I'm
so grateful I got to sleep in and have a relaxing morning! We were able to make
it to breakfast at the Windjammer at about 10:40 AM. It was going to end at 11
AM so we had to gather all our food quickly. Then we spent the next little while
finishing getting ready and packing our backpacks for the excursion. I took way
more stuff than I needed but that's OK. Michael went up to the pool deck to get
us a couple of towels. We had to meet at the Royal Theatre at 1 PM. We waited
around for quite a while until they took us to our tender boat.
Our excursion was called "luxury catamaran
two-bay snorkeling adventure." It was really fun! They made us take our
shoes off before we could get on the boat and they didn't want us to spray
sunscreen because it would make the deck slippery so Michael and I sprayed it
on ourselves as quickly as we could and got on the boat. All the spaces up
front were full so we had to go up to the top but that worked out great for me
because it was shaded and gave us a great view. They took us to Land's End, which
are the rocks that are where the two bodies of water meet, the Pacific Ocean
and the bay of Cabo San Lucas, also where the arch of Cabo San Lucas is.
Michael stepped on my foot and the lady taking our picture just kept taking them, lol! That's her little girl in all of our pictures.
Our first stop was Chileno Bay. I was pretty
nervous about snorkeling but I got all the equipment on and got in the water.
It was pretty cold. The guide was going to lead everybody out exploring and I
knew I wouldn't be able to keep up. Michael hesitated but I assured him he
should just go on ahead. He did and he had a great time! He said there were
quite a few kids and older ladies in the group that had a hard time keeping up
so I'm glad I didn't try to follow them. As they started heading out, I heard
the guy call out that there's a shark. So, there was no way I was going to join
them anyway. I snorkeled around the boat for a little while and then I got back
in the boat. I sat there and enjoyed being on the
water and waited for Michael to get back.
Snorkeling
Look for Michael at 12 o'clock
Then we moved onto another spot by a beach.
Michael went out snorkeling again and I stayed on the boat.
They offered us drinks multiple times, but we just got water a couple times. They also gave us a tray of fruit on the way to Chileno Bay and a lunch plate on the way back. It was sandwiches and chips and guacamole and stuff like that. It was so fun to watch for whales. We saw quite a few on the way back. We would see them spray water and then we would see their backs come out of the water and then their tails flip up as they went back into the water. It was so cool!
Whale sighting, great view of fin and tail
Whales in the distance
Another whale sighting
Beautiful sunset on the way back to port
Then they took us back to where we started and
we got off and left them a tip and put our shoes back on and headed over to the
tender line. We came back to the
ship and got changed and went to dinner at the Windjammer. We considered going
to the dining room but Michael didn't want to and the menu didn't look that
great to me so we decided to go to the Windjammer buffet. That was a great
choice because they had a lot of the foods that were going to be offered in the
dining room, including the desserts that I wanted to try. I ate so much food!
They had some churros with toppings but they were actually disappointing as
were the desserts. So, we went to the La Patisserie and we each got a piece of
cheesecake. Michael got the Oreo kind and I got the strawberry kind. We had
also grabbed some cookies from the Windjammer as we left.
We came back up to our room and sat on
the balcony and ate our treats. It was so cool because there were some
fireworks going off on the shore so we watched that. We had our own family home
evening lesson. It has been a wonderful day! I'm sorry that we
missed out on the phone call with Andrew but he understood.
January 19, Monday
We've
had another great day on the cruise! I got over nine hours of sleep and was
able to sleep in and wake up naturally, which was great. Michael went to the
gym and I got ready for the day. I headed over to roller skating in the Sea
Plex. I didn't have a reservation but I made one on my phone right at that time
because they said it was required and I got right in. Michael met me there and
took some pictures and videos of me.
He went and got changed. I walked around the top
deck and got some pictures of the Lands' End rock formations before it was time
for us to sail away. Then we went to the Windjammer for lunch. We've had our
favorite spot where we normally sit at a table for two over by the windows on
the port side.
I really wanted to see Two70 so we went in there for a few minutes. It's amazing!
After that, we headed over to the Solarium and
found me a nice chair to sit in while Michael went into the hot tub for about
half an hour. I intended to read my book but I spent all the time on my phone.
We headed back to the room and relaxed for a while. I sat out on the balcony
and got caught up on my phone. It got a little chilly so I came inside to lay
on the bed with the balcony door open and read my book. Then it was time to get
ready for dinner. I wore my red dress finally. I had to wear it at least once
since I spent so much time ironing it.
We had a nice dinner and I loved the shrimp.
We went to the Voom counter and the guy wasn't
very helpful and just said it's normal to get kicked off of the ship's Wi-Fi.
Mine has been working fine but Michael is having a problem. There's
not much else we can do. We went back to the room and got changed and relaxed.
We turned on the national college championship football game that was Miami
versus Indiana and we sat on the couch and played Phase 10. We stayed tied on
every phase and I barely won at the end.
By then, it was almost 8 PM and I wanted to go
to the game show that was called, If You Know It, Sing It. That was pretty fun
but I never went up and guessed even though I knew a lot of the answers.
Michael's game ended shortly after that. Indiana won. He came down and we went
to dancing with a live band in the Music Hall. No one was dancing and we danced
by ourselves with everybody staring at us for one song. Then the next slow song
they played was Faithfully so other people finally joined us on the dance floor.
The band took a break at 9:45 PM so we walked over to Two70 because there was
going to be music over there. I thought that it said there would be dancing but
it was just half an hour of them playing 80s music. We found one of those weird
chairs that's a circle with pillows in it and laid in there and talked and hung
out and relaxed.
The party started at 10:30 PM. At
first, we were confused why people weren't going down to the dance floor to
dance. So when people finally started getting on the dance floor we went down
and joined them but it quickly got very, very crowded. In hindsight, it
would've been better if we had just stayed where we were and danced in that
area because on the dance floor we couldn't move very well because there were
too many people. But it was super fun and the cruise director was awesome and
she was singing and dancing with all the other dancers. They had three
different parts: the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s. The dancers danced the whole
time and they played great music. It was so fun! The only problem is that we
couldn't really follow along with their dancing because there wasn't enough
room but we still had a blast. I'm so glad we went and did that instead of just
being bums in our room. That would've been fun, too, but I'm glad we went. I
don't know what they're paying that cruise director, but she's amazing and they
should probably pay her more.
We came back to our room and got ready for bed.
January 20, Tuesday
Well,
our trip started out rough and ended rough but I'm so grateful we got to go.
I'm writing this on Thursday the 22nd because I was too sick to write it on
Tuesday night. Our Tuesday was similar to Monday. We got a good night’s rest.
Michael went to the gym while I got ready for the day. We went to the
Windjammer for lunch. We sat in our favorite area. I ate too much food, as
usual. After lunch, we went to the Solarium and I sat in a chair while Michael
went to the hot tub. There weren't really any activities I wanted to do today.
We went back to the room and relaxed and I read my book.
It was time to go to dinner at 5 PM but I wasn't
even hungry. I was so excited to have the salmon but I couldn't even finish it.
I ate the shrimp cocktail, half the salmon and a few of the potatoes, and the
blueberry cobbler, which was small, for dessert. I got one more picture by the
dining room and then we went back to our room.
I laid in bed some more and read. We
called Dad and Jonny. Then I just got ready for bed because we needed to get up
early to pack so I think it was about 9 PM when I started getting ready for
bed. I was feeling so sick. Michael offered me a blessing a couple times and I finally took him up on
it. It was a rough night but I was able to get quite a bit of
sleep, thankfully.
January 21, Wednesday
I'm so
grateful we made it home! I somehow conjured up the energy to get showered and
packed. I didn't even do my hair or put on makeup. I wanted nothing to do with
food, but Michael asked if he should go get some and I encouraged him to and he
did. I think we were out of the room by 7:45 AM. The deadline was 8 AM. I woke
up at 5:30 AM so that gave me plenty of time because I had to take a break a
couple of times. Getting off the ship took forever but we made it. My arms were
so tired from pushing my suitcases. Michael helped me as much as he could but
we had four suitcases so it wasn't easy. We went straight to the car and he
made it so I could lie down in the backseat and that's what I did the whole way
home. I was so weak and tired. I'm so grateful I was able to rest and
get some sleep on the trip. I think it was about 4:30 PM by the time we got
home. I took a nap and had a little something to eat. I went to bed at about 9 PM
and had a good night’s rest.
I asked
Michael what his favorite part of the trip was, and he said it was spending
time with me. I agree! Spending time with him was my favorite part, too!
