My last cruise post--I promise

I just needed one more post to reminisce about the cruise and then I'll move back into reality.

Although the cruise was overall amazing and I loved it, there were some things I could've done without. Here are a few:

*Super cheezy and often crude jokes by our cruise director, James. I didn't realize just how many innuendos could be crammed into a ten minute speech.

*The majority of the entertainment on the ship. For people who drink, smoke, and/or gamble, a cruise is ship is heaven. But we don't. Why is it that people thing you have to be crass or provocative to be funny and/or entertaining. Get creative, people! We walked out of one of the dance shows and one of the comedians. Bummer.

*Not being able to port at our third stop--Costa Maya, Mexico. This was one of the things that Andrew and I were most looking forward to. We had purchased an excursion to Chacchoben--some Mayan ruins that are supposed to be pretty awesome. We were really disappointed about that.

Look how close we got!
That's the port where we were supposed to dock,
but it was too windy. I think they were afraid
that we would either break that dock into pieces
or that as passengers, we'd get injured trying
to step off the boat onto the dock.

*Feeling like I couldn't even walk a straight line on those couple of really windy days. It was crazy. Our first two days on the ship were very calm waters and if I wasn't looking out at the ocean, I couldn't tell I was on a boat. But then we had a couple of days that were VERY rocky. It completely through my equilibrium off and lasted for several days after I got home. I still felt like I was on the boat.

*Andrew could've done without all the low ceilings, signs, and entryways. He got hurt a few times, luckily nothing serious.

Blatant height discrimination! (if you ask him)
Jake and Sandy--beware of this if you ever
decide to go on a cruise.

*Spending the entire day in the Ft. Lauderdale airport waiting for a cancelled flight. I think we got there at 10:45 am and finally flew out around 6 pm or so. If I knew we were going to be in Florida that long, I would've planned a trip to the beach or something!

Instead we spent time checking e-mail,
and got to read a lot.

We were SOOOO ready to be home by the end.
(Ok, our faces are a bit exaggerated.)

And, finally, the honorable mentions for the top ten cruise moments:

*Not having to do dishes or laundry ALL WEEK. We didn't even have to clear dishes off a table. Not once! I was getting used to it, but haven't trained Brandon and/or Whitney to take over that chore yet.

*Sleeping in. We had an interior room and they don't put clocks in there. With no daylight and no clocks to look at, we had no idea what time it was when we woke up every morning. And the best part was....we didn't even care!

*Our funny, talkative, knowledgeable taxi driver named Tony in the Bahamas. He was a crack-up. Loved listening to him. And he even took us back to the port the long way to show us this castle:

Yes, this is a house where someone lives.
It was built by the man who owns Burger King
in the Bahamas. They must like they're Whoppers!

*Alfie--one of the Carnival employees who often served as a game show host. He was cute and spunky and had a great British accent. He also taught us a dance to the song that says, "McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a Pizza Hut" that we all LOVED. Cindy I were both Alfie fans. Neither Andrew or Tony cared for him much.

*Playing Outburst with Tony and Cindy one night in our cabin. The best category was something like, "Ten alternate names for a toilet." A few of them were pretty easy--potty, john, etc. #10 was "thundermug". Have you ever heard anyone refer to the toilet as the THUNDERMUG? It was new to us, but became part of our vocabulary for the rest of the cruise.

Let's do it again for the 20th anniversary!! Or maybe even the 15th. :)