Cruisin'

Monday, January 4, 2016 saw us driving to Long Beach, where we met the kids and their respective significant others and boarded the Carnival Inspiration for a four day Baja California cruise.  It was sunny and 68 degrees in Long Beach, and as the boat pulled out of harbor, all signs pointed to beautiful weather and calm seas.

Alas, it was not to be.  Tuesday morning – the beginning of our “fun day at sea” was overcast and windy.  I had thought when I booked our staterooms that being on the top deck at the front of the ship would be a good thing.  That “I’m king of the world” thing.  But physics reigns supreme, and when the boat is hitting 8 foot swells, the front of the ship goes WAY up and then WAY down.  Ughhh! Suffice it to say I’ve discovered that Dramamine is my friend. 

California’s much-needed rain began to fall. The Captain announced that we would not be making our scheduled stop at Catalina Island.  The good news was that we’d spend two days docked at Ensenada.  Yeah!  A couple of days without the boat rocking.  By the afternoon I felt well enough to go to afternoon tea.  I couldn’t talk anyone else into joining me, so I went alone and had a lovely tea with a lady from LA and her 8 year old daughter.  We made the decision NOT to participate in the elegant night before we went on the cruise.  Looking back, we should have brought the dress clothes.

 

Never fear – they let us in the comedy show and the piano bar in our less-than-elegant attire.  We were even recorded in the piano bar.  The piano man chose to record that evening because there was a “really cool crowd.”  Yep, we made the cool crowd.

We arrived in Ensenada Wednesday morning to sunshine and spent a delightful morning sitting by the pool.  Next we went into Ensenada for a nice seafood lunch and shopping.  Well, mostly looking and listening to the local vendors regaling us with the glories of their particular brand of stuff we didn’t need. 

Our ATV/Wine Tour scheduled for Thursday had been canceled by the vendor.  Now we were two for two on shore excursions being canceled.  We decided to book another tour – wine country on a bus instead of on ATVs – and thoroughly enjoyed touring two wineries and of course, tasting the wine.

Carnival is known as one of the more economical cruise lines.  That said, the quality of the food on board was quite good and the portion sizes were reasonable.  I’ve been on cruise ships where you literally had to train to eat as much as they expected you to eat. 

The best part of the cruise was that through the ups and downs (some literal) the family spent most of the time together and had a great time.  Two days later, the motion sickness and disappointing weather has mostly faded into the background, and I’m remembering the smiling faces of the cruise staff and the adventures we had both onboard and on land.

And two days later I’m still feeling the motion of the boat at sea.  So when does the boat stop rocking, anyway?