Thursday, September 22, 2011

vacation (part 2: cruise)

So I promised a post about the cruise I went on this summer.. but in all honesty I haven't really been looking forward to writing it. I've been putting it off forever, and I haven't even finished my own travel journal entry. To be honest, it wasn't that memorable of a cruise. I certainly enjoyed it, especially all the family time, especially the time I spent with my brother (for us to spend that much time together is pretty rare, and I love spending time with him.. I miss him!). I don't think any of that can be captured in words though. Lots of inside jokes, and poking fun at our family/the cruise staff/other cruisers. My brother and I had a great time. But anyway, a little excerpt from my journal describing the multitude of activities available to us:

"As for activities I did an ab workout (which absolutely killed me, I was still in pain about 4 days later), zumba, played scattergories with my cousin, watched a few movies, played trivia, participated in a reverse scavenger hunt (you had to go grab items from your room before you knew which items would give you points..!! I’m so taking this idea for later), watched a few comedy shows and of course ate a lot of food.

The comedy show starring Max Amini was my favourite. He interacted with the audience a lot and he seemed really spontaneous. I sat in the front row with my brother, and talked to us. It was great.

I watched a ton of movies on board too (Lincoln Lawyer, Just Go With It, part of Gnomeo and Juliet.. and if there were more, they weren't memorable, haha!) My bro and I just seem to take each afternoon to relax and watch movies together. I tried some trivia and scavenger hunt-like activities, but they are definitely aimed towards older people so it wasn't nearly as exciting as I had anticipated."


I also got a manicure on board as a birthday present. But to be honest, it wasn't very good. It was a very nice manicure, but I don't think it is worth paying for someone to file, shape, and paint your nails. I could have done all of that myself. The only part that would have been worth paying for was the mini-massage, and the oils and stuff she used on my hands and arms. Sooooo in the future, if I go to a spa, I will get a massage, not a manicure.


The ship was huge and beautiful, but I have been on a Princess ship before, and let me assure you, it looked exactly the same. Which in a way was good because I already had a vague idea of where everything was. There was just less adventure for me, knowing what the ship offered. The food was sub par, except for the lobster and jumbo prawns. They were the most delicious thing I had ever had. Yummm! I'm no good at describing food, but I sure know how to enjoy it. Our waiter also serenaded me for my birthday, it was soo funny, I loved it. (There is also just a very humourous picture of one of my brother's desserts, it looked like a smiley face, hahaha!)

We also got to dress up for 2 formal nights, and took many many studio portraits. My favourite part (my brother's least favourite part). Funny story, we actually won our photos in a draw! They had this promotion where you had to take portraits at at least 4 different settings (there was no sitting fee, so you just have to line up for quite a bit). Once you had the signature from your 4 different photographers, you were entered into a draw to win $200 worth of photo merchandise. And we won! So we got our photos for free! Good deal, eh?

PS. My favourite part of any cruise is always the ship itself. I didn't write about the ports because they were each very similar, in that we simply got off, shopped at markets, and enjoyed some fresh air before returning to the ship. New England is beautiful, but honestly if you want to experience a certain place, don't cruise there. But as an FYI, our ship stopped in Halifax, Saint John, Bar Harbour, Boston, and Newport.

There you have it, a very late post about my cruise this summer. I miss summer already, boy did it ever fly by!

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