Mexican Riviera Cruise Day 1

Mel and I were invited to go on a cruise with my sister and her husband. After much debate we decided to go. We have not had a real vacation by ourselves (or as a family) ever. We didn't even have much of a honeymoon, so we decided we needed it. We were worried about work and money and leaving the kids for a week.

Sunday, January 31 2010 was the big day. We headed to California by 6:30 a.m. We had Mel's brother Phil spend the night, so he could take the kids to church and watch them until Mel's parents could take over.

After 6 long hours in the car, we made it to San Pedro, CA. We found a parking spot and headed to the ship. We were amazed by the size of the thing. (It's the last picture.) Sea lions were hanging out by the docks.

My sister, Carie trying to pull her luggage on the bed. The rooms are really small. The bathrooms are little water closets with one small sink, a circular shower and a toilet. You couldn't get two people in there at the same time. It made me wonder how heavier people moved around in there. There aren't any outlets in the bathroom, so you can't even get ready in there. Luckily, there is a huge vanity with outlets and storage for your hair and make-up stuff. We had about a foot of walking space between the bed and the wall.

We had a room with a window looking into the promenade. You could look across the way from you to other rooms. It was fun to watch people from there. Our rooms had two little couches and a coffee table.

Here I am standing in front of the ship. That's not even half of it in the picture. But you can get an idea of how big it is.

Here's the ship from the parking lot. It's called Mariner of the Seas. It has 12 floors, casino, lounges, ice skating rink, several restaurants, plenty of bars, shops, spa, two swimming pools, 4 hot tubs, rock climbing wall, running track, miniature golf, sports area, movie theater and a theater. I've probably forgotten some, but you get the point. If you got bored, it was your own fault. If you were hungry, it was your own fault, also. There was so much food. We were watching them load the ship with crate after crate of food. I was amazed. It takes a lot of food to prepare 3 meals a day for 3,000 people. Most people ate more than that. I wonder how much alcohol a cruise ship goes through. It was like Vegas on water.

When we were waiting in line to board the ship, we started noticing all these men who looked like Santa. Come to find out they have a fraternity called FORBS (fraternity order of real beared Santas.) Every year they get together after Christmas to have a meeting and then go on vacation. There were 27 Santas on our ship. They were dressed in red or green with some kind of Santa print on their clothes. Their wives were dressed in holiday print also. It was fun watching them.

Stay tunned...