My First ever Cruise. I didn’t know what to expect. For sure, I was going to need either one of those bracelets for sea sickness or the patch things. I was able to find both on Amazon so, got pills, bracelet and patches. Ready, set, board.

I put the patches on behind my ears a little before getting on the Ship. Oh My. What a HUGE ship. Good thing I had an experienced ‘cruiser’ with me. Linda knew all the ins and outs. Hand over our luggage at the curb, get in line to go through security. Throw away my opened water bottle. (Good thing I packed a case of water, Bad thing that we had to carry it on in my tote, HEAVY.)

Next, fill out some more paper work then get in line to sign in. ‘Next’ they call out. We get our Ship ID’s which double as our room keys. The size of a credit card. I’ve got a slot on my phone case where I can put a card so that worked great. You need that card for EVERYTHING.

We walk the ‘plank’ and are on board, carrying the tote full of bottled water (24 bottles) and my carry-on along with my purse. Linda had her sling bag and she was nice enough to tote the water around. I might rethink that next time. If I can pack it in a suitcase, that’s what I’ll do. That water gets heavy really fast.

We left around 9am for the 2 plus hour drive to the port and then the process of boarding, it’s time for lunch. We go up to the 11th deck (not called floors on a ship) for the ‘buffet’ area and wait until we can have access to our cabin. Whew. 1:30 rolls around and the captain says that we can go to our cabins now. Mad dash to the elevators. (Interesting, there’s a section of the floor just inside the elevator that says Monday.Does each elevator has a name? The next day I notice that the section now says Tuesday. DUH, I get it. Its to let you know what day of the week it is LOL.)

Hmmmmm, the bathroom is an experience not to be missed. The toilet is an odd shape. It is round. My first thought was ‘Wow’ how does a child use this thing? He/she would fall right into it. Make sure to put the lid down and then push the button behind the toilet. A very LOUD Sucking sound . . .WOOOOOSH, a really, LOUD WOOOSH. Don’t flush in the middle of the night, you’ll wake your neighbors. I woke up to that sound a few times. That took some getting used to. The cabin was nice. the king bed splits apart to make 2 twin beds. We had a balcony with a table and two chairs. A sofa, coffee table and another chair where one of us could put on make up while the other was in the ‘shower’

Yeah, the shower. That’s another thing all together. Don’t expect to take a nice hot shower on a ship. Warm was the most that I could get out of it. It is nice that the shower head is on a sliding bar enabling one to adjust the height of the shower as well as use as a hand shower. Too bad the water temp is so low. Maybe it is to discourage users to take LONG HOT showers. The bathroom was adequate.

The storage options are amazing. Every little nook and cranny has a purpose. There are shelves behind the mirrors, a trash receptacle is built into the shelf under the sink in the bathroom, there are towel racks on the wall next to the toilet as well as behind it. A clothes line pulls out in the shower so your swim suit can drip dry. It is fascinating the use of space. Something to think about for small rooms on land.

Another interesting thing found everywhere are the ‘Hand Sanitizing’ stations. Most prominently, these are located at the entrance to ALL eating areas. Like well trained pets, everyone would place their hand under the the spout and the liquid automatically dispensed into the palm of one’s hand. I was amazed that my hands weren’t dryer from all the sanitizing stuff.

Our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico. We went ashore easily at this stop. The ship docked and the process was nice and orderly. Lots of different shops were located in the immediate area. We had some time before our shuttle for the cooking class arrived so, shopping it was! Lots, and lots of silver shops. Some lovely jewelry pieces. It was fun to go from shop to shop and compare prices as well as look at all the different items for sale.

At last it was time to board the shuttle. We were driven to Play Mia where we were greeted and directed to the location of our class. What fun. We made our dessert first. Caramelized plantains with a Chocolate Tequila sauce and white and dark chocolate decorations. Next we made grouped with vegetables and Tamarind sauce. Our final cooking lesson was for the appetizer: Devil-Style Shrimp Sopes. On the spice side. After the cooking was finished, we enjoyed what we cooked at a nice sit down lunch with all of the participants. In addition to the cooking class, we got to enjoy the water park and the beach at the resort. It was an AWESOME day.

Our second and last stop was at Georgetown, Grand Cayman. The procedure of going ashore was quite different. We anchored off shore and were ‘tendered’ to shore. When I read the word ‘tender’ my first thoughts were of a canoe or very small dingy. Oh my I could not envision getting off this very large ship and into/onto a small little boat. To my relief, the ‘tenders’ were double deck boats with ramps etc. Very nice ride to shore.

As at Cozumel, lots of shops to peruse as we waited for our ‘island tour’. We walked down the road a bit to do a little sightseeing and shopping. It was very sunny and hot. Glad I had my water bottles with me. We made it back to the area for the tram tour. Learned some interesting things about the Cayman Islands and Georgetown. The tour was fun and we were even able to stop at a beach for about 10 minutes. We headed back to the ship after a bit more shopping. Lucky for us, we were back on board before the skies opened up.

We signed up for another cooking demonstration, Sushi. This was a fun session. We learned how to roll the sushi and some other tricks. One more time, we got to enjoy the ‘fruits of our labor’. This demonstration included a tour of the galley. Such a deal.

On our final day at sea we hit some rough weather. The Ship did quite  bit of rocking and rolling. I was really glad that I had all of my motion sickness remedies. It was a fantastic trip and I would entertain the idea of a cruise in the future. Alaska is still on my bucket list.

Bon Voyage!