1. Don’t leave out of New Orleans – the trip down the river to get to the ocean is LONG
2. Check is there are large groups on your cruise, and what kind – We had a group of 700 that were obnoxious drunks – the boat ran out of bud light by the first port. They also took over at least 1 location on the boat for a private party each night.
3. Bring a case or 2 of bottle water – we saw people “checking” cases of water and were jealous – makes it easier to transport on land etc.
4. Do no go to your room early – it pisses off your steward and your service is affected.
5. Do no pack early, you miss out on your last towel animal, wait till they put up the packing sheet.
6. Bring a small oust or stink cover uper – our restroom was not pretty by the end – due to a smell coming from the toilet. Aka, everyone elses deposits were backing up. Ick.  (I always bring one, so we were covered)
7. The first day of the cruise everyone works out, then it tapers off
8. Be careful in the hot tubs – go in early – notice that some people never leave but continue to drink. Therefore that alcohol has to end up somewhere… Ewww…  Luckily the pools and hot tubs are emptied every night!
9. If you can, watch the life boat drill – very cool
10. Make a plan for each port if you wont be taking a tour
11. Most tours are a waste of money, but keep your from having to deal with locals that might rip you off!
12. They allow you to initially get on the boat with a container of water, but they will open it and sniff it. – weird, but ok!
13. I think I can do without going on another cruise for a while!

Day 1 – Elephant – how cool!

Day 2 – Dog?

Day 3 – Bunny!

Day 4 – Snake

Day 5 – Seal?

Day 6 most people got swinging monkeys… but we had begun to pack and the suit cases were on the bed, so we got nothing.  :(

But there were in the lobby show case:

The spa:
It looked pretty darn cool and if i was rolling in the dough, I totally would have taken advantage of all the deals they had!
The first day if you booked right away it was 20% off. And by the end if was just amazing if you combined services. Alas with the cost of everything else, i refrained, and it is probably a good thing i did! You could partake of the sauna and steam room at anytime too. Nice perk!

Scavenger Hunt:
The first day at sea they had a digital scavenger hunt put on by the staff. I was solo, but figured it wouldn’t be any big deal. Luckily i was alone and this other cute couple from england had no camera so when they suggested teams it all worked out! They were great, willing to do anything, and just make the whole thing a blast!

Second City:
This was by far the best show during our time on the boat! The group was super funny, kept up with current events on the boat and kept me rolling the entire time.

Elements:
This was the “fake cirque” show. For me, i felt it was a waste of my time. I’ll say i’m a princess and have seen cirque at least 5 times, so to experience a bad knock off was not my thing. Others in our circle thought it was amazing.

Cruise Directory Comedy Show:
Unfortunately i found his humor lacking and left in the first 10 minutes.

Karaoke:
The group was here every night. And i mean every night. I’m not a huge karaoke fan, so i went to bed a couple of the nights.
The fella that ran the machine was a saint, and one night stayed more than an hour over the end time!!

Champagne Charlies:
There was a lounge above the main fancy area on the boat where nightly there was live singing with a piano. We visited here most every night. The bar tender there was a doll. He always was happy to see us and remembered that we had a wine thing and would go get them whenever we wanted!

The Galaxy of Stars:

It was where most of the shows were, but there was also an amazing seating area right at the front of the boat! It was such an amazing place to sit and watch the ocean at night! There was also a staircase to go see the captain steer the boat!

The deck:
The promonade deck had a walking track that was a 1/4 mile long.  We walked it a couple times. It was pretty cool – it went through a closed part of the boat, it was neat.

I love the freestyle eating option. I like not getting stuck with people you don’t know and might not like. We did that on the cruise in the Galapagos – but it was a much smaller boat and luckily we had friends to join on that cruise.

The buffet was pretty good.

My favorites:

the cheese bar! OH MY GAWD! Every meal there were blocks of cheese just sitting there! I guess i know where the weight came from!

The crepe bar was awesome!!!

Muscles to be had at dinner every day.

This amazing hash they made with some meal from some dinner. WOW!

I enjoyed myself!

The main dining rooms:

We only ate here a couple times. The options were not all that fabulous most of the nights we bothered to check.

A la Cart Restuarants:

The paying for every other dining option was kind of annoying, but if you didn’t really think about it that way – $15 a person for all you can eat sushi is pretty good!  :) We did sushi one time and asian fusion another. Very tasty!

Drinks:

When we boarded I knew hubby needed an all you can drink cup. For 6.50 a day, including the last day when you aren’t even on the boat, for as much as he drinks, it was worth it. Basically if you do the math – $2 a soda – if you anticipate drinking at least 26 sodas in a week, it would be worth it. And the cup holds 1.5 cans. It is still a lot of soda! I stuck with water and had brought my 32 ounce bottle with me. There was a spiget in the gym that i could fill up with! Mostly i just stuck in the sink in the boat.

Next stop was the wine deal. If you pick out 6-8 bottle of wine, you get 20% off. It worked out so that we got a bottle of wine with each meal and then an extra! The other deals on the boat where the buckets of beer. Usually 6 beers in a bucket, and if you “shopped” the bars you could find 7 for the price of 5!  Still $30 a bucket, so our bottle of wine seemed to last longer. Although we did partake of a bucket of beer and a pina-colada during the trip as well!

I still stick by my feeling that anything in a bottle is a better deal, since the hard liquor is sometimes watered down, and the mixer can be over zelous!

We think, ok, guess that’s cool, but right now i’m carrying all my crap and don’t have the ability to rub my hands together…
Little did we know this was just the beginning of the hand sanitizing brigade!
Every door of the buffet was staffed with a hand spraying bottle holder and god forbid you try and pass without a squirt. I think they might have have chased you down and tackled you if you kept going. We never tried it.
By mid way through the cruise, the buffet changed gears and you were not even allowed to select your own empty plate or pick up your own napkin and silverware. You had no access to the spoons or serving implements on the buffet – you had to point at what you wanted. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make a taco or a salad by pointing at stuff???
You were not allowed to get your own coffee or milk. If you wanted sugar packets, salt, or ketchup you had to get it from them.
There was a vague sign indicating an “increase” in gastrointestinal issues after one of the ports had led to these new precautions. Of course i’m thinking some yahoo on the boat had a drink with ice and got tummy trouble and now i can’t even get my own food, sigh.
Apparently their way of doing things works since it is the only cruise line that has not been shut down by the health department.
But it was still weird!

Honduras was super crazy, no built for tourists. The “compound” was nice, and there was a good coffee shop, but anything right outside was icky and reminded me of Tijuana. Apparently you could take a cab to some nice beaches but hubby and I aren’t that adventurous and our friends decided not to depart that info on us. Thanks guys. We hung on the boat, napped and got in a swim!

Before we left the boat though, we got to see the staff perform lifeboat drills! It was really cool. The boats were held on pulleys directly below our room.

Belize City – This required tenders to get from the boat to the mainland. This time we decided to be like all the cool kids and get a cab to a beach. Alas there are no beaches. We ended up in a man made beach, with an entrance fee and icky marina water. Sigh. But – We did find free wi-fi! Woohoo!!!  I’d definitely stay on the boat next time!

Also on the beach were chickens, roosters, and Iquanas!

Cozumel – I was finally ready to part with some of hard earned cash and see some ruins! I couldn’t wait! Tulume was built up on the sites to be this kick ass ruin site with a nice beach! Sweet! Most of the the tour was spent getting there. Boat from Cozumel to Playa del something or other, an hour bus ride to Tulume – with a 1/2 hour stop at the walmart of mexican crafts. We did get a neat plate for the wall, but i think i would have been happier with more time at the ruins.

The guide was nice enough but his english was spotty and his info was limited. He took us around the ruins from afar, but never close us. Never gave too many details about anything. We did enjoy the ocean near the ruins and almost missed the bus back!!

Final day at sea was pretty low key. I had a nice long workout, a nap, lunch with the conference crowd, and then spent the afternoon reading by the pool. Mmmmm. It was lovely!!

Hubby and I went on a cruise early in December for 360 Flex.
It started in New Orleans – who knew cruise ships left from there? who knew it took 10 hours to get out of the dang river to even get the whole cruising business started?

We spent a night in New Orleans – well we stayed near the airport with 40K hematologists (apparently there was a convention).
We took an expensive cab ride to experience bourbon street and Cafe Du Monde.
I can now cross both those items off my “Life’s To Do” list and never return…  (needless to say i was less than impressed)

We got a cool tour of New Orleans on the way to the bus the morning of. The bus driver was funny and informative. It was crazy to learn how high the water was in some places and how it never hit other areas. Weird.

We got on board right around the noon hour and were amazing at the amount of people already on the boat, drinking, partying and EATING up a storm. Woah!

We found our fancy room – with a balcony – granted not bigger than a chair, but alas it was a door with fresh air while the boat bounces along the waves! For me, it was fabulous!
The first night we did a meet and greet with the peeps from hubby’s conference. That was fun! Always neat to meet new people and this time with spouses. Usually the significant others don’t get to come play, so it was fun to see who was with whom!

The first day at sea was the first day at the conference, so i got to wander around the boat and enjoy the open air!  (Even write my Christmas cards out!)

We stopped at Costa Maya, Honduras (Guatemala was having elections and shut down all public transportation), Belize City, and Cozumel.

(more on the ports to come)

So as indicated in the last post i wasn’t all that excited to be hanging at NCECA.
Friday i awoke with even less desire to hit up the talks and the convention floor…

Hubby was going to work with his business partner again, so i decided to hit up the Art Museum – I wasn’t willing to pay $10 a piece for hubby and i to both “run” through the museum, but 1 person, not so bad.

There were some interesting pieces, but all in all it was a pretty weak museum (I know, i’m a snob – but i lived in Boston and LA – so i know good art)


Later that afternoon hubby and I enjoyed a beer at one of our favorite finds – rose and crown, and then headed to the top of the Hyatt for some more beverage, a great view and a spinning seat!

Our final stop that night was at the lounge at our hotel for some tapas and more wine. Mmmm! Hummus!!

The next morning I woke hubby up early to see if he wanted to try for home! Unfortunately my calculations were bad, so we only made Santa Fe, NM at 4pm…
I figured we could check out some art and enjoy this locations of locations… but alas Santa Fe closes down at 5pm…  Who knew, and how frickin annoying.

Sunday we did the final leg of our joney home and enjoyed snow and rain and sleet and frozen roadways all the way home…

Hubby got me home safe, i kept my eyes closed for the scary parts!!

Tomorrow – Jury Duty…

It was another fun time for hubby and I trying to decide how they lived, how they ate, where they “shopped”.

After that stop over we headed south to Montezuma’s Castle National Park. Another cool ruin and apparently where all the idiots in the area congregate. Sigh.

It was another great view despite the idiots flittering around. Amazingly large structure, so far up the hillside built so long ago, with no apparent way to get in!

We got our view (another $10 save with the pass!) and got out of there as fast as we could!

Then it was 2.5 hours to phoenix!!  I had been warned of the police presence by friends that have spent time in the area. We saw a bit of it in flagstaff – police doing radar checks everywhere – everywhere! Photo tickets, and more. So we kept our speed in check as we headed into the sprawling metropolis of Phoenix. And we also found the heat! It started to warm up as soon as we left Flagstaff – 60 degrees, 75, then 90 as we hit Phoenix…

We got to the hotel by 2:30, were able to check in – although their valet area is crap – in and out in the same place and only 1 lane wide… ugh.
Our room is beautiful. Amazing work desk (that is where i am now).

After a shower and some relaxing hubby went with me to pick up my badge for NCECA and get my goodies! It was fabulous. No lines! Love that!

Our goodies included a recyclable shopping bag – yeah!!!!

After my quick jaunt to get my badge we walked around the area and same some weird art:

Found the science museum and a cute place to grab a beer!

I picked most of my schedule for  the next few days and then we were off to sushi with hubby’s business partner and wife.

I over ate – as usual – and slept pretty well on our big comfy bed!

We found our hotel right off the highway, not as nice as the pictures on line, but nice! (i know, go figure)
Today was scheduled as a pretty low key day – the options originally planned were an extra chance to see the grand canyon again or see some of the national parks around!

We finally got our Starbucks fix! Ah!!
Then we headed off to Sunset Crater national park which is in the same area as the Wupatki ruins.
Sunset Crater National Park was pretty cool! Who knew there were lava flows right off the highway??
It’s a small park but lots of info there! We had gotten the national park pass for the Grand Canyon (and figured we could use it at Rocky Mountain – since we live there!)
So we were able to get in for free!
We did a short hike to the top of Lenox Crater. (1/2 mile straight up soft sand, ugh!)
It was amazing from there – some of it looked like big giant rocks, other tiny pebbles and from a distance some even looked like pavement – really cool!

We did another mile (ish) hike around the lava flows – very cool!!  (have i mentioned how cool it was!)

We stopped at a couple more overlooks and enjoyed the views!!!

We exited that park and entered the Wupatki national park – the ruins were pretty neat. We spent a lot of time discussing what we thought each part of the structure might have been, how wealthy the occupants, their daily tasks, and where they went when they disappeared! It was fun!

We headed back to the hotel for a nap after our adventure in the parks.
Gotta love non structured vacations!

After our nap we headed to old downtown Flagstaff to walk around and find something fun for dinner!

Not too much interesting down there – could have been me not wanting to spend much money…

We had dinner and then stopped into a winebar i had read about! Super cute location – upstairs, tons of seating, chocolates and yummy wines!
After our grownup rest we headed up to the local Observatory (started by a Lowell – one of the big names back in mass – how funny!)
We got to see Saturn  – super super cool and the moon!

It was a fun night and I’m looking forward to Phoenix today!  (With a couple hikes along the way!)