Cruise Day 4 - Mazatlan, originally uploaded by chris_wass.

I had pre-arranged to meet D & E, B & L & kids, and Paul at 9:30 am to go to into Mazatlan. After winding through the shopping mall that was thinly disguised as a port authority station, we got to the street to find a taxi big enough for the group. We were able to flag down one of the many flatbed trucks that had been converted into taxis by installing bench seats and a canopy over the truck bed. We were surprised to find that it was a 15-minute cab ride to the “Golden Zone” of beaches. We made our way through the lobby of the nearest resort to get to the beach, where we were immediately accosted by vendors again, who had nearly identical wares as the previous port-of-call. We “rented” umbrellas and plastic chairs, which we arranged in a shady cluster for lounging. Some of us were interested in parasailing, but the guy told us to wait until the wind picked up if Bob and Paul wanted to go, since they are big guys (6’5”). I figured that if they could go later, I wouldn’t be turned away for being too heavy. I was a little wary about whether I would be able to do it after I saw that the weight limit listed on the ship’s parasailing excursion was below what I currently weigh. In the meanwhile, I spent some time in the ocean with Bob and Abbey, jumping the waves. We’d decided to hold out for lunch and go back to the ship instead of eating there. Dad and I shared a cup of sweet fresh pineapple to hold us over. Paul went to a little market around the corner and bought us these huge bottles of Pacifico.

When it seemed like the wind had picked up, as the waves were getting taller and choppier, the guys negotiated a group rate of $25 each for the parasailing. Ben and I lined up to go first and second. As they were harnessing me up, I heard one guy say to Paul, “I don’t know about you, man, you could break my boat!” We all thought that he was joking, until Ben and I get back to shore, and they really didn’t let Paul and Bob go. After hearing about how fun it was from Ben, who went first, Laura got harnessed up while I was being launched off the beach. Once the line was tight, a few awkward steps and a hop, and I was up in the air. I felt like I was a little low for the first minute of the ride, and afraid that I was going to drop into the water, but managed to convince myself that I wasn’t as low as I thought that I was. Another parasailer ahead of me looked much higher up. Once we got to that point, whoosh, more wind, I was lifted much higher. There was a time that I seemed to be hanging there as the boat circled around to go back. It was really exciting. I swung out high over the beach, everyone looked so small. Then I remembered that I needed to look for the guy with the flag to cue me to pull the red strap to land. I was close enough to hear him yelling to let go. Three guys were there to catch me, but I landed on my own, as lightly as if I had jumped down from a chair.

Paul felt compelled to take the empty bottles back to the store to get his deposit, so we had to wait for him by the street while Ellie voiced her anxiety over getting another truck taxi to take us back to the port. It turned out that the deposit was only 70 cents, so I thought that it was really stupid of him to make us wait around like that for such a small amount, and it’s not as if he made recycling the bottles the issue, it was the deposit money. After lunch, I really wanted a thorough shower and a nap. It was New Year’s Eve, so I expected to be up late.

Dinner was not as good as previous nights, but we all had festive party hats and tiaras to wear. After dinner, most of us went to see how the family portraits from Monday turned out. Dad said that he wasn’t happy because I looked snarky in all of them, I said, “What can I say, I’m snarky.” I ran into my young ladyfriends, looking at their photos, and Ashley introduced me to her parents. I was on my way to see The Coasters with the family, but we talked about meeting up later at the Viking.

I got to the theater first and found a block of seats for D & E, B & L, and Paul. I thought that The Coasters put on a pretty good show, performing a selection of their popular songs and covers of other popular quartets from back in the day. Paul left in the middle of the show to “go to the bathroom”, but never came back. After the show, D & E went to watch the kids so that Gregg & Dawn could hang out, which was really nice. B & L and I went to the piano bar for a drink, but decided to take the drinks with us outside on the muster deck to enjoy the warm, moist breeze. We wondered if Paul was in the Casino, and decided to take a look. We didn’t see anyone. Laura was interested in checking out the Viking lounge. I waved to a couple of the guys, but my ladies weren’t there. We took to some cushy chairs overlooking the pool and got another round of drinks. We thought that the action on the pool deck looked fun, but decided to make another swing by the casino to look for G & D before giving up. At the casino, we found Paul and Ben. B & L were mad that Ben was up after he told them that he was too tired to go to The Coasters show and that he really shouldn’t have been in the casino. They went with us up to the pool deck, where we found G & D. There was a steel drum band on deck playing a lot of Bob Marley covers that was pretty good. I got most everyone dancing, and we started nabbing champagne flutes and sucking them down before the countdown. Right after the call for the New Year, Ben took off. G & D didn’t stay much longer. After some more dancing, Bob proclaimed his tired and drunkenness and went off to bed. Laura, Paul, and I danced until the band stopped at 1am. At Paul’s suggestion, we went to the Solarium for a late night snack of pizza. They went to bed, but I decided to have another go at the Viking. There were quite a few people up there dancing, but my ladies were not to be found. I danced a little with random folks, but was back at my room around 2am.

Cruise Day 5 - Puerto Vallarta, originally uploaded by chris_wass.

I slept in until 9:30. At breakfast, I saw D & E with Ben and Abbey, who had plans to go on the excursion to swim with dolphins in the afternoon. B & L and Paul had already left to go scuba diving. I ran into G & D in time to sit with them to eat, the kids were at the child activities, which they had been doing in the mornings, so we had time to be leisurely and read/knit after eating. We made plans to meet at 12:30 for lunch and to go into town. I went to use the computers in the on-ship internet café to email BrienBear, who was taking care of Timmy, and check other email. I sure take for granted having internet access that is always on at home; 17 minutes was $9, yikes! After emailing, I had 45 minutes until I was to meet for lunch, so I walked the half block to the block of touristy shops to check it out, and walked back without buying anything. I ran into the ladies a few feet from the ship, they were on their way to the resort pool/beach for the afternoon. They said that they had passed out around 12:30 and didn’t make it out to the Viking the night before.

I had lunch with G & D and the kids. I was feeling really tired and run down. I started to fall asleep while they were changing into their swimsuits, so I passed on going with them to find the resort to swim at. I walked with them as far as the shops, were we parted ways. I bought the Mexican wrestler masks that I wanted and was back on the boat by 2:30, when I caught up with my trip notes, made an appointment at the spa for after dinner, and then took a nap.

At dinner, Ellie got this bug that we should all change after dinner into our denim/blue stuff after dinner to take more family portraits. I told her that I couldn’t because I had a spa appointment at 8, and there was not enough time beforehand. She tried to give me a hard time about it, but Bob backed me up. Dad went out and asked to see what other times the photographers would be there. We settled on doing the pictures the next night before dinner, which I thought was far more convenient, as we’d be on the ship all day anyway.

What was billed as “self pampering” at the spa was actually self-service. There were 4 of us and 1 spa helper who mixed up concoctions for us to slather all over ourselves while touting the benefits of the products. First, we rubbed on scrubby stuff and hung out in the steam room for a while. Nothing deep, but there was pleasant enough conversation with the other participants. After we rinsed that off, we put masque on our faces and some moisturizer mixture everywhere else and hung out in the sauna for a while. Someone asked our helper where she was from, and we learned that she was from South Africa, 31, married, and had a 7-year-old son. For the past 5 years, she’s been gone for 7 months out of the year, working on the cruise ship. Her husband is finally finished with school, so she plans to go home for good at the end of her contract, which was in two weeks, after the ship makes a trip to Panama. After another rinse, we moisturized again, and dabbed various creams that the helper administered to our faces. We got dressed and met in the lounge area for champagne, to receive our gift of massage oil, and for her to see if anyone wanted to buy any products.

It was slated to be an hour, but I was in the spa for almost two. I didn’t have enough time to change if I wanted to see the nightly movie. Still a bit moist, I made it to the theater just in time to watch Wall-E at 10pm. I though that the movie was cute. I was back at my room around 12. I wasn’t ready to sleep, but not energetic enough to go out, so I watched some Powerpuff Girls on TV and knitted for a while.

Cruise Day 6 - At Sea, originally uploaded by chris_wass.

I woke up every other hour or so to pee, so the spa thing helped to get rid of some of the annoying travel swelling that I had going on. I loafed around until 10am, and felt a lot better than the afternoon before. I joined G & D for breakfast outside, ran into other family members, and made plans to meet them for lunch at 12:30, possibly followed by games. I found Calgary Rob at a table and hung out with him for a bit. I wasn’t really hungry for lunch, so I just nibbled a few things that Dad and Bob said were good. Bob said that they found a spot outside at the front of the top deck that was sheltered from the wind somewhat, which was welcome, as it had become quite overcast and chiller as we traveled north. B & L and I hung out for a while as they read and I knitted. Paul joined us at some point. The sky cleared a bit and it warmed up just before 4, when we had to go and get ready for photos. I swung by the buffet for a snack, and ran into Paul getting a plateful.

We were to meet at 10 till 5 to queue up for photos. Just as I was leaving the room, Dawn called to say that they were running 10 minutes late, asking me to pass along the info. I was second to arrive after D & E. Ellie started looking anxious once her side of the family arrived, so I suggested that they get started with their couples portrait and B & L family portrait so something would be getting done instead of just waiting for other people. When they were finished and just about to send me to call G & D, they arrived. I was relieved to see that B & L also didn’t take the denim thing so strictly and just wore blue shirts of whatever variety as well, but Gregg was apparently feeling put out anyway and said that he didn’t care. The first shots seemed to go well, and I even made an effort not to look snarky. Then, Ellie brought out the Santa hats for us to put on. I had caught wind of this Santa hat thing the previous day, but didn’t want to say anything, as I was sure that my brother would flip out. I decided to see how things would pan out. Dawn waved the hats away and refused to take them, saying, “No thanks, we’re Jewish.” Ellie tried to say something, but Dawn interrupted and repeated the statement, then told the kids not to put the hats on. Ellie looked stunned. Bob said that we didn’t need to do the hat thing, but Dawn said that it was totally cool with her if they all wore the hats, but that she would not. So, half the group wore hats for the photo. I didn’t. My dad did. G & D said later that they were really offended that Ellie tried to foist the hats on them. At least there was some détente after the dreaded photo was done.

There was some time before we had to go to dinner, and we all decided that we were not going to change clothes, as we had seen others wear supposedly inappropriate items, like jeans, in the dining room. We went to D & E’s room to drink some of the box-o-wine that they had smuggled in. It was lobster tail night in the dining room, and there was some eating challenge boiled up by Paul and Ben that Paul had to eat 5 lobster tail dinners and Ben had to eat 5 desserts. The loser was to jump in the pool in his underwear the next night. I joked that it would mean that Paul would have to actually wear underwear for that to happen, which made everyone chuckle. I know that Paul doesn’t wear underwear because he wore a pair of jeans to D & E’s house when I was there one time that had a smallish hole where the back pocket had torn off, and I could see skin underneath. He wasn’t that upset when I told him about it at the time. Anyway, they both won, and as far as I know, neither of them took a swim in undergarments.

After dinner, there was more wine, and another musical show, this time of Broadway show tunes, with D & E, B & L. Paul came in late. Afterward, we went to the piano bar for more drinks. I was pretty tipsy when I ran into Calgary Rob in the casino with the gang. Paul, Bob, and Dad played blackjack for a while. Ellie played some roulette. Paul had me play with some of his chips, and I won a couple hands. I gave the money to him, but he told me to keep the winnings - $20. Laura had never played slots before, Bob gave her some money to go and play, and we wandered of tipsily to play. We spent it all, but played long enough to keep ourselves entertained. When everyone else called it a night, I went up to the Viking. Andie was there, chatting up some of the guys, Ashley and Priya arrived not long after. The DJ was especially lame. Andie was working her mojo, so I left with Ash and Pri to get some snacks at the Solarium. We went back to there room to hang out, and found Andie there with Devin, but were not witness to any of their goings on. A woman from room service arrived with the two apples that they had ordered so they could smoke out of them some stuff Devin had, but they didn’t end up doing so. Devin and I left the ladies tucked in bed, still in their party clothes. We were both on the same floor, and rode the elevator down together. I told him that he looked a lot like Gael Garcia Bernal, but he didn’t know who that was. I got back to my room at 2:30am.