Our Cruise

The cruise we went on was great. It was really nice to get away from everything (our kids stayed with their Grandma), not have to worry about much of anything. The Friday before we left, we discovered that the cruise line (Carnival) had upgraded us to a balcony room. The life boat cut off part of our view, but that was fine. We got a great deal on the cruise, and being upgrade to a balcony room, even a partially obstructed balcony room, was just icing on the cake. We sailed on the Carnival Pride. It was a beautiful ship.

We went on a Mexican Riviera cruise for 7 days. We started in Long Beach, California and had ports of call in Porto Viarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. My favorite was Mazatlan. We spent 45 minutes listening to a time share presentation (didn't buy one), and for that investment of time, we got $50 per couple, a liter bottle of either Tequila or Kahlua (we took the Kahlua), and all the drinks and food we could consume (which was a lot, we averaged four drinks for each of the four of us, and I'm sure these drinks were at least $5 a piece if we would have paid for them). We also got to enjoy their private beach and enjoy the private resort. It was definitely my favorite port!

I had never been on a cruise before. I loved that the price of the cruise included everything except alcohol and soft drinks. I loved going to the nice restaurant for every meal we were on the ship. Dining on wonderful food that I normally either don't have the money to buy or don't take the time to prepare here at home.

I had really needed an adult only vacation and this one was great. Not that I didn't enjoy going to Disneyland with our boys last October, but sometimes it's nice to just get away and enjoy yourself without the pressures of parenthood.

Me enjoying a glass of wine on our friend's balcony as we pull out of the Long Beach port.

A view from our friend's balcony as we pull out of the Long Beach port.

Most nights that we came back to the room our steward had left us an animal made out of towels to enjoy. This elephant was our first animal.

This is my husband playing poker at the new type of table the ship had. Instead of a dealer it was basically a computer controlled game. The shared cards for Texas Hold'em were displayed on the center of the table and each player had their own screen that was touch activated. You'd cup your hands around your cards and touch the screen and it'd show you what your cards were. Definitely new and interesting.

Danielle