Vacation Chronicles Part 3

In this next, and hopefully last, post on my cruise I will go through some of the things that happed during each day of vacation.


Thursday June 26th-Stephen, Jillian and I leave for Portland. Mom, Dad and Gretchen have gone down earlier to spend a few days at Disney World. Somewhere on the highway a truck has caught on fire and that slows down traffic for awhile. We get a little lost finding the hotel but a u-turn takes us to the right spot. I caught a little "America's Best Dance Crew" but we had to go to bed seeing as how we had a 5:00 A.M. wake up call. I was happy I brought my earplugs because hotels are usually noisy and Stephen breathes loud when he sleeps.


Friday June 27th-Early in the morning we headed for the airport. Stephen left his car at the hotel and they shuttled us over. Stephen's plane actually left an hour after ours but we all had to go together. It was the first time I had been through airport security since I had broken my femur and had a rod put in so I was kind of hoping it would set off the metal detector but pretty sure that if it did I would pee my pants. I did not set off the detector and I am still pretty bummed about that. Jillian and Stephen got something to eat because we had a long day ahead of us. Mom was worried about us eating ok, she called us several times before we left. Jillian and I flew from Portland to Salt Lake where we had to change planes. I thought we had huge amounts of time so we bought lunch but it was really gross because of some fancy mustard. Well we lost track of time and while we were eating we heard a page "Meagan and Jillian Carr please report to gate B 15" Oh crap, we were going to miss our plane. We made it because those nice ladies called us but we didn't get seats together. After we got on the pilot annouced that we were flying to St. Louis. I was scared because I thought not only did we miss our plane but we are going to be only halfway to Orlando! It turns out we had a stop that we didn't know about and we continued on to Orlando. Once we got off the plane the humidity hit and I was reminded why I don't live there. I felt like I couldn't breathe. Jillian's hair started to frizz out immediately. We met Stephen at the terminal and went to go collect our luggage. I made Jillian promise me not to tell anyone that we almost missed our plane from SLC. We called the hotel and the shuttle came to pick us up from the airport. It wasn't too far away. We checked in and then went looking for somewhere to eat. The hotel guy Dave offered to drive us but we said we wanted to walk since we had been sitting on a plane all day. We walked a few blocks to Chilis and had dinner. It was a good thing it didn't rain while we were out. We decided not to stay up for the rest of the family because they would be in Disney World until late. Jillian rolled into me in the middle of the night and kept trying to get close to me until she realized it was me and not a wall.


Saturday June 28th-We woke up and had breakfast at a really good contential breakfast bar provided by the hotel. Dad was doing laundry. We had a while to wait until we would go back to the airport to get the shuttle to take us down to the cruise ship. I watched Harry Potter #5 for a little while. When we got to the airport we met up with Uncle Randy, Aunt Tracy, Bethany and Emily. It didn't take long for Uncle Randy to start annoying everyone and start bashing on teaching. The shuttle came, we got on it, drove to Port Canaveral. The trees go up to the highway so there is nothing to look at as you drive. At the port there were massive amounts of people unloading, people taking luggage, and Dad forgot to print out the luggage tags. They worked it out and were able to send our luggage to the right room. We got security checked, passport checked, and given our sail and sign cards. Then we boarded the ship and checked out our rooms. They were bigger than I thought they would be and I was suprised to see that the bunk beds came out from the ceiling. Grandma was having a cow because the rooms weren't working out. She had to have someone over 25 in every room when she booked but was planning on switching people when she got there. It wasn't working out in her mind and Uncle Russell was planning on having all his family sleep in one room. But we worked it out and Grandma calmed down. Jillian and I went and toured the ship, entered for a free spa treatment, and tried out the ice cream cone machine. The first of many. We found a large chess board and I pretended to be Harry Potter #1 and said "Knight to H-3!" We had the boat drill and then went to our first dinner. Gretchen, Jillian and I were assigned to eat at the same table as Uncle Russell and his youngest kids so it wasn't very fun the first night. There wasn't a lot of chatting. Then we went to a welcome show that wasn't very exciting. Then Russell's kids got in trouble because they weren't where they were supposed to be and were grounded to their room. I think we tried to play cards that night but it wasn't too exciting .We learned that we were going to be bored a lot. Russell's kids had stupid rules that didn't make any sense. Mary and Libby couldn't go anywhere unless they were with Adam who was younger than Mary. But they trusted him because he was a boy. But they didn't trust the kids with any of their cousins who were all 18 or older. Plus the girls were on diets and told they had better come home from the cruise having lost weight. Ridiculous. Those girls are skinny already. Their mom is out of control.


Sunday June 29th-we slept in, Jillian and I went to the gym. Then we went to the pool which was little and full of salt water and people. Then we laid out in deck chairs. After another ice cream cone I think we went in to shower and get ready for dinner which was the first of our two formal nights. The waiters sung an Italian song to us. Grandma made everyone mad by trying to switch up the seating at dinner. She wanted people to get to know one another. We went to another show that was singing and dancing but it wasn't very good. The girls were dressed like vegas showgirls half the time. I don't remember what else we did, but guess what, we were bored.

Monday June 30th-Cozumel Mexico-we had to get off the boat a little eary because we had an excursion. I didn't get to see much of Cozumel but it looked cool. We got on a ferry that took us to the main land, it rocked a little bit and Stephen got a little seasick. After walking throught the city a little bit we got onto buses. We drove and stopped at a store where they sell Mayan handicrafts. Dad really liked the black onyx sculptures. We got back on the bus and our guide Manuel told us a little about what we would see. He also told us that Mayans are born with birthmarks on their spines, and that the birthmarks are similiar to the ones mongolians get. Manuel was a mestizo which meant his race was mixed. His dad is Mayan and his mom was from Spain. We got to the national park in Tulum and these guys were hassling people to buy their hats. They were putting them on our heads. I gave mine back but mom bought one. She had already gotten burnt at Disney World. We walked down the trail and I was already buring up. It was so hot there. I think the hottest place all vacation. Then we entered through a tunnel and could see the really cool ruins. It was interesting to learn about the Mayans and how much knowledge they had about math and science. There were different temples and buildings for the royalty. The buildings actually used to be painted a tealish blue but it has worn down over time. There is one special building in the ruins of Tulum, Mexico. Because of where it is situated on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, when the sun gets in the right place in the sky, a beam of light shoots through the building and splits the valley. Thousands of mayans come every year to witness the event. It is so cool that they knew that much and were able to use their technology. After listening to Manuel for a little bit we got to walk around and look at the buildings. Then it was too hot. Jillian, Stephen and I went down to the beach to go swim. We made the mistake of not wearing our swimsuits underneath so Jillian had to hold a towel up while I changed and I had to do the same for her. Gretchen eventually came down too. The ocean in Tulum was really salty and had great waves. I tried to body surf and made it a couple of times. There is a coral reef just off the coast and it is the second largest in the world after the great barrier reef in Australia. Manuel said it is what makes the water so green and blue. The color of the ocean there was amazing. Really turquoise. We walked back to the bus and I was chaffing a lot. Gretchen had met a LDS guy who studies the ruins and talked to him a bit. He told her to stop by on the way back but we couldn't find him. He has all these things that he thinks are old Nephite things in the ruins. They gave us a cold towel to cool off with when we got back to the bus. It was amazing. Then we also got snacks, mexican lays potato chips, ritz cheese crackers, and cupcakes with frosting in the middle called pinguinos. I loved it! Then we had a good nap on the way back and also on the ferry back over to Cozumel. We were almost the last people on the boat. I don't remember what we did that night but safe to say it probably wasn't exciting. Maybe that was the night we went to Karaoke. I don't know. I'm glad I went to Karaoke though. There were a lot of songs I wanted to try but I'm glad I sang Journey. I made Bub sing it with me and mom had a hoot! I want a Karaoke machine for Christmas. I really liked Tulum, Mexico because it was so cool to see the ruins and learn about the history. It was really hot there, Oh and we saw the mormon missionaries visiting there on their P-day so we said hello! It was crazy. Tulum was awsome and it was fun to swim in such a picturesque setting in a warm ocean.






Ok, my fingers are cramping up, I will finish later...

The temple in Tulum, Mexico

The beach in Tulum, Mexico

Vacation Chronicles Part 2

I said I wanted to write about the people on the ship. First of all, most of them are foreign. A lot are from Asia. Most of the people in the spa and gym seemed to be from South Africa. All of the stewards, waiters, and food service people were from Asia especially Indonesia. I'm still trying to decide if it is because Carnival wants the ship to look exotic or if they can pay them less. I also learned that they sign contracts for 4 to 6 months at a time and then get like 2 months off. I feel so bad for them. They have to be away from their families for so long at a time. Even when they get off duty the employees still have to stay on the stupid ship. Some people might like it but I certainly wouldn't. Most of the employees I ran into were very friendly and said hello.

Although we never met the stewards I felt a connection with them. They cleaned our room all the time, made our beds, pulled the covers down, left mints and fresh towels especially the towel animals. Really good service. And this was done while we were gone from our rooms. Sometimes the most exciting thing was go see what animal was on our bed after dinner. Here is one:

Our waiters were the people on the ship we got to know the best. They assign you dinner times and tables so you have the same people every day. We sat in the Golden dinning room lower and were at table 115. We had the best waiters in the world! Walter was the headwaiter and Made (Mah-day) was the waiter. We got to know them a little bit on the first night. Walter is from Peru. His english was very good but it was hard for the older people to understand him sometimes. Gretchen told him I knew Spanish and he tried to speak with me. I understood him just fine but I am terrible at speaking. I wish I could have spoken with him more in spanish but I felt like a privlidged little white girl who thinks she's bilingual trying out her spanish on the native. But he was cool about it and usually asked how I was doing in spanish each night at dinner. He had been working on the ship for about five weeks when we got there and was signed up for a 6 month tour. Walter has been working on cruises for about 6 years. He was so good to us. Grandma left it up to him to decide what to eat every night. He picked the appetizer, main course and dessert. Usually he picked well. One night Grandma had a pork chop or something and he offered to cut it up for her. Every night after that Walter cut up Grandma's food for her. Jillian even had her food cut up for her a couple of times. Walter was patient with my large family crowd. He would joke that he would bring us warm chocolate melting cake every night because my family liked it so much. He also started bringing us two things of ice cream because one was not enough to eat the whole cake with. Walter was a little shy though, he didn't get really crazy on the nights of the singing and dancing. Dinner was an amazing experience. They would replace our silverware after each course. They had service plates you don't eat off of but they take them away depending on what food you get. Dad's goal was to keep his because he thought Walter took his away because it was always messy. Dad finally asked why they took his plate away and not others. That was when he learned the truth. Made was from Indonesia. His english wasn't as good but he was friendly. I think he has a teen son or daugher at home. Made wore these crazy glasses during the dancing and singing. The eyes looked like they were spinning out of control. Walter and Made made dinner fun and we didn't want to eat anywhere else because they treated us so well. Walter even tried to get my little cousin Eve to eat when she would only eat bananas and yogurt. I felt sorry for Walter because sometimes he had to work the late eating parties they had, after his usual shift of dinners. We saw him at the midnight buffet. I often wonder how he felt about all these people being so glutonous on food. Did he think we were weird for eating so much? Does his country have a lot of underfed people? It must be interesting experiencing the opulence of the cruise ship and then returning to one's home country that may be a lot poorer. Since we saw them every night we got to know them a little. I really enjoyed Walter and Made. They are some of my favorite memories from vacation and I hope they are well wherever they are!

Me and Walter

Jillian and Made

The Vacation Chronicles

I decided I wanted to write down my experiences on vacation this year because they were very interesting. My cruise to the western Caribbean was unlike anything I have experienced before. So before I forget I want to remember to write about: the ship itself, the people on the ship (Walter and Made) and how hard they work, and the different countries and my experiences in them. Overall the cruise was good but I didn't really enjoy being on the ship all the time. I wish I could have had more time in each country but you only get like 7 hours. My grandma Carr took some of my extended family because it was her 80th birthday and she wanted to celebrate. Nice grandma huh?

The ship I sailed on was the Carnival Glory. It was huge!! I did not imagine that you could fit that many people on one boat. I got blown away when I thought about how much it takes to plan a cruise, the food that all the thousands of people need for one week, the amount of laundry and garbage produced! Walter told us that they only get supplies in Port Canaveral, they don't fill up when they go into other ports. That is a huge undertaking alone. There were 12ish decks on the ship. My room was on the 6th deck right above the casino. Every night we could tell when someone won big because they would cheer really loud. I used earplugs though. Best decision I made was to bring those on vacation. The 3rd deck had the lobby with a piano and bar where there would be music and singers every night. It was also the floor of the Golden dining room where we had dinner every night. We didn't really ever go on the 4th floor. The amber palace was the auditorium where the shows were performed every night. Mom and dad could hear the show from their room. The 5th floor had shops with all kinds of high priced items, the casino, coffee bar, some nice couches and chairs where we hung out a few times, the teen clubs, one bar where Jillian and I listened to an asian guy sing Elton John and Billy Joel one night, he was pretty good, and it had the club where we sang for family Karaoke. The 6th, 7th, and 8th decks were rooms and the 9th deck was the Lido deck. This is where the two pools were, the red sail restaurant (huge and buffet style), grill, all day pizza, deli, and most importantly 24 hour self-service ice cream cones. I had no idea that all you do on a cruise is eat. The pools had salt water though so it wasn't too exciting. It also had the spa and gym. Jillian and I went there once. Deck 10 had shuffle board, deck chairs, a track, chess, and ping pong. They put the deck chairs away every night. The last two decks are just for hanging out on except one has the mini golf course, volleyball and basketball courts. Deck zero was where we got off the boat in port.

The shows were not really very good. The dancers wore skimpy outfits and had cheezy choreography. The singers were ok, but I stopped attending the shows because they weren't very good. My family went sometimes because there was nothing else to do. We kind of had boring times on the ship because we don't drink or gamble. At night was especially boring. The younger kids could go to the teen clubs but there wasn't anything for the older cousins to do. One night we crashed the family Karaoke and took over. I made Jillian sing Journey with me, Separate Ways (Worlds Apart), it fulfilled a dream of mine. I had a lot of fun with it and tried to channel Steve Perry. Mom enjoyed it a lot. For awhile all the people getting called up were Carrs. When we did get bored we usually went and got ice cream cones. On Thursday morning (a ship day) I went on deck and finished my book. I sat in the shade since I had already gotten sunburned but it was very enjoyable. There are televisions in the rooms so I watched a little TV now and then. The ship showed movies but they were the same ones over and over again, not very good. There was a "library" but they only had about one bookcase full of books and it was only open for an hour per day. There were also photographers that were available to take your picture every time you turn around. They want you to buy the photos. At dinner, after dinner in front of backgrounds, when you get off the ship...all the time. Basically I learned that people go on cruises to spend money and those who are unwilling to have a more boring time. No spa treatments, drinks, clothes etc. Plus you have to charge everything to a credit card that is connected to your "sail and sign" card. Which privlidges I did not have.

When we first got on the boat my family got lost a lot. But I quickly learned my way around. I have a great sense of direction. My grandma couldn't go anywhere by herself because she would always get lost. My dad went on a tour of the ship but he didn't really learn anything. We also had a drill when we first got on board which was fun. We had to report to a station and take our life jackets. Women and children get saved first. My dad was a little freaked out when Jillian and I showed up among the last people to arrive.

Well, I want to post this so it doesn't get lost. Look for the next installment coming soon!