Friday, February 10, 2017

My birthday surprise...

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.  πŸ˜–  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. πŸ˜‰

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!    

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