Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Cruise trip report!

The cruise rocked. My camera broke so I don't have any pictures of my own. That so sucks. The pictures that I'm posting are from Marathon Girl.


It turned out to be a really relaxing cruise. We didn't party as much as I thought we would. I thought we'd be dancing every night, simply because Marathon Girl loves to dance. We never once hit the dance club. We gambled, watched the shows, drank like fishes and ate like pigs. I think the sunbathing took a lot out of us. It didn't help that The Hampton Girl had a 24 hour stomach bug right before we left for the cruise (She threw-up for the last time a 4:30am before getting in the car to drive down to Tampa) and Marathon Girl was getting over bronchitis. Lovely. I was the only non-sick one to start the cruise. We drove the 6 1/2 hours to get to Tampa with no problems, I was worried about the fires closing down I-75, but we were lucky. The Hampton Girl slept the whole way there, poor sick chicky.


When we got to the ship, The Hampton Girl was feeling alot better, she at least didn't look sick as we were dealing with the boarding documents. Boarding was quick and easy, there were no lines, we just breezed up to the check-in desk. Yay! I was practically jumping up and down with excitement. The girls were laughing at me. We got our sign and sail cards, avoided the boarding the ship photo moments (we did alot of avoiding of "photo moments" on this trip) and on the ship we went.

We couldn't go to our cabin until 1:30, so we went to the Lido deck for a bite to eat and to start the drinking. Poor The Hampton Girl, she wasn't up for either but Marathon Girl and I had a yummy fru-fru drink.




After that we started exploring the ship, we found the spa and booked treatments for the next day. I got a ginger and lime salt scrub with a massage and the girls both booked facials. The scrub and massage was one of my favorite parts of the trip. DH does not give massages and I sooo love them. The spa had these great multi head showers.

Some day I want to have one like that. It had sprays that were on either side of the shower stall and shot out to meet in the middle. It was heaven. The treatment left me so soft. I loved it. It was too bad DH wasn't around to enjoy the benefits!



We continued exploring the ship, is it just me or does this wooden thing look more like a cock and balls then the violin head that it is suppose to be? At least that is what the 3 of us thought. On our 3 day, we came across a female staff member polishing all the wooden sculptors. We so wished we had a camera on us. We giggled over her "technique" and "happy endings" all the way to dinner.


When it was time for sail-away, we went to the front of the ship to watch. We found our spot and were so excited. Then the ships horn went off. I damn near dropped my drink and my camera over the side. We were standing directly under the horn. Damn that thing is loud!

We watched the ship ease itself into the canal and down the waterway for a bit, then Marathon Girl and The Hampton Girl gave up and decided to go take a nap. Well, I don't blame them. Marathon Girl and I went to bed a 11:30pm and were up at 3am, we picked up The Hampton Girl at 4ish and started the drive to Tampa, at 4:30pm, it's been a loooong day. I tried to last until the ship went under the channel bridge, but it didn't happen. I was too tired and I went back to the cabin shortly after they left.

We got up and went to dinner, our seating was at 8:30. After meeting our seatmates, 3 blond chics out for fun, we nicknamed them the hurricane sisters, cause they were a wild mess. They came to the table, past tipsy into drunk, chattered like chipmunks and whirled away after dinner to party some more. They were a hoot. It was like that for every dinner.

Cozumel was fun. We did a ship excursion, The Deluxe snorkel and beach party. We took a catamaran out to snorkel (the snorkeling sucked...nothing to see- Oh look at the dumb tourists looking at nothing) then they took us to a lovely beach for an hour, the beach had floats, kayaks, hammocks, you could buy food or a horseback ride. Both the beach and the catamaran had an open bar of beer and margaritas. We had a great time at the beach and on the boat. I musta had 6 margaritas. Marathon Girl and I were very tipsy. Most of the drunk girls (including Marathon Girl and I) were dancing on the boat. Lots of fun. The first thing we did after getting off the boat was go into town and get some food. We sure needed it!




The Hampton Girl and I enjoying our Margaritas. They were very different than the US margaritas, I swear they were made with cactus juice instead of lime.


Me and Marathon Girl drinking more. Shortly after this we were dancing our way around the boat in a conga line.

I loved the sweet bird we found at one of the jewelry stores!
The rest of the trip was: sun, eat, nap. repeat. Lovely!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Book Review Stardust by Neil Gaiman

It's hard to write a review for this book. Not because it wasn't a good book, because it was a wonderful, funny book that I can't wait to read to my kids. The ones that are still a twinkle in my hubby's eyes. No, I'm excite because I'm leaving for my cruise in a couple of hours. I'm sitting here at work watching the clock tic by so slowly. Sigh, back to the book.

This story completely excited me. I so enjoyed reading it and am excited that they are making it into a movie. The story line is so conductive to a movie.

Ta-ta for now!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

What to pack or not to pack, that is the question....

To put it mildly, I am an over packer. Do they have a 12-step program for that? I sure need one. So far I have packed my suitcase 3 times. Rewashed half of the cloths (thanks Tater!) of course that was my fault for leaving the suitcase open on the floor. Sigh.

To combat my over packing tendencies, I am limiting myself to 1 suitcase- 26" and a small beach bag. That seems like plenty, doesn't it? It's only a 4 night cruise.... I'm having trouble fitting everything in. My current list:

4 dresses (one for each dinner)
2 swimsuits
2 cover-us (they match the 'suits of course)
2 shorts
2 Capri's
2 skirts
8 shirts
1 Shaw
5 shoes

Now, that all fits in the suitcase, but there is no room for my toiletries or the legal bottle of wine or a 6 pack of water. Plus I want to take a power strip with me. The room has only 1 outlet. 3 girls, 1 outlet = primping disaster.

I also need to figure out what to wear for boarding. I want to wear a swimsuit, so we can lay out without having to change, but what to wear over it? I don't really want to wear the cover up as we're going to be in the car for 6 hours before boarding. Sigh. mountains and molehills. Any advice?