SPRING BREAK BABY!!!

Assalamu'alaikum...

I'm sad... spring break is over :( . Boo hoo. But I definitely had a blast. Afzan and I went on a 4-day cruise to Catalina, CA and then off to Ensenada, Mexico. Never in a million years did I think that I would ever see the streets of Mexico, but there I was, basking in the Mexican sun while everyone else in Michigan were freezing their butts off snow (hahah suckas! JK, no hate mails please)

Anyway, our journey started on Monday, at 7 am. We took Northwest Airlines out to LA. There a Greyhound bus took us off to Long Beach, where our ship was. I was so excited, even though I was so sleepy and out of my mind. My mom wasn't all that thrilled though, mainly because I didn't tell her beforehand about the trip and she only knew about it 'cause she called me while I was on the bus. Whoops, my bad. Conversation went something like this:

Mum : Where are you? Are you home?
Me : Actually, I'm on a bus in LA. I'm on vacation for a week.

So after going through customs, we got to our room on the ship. Afzan and I were VERY happy with the room. It's done in pink (so pretty!), way bigger than my room in New York, and we had two nice potholes so that we can look outside of the boat. We basically screamed like kids and started taking pictures. Huron Valley Travel, the travel agent that I worked with to book this trip, gave us a free camera, too, which was cool :) .

After the novelty of the room wore off, we went up on Lido deck to get lunch. We had lunch with Danica, a Wolverine we met at the airport. After lunch, we walked through all the decks to see what we had to work with for the next 4 days. It is the single biggest boat I've ever been on in my life (it's the Carnival Paradise), and it's not even the biggest boat that Carnival has. Our boat can fit in 2500 people, the biggest on fits 6000 people. That's a whole lotta people. The Paradise has 2 dining rooms, a casino (always fun), a club called the Rex (first thing that I looked for, heheh), a few bars, a sports deck, a couple of pools, 4 whirlpools/jacuzzi and numerous other stuff. Phew! A lotta activities on a single boat.

After lunch, we tried going to sleep since we didn't get any the night before... when suddenly the fire alarm went off. Apparently all patrons of the boat need to be involved in a mandatory drill so that we know what to do in case of an emergency evacuation. Afzan and I were, needless to say, pretty cranky to have our nap cut short. Nevertheless, we made the best of it by acting like giddy girls and laughing at people for the most mundane of reasons. Our lifejackets smelled like fish, and we actually had to put it over our heads and wear the damn vests for the whole duration of the drill. Ewww.. I basically went to the drill wearing my sleep attire: a yellow oversized t-shirt and my comfy monkey-patterned pants. Everyone looked really stupid wearing those orange vests... one guy particularly so 'cause he had a beer gut so the vest basically just sat on top of his belly. Not the prettiest of sights.

After that little part of our cruise was over, we went to the sushi bar to get us some sushi. It was nothing to scream about, I like the sushi here in the cafe better.
Anyway, after sushi, we went back to our room and changed for dinner. Yes, there was plenty of eating aboard the Fun Ship. Dinner was served by two Indonesian waiters. We later found out there were a whole lotta Indonesian working on the ship, who were all too happy to talk to us (happy borderline creepy). We like our waiters, though, they were very curteous and professional. Food was ho hum, even though we did have lobster. Oh, I forgot to mention that food is totally free on the ship, it's already paid for. Only additional drinks has to be paid for (of course being a girl, you can always find someone else to pay for yours... heheh. My non-alcoholic pina colada was paid for by a Mexican gentleman who was only too happy to find someone to pretend-listen to his story). At night, we watched a Vegas-type show in one of the halls.

Our first port was Catalina, a small island off the coast of California. First thing one notices on Catalina: the beach is beautiful. Second thing: every single bloody thing is expensive. Like insanely so. We wanted to go rent a golf cart.. unfortunately, one has to be over 25 to do that (insurance reasons). The island is very, very pretty, it's the perfect retirement island. We took pictures, strolled down the street, went into the stores ... and basically balked at the insane souvenir prices.

After touring Catalina, we went back to the ship and I was promptly hit with a major migraine. It took room service an hour to get aspirin to me... not good. Afzan had to get them for me 'cause I could hardly stand up. She also had to go to lunch without me. Weirdly enough, she had a huge headache that evening and couldn't make it to dinner. I was starving, so I went to the Captain's ball (it was formal night) and basically devoured the steak and cheesecake. Yummmm....

Next day, it was off to Ensenada, Mexico! Woo hoo! My favorite port. We took pictures near the Mexican flag and went on an excursion to La Bufadoro to see the blowhole. There are only 3 blowholes in the world, and we were actually seeing one of 'em! It was so awesome. We also went to the flea market to get us some virgin margaritas and fish tacos. Yummyyy!! After the excursion, we went shopping again for Mexican blankets and other stuff to bring home. After another trip to get some fish tacos, we went back to the ship for the night. Night time was spent watching a magic show and a comedy show in the hall, and afterwards I spent about an hour at the Rex enjoying the music and just dancing. Hey, it was free anyway.

Next day was spent at sea. We took over a whirlpool and basically just stewed in hot water for about an hour. The back massage was sooooo good. We slept, ate, gambled (kinda, we lost 5 bucks), took pictures and basically just relaxed. I was sad that the trip was almost over, but made the best of it.

Next day, it was off to Michigan. The time difference made us lose 3 hours of daylight, but I was only too happy to go to sleep.

Okay, I hafta go to work now. Later peeps!

Wassalam...