Nola/Mexico Cruise Adventure Part 7
Friday 2/2/18 4:20pm
Caribbean, Carnival Triumph, Promenade, Near Coffee Bar
I don’t even know where to begin.
I haven’t written for two days and while I want to catch
up in an orderly timeline-ish fashion, I’m inclined more to just let my
freeform feelings fall out onto the page here. I’m in somewhat of a melancholic
mood – I mean, the ship is well on its way back to NOLA and we are in Southern
Louisiana in February weather. It’s overcast and gray. It was raining earlier
and, while it’s not freezing, it’s very cool. The vacation is essentially over
(although, we do have some time to do a few things on the ship and after we
disembark before the flight home).
Scott and Alan/Adam walked by and commented on me
drinking water. I told them that the vacation isn’t over yet, but I needed a
bit of a break from alcohol. I may drink again tonight when it’s karaoke time.
The ship is rocking a bit more than it has been up until
this point. I’m tired, but I do want to have one more fun night! My throat has
been somewhat sore this morning and I wonder if I caught something from the
shared karaoke microphone over the past few days.
The promenade is packed. People are all inside due to the
weather and so the ship feels more crowded than usual.
Kylie and McKenzie are napping/watching TV in the
stateroom. I had just showered and shaved and packed for debarkation tomorrow.
Packing for the journey home is always the most depressing part of vacations,
because – in doing so – you are admitting that, yes – in fact – the vacation is
over. I don’t want to go home. I think about my apartment and February weather
and making my own meals and laundry and work… and none of that is appealing.
I’m going to work on planning my next trip as soon as I get back.
I’m wearing my nice jeans and a nice-ish shirt, but I
have sneakers on my feet. I packed up my nice shoes. I‘m going to go unpack
them. I think I can get away with wearing them off the ship tomorrow and switch
back to sneakers before the flight.
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4:55pm
Gulf of Mexico, Carnival Triumph, Promenade (again)
I changed my shoes. I feel better.
So, I’ve become a bit of a celebrity thanks to karaoke.
People are saying, “Hey! J-Fred!” As I walk about the corridors of the ship. That's one of the things that I like about cruises. You're on an adventure with the same group of people, so you begin to recognize people and everyone becomes friends.
So, two days ago… We were in Cozumel and it was amazing!
I initially couldn’t get out of bed despite my friends great efforts to get me
moving that morning. Eventually, they went to breakfast without me. I finally
got up and made my way to the Lido Deck where I grabbed a breakfast burrito at
Blue Iguana. I ate as I walked through the ship and met back up with my friends
on deck 0.
We deboarded and walked around the port (Puerta Playa?). We took some selfies by Three Amigos and walked around the gift shops. I bought picture frames for myself and my friends, which is something that I had been planning to do while on this trip. I’m hoping my friends will put their frames up at work. I’m going to put mine up with a picture of the three of us.
Kylie asked me to take her picture, so I did this:
I bought maracas and annoyed my friends with them incessantly for the rest of the day. I took some pictures of the ship at port while we took a break and rested after walking around. We tired quickly as Cozumel is sweltering.
We decided to go back to the ship before our excursion,
because I had seen Cozumel before and my friends didn’t need to see anything
else. I changed into my board shorts and went up to the Lido Deck to catch some
sun. When it was time, I gathered up Ky and Kenze from the stateroom and led
them back off the ship to meet our excursion group.
We were directed to the nearby pier and our catamaran. We
boarded and were handed snorkeling gear (I brought my own goggles and snorkel). 
Then we posed for a picture, which came out great, by the way (except for the disgruntled looks of the photobombers in the background). Then, we were
directed to the top of the catamaran.
Soon, the catamaran left the pier and
made its way around the Carnival Triumph at port. It was very windy and we had
to hold onto our hats and stuff. It was a short… (‘drive’ isn’t the right
word)… to the snorkeling spot. We were given the safety spiel and then the ‘go
ahead’ to jump in or walk down the stairs. I put on my gear and hopped in.
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| (Our Ship) |
I attempted to take pictures, but the touch function
wasn’t working well on my phone under water in the dry bag. So, I turned on the
video function and just filmed everything for twenty minutes. I can pause it
and screen shot it later on to get some still pictures. Not one of the actual
pictures that I took came out well. The video appears to look decent.
One of the crew took pictures of us under water and
above. We bought two. I had hoped that mine would have come out better. Oh
well.
McKenzie survived despite all of the fish (she has fear
of fish) and I was proud of her for that.
After about 40 minutes of snorkeling, we were told to
return to the catamaran. I was freezing when I got on. I took my rash guard off
and warmed right up, so that must have been the problem.
Drinks were handed out (watered down margaritas and uber light beer) and the sail went up. Music came on and the catamaran became a lively venue as it began sailing along the coast. We stood up by one of the railings on the top floor of the catamaran. Sharing the breeze off the sea with my friends while drinking a margarita was wonderful! I caught McKenzie singing along to ‘Summer of ’69.’
I drank three of those margaritas in the thirty minutes of sailing before we reached the beach. To deboard from the catamaran, we had to wade through waist deep water and super soft sand that sucked you in. Once on the beach, we claimed some loungers near the water and got some more drinks and burgers. Kylie and I split one because I was super excited about going on the water toys (inflatable obstacle course things). I made the comment that our moms weren’t there so we didn’t have to wait 30 minutes after eating before we could go into the water. Just as I said that, an older woman walked by and told us not to go into the water for at least 30 minutes as if the whole thing was planned. We laughed. Well done, random woman. Well done.
Next, we went on to the trampoline, which had sand strewn
about it and, as a result, caused me to get what is essentially rug burn on my
knees from jumping on the sandy thing.
Up next, we did an obstacle course thing, which ended in
another slide.
I attempted this giant ball thing that looked like the planet Saturn. I could not pull myself up at first no matter what I tried. Eventually, I managed it though.
We ended up on what is essentially a long mat. We laid there for a little bit laughing at ourselves and catching some sun. Again, getting onto the mat was challenging and generally a silly endeavor for an adult to engage in. It was relaxing laying there on the mat in the sun while gentle waves rocked us. I could have fallen asleep there.
Eventually, we decided to go back to the loungers where
we stayed for a half an hour or so. Soon, we were called to get back on the
catamaran. Beach time seemed to end way too soon, but I knew there was fun left
to be had as we sailed back to the pier.
Once the catamaran pulled away from the shore, music came on
and the crew began a dance party. The Macarena came first, I think, and then
the Cupid Shuffle. Then Wobble and YMCA. There was a pretty decently sized
group for Cupid Shuffle, but little by little people left the “dance floor.”
The boat was bobbing up and down quite a lot and it was hard to dance – I, of
course, loved it! But, I could see how others couldn’t handle it. Wobble was so
much fun with the bobbing up and down and the wind. At one point during YMCA, I
looked around and it was just me and the crew. And I thought, “well, this is
awkward.” The captain called the crew back to get things situated for docking
and I sat back down with my friends. 
I showered and changed and went to the bar for a frozen strawberry margarita. My friends joined me and we went to the buffet for dinner. I ordered a hot dog from the deli and also had a salad.
We went back to our room, then, and changed again. Kylie and McKenzie wanted to check out the Dive-In Movie, which was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales. I put on my board shorts, so I could sit in the hot tub. I ordered another margarita and did just that while watching the movie. After about an hour, I started to turn into a prune, so I got out. It was very windy, which made it feel much colder than it actually was after getting out of the hot tub. My friends laid in loungers wrapped in blankets and I went back to the stateroom, showered, and then went up to the Alchemy Bar to write.
(to be continued)