Luna Tail

Today our ship docked in Cozumel. We didn’t have to take a tender boat, the ship got right up to the dock.

Above is me in front of our ship, the Carnival Legend. Ignore the fact that I’ve probably gained about 10 pounds already on the cruise. The desserts are just so good! I’m going to have to do a cleanse when I get back, and not eat for a week. I probably won’t be hungry as we have been having breakfast, and second breakfast, and lunch, and second lunch, then dinner with two desserts every night.

Here are Leann and Mark and you can see another ship over to the right also docked in Cozumel.

We took a taxi to down town Cozumel. We were going to do a parasailing excursion, but it was cancelled because of winds. The winds are about 34 knots and that is just too much wind. Most of the water excursions were cancelled, including snorkeling and scuba. Though Mark and Leann are going to do the Dolphin swim this afternoon. I’m not sure how the dolphins are treated and so I didn’t want to join them.

It was very fun to be back in Mexico again. I love Mexico, I have had many good experiences… this is my third trip to Mexico and I hope to come back again.

When we got back to the Legend, we saw we’d been joined, on the other side of our dock, by the Carnival Imagination. Wow these captains sure know how to dock these huge ships!

The water is not as wavy today, but still a bit rough. It might be time for a nap.. or for our every half hour feeding!

Another fun day on our cruise! Today was our first day ashore. Below is Mark and Leann on the tender boat going ashore.

We went to Grand Cayman. It was fun… though as you can see from the pictures, we didn’t get to do what we had planned. We were going to go snorkeling and swim with the sting rays, but the wind was too great and so our trip was cancelled.

Below is Mark running from one of the waves. This is Georgetown with the huge waves. Most everything was closed down.

Run Mark run!

We went and bought some rum… and had free samples. Oh my gosh it was good! And rum cake too, which was also yummy. I bought two bottles of Gold Rum, and two other bottles. We can’t take them into our room. They were delivered to the ship (we hope) and we get them on Saturday before we disembark.

Instead of snorkeling we went to the Turtle farm. I do believe they are breeding turtles in captivity to release into the wild. Some of them are endangered species. Above is Mark holding one of the smaller ones.

They also had a Cayman (above). And this also shows the beauty of my camera. My Olympus e-300 DSLR. I do love it! Below is a turtle, a big one, I like how I caught him breathing above the water.

Next we went to a rum cake factory here on Grand Cayman. We went in the store but it was too crowded so we went back outside and took some pictures of the waves.

Above is Mark, and below is me… not sure if I’m going to get wet or not!

The waves are gorgeous. As I type this, 5:31 pm ship time (not sure what that is at the moment… ) we are moving quite a bit as the wind is still blowing and the waves are quite high. There are bags by the elevators in case anyone gets sick! But we are all fine, the sway of the ship is not bothering us. We have dinner in a half hour… I actually might not post this until after we eat. We walk through the ship and everyone is walking like they are drunk, it’s quite funny. We laugh while we walk and are having an amazing time.

Below is Hell… our tour bus took us to a town called Hell. We sent a couple of post cards from there, I wonder if they will get home before we do.

Below is a shot of the three Carnival boats… okay you can only see two, but we were moored with two other bigger Carnival ships, the Destiny and the Valor. We couldn’t moor at the place we were planning on, by Georgetown, because of the wind. So we were further south, probably down wind. I don’t remember what the sailing term is… leeward? Hrm.. not sure anymore!

This last picture below is of the tender (the tender is what the boat that takes us to and from our ship is called) reaching our ship. We are on the Carnival Legend.

…

It is now 7:28 pm ship time… we just got back from dinner. I only had one dessert today… yesterday I had two dinners (I had lobster and shrimp for dinner so I had two helpings lol) and two desserts. Today I only had one of each.

At dinner we were watching the waves. They were quite high. Leann and I took some Dramamine just in case. In the cabin we seem to be more sensitive to the motion of the ship than out in the hallways and the dinner hall. Mark estimates the swells to be 20 to 50 feet. I have no idea… and none of the staff will tell me! Oh well, maybe I can find out in the future.

So, Leann and I are off to play bingo and watch the 8:30 comedian show. Mark is going to watch tv in the state room. I’ll post tomorrow… we should reach Cozumel, Mexico, about 10am ship time tomorrow. I hope to take more pictures!

We had a fun day at sea! I didn’t take as many pictures today as I did yesterday… a mere 68 compared to over 140 yesterday. LoL. But I picked some fun ones to show you today!

Here is Mark! We saw another Carnival ship go by the front of ours… we thought maybe our ship and that ship were playing Chicken. But it was a slow game of chicken! Here is a fun candid picture of Mark in front of it.

And so here is me… holding the other Carnival ship, the Carnival Valor, in the palm of my hand!

And Mark and Leann making sure that ship is in between their fingers! LOL these pictures were Mark’s idea and quite funny, we did think!

Here is a close up telephoto shot of the Valor. It’s a bigger ship than ours. We are on a spirit class ship, the Carnival Legend. I’m not sure how much bigger this one was, but quite a bit. I kinda like this smaller ship because I can still feel the sway of the ship. And I love it. It reminds me of being out on the Great Salt Lake in a little 22 foot sailboat. Which I loved too!

And then in the evening it was formal night. And although they are a bit lax on the formal night, we still dressed up. Doesn’t Mark look handsome in his suit?

We ate a lot, again! This is my second plate of lobster and shrimp! Mmm it was yummy, and it’s not every day I get to eat Lobster, and so I had two!

I also had a Kahlua and Baileys after dinner drink. It was yummy and I got to keep the glass. I didn’t have to be carried back to the room though! I don’t like to be drunk, and I hate hangovers, so I drink to just beyond tipsy and then I am done.

The dessert was heavenly. I had the Chocolate Melted Cake again… it is delicious. The chocolate cake is kinda like it’s almost not quite cooked, it’s soft in the middle and deliciously chocolaty. The white cups have vanilla ice cream and mixing them with the chocolate… oooh yup I had to have two desserts too! YUM! I almost had three but I thought two was really enough. LOL

After dinner we grabbed a guy walking through the hall and took a picture of all three of us. He cut off our feet, but we are not wearing shoes with diamonds anyway. Though the Carnival staff seems to think we should buy tons of diamonds. Lots of sales pitches to buy gemstones and gold… which we are not planning on doing.

Carnival, too, is a big party ship. Our friend at work told us that her parents aren’t crazy about Carnival, and now I can see why. Maybe I’m getting mellow in my old age, but I think I’d like a more mellow relaxed ship than so much music and parties and such. Yeah. I’m slowing down… but slow is good!

When we got to our cabin we found this little guy to greet us! We get a maid service during the day to make our beds, and like our friend ML told us, we get a second maid service that turns down our sheets at night. We are going to be super spoiled when we get home!

All in all we are having a fabulous time. Tomorrow at 8am we anchor off the shore of Grand Cayman. We have a snorkeling excursion planned, as well as swimming with the rays. We are excited, it should be a lot of fun. We’ll be done about 1pm and then check out some shops and get lunch. I want to buy my husband a t-shirt, and find some Rum for my Mom and my boss (yes I buy my boss booze, lol, I love it!).

So tomorrow I hope to have some more great pictures, hopefully of sting rays! Though the cameras we will have will be underwater cameras, and film, so I’m not sure if/when we’ll be able to get those up. I’ll have my good DSLR on the boat, though, so maybe I’ll be able to snap some with it, too.

It’s 9:07 pm here as I type this.. and we are tired, and headed to bed. The late show starts at midnight, and none of us is able to stay up so late. We are early to bed people, early to rise… well, not too early!

Good night!

Ooo okay, this is better than work, sorry you guys at work! Here are a couple of picture from this morning, from our balcony. Isn’t the sunrise gorgeous? Of course the pictures don’t really do it justice.

And here is Mark on the balcony. I will try to get some more pictures of me, LOL, but I’m the taking all the pictures!

Being here on this ship on the Gulf of Mexico makes me feel very, very grateful. And very humble. I am grateful that I am able to afford this, to have a good job that allows me to have this vacation. I live in an amazing country. I have so much, and am grateful for every day.

I am on the ocean! How cool is that! Okay wait, I’m not on the ocean, I stand corrected. LOL. I’m on the Gulf of Mexico, so I guess I won’t be able to drop my camera into the Atlantic ocean. Woo hoo! I’m glad about that! LOL.

We slept at the Days Inn last night and it was okay, pretty much a dive but we lived. We lounged around this morning in the hotel room and I took a nap, which was very nice indeed.

We got to the port at about 11:30ish and we got the first glimpse of the Carnival Legend, the ship we’ll be on for the next 7 days.

The above picture is of Mark and Leann, my cruise mates. I work with Mark, and Leann is his sister, and we are getting along great and having a wonderful time together!

It’s going to cost me .75 cents per minute to be online on the ship, so I’m composing this post using Blog Desk and will upload it when I’m done. So I hope I don’t spend too much money on internet service. There are ample opportunities to spend money on the ship. Not only internet, but a full body massage is $59. Which I guess isn’t too much, but it’s a bit pricey for me. Soda cards are $45 for unlimited sodas. I don’t drink that much soda so I’m not going to get one. Leann and Mark both did though. I had two specialy drinks today already, and a glass of wine. I bought a bottle of wine.. ooo it’s yummy. It’s a Carbinet/Merlot, Black Opal, and it’s yummy.

We all ate way too much at dinner! Okay and before dinner… they have yogurt stands all over where you can get a cone anytime you want. I had two! Man, I’m eating too much. I had a Mediteranian meal for dinner, oh I couldn’t stop eating it was so good. And the chocolate melt cake with vanilla ice cream was to die for. Man where is my spare hollow leg, I need it now!

Here is Mark and Leann again on the boat. We haven’t left dock yet but getting close! Below is me on the deck too!

Indoors the ship is awesome, I’m very impressed. There is even a chapel and you can get married. Mark is below doing… err.. not sure what, in the chapel itself.

We are traveling at about 18 knots, which isn’t all that fast, but I’m not sure what the conversion to miles per hour is. I think it’s pretty similar. The sunset was goregous… I didn’t get any pictures of it I don’t think I have the right equipment. Maybe someday I will.

Our Stateroom is quite nice! Way better than the Days Inn. LOL. It’s small, but it’s nice and cozy and we love our balcony!

It’s hard for me to pick what pictures to post! These are just a few. I took 146 today. LOL yeah Marie, I know, that’s so many! We had a slide show tonight to watch them all. I told my friends about how we did that at dog camp too. It’s a great idea!

Here is a view from one of the top decks on the ship. Lots of people when we were moving away from port. (What is that called anyway… casting off? I forget!) As I sit here and type this I can feel the sway of the ship. I love it. I love the water and the sway and the feel. A part of me desires the water.. not sure why.

Tonight we are tired… it’s almost 10pm here, Eastern Time. And time to get to sleep. Though I have to go to the library and get some internet so I can upload this post. And I hope the pictures aren’t too big and take to long. I think all the internet here is satellite. I might check my email too… briefly. Not sure I’ll send any. So Hi everyone!

I’ll try to post tomorrow night too. Tomorrow is a sea day and we are gonna sleep in. Well, Mark and Leann think sleeping in is 6am, so we’ll see how late we can get!

Well, I’m in Tampa Florida. According to delta.com my suitcase finally arrived, too, but it hasn’t made it to the hotel yet.  =P  Oh well, it just better get to me before I leave on the cruise tomorrow. Actually, I could use my contact lens cases too. I have my solution, but no cases. If I don’t get my cases before bed I’ll figure something out, I’m sure they have cups or something… yup, I see cups in the bathroom.

I’m at the Days Inn and it is, well, pretty much a dive.  But it was the cheapest we could find and that was $80 a night. So it’s not bad. My friend Mark and his sister Leann will be landing soon, they are flying in via Denver. I took Delta and used my skymiles to get a free flight. They didn’t have that luxury so had to go a different airlines.

Tomorrow about 4pm I on the ship for my cruise!!!!! I’m excited. No pictures today, I have a nasty headache and have just been lying around watching TV. Ate some Quiznos and a shake from a shake place, both were good. Now I need sleep. My Ibuprophin is in my suitcase, too.  Oh well.

I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Yup, the Vitamin C is working amazingly well. My neck has stopped cracking and popping.  I think now the real healing can begin. My neck is still very, very sore and stiff and I can’t turn it very far. But when I do my exercises from the physical therapist, I can feel the muscles loosening and stretching in a good way.

Yesterday I took 13 grams (13,000 mg) of Vitamin C.  From what I have read, people should take it to bowel tolerance. Which means if I get diarrhea, then I’ve had too much because my body is just flushing it out. So I decrease just below bowel tolerance.  The drawback of that is that with me reaching the end of PMS, this time of month I get Diarrhea anyway, LOL, so it’ll be hard to tell what it is actually from.

So now today I have to gt my Rimowa luggage packed and ready for the cruise! I’ll probably post again this afternoon after I get my nails filled and my airbrush tan on again.  Then I have to pack! I better go exfoliate… not sure what to do about that, but I think I’ll take a short bath first and then try to scrub off my dead skin sells.

Well, I’m getting ready. I’m about half packed. And I’m about half panicked, too. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I leave Saturday at 8:20 am… that is when my flight leaves.

I figure I’m nervous mostly because I’m having PMS. It’s day 23 and it’s not a good month, but that’s usual for me. I’m taking my Vitex Agnus Castus, Magnesium, Calcium (to balance the Magnesium) and Fem-Balance, which I’m trying new this month and I’m due for a dose, too. It all helps, but not completely. I still feel like I want to dig a hole in the blankets and hide. I have pretty much stopped emailing again, and there are people I want to email… so I need to get on it. Especially since I won’t get email after I get on the cruise ship. I will try to post to this blog, though. I have BlogDesk installed on my laptop and I hope that’ll minimize online time so I don’t’ crank up a huge bill.

On a down note, I still have my Outback, just paid the car insurance for it and the other cars. I think when I get back from the cruise I’m going to get plates for it (I transferred my personalized plates to my minivan), get a for sale sign for it, and drive it around more. Though that might just make it so I’ll miss it even more when it’s gone. I need to get an ad up on Craigslist too, when I get back.

But that’s for then, not for now. Now I get to try to put more stuff in my suitcase which is already over half full. But first I need to print out my list… I need to get my list so I don’t forget anything! Eeeek!

I’m getting so excited! Tomorrow, October 1, 2008, will mean we are in the same month that my cruise is in! 25 days until I leave!

I just called for a scuba update lesson. I haven’t been scuba diving for oh… probably eight or so years now. So I want to get updated before I go. I have an excursion at Grand Cayman for a dive. I have always wanted to dive the Cayman Islands, and now I get to! I need a snorkel though, mine broke. I’m going to borrow a friends and see how that works. I have my mask and fins and wet suit.

I have a hair appointment for the 17th to get my hair done. Nail appointment on the 24 just the very day before I go. I’m so excited!

How am I going to pay for this all, if I have no money? Well blogging pays for my nails, my husband pays for my hair (he’s such a good guy) and the rest comes out of my vacation fund. I have about $800 in there, I hope it’s enough. I budget to the freakin’ penny. I’m good that way. So even though I only have $23 in spending money for food and lunch and stuff, I do have a stash in my vacation fund!

Yippee!!!

Okay.. I’m back in the world of the living. I swear my PMS makes me seem like I’m a manic depressive. During PMS I’m down in the dumps, can’t get much lower… (okay I can, it’s all relative) and on the day I get my… you know what, like today, it being Day One, I feel so much happier. More patient… (waaaay more patient) more energized, and I can talk to people without feeling like I’m going to be hated or humiliated at any second.

Bleh. My drugs help, for sure, but I so wish that someone would realize that PMS is very real, and get a cure for the hormonal imbalance that it is. My Vitex Agnus Castus helps, too, so does the progesterone cream, but still, I get pretty yucky.

And… joy of the world, looks like I’ll be getting my… you know, when I’m on my cruise the end of October. Yuck. Not that it’s that big of a deal, really, it’ll just be a pain. Though having PMS on the cruise would be way worse, so I’ll take what I can get.

As for my weight… I’m at 0 loss 0 gain today. I’d lost a pound but it came back. I’ve been so strict! But now that it’s… you know what, my weight should start to drop, too, it usually does. I want to lose 10 pounds for my cruise!!!

I’m posting this from blogdesk, too, and I hope I can use this for when I’m on the cruise as I hear internet time gets pretty expensive. So I gotta make sure this works okay, so I can post pictures and make ya’ll jealous!