I probably had 3 sips. Dinner was good nonetheless. I was full, and, well, had to go to bed.
The next morning, I could not wake up on time. My alarm went off dutifully at 7AM, I turned it off, next thing I know was Lindsay calling saying: are you up? MAN! It was 8. Well, it didn't take me long to get ready, but it did take me long to finish my breakfast. There were so many goodies. Bacon, ham, scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese omelette, and oh yeah, SMOKED SALMON. ALL YOU CAN EAT. Did I hear HEAVEN?? ;-)
Took us a while to get on the tender... and the water was rough. The tender rocked the whole time when we were waiting for it to fill up and leave for CocoCay. I have to say, CocoCay is a lovely little island in the middle of nowhere. It's peaceful as soon as you get away from the crowd and the bars. We found a bunch of hammocks under the palm trees near the water... and the girls just went into the water! What did I do? Pulled a beach chair half way into the water and lied there, enjoyed the cool waves and get my share of Vitamin D :) Then when we finished lunch (which was a lot of bbq food), I went back and fell asleep on the hammock with the warm breeze and Lord of the Rings in my hand. That pretty much was what we did on CocoCay.
Dinner was some fantastic Caribbean food. We were smarter this time... no wine! Our assistant waiter Istvan went to CocoCay that day too and I guess, he had a crush on Adele! It was really cute when he saw Adele that night at dinner. He was cute and sweet... I guess, in a way... too bad Adele has a boyfriend. :-D
During dinner, they had the kids come in and pretend that they are pirates taking over the ship. Very cute. I love kids. Some of them were singing really loud and some of them were just standing there... I wonder which kid I would be... Aftter that, they also had a pirate come in and take pictures with everyone in the dining room. Crazy stuff. Of course, I went to bed after that. Is that even a surprise?? ;-)
Next morning, I got up bright and early, 7AM, thinking that me and Lindsay will get off the boat and start the day off early. But nah, I guess everyone had a crazy night. So, I had a relaxing long breakfast, with lots of hash brown, bacon and smoked salmon. Did I hear high cholesterol? Nah, it's good food! It took us a while to get off the ship, on to Nassau. I didn't get to see the city (??) that much... but we went to the Straw market, I think that's what it is called. They had so many things made of straw... bags, hats, and then they had necklaces of beads, sculptures, t-shirts... Well, basically a souvenir market under a tent, kinda reminds me of the
Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne.
Then we took the water taxi to Paradise Island. On the way there, a guy on the taxi started giving a tour... He talked about the houses on the narrow end of Paradise Island. People, well, are rich. They had huge houses with huge gardens. And the only way to get to those houses is by water. There was one house that had a rather large dock and they build a little cabin at the end of the dock. It had huge floor windows, and from the window, I saw shelves of books and a comfy chair by the window. A desk was by the window too... I wish I had that kind of money. Well, as soon as we got to the island, we started walking towards the hotel
Atlantis. Huge hotel, crazy. Kinda fantasy like and reminds me of the
Lost City in South Africa. The hotel had some sections that I guess, we weren't allowed to go in, but did somehow. We got to see the aquarium and hung out at the pool side a little. We also listened to the tour guide a bit... Well, the hotel has a huge suite that costs 25,000 to stay per night. Michael Jackson was the first person to stay there, and a queen or something stayed there for 2 weeks (or 3, I can't remember)... I think that's the record... Then, we waited for Mer and Charles... but it started to rain. When they got there, they were both soaking wet! I was hungry too... Finally we sat down to eat... I had a burger... hehehe :) Yum. My mouth just watered thinking about that burger. After that, we pretty much just walked towards the beach, and hung out there for a while... built a rather different sand castle and headed back to Nassau. We went to the duty free and they bought Vodka and Rum... put them all in water bottle and sneaked them back to the ship. That was really funny.
And dinner that night was formal... We had to dress up and all... Man. I really don't know how people walk in high hills. But the food was great as usual... It was French themed. When Istvan asked me what I wanted to drink, I asked for iced tea with lots of lemon... He came back with a glass of ice tea and heaps of lemon wedges around the rim of the glass, like a flower! That was really cute. Wish I had my camera with me to get a picture of that. Towards the end of the meal, the "shots guy" came around and so we all decided to do a shot. The shot they offered that night was French kiss (made of Bailey's, Amaretto, and Cream de Cacao). It was really sweet... And well, I went to bed right afterwards. :-P
Last day, it was the "Day at The Sea" where we had to stay on the ship, since it's cruising :) I woke up sooooo darn early though... 7AM. I got up, and just went to eat breakfast, read, and do more relaxing. But what I really wanted to do was to save a couple seats by the pool in the sun since everyone was going to want a piece of land there. I managed to save enough for everyone... well, only 4, but who is going to be there all day... I was in the sun for 3 hours and that was it for me. I went inside the dining room, and I did a whole day of eating. By mid afternoon, one of the waiters came up to me and said "that book you are reading must be so interesting, you have been reading it all day here!" Darn right :) Book was really interesting, and man, the food was good too! OH, I also watched Maid in Manhattan in the cinema too... hehe, gotta take advantage of what's included in the package! ;-) Dinner was international night... so they had a lot of different stuff from different parts of the world... I can't really remember dinner that well for some reason. Probably too much eating to keep track for that day. HA. But anywayz, I got lots of sun that day...
The next day, we were GHETTO! We got off the ship, got on the bus and went back to the airport... then what did we do? Hung out on the grass by the parking lot for the whole day. How ghetto is that?? But oh well, we are poor students and we wanted to enjoy the sunshine as much as possible. After everyone else left, it was just me and Diana left... We had a good talk... I didn't feel like I knew her as a person very well until we had a good talk... That was good. Getting closer to great people is always good.
Well. I had a good time. I got a lot of sleep, but at the same time, I am just more tired than before. Once you had some sleep, you need more sleep. The day we flew back to Boston, they had some snow... Well, I guess life can't always be the way you want it to be. You gain some, and you have to give some. In this case, I guess we've had heaps of sunshine and warmth, it's about time to share some of that coldness :-D
Am I going on another cruise in the future... well, I will think about it... I got sea sick and then now I am land sick. If cruising on land is ever possible......
