That Time We Took a Cruise to Mexico

This past week was awesome! My best friend, his family, my cousin, and another one of my besties went on a cruise to Mexico. It was my first cruise, and I had no idea what to expect. It was much more fun than I could have imagined, and it was so great to be able to vacation right after finals.

Day one:

Here we are, about to drive to Galveston. From left to right there’s Paul and Lynn (Caleb’s parents), Josh (Caleb’s brother), Caleb (best friend), Bre (bestie), and Kelsey (my cousin).

We drove to Galveston, Texas, and embarked on the cruise ship. It was huge! Way bigger than I thought possible. There were eleven floors and the length of the ship was fairly long as well. There were several swimming pools, a water slide, and ice cream all day long.

Kelsey, Bre and I found our tiny room and brought our suitcases inside. Shortly thereafter, there was a safety lesson everyone had to attend on the fourth deck. There were three thousand people on board, so it was quite crowded as the crew demonstrated how to properly put on a life jacket in the case of an emergency.

Then Caleb, Kelsey, Bre and I explored the ship. We found several different stages and restaurants and couches, and became lost several times. It was loads of fun.

Here’s all of us on board the ship:

That night the seven of us watched an opening show hosted by our cruise director and then we went to our nice-sit-down-dinner. Dinner was at 8:15, and we had eaten hamburgers around 4, so I wasn’t too hungry. Our servers were really nice and we had lots of fun.

Day two:

Kelsey, Bre and I woke up at six and went up to the top deck to watch the sunrise. It was cloudy, so we weren’t able to see much of the sunrise, and it was windy, so we were cold. After the sun rose into the clouds, the three of us went back down to our cabin and slept until 9:30.

The rest of the day, we explored the ship. We went to the hot tub, and later I found the ship’s library.

There was a really cute Dr. Seuss show that afternoon where the children on the cruise when on stage and the cruise director read them The Cat and The Hat. Various audience members acted out the story, and it was very fun.

That evening was the formal dinner night. We girls wore nice dresses, and the guys wore suites. Everyone looked fabulous. Here’s a selfie Kelsey and I took.

After dinner, The Martian was playing as a “dive in movie.” We all went up to the deck to watch it. I had never seen it before, and I thought it was good. It was still playing around midnight, so most of us went down to our cabins to sleep…. so I don’t know how it ended. Oh wells.

Day three:

We woke up and we were in MEXICO!! Yay! I’ve always wanted to go to Mexico, and so I was ecstatic all day, constantly whispering to Caleb, “We’re in Mexico!!

While in Cozumel, we explored different shops and we also went to the Discover Mexico museum. I really liked the museum. We were able to learn about different parts of Mexico’s history and see replicas of different Mayan and Aztec ruins as well as other important buildings in Mexico.

Later that afternoon we went back to the boat for lunch. After lunch Bre and I swam in the ship’s pool and then Kelsey, Bre and I rested by the pool. Kelsey and Bre both fell asleep, and while they were sleeping Caleb and I hung out some in the ship. Later that evening, all of us went up on deck to watch the ship sail away from Cozumel.

After dinner, Josh, Kelsey, Bre, Caleb and I went up on deck to play “corn hole,” a game where you try to throw bean bags into a hole. I had never played before, but it was fun.

Then we went inside and listened to a country singer for a while. Bre and I then had fun riding up and down the glass elevators, waving at the other three below. We were quite hyper, for some reason, and had so much fun riding up and down and up and down the elevators, giggling like children.

Day four:

We woke up once again at a port. We disembarked the boat and briefly explored shops in Progreso.

Then we returned to the port to meet up with our Mayan ruin excursion group. We loaded up in charter buses and drove about 45 minutes to the Dzibilchaltun ruins.

I. Loved. The. Ruins.

When I studied abroad in Costa Rica this past summer, one of my classes mainly dealt with the Precolumbian societies of the Americas. So I was pretty much nerd-girling out the whole time were were there.

There were so many different ruins in one location. It was so cool to explore a Mayan city.

Then we went back to Progreso and ate a very late lunch at the beach. Then we stayed at a beach for a while, and I was able to talk to a couple of people in Spanish… which was my main goal in going to Mexico, so yay!! :)

Eventually we went back to the boat. I rested some and then we went up to the top deck to watch the boat sail away from Mexico for good. The sun had already set, so we just saw the city lights off in the distance. It was beautiful.

After dinner that night, we went up on deck for another dive in movie. It was supposed to be Cinderella, but due to a scheduling error, the movie didn’t play and instead there was a dance competition (I guess that’s what it was, anywho) between the two bars on the ninth deck. We listened and watched from the balcony of the tenth deck.

They were playing salsa music, and so Bre and I started salsa dancing. Then we taught Josh, Kelsey and Caleb how to salsa dance. A blurry pic of Caleb and I salsa dancing:

Then they started playing line dancing songs like “The Cupid Shuffle” and “The Cha Cha Slide.” We continued to avoid the crowd below by dancin above on the tenth deck. It was quite fun. :)

Day five:

Another day completely at sea.

Bre, Kelsey and I slept in until about ten thirty. Then we got up, got dressed, and went up to the ninth deck for breakfast. Then we relaxed in the hot tub with Josh and Caleb since that morning it was very wavy and windy and cold.

The rest of the day we relaxed and explored the boat. There was a Christmas show we watched around three that we all watched. It was really pretty.

In the evening we went up to watch the last sunset at sea.

Then we went to our rooms to pack up our suitcases. Then we watched a family-friendly comedy before dinner. It was hysterical!

That night was our last night of the nice-sit-down-dinner. Every night we had the same waiters, and they were amazing and really kind to us. Thus, the seven of us were very sad to say goodbye.

Caleb took this picture of us. We like it a lot, because it characterizes the craziness that normally occurred while we were at dinner, lol! Anywho, the flash went off, Kelsey was prepared, but Bre and I were not! Thus our “AHHH” faces. :)

After dinner, there was an 18+ country dance we attended (18+ because it was located in one of the adult-only bar/ smoking areas). Bre, Caleb and I went up there first, and the staff out front didn’t believe we were nineteen and twenty and so they sent us back down for ID. We retrieved it from our rooms and met up with Josh and Kelsey in the elevator.

When Bre, Caleb and I showed the man our ID, he looked at us, shocked. He then let us enter the room. Josh and Kelsey followed, happy that the man didn’t make them show him their IDs- they’re finally old enough to look older than 18.

Anywho, we two stepped a little bit and after about thirty minutes we left. We were all very tired, and I personally prefer dancing at a place where there isn’t a lot of drinking and smoking happening around me. We had lots of fun though. Here’s a picture Bre took of Caleb and I dancing:

Day six:

When we woke up, the boat was already back in Galveston. Bre, Kelsey and I got ready and packed up our last few items and then said farewell to our cabin. We then went to Caleb’s family’s room to meet up with them and then we all went up to get breakfast.

We had quite a bit of time before our disembarkation time, and so we chilled at the table. We were able to turn our phones off of airplane mode, since we were back in Texas, and they exploded with notifications. I had what felt like a gazillion emails to wade through. Yayy.

Finally, we were able to get off the boat and make our way through the line at customs. It took a while, but eventually we were able to get back to our cars. Then we loaded up our suitcases, and drove home.

I had so much fun this past week. It was so great getting to go on a cruise to Mexico with some of my most favorite peoples. I was also really impressed at how kind the entire cruise staff were– they were awesome!

If you’ve never been on a cruise, I definitely recommend it. If you’ve never been to Mexico, I definitely recommend that as well :)

Merry Christmas, y’all! Blessings!

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under My Life. This post has one comment.