Gambling & Goodbyes- A Final Huzzah

Last night was our final night of the cruise.  Sad!  We stayed up a little bit later than normal to enjoy our last evening aboard.  Kylie and I were wearing our new Mexican shirts, of course!

We visited the casino for a picture mom has wanted for many days now.  Near the beginning of the week, Seiji and my dad each clawed up a $100 stack from this machine!  With that knowledge, you can imagine why Bailey was teased and why he tried this machine several times a day.

Well, Bailey never did claw up some cash, but since it was our last day he pulled out his Christmas money from my grandma and spent it on 3 slot machines.  On the third, he hit the jackpot and turned $20 into $351!  So much for learning his lesson....

This morning we got off the ship and flew home from Long Beach.  Getting off the plane in snowy Salt Lake City was torture!  It is so cold here!

And that sums up our cruise!  A big thanks to my mom who paid for all of us (I know, we are spoiled).  Best Christmas present ever!

"Behind the Fun"

Today we had an "on the boat" type of excursion.  The only one there is, I think.  My mom signed us all up for a tour of the boat!

It was super cool!  We weren't allowed to take pictures but they provided us with a few.  We started with the backstage of the theater and learned about the dancers and singers.  They're hired for 8 month intervals and perform the same things every week!  I don't know how they don't puke all the time - we were being thrown around standing in their dressing room at the bottom of the ship.  You could even hear the water splashing up against the boat!

We then went to the kitchen where it was super humid.  All kitchens have that school cafeteria smell, even when they produce tasty dining room food.  It was amazing, though, to see the cake decorators and the guy who carves watermelon.

We went to the lower decks of the ship and saw the engine room, the storage of all the food and soda, the staff cafeteria/buffet, and the laundry room (we got to try their towel folder!)  I enjoyed our time with the HR lady who answered all of our questions about the cruise ship life.  I had been quite curious about life on a boat.  It seems like such an interesting career choice, but it would be cool to have the opportunity to stop in all the different ports (that is, if your day off aligns with a port day).  I think I would go insane being stuck on a boat all day.  Because even on your days off... you would be on the boat.  And what would you even do?  But, if Bailey and I ever decide to try out the cruise staff life, they do accommodate married couples.  We would have a bunk bed all to ourselves!

The coolest part of the tour would probably be the "bridge", where we could see right out the front of the boat and the tiny wheel that steers the whole thing.  It was a grand area, and the view was just amazing.  It also helped with seasickness, to see the waves that were causing the bumps and sways (it's been a bit of a bumpy trip, poor Kylie gets the most sick but thankfully my mom brought patches.  I just get a little nauseous here and there).  Oh, and Bailey's favorite part - we got to meet the Captain!  The captain works for three months then switches off with another captain while he gets three months off.  His family can join him at any time, too.  Bailey and I decided that would be a pretty cool gig to pursue.

If you ever find yourself on a Carnival ship, I do recommend you check out the behind the scenes tour.  It was so interesting to learn about how the ship works and about how many people it takes to have a good crew.  In the end we got some swan carved soap, drawstring bags, baseball caps, lanyards, and other various Carnival merch, haha.  Best of all, we had some unexpected chocolate covered strawberries delivered to our door shortly after the tour!

The Cruise Life

What is the cruise life all about you may ask?  Well, the cruise life mainly revolves around food.  Snacks always: 24/7 pizza, hot chocolate, and soft serve ice cream.  6:00 salami for me, and 6:30 "first dinner" in the buffet for all of us before our set dining room time at 8:15.

And that dining room food - so good!  I felt absolutely no hunger the entire week, and by the time 8:15 would roll around, all of us were still pretty full from first dinner.  But obviously we still each had to order an appetizer (sometimes two), an entree, and one or two desserts (you have to get their special melting chocolate cake every night, and if there's something else you want to try, still get the cake or you will regret it).

Christmas lobster

The food isn't just tasty, it is fancy!  One night Bailey ate raw beef (it didn't stick together, he had to scrape it off of his plate), and we were all excited about the escargot.  Mmmm.

The Taste Bar was another wonderful thing, though only open on Sea Days.  You could walk by and they would hand you little bowls of fancy soup and some sort of fancy food.

While living the cruise life, you get to do whatever you want whenever you want.  You're not expected to go anywhere or do anything, so you just kind of have to figure out what to do.  Luckily there are many options, we hit lots of shows and even a Bingo night!  We splurged on the ultimate Bingo experience, but failed miserably.

There's a lot of just hanging around, and when it isn't super windy on the top deck, that's the best place to be!

As mentioned, the cruise line tries to make things as entertaining as possible.  So random dance parties during dinner?  Sure, why not every night?  Let's put a hat on Kylie while we are at it.

There are several pools on the ship, so you are free to swim whenever you'd like.  I never actually got in a pool, but I frequented the hot tub.

Yes, we have matching swimsuits.

Photo backdrops are set up every evening, so why not stop every now and then for a free photoshoot?

Here is our tiny stateroom - our home for the week.  It actually wasn't as tiny as expected, and the lack of a window didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.  It was funny for each of us to have our own bunk bed!

In our stateroom our housekeeper would always leave animals made out of towels.  It's a cruise thing.

Often, it is hard to tell what the animal is.

We liked our housekeeper.  And our waiter!  You kind of just make friends with the employees since you see the same ones all week.  It is interesting to learn where they are from and wonder how they ended up as cruise ship employees.  This is Damir, our waiter from Croatia.  He hand fed Bailey and danced with him, so they had a pretty good bond.

So that's just a little bit about the cruise life.  It is an interesting one for sure!

Ziplining in Puerto Vallarta

Our last port!  So sad!  But today's excursion is the one I have been most excited for.  Ziplining!

We stepped out of the boat and the humidity hit us hard.  It was so hot outside!  I was happy to finally have a super sunny day, but realized that we weren't even going to the beach so it didn't really matter.  We all had brought jackets so Bailey and I quickly ran them back to our staterooms.  We then got on a bus which took us way into the mountains, which was a really interesting and pretty drive.  People would stand in the middle of the streets trying to sell stuff!  I wanted to stop for all of the old ladies selling fresh coconut, it looked so good.  Also the cows looked so skinny there but Bailey says that's normal and I'm just used to fat genetically modified cows.

Anyway, we finally made it up to the "base camp" for our adventures!

It took a minute to get all geared up and to learn about all the safety stuff, but eventually we were all ready and hooked into the first zipline!

I don't even know how many ziplines there were.  But there were a lot!  Some were really long, some you would race someone else next to you, and some you would go backwards on.

We even rappelled!

While booking, my mom and I forgot to keep in mind Bailey's fear of heights.  But I'm so proud of him, he did everything and loved most of it!  One of our challenges was to climb up a rope net, walk from one tree to another on a rope, and then zipline back down standing on a skateboard type thing.

The scariest part of our canopy adventure was the pendulum!  Or, the Tarzan swing.  We ziplined from one tree to another and then were each pushed off the side of it, free falling until our ropes caught tension.  It was a little bit scary but tons of fun!

With just a couple more ziplines to go, we had to run as fast as we could without falling down on this bridge.  Bailey got some rope burn!  On our way to the bridge one of the workers jumped out at Kylie making dinosaur noises.  Look at her feet - they're definitely not touching the ground!  Haha!

Our time in the mountains was concluded with some delicious Mexican barbecue.  Then it was back to port for us!  The five of us (unfortunately my dad was too sick to come today) had to squish into the 4-person bench in the back of the bus for the hour long ride.  It was pretty uncomfortable, but I slept most of the time so I can't complain much.

While everyone else headed back to the boat, Bailey and I stopped by some markets for a little bit of exploring/shopping.  I just enjoyed the fact that we were in Mexico!

The day ended with ice cream on the top deck.  It felt so nice outside and we had such a gorgeous view of Puerto Vallarta!

A Late Night Photoshoot

Kylie and I were hanging out with my mom in her stateroom when the boys decided to go out and play.  Eventually we got tired and decided it was time for bed, so we left my mom's only to discover that neither of us had a room key!  So, in our pajamas, we made the trek to find our husbands in a world where you can't just call or text.

We got on the elevator and Kylie commented on the gross feeling of bare feet on public floor.  I hadn't realized she was sockless, and then decided to share my pair of Totoro socks.

We ventured to the casino and quickly found our boys and retrieved Seiji's sea card (which Kylie was happy about, because room keys double as our credit cards and that meant he couldn't spend any more in the casino that night).  On our way back to our room we passed by some backdrops and photographers and though, "what better time for a late night photoshoot?"  The photographers loved us and came up with some fabulous poses.

Yes, her shirt says "security"

This is probably my favorite.