We got to disembark by deck, so Kendall and Joe (on Carnival’s system they were sharing a cabin for the drink package) got to go first. Deck 2 was one of the last ones called, so we had about an hour to wait. When they called Deck 2 we hurried to the elevators. And stopped. There was a long line at the elevators. So we got in line and jumped on one. We took the elevator to the bottom and stopped. Deck 3 was so crowded with people trying to leave that we couldn’t move. So we had to wait on the elevator until there was an opening to slip through. We forced our way in, and then moved with the line to Customs. Customs went quickly and then we were outside. Since Joe and Kendall had already left, they went to get the cars. We waited about 15 minutes for them to pick us up, and then we were on our way home. The trip back took about 4 hours. We hit some traffic on the highway, so I had to reroute us. We stopped for lunch at Whataburger, and ate it in the car. We were all ready to be home and away from each other. We dropped Kendall off at her apartment, and went to pick up Kilala from Sheila’s house. She was happy to see us! Finally we made it to Mom’s house.
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I did not sleep good last night because of my sunburn. I had to sleep on my stomach all night, so now my chest hurts. Every time I would try to flip onto my back, my sunburn would hurt. At 8 a.m. Mom and Joe knocked at our door with some fruit and muffins. They got worried when I didn’t show up to breakfast at 7:30 like I always do. I did not feel like getting out of bed. After they left, I got up and went to breakfast. Then I got ready for our trip to Cozumel. Since our excursion began at 9:30 and the ship was docking at 9a.m. our group met in the Amphitheatre. While we were waiting I realized that I wasn’t wearing my contacts. They called us to line up, and then we were waiting in line on the stairs. I heard a Carnival employee say that the ship didn’t have clearance to dock yet. So I passed Kendall the bag, grabbed my ticket for the excursion, and ran back to the room to get my contacts case. Then I ran back to the stairs. When I got back, I was out of breath, but Kendall was in the same place. The line hadn’t moved yet. After I got back in line, it started to move. I made it! While I was gone, Kendall had made friends with the people in line in front of us. There were two of them, Donna and Jamie. Donna is Jamie’s aunt. We agreed to stay together. We walked down the pier and found the person holding the sign for our excursion. He collected our tickets, gave us a sticker and told us to go down the dock and get on the boat to our right. We followed the directions, got on the boat, and waited. We waited and waited, and finally after about an hour the boat decided to leave. While we were waiting I went ahead and put my contacts in.
We drove about 30 minutes to a little park where the caves were. There, we got goggles, snorkels, and a locker. We went and changed and put our stuff away. Then we met outside and our guide gave us some information about the history of the caves. They were religious sites for the Mayan civilization. Our guide had a map, and he showed us how far the Mayan Empire stretched across Mexico. He also told us that the water is mineral water, so it is very good for the skin. Our guide claimed that the mineral water removed all of the oil from the skin so that we would not sweat for an hour after we came out of the water. But don’t drink it or we could get Montezuma’s Revenge (diarrhea).
After everyone had finished eating we went to a Tequila tasting. The tequila was made by a local producer with real agave. He educated us about how to find the good, authentic tequila. Apparently it takes 7 years for agave to become useable for tequila, so must producers use fake agave. This is what causes blackouts and hangovers. He taught us how to tell the real stuff from the fake stuff. One way is by feeling it. The fake stuff is sticky, and the real stuff isn’t. The real stuff also doesn’t smell like alcohol. After he educated us, we had tequila shots. We took about 5-6 shots of different flavors of tequila. Some were good, some were bad. I liked the fruit flavored tequila. Afterwards, Kendall went and bought 2 bottles. We were outside the whole time, and I still was not sweating. That mineral water really works! Afterwards, we loaded in the vans again and drove back to the city.
Once they hit the bottom, it was time for us to leave so we walked back to the meeting point. Once everyone was there, Reuben took us to the boat that would take us back to Cozumel. He was good, so we tipped him $10. We got on the crowded boat, and waited, and waited. Finally it got underway back to Cozumel. The trip back took over 45 minutes. The ship was supposed to leave at 5, with everyone getting back onboard at 4:30 p.m. At 5, we were not even close to Cozumel. The boat finally pulled into Cozumel at 5:30. Luckily we were on a Carnival excursion, so the ship waited for us. When we docked, there were Carnival employees lining the way back to the ship, telling us not to stop and shop anywhere. We finally got on the ship at 6 p.m. I knew Mom and Joe would be freaking out because we had no way to contact them to tell them we would be late. When we got on the ship, I texted them and said we were on our way to dinner. Kendall and I headed straight to dinner, and we were the first ones there. Everyone had waited on us, so they had not arrived yet. After we sat down and ordered, I ran back to the room to put my bag away. Mom and Joe had gone ziplining, which they said was awesome. Veronica and Reuben had a beach day excursion. Mom had been freaking out because we were late. She really started worrying when it got passed 4:30 and we had not shown up. She went to Deck 0 to wait for us, and she got kicked out. Then she went to Customer Service. They told her that a few excursions were still on their way in, and Mom got scary with them and told them they needed to check to see if we were on one of those excursions. They said “yes, ma’am” and looked it up. But it all turned out good.
Then Mom and I went down to Deck 0 to get on a ship to take us to land. We left the ship about an hour after it had laid anchor, so there were no lines. There were very few people on the boat taking us to shore. When we were disembarking the cruise ship, an employee gave us a Rolex Bingo card. If you go to all of the places on the card, you get entered for a chance to win a Rolex watch. Since we were going shopping anyways, we decided to try to get all of the stamps. We decided to walk to the furthest places on the card and work our way back to the ship. The furthest places was at a mall a couple of blocks from the pier. We got there and the place hadn’t opened yet. We weren’t going to wait so we gave up on winning a Rolex. We started walking back toward the pier, and saw one of the places I had a coupon for. I stopped at Cariloha and got a free bottle of seasoning. Then we went to the next place, Del Sol. At Del Sol I got a bag that says “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.” It is cool because when it is in direct sunlight, background images appear. We started walking again, and found Tanzanite International. At Tanzanite International I got free earrings. Finally we walked across the street to Diamonds International. At Diamonds International I got a free necklace (supposedly valued at $100), a charm bracelet, and a charm for free. After collecting all of my free items I told the sales lady that I wanted to buy a senior ring. Bonnie (the personal shopper on the ship) had given me a VIP card that was supposed to get me a good discount on tanzanite. The sales lady showed me a ring that had tanzanite. It was really pretty! I decided I liked it. The sales lady then brought in her manager to negotiate the price. I was trying to haggle a little. They were having a tanzanite sale which was a necklace, the ring, a bracelet, and earrings all for $1,000. I told her I didn’t want to spend that much money, and I just wanted the ring. She then tried to sell the ring to me for $375. I spent some time thinking about it. When I was pricing rings in the U.S. they were all around $300-$350, and that was with a fake gemstone. I was going to accept the offer, but I guess she thought I was taking too long because she offered to throw in the necklace. So I got a tanzanite necklace and ring for $375. I accepted the offer and signed the paperwork. After all of that, Joe still hadn’t shown up. So we waited a little while more for him. They had free wifi, so I got on Facebook. Finally it got to the point where I was going to be late meeting up with Kendall on the boat. Mom decided to wait for him on land because she was afraid that he would be coming to shore while she was going to the boat. We both went back to the pier, and I waited a little while until the next boat arrived. Then I went back to the ship. When I got close to the ship I was able to connect to their wifi and chat. I found out that Joe was still on the ship, he thought Mom was coming back to the ship. I told him that he needed to leave because Mom was waiting on him. When the boat pulled up to the ship I went back to my room and put away my new purchases and free stuff. Then I ran to meet up with Kendall so we could go back to shore. The original plan was she was going to meet me in the room, but she got lost so we met up on the boat going back to shore. For a minute I thought I was going to miss it. She was on the boat and I was running down the hall to get to it before it took off. Luckily I made it. And I found out that Joe was on the boat with us. He had left 15 minutes before us, but the boat hadn’t left yet. So we all rode together to land.
At the pier there was a souvenir shop with dresses. Kendall really liked one and she paid $30 dollars for it. After we were done we sat on some benches and waited for our excursion to start.
We went back to our room to relax before dinner. Already, we could tell that we got sunburned BAD. While Kendall took a shower I tried to go down to the gift shop on the ship to get some Aloe Vera. I got there and discovered it didn’t open until 4 p.m., and it was 3:15. So I went back to the room until 4, and then went back to the gift shop for the Aloe Vera. I needed it, because my ass was FRIED! Kendall was the same way. You could see where my bathing suit lines were. I couldn’t sit or lay down anywhere, because he hurt. Even walking was bad because my underwear rubbed the burn with every step I took. Kendall wanted to wear her new $30 dress to dinner. When she tried it on she hated it because it didn’t show off her curves at all. So Kendall tried to sell it to me, saying how cute it looked. She wanted to sell it to me for $30! I told her no. I told her she just needed to take the dress in a little on the sides. I told her I could do it. Kendall changed into another outfits and we slowly made our way down to dinner.
We stood in line for a while. Kendall and I were talking about how short the line was, which was a surprise for us. We figured a lot of people would want to ride dolphins. The guy in front of us told us that they already took a group to Dolphin's Cove. That made sense then. We waited a long time, and then we loaded up onto a little bus. On the drive to Dolphin's Cove, the tour guide talked a little about the country. She told us how to say Yamain (which is yes in Patua, Jamaica's second official language). She also made joke, like the drive has a Ph.D. (Pothole Dodger).
The bus took us back to Montegro Bay, and we went to the beach. At the beach was a place to eat, so Kendall and I split a fish sandwich. Kendall got a drink, and it was really strong! She wasn't expecting that. After we finished eating, we went to the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom, some guy approached Kendall asking if she smoked (weed), she lied and said she didn't. Then he asked if she wanted some brownies. She really wanted brownies, but I had all of the money. It was a good thing, too, because Security was right behind that guy. I held her drink while she went to the bathroom, and then we went to the beach. We rented some lawn chairs, and sunbathed. While we were sunbathing it started drizzling off and on. It about 15 minutes before we were supposed to meet our group again, but we could see everyone lining up, so we joined them. Apparently, we were the last people they were waiting for, because we left.
I decided to eat before going to my next event. I wanted Mangolian, so I got in that line and waited 10 minutes and I barely moved forward. I decided to wait until later to eat. So I grabbed Mom and we went to register for the art auction. If I bring a friend I get a free work of art. We registered and sat down. People were told to look at the artwork, so Mom and I discussed a the coupon book. While we were talking, the auctioneer came and talked to us. He told us I could pick up the artwork at the art gallery later. So Mom and I looked around at the artwork and then left. I went to eat, and the Mangolian line was much shorter. It was really good! I then went to my room and relaxed for about an hour until 3 o'clock. I went to the Gemstone Seminar. On the way I saw Mom, Joe, and Veronica at the bar in the casino, so I stopped to say hi. I asked Joe for a strawberry daiquiri, but I had to wait 5 minutes since he had just ordered a drink. He ordered, and the bartender was surprised by his choice. We traded by the elevators and I went to my event. I was early, but the tables were already taken so I sat on a rotating couch. I sat through the seminar, and I still didn't win anything. The whole reason I went to the seminar was to get free earrings, and I didn't get that either. Instead I got a coupon to get free earrings in the Grand Caymans from Tanzanite International. I was supposed to get another coupon for something, but they ran out. So I gave the guy my room number so they could deliver the coupon later (I never got it). Then I went to the Kollati unveiling, which is an expensive designer of diamonds. The designer was British and cute. I got my ticket, but I didn't win anything. My group entered late, and I don't know if our tickets made it into the bucket. My group number was 2300, and every ticket he pulled (which was about 10 since people left) was in the 2400s. The odds of probability make that unlikely.
Afterwards, I changed into my bathing suit and went upstairs to find the Serenity Deck hot tub to meet Mom and Joe. I got lost, so it took me awhile before I could find them. Joe had checked the hot tub while Mom was trying to figure out where I was, and they were full. Joe went back to the room to get something, while Mom and I got lounge chairs on the top deck. While we were relaxing, Veronica texted saying that she and Kendall were in the hot tub on Serenity and there was plenty of room.
When we got there, Mom and Joe told a funny story about their neighbors. Apparantely, one of their neighbors is a 10 year old boy, and he needed to pee. So he stood on the table on his balcony and peed over the side of the ship. The balconies are private, but if you are sitting at the right angle you can see a reflections. So Mom said "I can see you," and the boy covered his privates and ran back into his room.
I got up at 3 a.m. to pack and write Thank You cards. I graduated last weekend, so I had to write Thank You cards to everyone that gave me gifts. Mom, Joe, & I left at 4:45 to pick up Kendall. We met Veronica & Reuben at a gas station, and then picked up Kendall. We then began the long drive to Galveston. The plan was to stop at an IHOP on the way, but Joe missed the exit. We kept going, hoping to see another IHOP, and there were none. We even looked on IHOP's website at all of the upcoming towns, and there were none, so we ended up stopping at a McDonalds to eat breakfast. I did manage to get a little nap on the drive.
After dinner we went out and explored a little. We got lost. We were on Serenity Deck, and Kendall tried to sit on one of the hammocks and the mat slid off. So she put the mat back on and I decided to try. I carefully laid across the hammock, and just as gently the mat slid to the floor with me on it. Kendall about died of laughter. Veronica was laughing to, because she had just come around the corner. We took pictures, and then went back to the room. Kendall planned on going out partying, but we both passed out still wearing our clothes and contacts.
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June 2022
AuthorThese are details from my adventures around the world. |