Merril is recovering well from surgery and decided to surprise me with a cruise for my birthday. It's perfect for him because all you do on a cruise is sit around and eat. Perfect for a recovering cancer patient.
We drove down to Long Beach to board the boat to Ensenada, Mexico! Our room reminded me a ton of an RV. Basically all the systems are setup a lot like an RV, with fresh water tanks and black/grey water tanks.
Hey look, we're at the buffet!
We did a shore excursion to La Bufadora (the blowhole)!
We took a lot of selfies together.
There was some amazing food down by the blowhole! There was an amazing pina colada drink and seafood cooked in a clam shell. Muy delicioso!
A mariachi guitar player sang us a song!
We were dropped off a mile off from the ship or so. We wandered around Ensenada and then found a carriage. We rode the rest of the way back to the ship. I worried about Merril pushing it too hard with all the walking.
We went to a singing show that had a bunch of rock from the 80s. It was okay.
This was our dressy night on the ship.
I feel like a cruise ship is a little boring if you don't drink or gamble. :) We did go on a behind the scenes tour of the ship, down into the laundry, kitchen, and engineering rooms of the ship. That was really interesting! I learned that the ship grinds up the leftover food and pumps it into the sea to feed the fish. The ship has 2 fuel systems and can run on crude oil when it's out at sea. 😖 The crew never leaves the ship for their entire contract of like 6 months. There are places for them to hang out and a bar but they can never get drunk because they have to be on the ready in case there's an emergency. So they can have a beer or a drink but not much.
The ship had a running track so I got up early for a run one morning. I tracked it on my running app and it said I ran a lot, but only because the ship was moving a lot and I happened to be running on a moving object. LOL!
Merril and I had never been on a cruise before so I was a little worried that one of us might get seasick but we never did. I was painfully full a lot of the time but that's not the same thing. 😉
As we left, we spied the Queen Mary 2, which doesn't sail anymore but is docked permanently as a hotel.
My conclusion of cruising: I could see it being more fun with a big group. I feel like my vacation time with my husband is precious so I wanted to be seeing destinations. Basically, I saw the inside of a ship, which is fine. Our day in Ensenada was my favorite because we were in a different culture, walking around, seeing people and their way of life. The day we spent at sea was a little boring. I kept looking out at the ocean and wishing I was spending the day in a different city, eating their food. The cruise food was okay but there is so much buffet. Maybe I'm a traveling snob that likes to do things my own way. I am glad that we went and had this experience and I'm glad that I was able to spend the time with my husband!
