Christmas Cruise- Part I- The outline

Many of you know that the whole family went away on a cruise for Christmas this past year. It was a response to our long standing discussions to doing something different for Christmas, as well as wanting to create some very good memories for what we thought might be a difficult holiday season for us. So we booked an eight day cruise to Mexico that covered both Christmas and New Year's eve on a Carnival ship. We flew to San Diego the day before we embarked, stayed at a really lovely boutique hotel, and then were met by the rest of our party on the 24th.


I had never been on a cruise before and was stunned by the sheer volume of people and their luggage all streaming onto the pier and trying to get through the whole process at the same time. To give them credit, Carnival has done this for a number of years, and it all has a point and purpose, but it seemed a bit like a cattle drive to some of us. Once we passed security, we obtained our cards (these acted like credit cards, room keys and general ID to get on and off the boat), posed for a photograph and launched up the stairs to find our rooms. Because we had booked early, we all had cabins with balconies and close to each other. We unpacked quickly, started to roam around the boat to get familiar with our home for the next 8 days, and set sail withing 2 hours or so of boarding. Too soon, it was already time for our first dinner.

Let me tell you of our dining experiences. We had pre-selected the first seating since we thought it might be more convenient with my nephew. Our servers, who were with us every night, helped us make the dining experience very pleasurable. Dinner every night was fantastic ( I can't remember the lamb without drooling). Almost every night I vowed not to eat dessert, and almost every night, there was just that one dish that would tempt me to break that vow ( I did manage to skip dessert on a number if nights- but it was tough). During the day we ate breakfast and lunch at the buffet style cafeteria on the Lido deck, although we did manage to dine in the dining room for a couple of meals. In between meals, if you thought you might be the slightest bit peckish, there was always the pizza counter (open 24 hours a day- which was excellent for the roving packs of teenagers who marauded the decks of the ship) and the ice cream dispensers. In addition to this, there was also a coffee shop, where for a small fee you could buy a large piece of cake or chocolate covered strawberries, and then there were the midnight buffets.... We made a point of staying up for the three buffets which were offered super late- on on Christmas eve, one on Christmas ( I think) and one New Year's eve. The grand buffet was complete with ice sculptures and all kinds of savory treats, but the real draw to these events were the sweets. Lots of lovely cakes and confections.... mmmmmm. I have no photos of these; we were much too involved with eating them.

Thank goodness for the activities! The gym was unfortunately very small, and on the first day there, one family pre booked all of the spinning classes for the week, and so we were left to find odd times where the gym was not busy. Due to its location at the very front of the ship, I found it hard to work out there without feeling nauseous. This left me with walking up and down the stairs, and walking the corridors. The ship was equipped with ping pong tables (monopolized by the aforementioned teens), mini golf, gold pro and cage and swimming pools (frigid water!!). Strangely it was not hard to fill my days; I attended one or two of the craft sessions for adults (and I have the pair of scissors with the hand made case to prove it), and then there were the contests....

My nephew, sister in law, S.O. and I thought it might be entertaining to enter the digital treasure hunt. The point of the game was to walk around the ship and take as many photos on the list as possible within a 30 minute time frame. There were the obvious 6 or 7 items, and then there were the odd ones (e.g. a photo of a man wearing a ladie's bikini outside his clothing), and then there was a bonus list. Well, given that at least two of us on this team are a little driven to win, we quickly and efficiently went around the ship, took the shots we needed and returned to the meeting spot at the appointed time. To be brief, we won (my SIL says that it was the group hug- for 2 points per person in the hug that consisted of 9 people) that won us the contest. Who cares??? We won. For our efforts, we received a trophy and some medals and the appetite to win more. We entered one more contest that day ( no win), a sports one two days later (still no win), and then one last movie music trivia contest-which we thought would be a long shot- but won anyways, and walked away with yet another trophy. The cruise ended too early for us to win anymore...