Update

As you can see, it’s been a while since I posted anything. This is due to the fact that I haven’t really done anything too exciting. School has really picked up this semester, and I’ve been so busy! However, I am excited to announce that I will be visiting London for a whole month this summer with a study abroad program, CCSA! Not only will I get to spend a whole month in London, July 8-August 8, but I will get the study the Harry Potter novels and visit some of the sites where they shot the films! This is basically a dream come true, and I cannot wait to share it with all of you!

If you want to get caught up with my blog, you can start at the begging of my last trip, St. Augustine, Florida and a Cruise that traveled to Aruba, Curacao, and Grand Turk,  by just click on the link below!

Day 1-Traveling

Day 12-Debarkation

The main lounge on the Carnival Sunshine one last time

SAying goodbye to the Sunshine was one of the hardest goodbyes in my life!

We finally got our picture with Darnell!

After spending eights days somewhere, it starts to feel a little bit like a new home. That’s why waking up and knowing that I would have to get off the Carnival Sunshine was so sad! Not only was vacation over, but I was also saying goodbye to the people that the place that had become home to me.

We woke up early that morning to beat the breakfast rush. It was our last meal on the ship. Our stomachs were well stretched to handle absurd amounts of food, so I had the biggest breakfast in the world. I’m pretty sure that I ate more in that one meal that I do on the average day here in Kentucky.

After breakfast, we headed back to our room to gather our belongings. They kicked us out of our rooms at 9:00am, but we weren’t scheduled to get off the ship until 11:00am. Therefore, we were sent to the Liquid Lounge were we had to wait until our time slot was called. On the bight side, we finally had cell phone service back, so we could use the internet to find out if the dancer on our ship, nicknamed Voldey, truly played Voldemort in “A Very Potter Musical” as we expected. Unfortunately, we were wrong, and he was really just some random cruise dancer that we obsessed over for no reason. It was fun while it lasted though.

After sitting in the Liquid Lounge for a while, Krista, Marlene, and I decided that we needed to go for a walk around the ship. While we were waking, we ran into Darnell, the gem of the Carnival Sunshine. This was our chance! We didn’t let the opportunity go to waste, and Krista and I got a picture with him, upstaging Marlene being  dubbed a “party person” by him earlier in the cruise.

We then had to head back to the Liquid Lounge because they were about to call us for debarkation. Normally this is a mess. There are people and luggage everywhere, and it always takes forever. However, this time we were the last group called, so most of the luggage was cleared out and there weren’t as many people.

We gathered all of our luggage, and soon a woman came to help us carry it to our bus that we would take back to our car. We had to wait on Paul, again, as he searched for all of his luggage, so nothing was really out of the ordinary. Then it was time to go through customs. Paul was the last one to go through, and as we were waiting for him the lady helping us with our bags said, “Ah looks like we have to wait for Paul again.” We all started cracking up because she had nailed the theme of our trip in about five minutes of being with us.

Once we all made it through customs, we were led to where our shuttle would pick us up and take us to our car. It was supper nice, and they even dropped us off right by our car. We spent a long time in that car on the ride home. We ended up having to stop about every two hours because these people really had no idea how to road trip. We ended up making it home around 3am, and I was really just ready to sleep forever!

When it was all said and done, it was a fabulous vacation! I couldn’t even pick a favorite part if I tried because everything was so good. This adventure had come to an end, but it had definitely reminded me of how much I love to travel and how much of the world I haven’t seen yet. There is so much out there, and I can’t wait to discover it all on my future adventures!

Day 11-The Day of Lasts

Me and one of the towel animals that I made.

Where’s Paul? It was right before dinner, and we didn’t know.

Krista and Marlene enjoying the last dinner.

Paul, Dave, and me at the last dinner.

Krista and I got a picture with our main Zubin!

Because I let Zubin overshadow him in these posts, it needs to be noted that Putra was also awesome!

A heart towel from Jose because he loved us!

Our cruise director, Tyler Ryan, introducing “Epic Rock!”

We got our picture with the dancers. The tall one, with green hair, by Krista, is Brett/Voldey!

Looks like a normal picture, but it was actually a cover up for stalking people on the ship…

It was our last day on the ship, and it’s hard not to think about how it’s the last time that you will do everything while you’re doing it. It’s one of those days that’s super sad, but you still want to make it fun. It is vacation after all!

Sticking to our walking plan, Krista, Marlene, and I got up early. We decided to eat breakfast first because sometimes, food is just too tempting to pass up. Then, we headed up to the track to walk. However, our walking was cut a little short due to the fact that we wanted to get to a raffle at 10:00. Our family had been pretty lucky this cruise, and everyone had won at least one thing! Therefore, it wasn’t a big deal when we didn’t win. We had to share the wealth some with our fellow passengers.

After the raffle, it was time for the towel animal folding demonstration. Remember all those cute little towel animals that Jose, our cabin steward, left us every night? We were going to learn how to make some! This is a cruise classic, and I already knew how to make most of them. However, it had been so long since I had done it that I needed a refresher. It was also nice because all five of us went to it! It was rare that the entire family was together except at dinner and the shows. Most of the time Krista, Marlene, and I stuck together while the boys went off and did their own thing.

The towel folding demonstration was lead by Tyler Ryan, our cruise director, and Darnell, the best thing that has ever happened to Carnival Cruise Lines! Any time we got to be around Darnell was a good time. He was super funny, sassy, and always happy. The towel folding was difficult because there wasn’t very much table space, but since we were all pros, we made it work. We made three different animals a dog, elephant and seal. It was super fun, and I think we reached Jose’s skill level. If I don’t make it through college, at least I have towel folding to fall back on.

After that, Krista and I headed up to enter a raffle for a free cruise. Right next to that, they were about to start Harry Potter trivia. Not only am I generally good at trivia, but I can tell you anything about Harry Potter. This was my trivia game. This is where I was going to shine! Sure enough, Krista and I were the victors of this trivia game, getting every single question right. Since Krista is twenty one, we won a bottle of that fabulous cruise champagne.

Next, Krista and I decided that we were going to play a game of BINGO! There had been many games throughout the cruise, but you could win the most at this one. Therefore, this was the one that we decided to play. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be the best senior citizen because BINGO is my game! We had five games, so that meant five chances to win. Unfortunately a lot of people had shown up for the big game, and we did not win.

After BINGO ended, we headed to the third deck just to chill and watch the water as we sailed along. We wouldn’t have a chance to do that for much longer, so we really took it in. We also talked about all the great times we had on the cruise as well as how we planned on spending our last night. We decided that one thing we must do was go see one of Michael’s shows. Michael was a guitar player on the ship that we were obsessed with after he serenaded us with some One Direction in the main lounge. However, we had never been to one of his little shows that he did. We had only seen him play in passing.

Soon, it was dinner time. After we were all ready, we met outside the Fun Shops for the last raffle of the cruise. None of us won, but like I said we before, we all had our fair share of victories on this cruise. Then Krista, Marlene, Dave, and I lined up for dinner while Paul stayed behind to by some t-shirts that were on sale. When the dinner line started to move. Paul still wasn’t there (Where is Paul?), but he showed up right after we had checked in. All was well, and the gang was back together for our last dinner on the ship.

There were two terrible parts of the last dinner. The first was having the last warm chocolate melting cake! I don’t know how I went years without it, and knowing it will probably be years before I get another one is downright depressing. The other awful part was saying goodbye to our waiters. Zubin was a fabulous man who was always so kind to us, and he always made sure that we got our food quickly. However, he would be nothing without his partner Putra, who was just as kind and awesome!

As per usual, after dinner, we headed to the show. This show was called “Epic Rock.” I was pumped for this show because all week, the staff on the ship was building this show up so much! The show did not disappoint at all! The performers ran through the audience and performed on three different stages. They also did cool stuff with the screen behind the performers. For example, they gave one of the performers wings, made it look like he was moving a ball around, and then made it seem like he crashed a building. It doesn’t sound that impressive, but I promise it was awesome!

Also, if you remember from the first show of the cruise, I thought that one of the dancers looked familiar. During the show, I realized that he looked dead on like the guy that played Voldemort in “A Very Potter Musical.” I was convinced it was him, and Krista agreed with me that it could be him. I mean, a cruise ship performer is a logical job that he could have ended up with. Therefore, we decided to call him Voldey, and we made it our mission to find him and ask if he has played Voldemort.

When the show was over, we decided that we had to see the second one because it was that good! The only negative thing about it was the fact that the show was 45 minutes, which was 15 minutes longer than all the other shows. Normally this would be a good thing. However, becuase of this, we missed Michael’s guitar show, and our cruise was Michael-less (the sadness is real).

We had to get in line almost as soon as the first show had finished in order to get good seats for the second show. Paul was missing again, so we had to save him a seat. When he arrived, he said that he had gone down to our room to get us because, for some reason, he thought we were there. While he was waiting outside, Voldey walked passed and asked Paul if he was headed to the show. PAUL TALKED TO VOLDEY! I was so sad that we weren’t there. However, he had to head back to his cabin eventually, and apparently, he had to pass our room to do this. We held onto hope that we would be lucky later on in the night.

The show was just as good the second time, maybe even better. It was definitely the best show of the cruise, and I would recommend it! Also, they announced that you could get your pictures with the dancers after the show out in the main lounge. This was our chance to ask Voldey if he really was Voldemort!

Krista and I lined up, but as we were waiting, we talked ourselves out of asking him if he was Voldemort. We decided that it might be an offensive question if he wasn’t a Harry Potter fan and only knew that Voldemort was an evil man without a nose… We did get a picture though! Even better, Darnell was the one who took it. We also wanted a picture with Darnell, but that wasn’t the time because they were trying to move people through pretty fast.

We decided to stick around for a while and hopefully catch Darnell after everyone had gotten their pictures. While we were waiting, we decided that we would get our free drinks that we were given at the beginning of the cruise for reaching Gold status and being VIFPs (Very Important Fun People). We also got some entertainment from a child who decided to dance shirtless in one of the glass elevators. Apparently, this was a common occurrence throughout the cruise, but I hadn’t seen it until then. It was pretty fun, and I think that kid has a future as a performer. Unfortunately, while we were watching this, people finished with the pictures, and Darnell booked it out of there without us seeing.

We weren’t willing to give up yet. We decided to head back to our rooms. Here, we saw our towel animal for the evening, our last towel animal. It wasn’t an animal though. It was a heart because Jose loved us, and we loved him! We also decided to keep our door open in hopes that Darnell or Voldey would go back to their rooms. At first, we were being discrete, taking pictures outside our door, but after a while, we just stood in the doorway. We got some strange looks from neighbors, but it was fine.

At 12:00, we started to lose hope. We headed up to the Lido for our last midnight ice cream deciding that if we were meant to see any of the people, we would see them. As we were headed up the stairs, we ran into Guitar Michael! We were so shocked that we didn’t even do anything about it. We failed!

Ice cream fixes all problems though, and we were back to being happy sailors after finishing our cones. We decided to retire for the night. We had spotted all of our people, interacted with two of them, and got a picture with one, so that seemed like a good enough victory to us.

We headed to bed, sad that our cruise had come to an end and dreading the traveling that we had to do the next day. It was a great vacation though, and I couldn’t imagine a last day that was more exciting or fun!

 

Day 10- A Grand Day In Grand Turk

They must have been hard at work making towel animals to cover the entire lido deck!

Krista and me rocking our snorkeling gear.

A poor quality picture, but it was taken from an underwater camera so… But these are some fish and the reef that we snorkeled in in Grand Turk.

Casually holding a stingray and silently freaking out!

It’s not every day that you get a stingray massage.

Chilling with a space dude.

Even though Grad Turk is home to the largest Margaritaville in the world, it was almost impossible to find a spot in the pool!

Got myself into a little bit of trouble in Margaritaville.

What need is there for a shore excursion when there is this beautiful beach right off the dock?

Krista and me with the Sunshine and Breeze.

There is a new beautiful sight to see everywhere you look in Grand Turk!

Grand Turk truly was grand!

Walking back to the boat after your last stop is always the worst part of a cruse!

Our ship, the Carnival Sunshine, was joined by the Carnival Breeze in Grand Turk.

Boarding the ship for the last time.

Sailing away from Grad Turk.

It was terrible to say goodbye to our last island, but all good things must come to an end.

Shirley the swan!

The day of our last port had come, and while I was super excited for a day in Grand Turk, I was beyond sad because I did not want this vacation to come to an end! Cruises are always full of fun and excitement, and I wasn’t ready for that to end.

The morning started out with a surprise. We headed up to the Lido to see the pool area completely covered with towel animals! There were normal sized ones sunbathing in the lounge chairs and chilling around the pool or at the bars. There were also giant crocodiles that were bigger than me! It was super cute, and a good start to the morning. The morning get even better because they had the best hash browns at breakfast! I could have probably eaten five plates of them. SO GOOD!

After finishing breakfast, we met for our shore excursion, “Reef and Rays.” This was the one that Krista had won earlier in the cruise, so it was the best kind of shore excursion, a free one. There were two parts to the excursion. The first was snorkeling in the reefs, and the second was a stingray encounter.

To be honest, the snorkeling part was a little disappointing. There wasn’t much to see, and a lot of the reef seemed dead. We did get to see a barracuda which was pretty cool. Barracudas have a special place in my heart since they were the mascot of a swim team that I swam for for ten years (Cudas for life!). However, I was a little worried that it would get angry and kill me. I think the snorkeling portion would have been better if my mask didn’t keep leaking because stopping to fix your mask every ten minutes gets annoying real quick. It was an old mas though, so it was my fault for not testing it out before the trip. I can’t complain too much either because I didn’t even have to pay for this.

When the allotted time for snorkeling concluded, we all got back on the boat. Well, most of us got back onto the boat… Can you guess who was missing? If you have read any of my past posts, you probably guessed my uncle, Paul, and if you did, you would be right. We literally thought that he was going to get left behind, but he boarded the boat at the last second, his typical fashion.

Then it was off to the stingrays! This is what I was looking forward to the most! We were informed that the only way we could move around was the “stingray shuffle,” which was sliding your feet on the bottom. Otherwise you might step on a ray, and being stung would really put a damper on the vacation.

We got off the boat and started shuffling around. There were stingrays everywhere! There was also a guy that was holding a huge one, and people were lining up to get their picture taken with it. Of course, I wanted to get my picture! It’s not every day that you get to hod a stingray! Not only did I get to hold it, but I also got to kiss it (Supposedly, this is 7 years of good luck) and have a stingray massage (which is actually quite nice)! When I was holding it, I was terrified that it was going to sting me! Then before I kissed it, the guy put the stinger in my face and told me to kiss it. I didn’t know if that was actually safe or not, but I was not willing to take my chances!

After we all got a turn with the huge one, we headed over to a guy that was holding a baby one. We each held it, and Krista and I kissed it. Does that mean we get 14 years of good luck? Then we all got a picture with it. The guy that was holding it was super funny, and he joked about how he was our long lost brother and he was finally home.

Then, sadly, it was time to get back on the boat, and our excursion had come to an end. We still had a long time on the island though, so our next stop was an exhibit for the splashdown of the of the Friendship 7 capsule. This was part of the Mercury Space Program, and it had landed right of the coast of Grad Turk. I though it was a cool piece of history for such a tiny island.  After that, we headed onto shopping.

We stayed in Carnival’s port because there wasn’t really anything outside of it that was close by, and there was plenty to do there. Since Krista and I didn’t have to pay for the shore excursion, we decided that we wanted to buy some tanzanite, a gemstone that they have been saying is going to run out soon for ten years. It still hasn’t…. It’s really pretty though, so we decided to splurge. I got a necklace, and Krista got a ring. After that, we also got some t-shirts.

Then we headed over to Margaritaville, the largest Margaritaville in the world! We were going to go into the pool, but it was so crowded that we decided not to. This was probably due to the fact that we were sharing port with the Carnival Breeze, a much larger ship than ours. We did stand in the gift shop for an hour though as Marlene decided what souvenir she wanted. That was slightly annoying, and because she took so long, we didn’t even have time to get into the ocean.

Instead of going for a swim, we decided to take a walk along the beach. The sand was super hot though, so we struggled, taking breaks to stand in the water regularly. There was a huge whale statue that looked pretty cool, but the sand was so hot that we didn’t even make it. Rough times!

When we got back from our walk, it was time to get back on the ship. This was our last port of call, and I was so sad that this vacation was coming to an end! I was taking in the blue waters and the Caribbean breeze because I had no idea when I would be back again! Also, I would like to take a moment to note that I only got burnt one time the entire cruise, when I was watching the ice carving. This was a huge accomplishment for me and my fair skin.

Even though our time on the island had come to an end, our day was far from over. Our next event was dinner. Dinner was amazing, as always, but it was even better this time because I had the best desert ever! It was called bitter and blanc. It is a bread pudding, that reminded me of a vanilla warm chocolate melting cake. It was a magical experience. I have no words, and I repeat, BEST DESSERT EVER!

Next, we went to the show for that evening. It was the Hasbro Game Show, and it was terrible. I’m normally pretty impressed by the entertainment that the cruise has to offer, but I was not a fan of this. The room was split into two teams. We were on Darnell’s team, so that was a plus. Then they had audience members answer trivia questions to play the games. Our team didn’t win any which just made it even worse than it already was. I would say it’s a definite skip for next time.

Thankfully, the comedian for the night, Tom Foss, saved the entertainment portion of the night. He was very funny, and we went to two of his shows that night.

It was getting late after that, and we were exhausted. Therefore, we headed back to our room where we were greeted by our new towel animal Shirley the Swan. Of course, we had to get some pictures because the towel animals are too cute!

The next day was a day at sea and our last day on board. I couldn’t believe that the cruise was almost over! It was so sad, but we still had one more day of vacation!

Day 9-All I See Is The Sea

Just me and the sea.

Krista by the ocean on our day at sea.

Ocean for miles and miles.

Krista and I with our twinning chicken dinners.

Baked Alaska, a cruise classic!

Darcy the Duck and me before we head off to bed for the night.

The ports of call are not the only exciting parts of a Carnival cruise. On days at sea, you are busy from sunrise to until deep in the evening with all the activities that the ship has to offer. It’s nonstop fun, and the day always goes by super fast! They’re called the “Fun Ships” for a reason!

We started off our day at sea with a walk around the track in an attempt to fight the cruise calories, but it probably didn’t do a lot of good considering we ate so much afterward… oh well. We tried.

After our meal, we went to the morning show. It was a good one because Darnell, the best crew member, was there to provide us with endless laughs. Then, we headed back to the room to change because I was really stupid and forgot to put on deodorant before we walked for thirty minutes in the heat. Don’t worry, I remembered for round two.

Now that I was smelling nice again, it was time to head to the Grand Turk shopping talk with our good pal Gemstone John. He told us all about the shops in the terminal and provided us with special cards for extra special deals.

Then, We headed back down to our room to take a quick nap because there was a gap where nothing that was super interesting to us was going on. While we were in there. Dave came into our room with a bottle of champagne. He had won art trivia! It was cool that he won and all, but there was a running joke that they used the left over champagne that was not given away to clean the ship. Yes, it really was that bad.

After we were all rested, we headed up to the Lido to watch the hairy chest competition, a slightly disturbing but always entertaining cruise classic. Basically, a bunch of middle aged and old men show off their hairy chests and dance around like fools while trying to have some sort of sex appeal. I think it’s because I have seen so many of these that I can’t deal with men that have extremely hairy chests. This hairy chest competition was different because they had guests on the ship be the judge instead of cast members. Not only did they judge, they had to get physically involved. One had to feel them, another had to smell them, and the last had to taste them. I felt so bad for the one that tasted them. I felt like that was too far. I mean no one wants to lick a hairy, sweaty old man. That is just nasty!

Once that finished, we headed back to the Liquid lounge for the Love and Marriage show, another cruise classic that is always a good laugh! However, I would not want to know anyone who participated. They ask some intrusive questions, and there are just some things that you don’t want to know about your loved ones.Since it’s all strangers though, it’s a fine and dandy time! For this show, they get the oldest couple in the audience, a couple that has been married for 20-30 years, and a newlywed couple. The old couple is always hilarious because they don’t hold back the truth. I guess if you’ve been with someone for 60 years, nothing is going to make you leave. I did not like the newlywed couple for this show. They were more annoying than funny, and also, the girl married this guy that her brother hated and begged her not to marry. Not a smart move if you ask me, and I think that just gave me a negative feel toward them.

Seeing as it was another elegant night, we decided that, in order to check into dinner early, we should start getting ready. We also wanted to get pictures before dinner since our last ones were terrible and the lines would be gigantic after. Also, Marlene wanted to go to both of the main shows that night, so there really wouldn’t be time after if she was going to do that.

A miracle occurred, and we all got ready on time! Then we headed out to get our pictures taken at the top of the stairs. It was a cool spot because you could see the ship’s centerpiece behind you. We already had the pose that we wanted planned out, so that went super quick, and then we got in line for dinner.

As usual, dinner was fabulous! We sat in our reguar section, with Zubin, again. That night was really good because they had baked Alaska! I get it every cruise, and it’s one of my very favorite things in this world! This elegant night was a lot less crowded. I think after the horror of the first one, most people were not willing to go back for round two.

After dinner, we headed to the show for that evening, “VIP Show.” It was a return to the singing and dancing type shows, and it was pretty good! The VIPs were just people from the ship that had volunteered early to be in the show.

When the show finished, we rushed to the comedy club where a new comedian on the ship, Michael Macy, was having his first show. He was actually really funny! He was probably my second favorite comedian, right after Dwight Slade.

Then we repeated the VIP show because who doesn’t love a good singing and dancing show? It was just as good the second time, but there was a small incident. In the very corner of the dance floor, someone spilt a drink. Instead of just cleaning up the spill in the corner while the dancers avoided it for a short period of time, they completely stopped the show. Then they cleaned the entire floor… I found that a bit unnecessary, but it is what it is. The show started back up again in about 10 minutes, and everything was good.

The last thing we did that night was go to another one of Michael Macy’s comedy shows, and this was probably the best show on the entire cruise. It was an 18+ show, and it was so good simply because of the people in the front. The first guy that was picked on was asked what he did for a living. He said he was a student, and he played football. However, he didn’t play football. He played football in high school, which he graduated from two years before… Then we turned the focus to the guy’s girlfriend who just so happened to be studying athletic training. Of course, a ton of jokes were made about how it was time for him to let go of the dream.

Next, Michael started talking to a kid in the front and center who was clearly not 18. Why would you sit in the front at a show that you aren’t even supposed to be at? The boy tried to deny that he was under 18, but it was clear when he gave the name of his school (I don’t remember what it was, but it was clearly a high school) that he was still in high school. He really could have picked any college, but alas, his brain had not yet developed enough to think of that.

After that, Michael moved onto another man in the front row. It turned out that he was a teacher at the school that the kid went to, and his son was in the kid’s grade. He was a Junior. If that wasn’t enough, the guy was a special ed teacher at the school, so of course, jokes were made about how he should be looking out for the kid.

It was a hilarious end to a great day, and when we got back to our room, we saw a duck towel animal which we decided to name Darcy. After appreciating Darcy’s duckiness, we headed off to bed because we needed sleep before Grad Turk the next day!

Day 8-Dushi Curacao

The Carnival Sunshine docked in Curacao

This is the Rif Fort, built in 1828, which was originally used in battle, but now it has been converted into a shopping center for tourists.

The bridge that we crossed to get to the main part of the island.

Curacao is not just famous for their blue liquor. These adorable and colorful buildings that line the waterfront are one of their main claims to fame.

When the buildings photographed here were first built, they were all white. However, the governor demanded that the buildings be painted any color but white because the sun reflecting off the white houses gave him headaches. Later, it was discovered that the governor was the owner of the only paint shop on the island. As you probably guessed, he had some ulterior motives.

Marlene, Krista, and me posing inside the letters of Curacao.

Walking all the way out to the outhouse is hard. Therefore, they just made seats into hidden toilets. Genius!

This is the plane that landed in Curacao, and because of this, the island was established.

Can you spot the face in this cave wall?

Caves at Kueba di Hato or Hato Caves.

The caves in Curacao are not your typical caves. You have to hike up a mountain to get inside. Also, inside they are so hot that they have to run fans to keep guest from passing out on tours.

Krista, Uncle Dave, and I at the entrance to the caves.

We drove past dozens of flamingos!

We got to see the process of making and packaging Blue Curacao Liqueur at their plant fabulously named, Chobolobo!

Is it really a family vacation if you don’t have a corny picture like this?

I look really happy, but I’m actually super sad that I have to leave Curacao!

I never wanted to leave Curacao, but all good things must come to an end.

Jose is fabulous and did a great job cleaning the room, but I’m not quite sure what his towel animal was supposed to be that night. It’s cute though, so Aunt Marlene and I got a picture with it!

Bon Bini to Dushi Curacao! Or, as us who speak English would say, welcome to sweet Curacao!

Before booking this cruise, I had never heard of Curacao. To be honest, I didn’t even know how to pronounce the name of the island until I got on the ship and heard the crew members saying it. Therefore, it was fair to say that I was stepping onto this this island without any expectations, and as they say, that is the best way to do things.

Our ship docked early, and we wanted to get off at 8:00am to do some shopping before our shore excursion because we didn’t know how much time we would have afterwards. That meant early rising which everyone who knows me knows I am not a fan of. However, we only had so much time on the island, so I would suffer and rise early in order to get the most out of the island as possible. My uncle, Paul, who also hates mornings, didn’t have the same view as I did, so he decided to sleep in and miss our shopping excursion. Therefore, it was my sister, Krista; my aunt, Marlene; my uncle, Dave; and me headed out onto the island that morning.

Getting up early turned out to be a great thing! Since most people were still asleep, we were able to get some pictures in front of the ship without having a ton of people in the background. There were a few other photo ops on our way to the shops, and we also spotted an iguana, so it was a pretty good start to the day!

To get to the shops, you had to go through a fort called the Rif Fort. We thought it was going to be historical and cool, but were disappointed to find out that it was converted into a bunch of shops. Dave, who is a huge history buff, was really upset, and he decided to break off from the group to find another fort that was farther away instead of going shopping.

After passing through the fort, we ran into a bunch of stands that were set up by the islanders. There were a few cute things, and we kept them in mind for later in case we couldn’t find anything better. The islanders were all very welcoming and kind, making Curacao seem like a very pleasant place to be. On the other side of the stands was a row of adorable colored buildings and a couple bridges. It reminded me of the Caribbean version of Amsterdam, a place that I have always dreamed of visiting, and I fell in love with the island instantly!

Seeing as you had to cross a bridge to get to most of the other shops, we decided that we should head over that way. The bridge that we had to cross was super unique. It floated on the water and was pulled in to let ships past. When the bridge opened up, it stayed open for half an hour, and no one could get on it during that time. Luckily, they had a ferry that would take people across when the bridge wasn’t operating. However, if the bridge was moving, you had to pay for the ferry. That was my understanding anyway. It was all very confusing! Thankfully, we didn’t have to worry about that because right as we arrived, the bridge was just opening up again. On the other side, we got all of our free items from the island as well as some other souvenirs. Then we headed back to the ship because we didn’t want to be carrying around a bunch of bags on our excursion.

When we got back out, we had about 40 minutes before our excursion started. We decided to browse some of the shops in the terminal, and we ended up finding some really cool ornaments that were made entirely from materials from the island. We put them on hold, and then headed back to the dock, where we were meeting for our excursion, “Discover Curacao Island Tour.”

Everyone who has cruised before knows it’s important to meet early for shore excursions because they have tendency to start early, and they will leave without you. Therefore, we were freaking out when it was ten minutes before the excursion was to start, and Paul was nowhere to be found. “Where’s Paul?” once again, became a relevant question. Thankfully, he made it on time, and all was well.

We boarded the bus, and were soon on our way. One of the first things that we did, we drove past their airport. This tour was full of interesting facts, and the first of these came at the airport. America had their own little section on Curacao’s airport, and many times, Air Force One is kept there.

Next, we headed to a museum from the 19th century that used to be a house. Our tour guide also served as our guide for the museum. Everything inside was mahogany, including a chair that was made into a toilet so people wouldn’t have to walk all the way out to the outhouse (a genius invention of you ask me). To the benefit of everyone on the island, they advanced, and indoor plumbing is present in most of their buildings. However, air conditioning is not. This meant that the museum was boiling hot, and if you were lucky enough to stand by a window, you cherished those moments until we moved on.

After finishing up inside, we headed to the back where there was the plane that had landed on the island, a slave house, and a few other pieces of Curacao’s history. Unfortunately, we only had five minutes to look around back here. I wish that we had more time because I know that there were a lot of interesting things that I did not get to see.

The bus ride in between our stops was normally long, but that was ok with me because we got to see a lot of the island, and the tour guide filled us in on a lot of history of the island during our rides. Unlike most of the islands in the area, tourism was not their main industry. They also had a successful oil company that provides many of the natives with jobs and provides a lot of money for the island. Also, the governor when the island was first established was the reason behind all of the colorful buildings that Curacao is now famous for. He claimed that the sun shining off the white buildings gave him headaches, so he demanded that every building be painted a color besides white. It turns out that he also owned the only paint company on the island… convenient. We also got the chance to see some flamingos chilling in the water. There was a baby and everything!

The next stop, my favorite stop on the tour, was Hato Caves. This wasn’t your normal climb down into a cold cave. Instead, you hiked up a mountain to get inside, and it was like walking into Satan’s kitchen. Thankfully, they had fans to keep visitors from passing out. I am personally lover of caves, so any time that I’m in a cave I’m pleased. Once inside, the caves were very similar to ones in the US. Our guide was really good, and he pointed out a lot of cool formations and informed us of many cave facts. There was one part of our cave adventure that I did not enjoy, the bat room. I hate bats, and being in a room where they could swoop down or poop on my head at any moment is basically my worst nightmare! I made it out alive though, and I didn’t even get pooped on!

Our final stop on the tour was the liqueur factory, Choboblobo (What a name!). Curacao’s claim to fame is their blue liqueur, and we were going to get to see where it was made. The distillery was very small, so there wasn’t really that much to see there. Our tour guide also guided us through here, telling us about the different types of liqueur that they produced and how it was made. We did get to see people labeling and bottling the liqueur, so that was pretty cool. Then, those who were 21 or over got the chance to sample three different types of the liqueur. The curse of being 19 strikes again!

After the conclusion of the tour, we still had about 40 minutes before we had to get back on the ship. We decided to head back out by the cute and colorful buildings, also known as Handelskade waterfront, to soak up the sights of Curacao while we still had the chance. Because the ship was going to leave in 40 minutes, and the bridge opened for 30 minutes, we decided that it would be smart not to cross. Well, most of us did. Paul decided that he had to cross. We tried to discourage him, but he never listens, so we just had to hope and pray that he would make it back.

You may be wondering why someone would do something so silly. Well lucky for you, I have an answer. He wanted to get a free Diamonds International charm. You know, the one that he will never wear because he is a boy! He was just being ridiculous, and I still can’t deal. After 20 minutes had passed, we started to worry, and kept asking over and over “Where’s Paul?” Thankfully, he came back when we still had about fifteen minutes, and we made it on the ship in plenty of time.

I was not ready to leave Curacao. It took less than a day for me to fall in love with the place and know that I never wanted to leave! As we were getting ready for dinner, we paused to watch the boat pull away from the island and wave our final goodbye to Curacao. I made myself a promise that I would come back to the island some day to see all the things that I didn’t get to see because it was a beautiful island filled with welcoming people, interesting history, and rich culture. What else could you ask for?

That night, we were reunited with out waiter Zubin, not having time to make it to the dinning room the night before, and he was very happy to see us again! If you didn’t read my last posts, you don’t know that I actually love Zubin! He is a great man, and super funny! I wish he was my dad (sorry Dad!). He told us all about his family and showed us pictures of his daughters. He was working on the ship so he could make sure that his daughters would get to go to college which I thought was really cool because everyone deserves the chance to get an education.

The entertainment for the night was a hypnotist named Rich Guzzi. I had seen a few hypnotist shows at my after proms, and I was worried because this started out the exact same way. People volunteered to go up on stage. Then, to test to see who was hypnotized, he told people that it was hot, then it was cold, and then they were licking an ice cream come that was melting fast. After that, the similarities ended. He went with the cruise theme and had people act as if they were doing different events that you would do on a cruise. It was very funny and very entertaining.

After the show, we decided to head up to the Lido where we all split a grilled cheese. That is family bonding right there! While we were enjoying our grilled cheese. We spotted a man that was hypnotized during the show. We talked to him for a little bit about it. He said that he remembered the instructions, but he didn’t remember actually doing anything. Then we let him get back to his family and headed back to our cabin.

Once we were there, we saw Jose’s latest towel animal. Sadly, we didn’t name this one because we didn’t know what it was… We still loved it anyway, and we still loved Jose!

Bed was calling our names after two days on islands back to back. However, we would have a chance to rest on our day at sea the next day. Then it was our final stop Grand Turk. It seemed like the cruise had just started, but it was already almost over.

Day 7-Aruba, Jamaica Oh I Wanna Take Ya

This is the rock formation that we climbed to have a view of the island of Aruba. Thankfully we made it down before it started pouring rain!

You could see for miles from the top of this rock in Aruba due to the fact that the island is very flat. The mountain pictured here is the only significant one on the otherwise flat island.

The water that is photographed here, on the North side of Aruba, is very rough. Therefore, tourist who come for the beaches normally stick to the south side of the island.

It is tradition for people to stack smaller rocks on top of larger rocks and make a wish. Therefore, there are a ton of rock piles by the Natural Bridge in Aruba. I hope that my wish comes true!

The Natural Bridge that used to stand here collapsed, but a smaller one still stands. My sister was cool enough to take my picture standing on it!

Krista and me in front of the California Lighthouse

This beach was one of the prettiest beaches that I have ever been to!

Does sand get any whiter and water any more clear than it does in Aruba?

The streets of Aruba get busy as night life is about to pick up.

I wish that a picture could capture the beauty of this Aruban sunset!

Darnell caught us creepin!

Bernice the Bunny!

Day three on the ship was our first day in port, and it was the island that I was looking forward to visiting the most, Aruba! We weren’t docking until later in the day, so we had the rare privilege of sleeping in on the ship!

After having another delicious breakfast, Krista, Marlene, and I decided to catch the end of the “Morning Show” in hopes that Darnell, the best employee that Carnival has ever hired, would make another appearance. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there. I don’t know what he was up to that morning, but he was missed! When the show concluded, we headed back up to the Lido for lunch, and then we went back to our staterooms to get ready for Aruba!

We had been on the ship for three days now, and I had gotten so used to it, that I forgot that the whole point of the cruise was to visit these ports! I was ready to stretch my land legs again and discover what amazing things Aruba had to offer!

Before being let out onto the island, all the tour groups met in the dining room. The wait seemed to last forever, but we got amusement from the most adorable baby that the world has ever seen! We hoped that he would be in the same group as us, and the gods must have smiled upon us because when our group was called, the family with the baby got up too! Oh, the joy!

We headed off the ship, and were let off into a mall type thing with a ton of gift shops. We had no time to shop though because we had to get onto our bus! As we headed outside, we saw our designated bus pulling away. We had a slight moment of panic before realizing that there was another bus that was going to take us. Once on board, we didn’t have to wait long until our excursion, “Best of Aruba and Beach,” began.

Our first stop was the Casibari Rock Formation. It’s basically just a huge pile of rocks with a cool garden at the bottom filled with all sorts of cacti. Before getting off the bus, our driver told us that this was the only stop with a free restroom. At all the other stops, you would have to pay. We decided that we would hit up the bathrooms after we were done enjoying our view from the top of the rocks. After looking around the garden for a little bit, we decided that it was time to climb the rocks. We were wearing flip flops, not the best shoe choice for this particular activity, but we were willing to make it work. After climbing the sketchiest stair case in existence, we safely made it to the top of the rock formation! Up there, you could see miles and miles of Aruba due to the fact that it is so flat.

From the top of Casibari, my view of Aruba completely changed. I expected it to be a luxurious destination, inhabited by the richest of people, but that was not the case at all. I was socked to see how poor most of the island was. The houses were run down, lacked air conditioning, and were surrounded by fences made out of cacti or rocks because they could not afford to purchase the fences that we are used to seeing in America. It was clear that the island was very dependent on tourist and only a small portion of the island was developed for tourism. This is the area that most of us think of when we think of Aruba, expensive hotels, designer stores, and fabulous beaches.

Another thing that surprised me about Aruba was the size. I knew it was small, but we could see almost all of the island from the top of Casibari. Also, we drove around the whole island on our tour, and it was only a few hours long. I cannot imagine living in a place that small my entire life!

It was getting close to our allotted time at this stop, so we decided to head back to the bottom, Thankfully, we found some much less sketchy stairs for our dissent. After we reached the bottom, we took a few pictures in the garden. Then, out of nowhere, a torrential downpour started. There was no warning drizzle! Thankfully, the bus was not parked far away, so we didn’t have to brave the storm for long, and having our swimsuits on under our clothes wasn’t a bad thing either. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to pee though… That meant I would be holding it for a while because I refused to pay! Why would you make someone pay for a bathroom? That s just cruel!

Our next stop was the Baby Natural Bridge. Unfortunately, the real Natural Bridge had collapsed. However, the baby one was still pretty cool. The view was beautiful. It literally looked like something off of a postcard! Also, they started a really cool tradition there. People stacked rocks, each one smaller than the last, on top of each other. As you stacked the rock, you made a wish, and it was supposed to come true. I would tell you my wish, but then it won’t come true. I’m still waiting for it to come true!

Our next stop was the California Lighthouse. As soon as we got off the bus, there was a man chopping up coconuts and giving away coconut milk, and this gave it a very islandy feel. The lighthouse was cool and everything, but I didn’t really know any of the history behind it, and there was noting there to tell you about it. Therefore, it was just a light house to me. However, there was a really cool overlook that let you see a lot of Aruba that was definitely worth seeing.

After the lighthouse, we left the rougher North Side of the island and headed to the nice, beachy and commercialized South Side. They drove us past their airport and all their expensive hotels, and you could tell that they were really pushing for us to come back. That is not likely for me considering one of their hotels costed $825 a night. Who has that kind of money?

Finally, we arrived at the beach. Like all beaches in Aruba, it was a public beach. Therefore, we were a little worried about our stuff, and we made sure that someone was with it at all times. Also, they tried to charge us $5 for chairs. We were not about that, so we just used a table but not the chairs. Cheating the system! Now, I know that I sound like I’m bashing this beach, but honestly, that is not my intention! The sand was white, and the water was a clear, crystal blue. I have never been to a prettier beach in all my life! Also, the weather decided to be our friend, and the sun finally came out for our time at the beach. Another plus side to the ocean is that you can use it as a free bathroom, which is apparently a rare occurrence in Aruba, and after hours of holding it, I was finally able to pee! The beach also had a lot of really cool shells, so we spent some time looking for shells to take with us.

The beach was our last stop, and, sadly, the tour had come to an end. We had the option of getting dropped off downtown or at the ship. Obviously, we chose downtown to get some shopping done! We hit up all the freebies on the island, including a dolphin charm from Diamonds International that I had wanted since I was little, but my mom said that I would probably never get it. Take that Mom! Then, we decided to get a t-shirt. We went into a few shops that were pretty much dead. then we went to one store that was pretty much full. That was because this store gave you the best deals. You had to bargain with the workers to get the price down, which is a skill that I am pretty good at. We ended up getting three shirts, a hat, and two bracelets for $40. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Krista and I had finished our shopping, but we decided to walk around with our aunt and uncles until they were finished. As we were shopping, the sun tarted to set. It was so pretty! With the island shops, sand over everything we owned, reggae music, and the setting sun, it truly felt like an island paradise. I never wanted to leave, but I also didn’t want to be stranded on an island with only expensive hotels. Therefore, I thought it best to get back onto the ship.

We headed back to the dock, making a quick stop in a zone that we were not supposed to be in to get some pictures of the sunset… oops. Then we got in line to get back on the ship. The line wasn’t moving, and it started to rain again. Thankfully, we were under shelter, and we also had a view of why the line wasn’t moving. All the workers had abandoned their stations to take care of a kid who had a little bit too much to drink. He couldn’t stand, and he was puking everywhere. Workers were running crazy looking for a wheelchair, trying to support the kid, and cleaning up his vomit. Tip: Just because you legal in a foreign country and not home doesn’t mean you should go that crazy. Poor kid probably doesn’t even remember half of his time in Aruba.

Thankfully, after that incident was taken care of, the line started to move again. Once we were back on the ship, we headed straight up to the Lido. We hadn’t eaten all day, so we were starving. Then, we headed back to the room to get changed for the show that evening.

That night’s show was a magic act. The magician was Bobby Borgia. He was really good, and he interacted with the audience a lot. I had no idea how he did any of tricks, so I was impressed. His main thing was card tricks, which are normally pretty easy to figure out, so I was shocked that he got by with all of them. I would definitely go see him again!

When the show ended, we headed to the deck on the third floor to watch Aruba fade into the distance. You could see the entire island lit up for the night, and you could see just how small it really was. It was a bitter sweet moment. The view was so pretty, and I just wanted to take it in. However, I knew that the chances of me ever returning were slim, and that’s just a depressing thing to think about.

After we had left Aruba behind, we headed back inside, surprised to see that there was a large group of people gathered in the main lounge. A Mardi Gras party was in full swing. Beads were being thrown everywhere, and our favorite staff member, Darnell, was all decked out in Mardi Gras attire. I ended up catching a strand of beads before the party moved to the Liquid Lounge. We decided to follow because why not?

Darnell was trying to get the party going, but the crowd was just not feeling dancing I guess. The DJ put on the “Cupid Shuffle,” and that got a few people, including my aunt Marlene, on the floor. Darnell was pumped that he was finally not alone, so he decided to dub this group as his “party people,” and he gave them all some beads. Marlene was very pleased that she got this title, and reminded Krista and I that she was a “party person” every chance that she got.

With that fabulous ending to the day, we all decided to head to our rooms. There, we saw our cabin stewards latest creation, Bernice the Bunny! Curacao was the next stop, and we would be getting there the next morning, That meant that we did not have a day at sea to recover from our busy day, so it was off to bed. No one wants to be tired and cranky on an island paradise!

Day 6-Walking on Sunshine

Krista and me, enjoying a beautiful Caribbean sunrise.

The sun had almost risen at this point, but I still managed to get a decent picture.

An ice carver hard at work.

The finished product, an Indian Chief!

Exploring the ship is always the one the best ways to spend a day a sea.

All we see is the sea.

They put the name of the ship on all the benches, just in case your forgot.

Just walking on Sunshine

Classic picture outside the room before we head to dinner.

The dining staff sure know how to put on a show!

Twinning with our cheesecakes!

I got a quick picture with Darnell before getting ready for bed.

Caribbean sunrises are some of the most beautiful sights in the world! Therefore, it was a necessity to get up early in the morning to see at least one sunrise. We didn’t choose the best day though. It was too cloudy and misty, so it was hard to see anything. It was still pretty though, and definitely worth waking up for.

After enjoying the sunset, we stuck to our promise to walk on the days at sea and headed up to the track. We had beaten the crowd, which was good, but were attacked by the wind and blinded by the rising sun, which was not good. We powered through though, and we walked for 45 minutes before heading down to a well deserved breakfast. Unfortunately, we were too early for breakfast, and it wasn’t open yet. That just meant that we were the first ones in line for omelettes and we got good seats, a win in my book.

Once we were full, we decided to head back to the cabin and get some sleep. Nothing was going on yet because it was so early, and on a cruise, sleep is precious, and you have to seize every opportunity possible for it.

When we woke up, nothing in the “Fun Times,” a nice little news letter that carnival provides with all the activities for the day in it, peaked our interest. To pass the time, we headed to the Liquid Lounge for the “Morning Show.” This was one of the best decisions that we made on the entire cruise. It was here that we were introduced to a member of the entertainment staff named Darnell. He is one of those people who are really just out there, and you never have an idea of what sort of crazy and hilarious thing they are going to do next. After the show, Marlene, Krista, and I were in love with Darnell’s hilarious antics, and we couldn’t wait to attend another event that he would be present at!

Following the “Morning Show,” we joined our old friend, Gemstone John, for a diamond and gemstone seminar. I didn’t really plan on buying any fine jewelry while on this vacation, but you know what they say… Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and I can dream can’t I? I learned a lot at his seminar, and when I’m financially stable or have a significant other that is, I know what I want! When his seminar concluded, we headed to the Fun Shops for a raffle, but there were no winners for our gang this time.

Then, it was time for a cruise classic, the ice carving demonstration! It’s always so amazing to watch these artists turn a block of ice into a beautiful sculpture. It’s unfortunate for them that their work doesn’t last though. We had the best spot to see it. The only people who were in front of us were children, so we could see everything that was going on perfectly! Obviously, it takes a while to turn a block of ice into a piece of art, so they provided us with some entertainment while we waited. Tyler Ryan, our cruise director, was going around the crowd and getting people to rap the Fresh Prince Rap. Some people were really good, and others were not… Either way, it was entertaining. The rapping was paused occasionally in order to make a few guesses as to what the ice carving would end up being. In the end, as many people guessed, it as an Indian Chief.

I wanted to get a picture of the ice carving when it was finished, but the children had swarmed and wanted to touch it. Why? I don’t know. It feels the same way as an ice cube, hard, wet and cold. Alas, the children did not understand this concept, so I had to wait until they lost interest. As I was waiting, the man who had made the ice sculpture came up to me and asked the time. He then told me that it was his first time doing it in front of a crowd, and he was really nervous and worried that he was taking too long. For a first timer, he did a really good job! It took him about a half an hour, a little bit longer than usual, but not bad. However, I did get my first burn from the vacation watching him. To make it even worse, it was only one shoulder, so I really just looked ridiculous. It would be cardigans for me for a while.

After the ice carving, we quickly ate lunch because there were a lot of people looking for seats, and we did not want to take up seats for any longer than we had to. There was nothing that seemed very interesting going on. Therefore Krista and I decided that we would explore the ship some. This was probably a good idea considering we still got lost just about any time we tried to get somewhere with the exception of the Lido deck. I could navigate that place like a boss.

Starting on the third floor, since the first two were just cabins, Krista and I made our way around the ship, all the way up to the highest deck. There wasn’t anything that new or great on the Sunshine that we hadn’t seen on other ships (I’m sorry! That is the spoiled child in me coming out again). Therefore, we headed back to the third floor where there was a deck with some lounge chairs, and you got a great view of the ocean. We were just relaxing when my aunt Marlene appeared, and we decided to have a photo shoot because where else are you going to get such a nice ocean background?

When we got more than enough pictures to fill our heart’s desire, we headed down to the cabin to get ready for dinner. That night, we got ready quickly, so Krista and I decided to head up to the fifth floor, conveniently right by where we checked in for dinner, for Disney Trivia. Fun fact about me, I am the biggest Disney nerd there is! I am obsessed! Unfortunately, we were late, and by the time we got there, they only had two questions left (I knew the answers to both by the way). It was fine though because we got to see the best part! Darnell, who was running the trivia session, started to play “Let it Go” over the speakers. Then he disappeared for a few seconds and came back with Frozen socks, a cape, and a tiara. He then proceeded to sing the song as he weaved through the audience, and he followed around the poor workers who were just trying to do their job and obviously were not about Darnell at that moment. I feel horrible that I got such great amounts of entertainment from their discomfort, but come on, how could you not find that funny?!

After trivia had concluded, Krista and I joined the rest of our family in line for dinner. We decided to get there right at 5:00, in hopes that the tragedy from the night before would not be repeated. Also, because our waiter from the previous night was so bad, we decided to see if we could request our waiter from the first night, Zubin (WE LOVE ZUBIN!). The workers were really nice, and they made sure that we would get a spot in Zubin’s section, and we got seated right away.

Zubin was so happy to see us and to hear that we had requested to be in his section. He started to call us his “beautiful family,” and he even did some magic tricks for us before we ordered! That night, they started doing dining entertainment. Basically, the dining staff gets up and does some dances, inviting whoever wants to join in to come dance with them. It’s always a good time, and it’s always entertaining! After the entertainment came the desserts, another thing that is always a good time. That night, we all got cheesecake, and it was so delicious that words can not even describe!

When we finished dessert, we headed straight to the comedy lounge. The comedian for the night was Allyn Ball, a very scary looking bald guy with a blue goatee, who tells a lot of jokes about how he hates children. Since I kind of like children, I didn’t find him as funny as Dwight, but he still made me laugh, and I enjoyed his show.

After Allyn finished his show, we headed to the Liquid Lounge for the main show that night, “Latin Nights.” It was just ok. The dancing was really good, but I didn’t feel that the songs were suited to the singers voices as much as they were the previous night. I may also be bias because I didn’t know any of the songs, and it’s normally more enjoyable when you are listening to songs that you know.

Like most of the nights have been on the Sunshine, this one was hectic too, right after the show, we booked it back to the opposite end of the ship for Allyn’s other show. We were lucky enough to get seats again, which was nice because the water was particularly rough that night, and the boat was really rocking!

Allyn’s second show was not as good. It was called “Opinionated,” and that was a very fitting title. It wasn’t so much a comedy act as it was a chance for him to tell you his views on controversial issues with a few jokes thrown in here and there. I believe there is a time and place to talk about these issues, but I don’t want to be bothered with thinking about such things while I’m trying to have fun on vacation, especially when I signed up to laugh at a comedy show.

It was getting late at this point, and we would arrive at our first port of call, Aruba, the next day. Therefore, we knew we should be headed to bed soon, but before we retired for the night Krista and I headed up to the Lido to get some ice cream. I mean, you would be a fool not to take advantage of 24 hour ice cream at 1:00am, and I am no fool!

After, satisfying our ice cream craving, it really was time to go to bed, so we headed back to our cabin. There, the best cabin steward ever, Jose, left us a dog towel animal, which we named after our new favorite human, Darnell. We went to bed filled with excitement because the next day in Aruba was sure to be the most exciting day yet!

Day 5-It’s My Lucky Day

The family (Paul, Dave, Marlene, Krista, and I) posing for a picture before the first elegant night.

Krista with some alligator fritters. You have to try some new food whenever you go on a cruise!

I always get the lobster because a cruise is the only time I can afford it.

Krista and me waiting to get into the show for the night. You can see part of the ship’s center piece in the background.

Me posing with our new pet Eleanor!

Seaside Cinemas presents “The Fault in our Stars.”

Did you know that the average person gains about 10 pounds on a seven day cruise? This was an eight day cruise… It’s like the freshman fifteen but worse! Krista, Marlene, and I were not willing to put on cruise weight so easily, so we devised a workout plan. Every day at sea, we would walk for at least 30 minutes on the track, and we would only take the stairs; no pretty glass elevators for us. It would be worth it though.

We woke up around sunrise, missing the prettiest part, and took our walk around the track. We wanted to go early because we knew that it got full later on in the day, and we didn’t want to get in the way of people who were actually trying to run and stay fit. We had some good chats walking around the track. Then we headed down to breakfast to undo all the good that we had just done.

Cruise breakfast is the best kind of breakfast. They have eggs prepared any way you could imagine, large varieties of fruits, every type of cereal known to man, waffles, pancakes, and potato squares that are to die for! I would literally die for a plate of those potatoes right about now! Also, every morning they had this fancy guava cocktail that brought so much joy into my day! If you can’t tell, I’m a breakfast person.

At breakfast, we met up with the uncles, Dave and Paul. Then, the five of us headed down to book our shore excursions. We got the tours that we wanted for Aruba and Grand Turk, but the Curacao tour was full. They said that they would most likely be adding another one due to popular demand and they would add us to the waiting list.

With business out of the way, we could get onto the “Fun” part of the “Fun Day at Sea!” Our first stop was a talk about shore excursions, in the Liquid Lounge. I know what you’re thinking, Nicole, you just booked your shore excursions. Why are you there? Well… It was an accident. We thought that it was going to a talk about shopping on the islands, but we got our times mixed up. This was a lucky mistake though because at the end, they raffled off shore excursions, and guess who won one! My sister! That was great for her, but it was also great for me because it was a ticket for two. Therefore, I got out of paying for a shore excursion. Unlucky for us, our excursion was called “See and Sea Curacao,” and it consisted of going on a submarine that would make Marlene sea sick. However, luck was back on our side because everyone who won didn’t want the excursion that they got, so we traded and got “Reef and Rays,” in Grand Turk, the same excursion that we had signed up for earlier. All we had to do was show them our ticket and get a refund!

After that win, the girls stayed in the Liquid Lounge for the reason that we were there in the first place, the shopping talk, and the boys went off to do their own thing. Being a cruise veteran, I knew that the shopping talks were the places where they always gave away some really nice stuff. I have been to so many that I could probably present one myself. Gemstone John came out to talk about the stores on the island that pay Carnival to sponsor them, so they are all expensive and out of my budget. However, he also told us about all the free things that you can get on the island, and free is where I live. My Diamond International charm bracelet is full of cute charms, and I didn’t pay a single penny for the bracelet or charms (unless you count the money that I payed to get on the ship. In that case, it costed thousands). At the end, they did raffles, and this time, luck smiled on me! I won a gold and silver heart necklace with a diamond in the middle. It’s super cute, and I’ve already gotten some use out of it!

Next, we headed to another raffle, hoping that we would be lucky again. Unfortunately we weren’t, but before we knew that we had to listen to a man talk about Alexandrite and how it’s the “rarest gemstone on earth” and “only one in 10,000 people have see it.” That’s all well and good, but I’m not going to be able to afford Alexandrite any time soon, and I don’t need to listen you repeat the same things about it over and over for thirty minutes. At least I’m one in 10,000 now!

By this time, it had been a full three hours since we had a meal, so the five of us met up on the Lido for lunch. After eating our body weights in fish, chicken, pasta, and macaroni egg rolls (they are a thing, and they are delicious), we headed down to the shore excursion desk to get our refund. While we were there, they informed us that we got onto the excursion in Curacao that we were wait listed for. This really was our day!

Just to add to the joy, there was a cute guitar player serenading us as we waited in line. He even played “Story of my Life.” Cute boys who sing One Direction songs to me are my kind of boys. That was the beginning of my obsession with the guitar players on the ship. Michael, who sings One Direction songs, was my favorite. Tim was probably better than Michael, but he never sang me One Direction so…

To add to the excitement, it was the first Elegant Night. Everyone gets dressed up in formal attire for dinner, and there are people everywhere ready to take your picture because they know you are looking fire! Looking fabulous takes time though, especially when it’s three girls in a small room. Therefore, Krista, Marlene, and I decided to head back and start getting ready for dinner.

Once we were all dressed to the nines, the five of us met in our room, and we had a pre-dinner cocktail party. Then, around 6:00, we headed up to dinner. Big mistake! When you choose your own dining time, they start to let people in at 5:00. By 6:00, it was a mad house! We had to wait 30 minutes to get our seats, and once we were seated, it took forever to get our food. This guy was not as efficient as our previous waiter, Zubin. Our total time in the dinning room was over two hours. I understand that they have a lot to do, and there are a lot of people on elegant nights, but this was ridiculously slow. At least I had the ocean view!

Luckily, the food made up for the terrible service. Majority of us decided to expend our palates by trying alligator fritters. They were delicious! Then, I got the lobster because I am a huge seafood fan, but I can never afford the lobster. Therefore, every time I go on a cruise, I treat myself to the lobster. The price of food is standard in and included in the overall price, so I might as well go big!

When we were full, we headed to get our pictures taken. Our photographer, like most people on the ship, was very confused about our family dynamic. The adults were siblings, Krista and I are siblings, but none of the adults are our parents… confusing! Because the photographer did not understand that Marlene and Dave were brother and sister, not married, he got mad when they wouldn’t do the romantic poses he wanted. He was very angry and only took one group picture. However, Krista and I got some together, and he loved us! Probably because he understood that we were sisters and could work with that.

Lastly, it was time for the entertainment portion of the night. The main show was a show called “Motor City.” It was filled with singing and dancing to Motown. I loved it because Motown is my jam! Also, the dancers and singers were all really talented! One of the dancers, Brett, looked strangely familiar, but I had no idea why. I was sure that I was just imagining it or that he looked like a combination of people that I know, and I just couldn’t put my finger on it at the time.  I decided to move on and hope that it would come to me later.

When the show finished, we rushed out to make it into the comedy show. Somehow, a miracle occurred, and  we managed to get seats in the tiny room. It was Dwight Slade again, so we were pumped! However, he got his shows mixed up, and halfway through, he started to do the one from the previous night. However, it was still good because there were different people in the front for him to make fun of, and the jokes were still funny the second time around.

After the show ended, we headed back to our room to see that Jose had left us an adorable elephant. We decided, since we named the last towel animal, it was only fair that we name all the towel animals. We didn’t want to go with the classic Ellie, so we decided to go with the more original option of Eleanor.

Krista and I were not tired, so we decided to head up to Lido where they were playing, The Fault in Our Stars, on the huge screen that they called, Poolside Cinema. While watching, we decided to take advantage of the 24 hour ice cream (always a good decision in my opinion). When the movie ended, we headed back to our room to get some sleep and prep for the next day, another day at sea.

Day 4-Setting Sail

The first of many MANY meals on the Sunshine! Yes, the plates really did need to be that large because I ate all the food!

We found a great spot to watch the ship leave dock. No one was there, so we had the entire space to ourselves!

There was a dark cloud behind us, making it seem like we weren’t exactly sailing off into an island paradise, but luckily, we dodged the rain.

Just chilling in some super comfy chairs with my sister.

My uncles, aunt, and I enjoying the view as the boat pulled away from the dock.

First meal in the dinning room=delicious!

Is it really a cruise if you don’t have warm chocolate melting cake? No. No it is not.

The Liquid Lounge, where all the shows were performed and many events were held throughout the cruise. The chairs moved on the floor, and it often turned into a club.

This is not the best picture but you can at least get some idea of the impractical setup of the Punchliner Comedy Club. I spent many nights in here, and all the comedians were great!

A dinosaur named Dorthy, the first of many towel animals to come. Yes, we named them all because we are children!

The day you board your cruise ship is always exciting. You know that you’re about to have one of the best weeks of your life! You’ll get to try new foods, meet new people, and go places that you never dreamed of going. However, many people forget about what a headache getting onto the ship really is. Parking is outrageous, but the lines once you get inside are even worse! Since we are not first time cruisers, my family and I avoided making all the rookie mistakes. We got up at the crack of dawn to pack up our car and make our hour long drive to Port Canaveral, where we would board our ship. The morning didn’t exactly go very smooth though.

If you read my last post, you may be wondering what we decided to do with all the things that got wet on the beach from the rain. Well, we just put it all in bags and hoped for the best. There was also another issue. Our wonderful chocolates that we purchased from the Whetstone Chocolate Factory could not be taken on the ship with us. We just had to hope and pray that they wouldn’t melt in my uncles’s cooler during our eight day absence. Good thing we visited that church!

We decided to not use the parking that carnival suggests and use a company that was associated with the Radisson Hotels. It was much cheaper. We left our car there for about $35 total, where the Carnival lots were $100 (or something ridiculous like that). Getting the bus there was pretty smooth, except for the point where we almost missed the bus because Paul forgot one of his suitcases and took forever to retrieve it. “Where’s Paul?” That was a question that definitely did not die in St. Augustine.

We made it on the bus though, and soon we were in the back of one of the longest lines ever to get onto our ship, the Carnival Sunshine. Luckily, the line moved quickly, and soon, we were getting our passports ready. When we got to the front of the line, there was a slight hiccup. Apparently, my passport said that I needed a parent to travel out of the country. Odd because at the time, I was nineteen. I was legal and could leave if I wanted. Since I was obviously over eighteen, the lady just let me go. We had to go to many different lines, and the process still confuses me. What also confused me was why, even though we knew we would need them again, Paul kept putting away his papers and important documents. That really slowed us down because every time we had to wait for him, at least five groups passed us.

After countless lines, we finally reached the point where you’re about the board and they take your picture. After being on a few cruises, I never really feel like I’m there until I get my picture taken by some random guy with a camera.

Boarding the ship is always fun, you immediately enter the main lounge, see the glass elevators traveling up and down, and marvel at the centerpiece of the ship. Can you guess what the centerpiece on the Sunshine is? A sun! Creative genius right there! In all seriousness, it was pretty, and there were some silver balls hanging down giving it an artsy vibe. You aren’t allowed to go to your rooms because they are still flipping the ship from the last voyage. However, the lido deck, aka food heaven, is open and available to all. Sounds pretty good, right? Wrong! The Lido is always crowded on boarding day because literally everyone is there. If you find a seat, you’re lucky. Also, I don’t mean to be complaining, but the Sunshine was constructed very poorly. The isles are narrow which is not ideal when hundreds of people are trying to travel these paths at the same time.

After we finished our meal, we decided to find a place to watch the ship leave port. We headed to the back of the ship which turned out to be a really good idea because there were only a couple other groups back there, and we basically had the entire pace to ourselves. There were also some fancy chairs under umbrellas so we could watch from the shade, a ginger’s dream come true!

Finally, it was time to enter our rooms. Our room was Krista, Marlene, and myself. Being the youngest, I got stuck in the top bunk of the bunk bed. But, hey, I was on a cruise ship so life really wasn’t that bad. Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet, so it was good that we all decided to pack a nicer outfit in our carry on bags for the first dinner. We all got dressed and then headed up to the shore excursion desk to ask some questions and get the list of excursions with their descriptions. We didn’t spend that much time there because we had to get to dinner soon.

Dinner time was approaching, but for the first time, we did not have a set dinner time of the ship. We had the “Your Time Dining.” This was different from my past cruise experiences where I typically had the first seating. We got there early, as we heard people suggesting that this was the best plan for that type of dinning. However, disaster struck when we had the realization that Marlene had lost her camera! Instead of getting in line, we ran around to every place that we had been on the ship in search for the missing camera! Thankfully, we found it at the shore excursions desk. Then we headed back up to dinner.

We got seated right away and were quickly greeted by our waiter for the evening, Zubin. He was very efficient and seemed like he wanted to get us out quickly so the next group could come in. This was not the typical cruise dinning that I was used to. I always enjoyed forming bonds with the waiters and waitresses, and I loved how they new my name and were always excited when they saw me around the ship. I realized that this would not be the case with this new type of dinning, and I excepted it, not willing to let it ruin my dining experience.

The best part of the dinner though was dessert. We have a saying in our family that goes, “It’s not a cruise until I’ve had some warm chocolate melting cake.” Warm chocolate melting cake may be the best thing on this entire planet. The only problem with them is that every one comes out different. I personally like mine with more cake than meltyness, but everyone had their own preference. Luckily, each person in my family likes their’s differently. Therefore, we can normally switch them around until everyone gets one that they’re happy with. This is a scene that always confuses the waiters and first. They ask us what’s wrong and try to bring us new ones. Eventually they just accept our strange ways and carry on with their business. We wanted to make it to the early showtime, so we quickly finished our warm chocolate melting cake and left Zubin and the gang to wait on their next group of guests.

The shows were held in the Liquid Lounge. It was quite the interesting lounge. Due to the strange lighting, the only colors that seemed to exist were blue, orange, white, and black. Also, the floor seats were terrible and the other seats were either too far to the side or had parts of the stage blocked by a pole. I know I sound like a complete brat complaining so much about the setup of my cruise ship, but they had just done a multi-million dollar redesign of this ship. I was just expecting it to be really good. I promise that I’m almost done complaining about my first world problems though!

At the show that evening, we were introduced to our cruise director, Tyler Ryan. He had an air of sketchiness about him, but I really think that just come from his eyebrows… I don’t really know. He seemed like a nice enough guy who really enjoyed the art of selfie.

Tyler explained how the show that night would be sampling of what was to come on the cruise. First up were the comedians. Dwight Slade was the best. His jokes were funny but not too distasteful, and he had me laughing the entire time he was on stage! He was followed by another comedian and then a song and dance number. It wasn’t the best show ever, but it was enough to keep me entertained.

Because we loved Dwight so much, we all decided to go see his show that night in the Punchliner Comedy Club. This one single room is the most ridiculous set up for a room ever! Everyone knows that the comedians are a popular attraction on ships, so it wold be a smart thing to make the comedy lounge large. Correct? Carnival didn’t think so. This room was so small, and half of the seats didn’t even have a view of the stage. The seats were literally behind the stage, and no it wasn’t one of those circular stages where that is ok. You had to watch the comedians on TV. I’m sorry, but I can do that at home. I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Every comedian made a joke about the stupidity of the room’s set up. Also, most people had to stand because there were not enough seats, and every show, people were sent away. That should not be a thing. Now that I have that off my chest, I’m ready to stop complaining about the horrible setup of the Carnival Sunshine and move on with my life.

The conclusion of the comedy show went hand in hand with the conclusion of our first day on board. We headed back to our room where Jose, our wonderful cabin steward, had made up our room for the night and made us a cute little dinosaur towel animal. We decided to name it Dorthy after the dinosaur on “The Wiggles” because  childhood. Also, inanimate objects are better when they have names!

All in all, the first day on board was a success! I went to bed that night full of joy, excitedly awaiting all the fun and memories that this cruise would bring.