SoCS 2019.09.07 – Cruise Experience
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “weigh/way/whey.” Use one, use ’em all, bonus points if you do that last thing. Enjoy! – Linda G Hill
We travel regularly, planned the itineraries on most of the trips and joined tours on four trips. Several months ago, my husband and I wanted to explore a different way of travel. We checked out some cruises and booked a short cruise for the Labor Day weekend which was last week. This is the shortest available, from Long Beach, California to Ensenada, Mexico.
Friends told us this is a party cruise. My interpretation of a party cruise is seeing some young people singing, talking, dancing and laughing. School started in August and college students and school-age kids are in school. They wouldn’t be partying last weekend on a cruise.
We boarded the ship last Sunday night. The ship stopped at Catalina on Monday. It anchored offshore and people took the boat to go ashore. We had been to Catalina several times, so we strolled along the waterfront, visited the gift shops.
Catalina, California
The ship was in Ensenada on Tuesday and Wednesday. We bought tickets for a city tour on Tuesday. The tour bus took us to La Bufadora which is a blowhole on the Punta Banda Peninsula. We watched the water exploded upwards from a sea cave. The height of the explosion depends on the tide. We had one hour there. After staying for ten minutes we didn’t see a dramatic performance, so we went to the restaurant to wait for the group to return. The bus dropped us off at downtown, the tourist area, for another hour. There was not a lot of shopping I wanted to do. The tour guide told us to be careful about food and drink, so we didn’t get any of those.
The dock is right by downtown area, so it took us a few minutes to get back on the ship. That night after dinner, my husband had a stomach problem all night.
On Wednesday, the ship was at sea all day. People stayed on the ship going nowhere. There was a small scale of entertainment such as vocal solo with guitar or keyboard, standup comedy, and movies. People gathered in the pool area and cafeteria, eating and drinking. Oh, now I see the party, a big party. I know there are about 60% population in the US is over weighed. Yet I had not seen the concentration of these folks until this day on the ship. Several ladies seemed to have more weight than their legs could carry, so they were on wheelchairs (they might have other problems).
My husband continued to have a stomach problem and stayed in the cabin all day. I didn’t pay extra to subscribe the internet or phone services. I stayed in the cabin and read the only paperback with me. Every hour or so, I walked around the ship, grabbed some fruit or a piece of bread from the cafeteria. It seemed forever to wait for the nighttime. We packed our bags and went to sleep early.
On Thursday, the phone rang for the wake-up call at 6:45 a.m. It took us twenty minutes to dash to the line. We were the first one hundred people to get off the ship.
It was not a pleasant experience for our first cruise. It will take us a long time to get over with it before we consider another cruise.
SoCS 2019.09.07 – Cruise Experience
The Showers of Blessings 
I’ve been on that cruise. We had fun and no one got sick. That was years ago too, before they started being so paranoid about germs. Our last cruise (in October) we had to wash our hands and sanitize at every turn. Good thing though.
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Thank you for your comment. Now at least we know what it’s like to be on a cruise ship. We may go with you different cruise lines next time.
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I’m not sure I would enjoy one, either.
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People said that cruise line is not the best.
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I hope that’s the issue. I think we’re probably not cruise people in general, though.
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We may not cruise for a long time.
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Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your bad experience cruising feeling sick Miriam. I’ve been on many cruises and got smacked with the Norovirus twice! But that never stopped me from going back. 🙂
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Thank you, Debby. It’s good to hear that. He is on the mend. My husband’s siblings had positive experiences so far, in fact, one sister is planning for a family cruise. It’ll be two years down the road. We should feel better by then. 🙂
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My gawd, I should hope so! 🙂
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Thanks. 🙂
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Sorry sbout the stomachs issues, Miriam. We did a cruise to Alaska for our 30th anniversary. I loved everything we saw on the trip. Not sure I want to do another one though I got sea sick a couple times and wasn’t a fan of being on a big boat. But I never say never, I might change my mind…lol.
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My husband’s brother and his wife take Viking cruises regularly and other family member takes cruises to Alaska. They did it with other cruise liners and had good experiences. We might have taken with a worse cruise liner.
Yes, we’ll wait for a while to see if we want to do it again! Thanks, Denise!
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🙂
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This was the one and only cruise I’ve ever taken, Miriam. My wife and I went for our twenty year anniversary. It was more fun than I expected, and I imagine we’ll do another at some point.
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That made me laugh. I have always been wary of cruises with all the eating involved or boredom… some people swear by them. My son does firework events and doing fireworks for ships sailing out of Southampton, one of the dockside crew told him the first thing that happens when a ship arrives, they bring the body bags off! The combination of age, weight and overeating is bound to lead to some casualties!
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I can see that (body bags). One lady fell on Monday night. We didn’t find out what happened to her after that.
There were several ‘heavy’ school age kids on the ship. They should have been in school.
I feel sorry for the obesity of little kids. Once the cells get fat, they are hard to shrink.
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We have never considered a cruise, we like to do our own thing!
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It’s good, Peter! We won’t do it again even when we are too old to walk. I feel trapped!
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I have never wanted to go on a cruise. Oh poor hubby. I hope it didn’t take long to recover.
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I know, Brian. I’m glad that it was an experiment and only last for a few days. We won’t do it again for sure. He is on the mend, just taking over the counter med today!
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