Cruisin' to Mexico

My wife and I just recently went on a Carnival cruise and we had a great time. There were some problems, like sea-sickness and the time at one of our stops was cut short, but overall, it was a nice relaxing time and I'm glad we did it.

This whole thing started several months ago while I was in Kuwait. Actually, in a way, I guess you could say this whole thing started about 5 years ago with our first cruise. We cruised from Cape Canaveral on a Royal Carribean boat to the Bahamas right before I joined the Army. And we fell in love with cruising from that experience.

Anyway, while I was in Kuwait, we talked at length about what kind of vacation we wanted to take when I finally went on leave upon my return. Of course, it was almost a no-brainer. But, we also wanted to be sure that we left our options open. Sometimes cruises sell out, so we'd need an alternative.

We came up with a couple plans: a few nights in Vegas, a few nights in San Antonio or Austin and a cruise. We started watching ticket prices for the cruise and saw different cruises go up and down in price over a 2-3 week period. At one time, a Norwegian 7-day cruise was going for about $199 per person, which is a really good price. Of course, every cruise line will add the taxes and port fees on, so the price of the cruise itself is really the only variable. Expect that whatever you pay for your cruise per person will most likely be doubled by the time everything is said and done. No taxation without representation, huh?

So, we waited and waited. It appeared as though almost all the cruises for the major lines all left on or about the same day, a Friday or Saturday. Our goal date was either 3 or 4 November to leave. As the time approached, we watched the prices go up and down, availability sell out and then open up again.

Then, on 3 November, we decided to visit a travel agent. We walked out with an incredible deal of about $130/person for a 5 day cruise. Total price was just over $500. Sure, we waited until the last possible second, but we were prepared to go another direction with our vacation plans should this one have fallen through. Moral of the story? Sometimes procrastination is good. Call it Strategic Procrastination, if you will. But, also keep in mind that cruise companies don't make any money on the price of the ticket. They make money in other ways, that I will point out.

From Fort Hood to Galveston takes about 5 hours driving time, in good traffic. Our travel agent told us it would take 3. Luckily, we like to get everywhere early, so we left for our 1600 final boarding time at 1030. It didn't help that every single Biker in the Western Hemisphere had converged upon Galveston for some kind of rally that exact weekend. After dropping off my wife and our luggage at the cruise terminal, and then parking in the lot and high-tailing it back to the terminal, I literally had 5 minutes to spare. No worries, though. The Bikers made everyone late and the cruise departure time was delayed by probably 2 hours. Doesn't make me feel any better by getting there when we did.

Off we go. Our first day was rather uneventful. The boat looked very large on the outside, but when we got inside, it just didn't feel that big. On a good note, though, we expected to get the center-of-the-boat closet sized room, but we were actually upgraded to a room on the side of the boat with two portholes. Plus, the room was only a bit smaller than the average hotel room. Quite a nice surprise.

We unpacked, went to dinner and explored the boat. There wasn't anything we hadn't really seen before: lots of opportunities to spend a lot of money and a lot of people trying to use the elevators to get their rooms upon boarding the boat, when the stairs are right next to the elevators and they could have skipped the elevators, taken the stairs, been unpacked and dressed for dinner by the time the elevator got to their floor.

Dinner each night was pretty much what we expected. Very classy, lots of exotic food and desserts. My wife and I both used dinnertime to try foods we have never tried before. The most memorable was the Escargot. (Hint: It tastes like clams. Really.) There was a formal night. Everyone looked great. My wife looked awesome.

The point of a cruise is much like the point of a flight somewhere. You are just going somewhere to do something and then coming back. Except that with a cruise, you are on a boat and you get to eat and drink as much as you want (food is free, drinks besides water and juice are not) and you get to participate in all the activities on the boat, most of which involving spending exhorbitant amounts of money with little or no return. Can of Coke: $2, Glass of wine: $10, Game of Bingo: $10, etc... Like a movie theater, a cruise company doesn't make any money on the admission, they make money on the other stuff you buy once you are in the door.

Our first "fun day at sea" was not fun at all. There was a storm blowing through the Gulf of Mexico and the water was very, very choppy. It was so bad that my wife and I both got seasick, as did many/most of all the passengers. It wasn't possible to walk anywhere without seriously swaying and possibly losing your balance.

To be continued...