Spring Break or Bust 2007
Are you running low on funds and can't afford to go on Spring Break this year or are you in the work world and don't get the time off?
Well don't feel left out because this year you can cruise with Jen and her friends to Cozumel.
Where will they go, what will they do and who will they meet? To find out and share in their experiences you will have to check here for the daily travel updates.
Of course we can not guarantee the accuracy or authenticity of any of their stories because as they say "What happens in Cozumel, stays in Cozumel ".
Cruisin' to Cozumel Day One:
Like all good Spring Break trips this one had to start with a crisis. My five fellow cruisemates, Heather Shaver, Chelsy Bryan, Morgan Murphy, Chassidy Bryan, and Mandy Beaver were already on the road as of Wednesday night. Their 16 hour drive would land them in New Orleans in plenty of time to board the ship. Me, on the other hand, well I was skipping the drive and flying from Chicago to New Orleans. The girls called me when they headed out on the road. They had decorated the Shaver's Chevy Tahoe with shoe polish that read "five cruisebound hotties." They even wrote their names around a tire and at each stop whose ever's name was on the bottom got to pull a prize out of the prize bag. Needless to say they were making the most of their road trip.
Meanwhile, I was finishing packing and religiously checking the weather. Chicago had been beautiful the last three days leading up to the cruise. Temperatures were in the 70s. So of course, as my luck would go there were snow flurries on the night before I was supposed to fly out. I checked my flight one last time before going to bed and it was still on time for me to catch my connecting flight in Atlanta. I set an alarm to wake up at 4:30 a.m. I also told Morgan to call me and make sure I was up. At 4:30 a.m. I woke up and the first thing I had to do was check my flight. Sure enough it was delayed! Before I knew it I was on the phone with a Delta representative "politely" explaining to them that if I missed my connection I would miss the Carnival Fun Ship and they would be owing me some serious money.
What happened next was like a scene out of a movie. I was running out of my apartment at 4:45 a.m. dragging my luggage and hailing a cab while on the phone with Morgan explaining to her my situation. I've never felt more like a big city girl. It was a slight miracle when a cab happened to be driving by at that very moment. I told him I had to get to Midway airport as fast as humanly possible to which he replied "Baby you hailed the right cab, I can get you there in 20 minutes." Just so you know I live at least 45 minutes away from Midway Airport, but 20 minutes later I was at the gate. Don't worry I tipped him very well--$8 to be exact. When I told Morgan about my huge tip, she replied "But JT, that's a drink on the ship!" It seemed she already had her priorities in order.
Five hours and two time zone changes later I was reunited with my girls in time to board the boat. Yay! Disaster averted. Step one for me and my stressful day was to hug the girls I hadn't seen since Christmas and of course get a drink! We took the time to unpack, partake in a Muster session where you learn what to do in the "unlikely event" that the boat sinks, and take showers before heading out to explore the boat. Our first run-in was with an older group of women who had coincidentally passed the girls on the drive down. "Are you the hotties from Kansas??" they asked. On our first night we had already found what would be our surrogate mothers during the cruise.
On our first boat explorations, we found a piano bar called Cleopatra's and immediately decided it would be our pre-drinking spot before each dinner. The singer Michael, seemed to enjoy our company as well. The bar was full, but we were the only ones singing and clapping along. I have to admit, though, we started drinking a bit too early our first night. This became veryevident at our first dinner. I seriously felt sorry for any table sitting around us. Maybe it was the drinks or I guess it could have been the fact that I hadn't seen my good friends in so long but we didn't hold back. From singing and screaming to bouts of laughter, we definitely made our presence known. The highlight for most of us came after ordering. Somewhere in between the appetizer and salad Mandy decided she didn't want anything-but chocolate cake. "I don't need this lettuce, I don't want no steak or salmon, I don't need any of it. Whatever I ordered cancel it. I don't need any of it. Just bring me some chocolate cake!" We all sat in shock as she said this to the waiter. Maybe you had to be there, but we laughed until we cried when the rest of us were served our steak and salmon and the waiter placed chocolate cake in front of her. I knew then that these were the right girls to go on vacation with. Something told me this might just be better than Vegas.
But the night didn't end at dinner. We followed our meal with some karoake with fellow spring breakers who had traveled from Kentucky. Who knew Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" could be so entertaining? After singing and dancing we headed to Electricity Discotheque--the ship's dance club. As Morgan would say "we drank and danced the night away."
Already the drama from my early morning flight change and the girls' 16 hourdrive didn't matter. We were having a blast!
Photo Cutlines:
Top Picture: Our first not-so-formal dinner. Me, Morgan and Chels with Heather laying across our laps (and for the life of me I can't remember why she is doing that)
Bottom Picture: The whole gang at Cleopatra's the Piano bar. (L to R) Heather Shaver, Chassidy Bryan, Mandy Beaver, Chelsy Bryan, me, and Morgan Murphy.
Cruisin' to Cozumel Day Two:
I have to give it to her. Heather is a dedicated woman, especially when it comes to her suntanning. Not only did bring along a clock and set alarm to get up the next day, but she was actually up and out the door before the alarm went off. She secured six chairs up on the second floor of the Lido deck overlooking the stage where the live band played, and the pool. That made it a heck of a lot easier for me when I finally got out of bed at 10:30 a.m. to join the rest of the girls for a day of laying out in the Caribbean sun.
Luckily at 1 p.m., just when we were starting to get bored, the cruise entertainers organized a contest. They needed volunteers, Heather obliged. I'd like to hope that if she knew what she'd have to do, she might have not volunteered, but I think she kind of enjoyed it.
The contest was a hairiest man contest. Heather and five other unlucky women had to be the judges. Unfortunately this meant they had to rub the hairy men down with big chunks of ice left over from the ice sculpture made earlier that afternoon, and dance with them. Heather made the best of it, but failed to win the prize for the craziest judge. Since the prize was a "solid gold 15 karat 100% plastic ship on a stick trophy" she wasn't exactly broken up about it. After a break from the sun we cleaned ourselves up and surveyed the damage.
I managed to get sunburn only on my right side, which is just fabulous! Yeah, not really, especially on Formal Dinner night. But regardless of a little red skin me and the girls got all dolled up and headed to the Captain's Ball for complimentary drinks. All of the ships captains and engineers were introduced. After which a group of Spring Breakers in front of us pointed out "Hey if they're all here, who's driving the boat?"
Oh well, we decided not to worry about things we can't help and headed to our favorite pre-dinner spot--Cleopatra's, the piano bar. After singing some good 'ole Billy Joel tunes we headed to dinner. We were much tamer this time around, to the delight of our waiter.
Following dinner we decided to partake in the ship's Mardi Gras party. It started in the piano bar, so we figured, hey, why not. Tex, the ship's entertainment director, who was ironically, from Texas, split the bar into two teams and said we'd be in competition for the evening. We were the smaller, but mightier red team. Competition One was to see who could sing the "lalalas" in Crocodile Rock. After a couple tries at the chorus Tex and the other cruise directors decided that the red team had won and in turn would get beads. "I think the red team has the ix drunk girls in the front to thank for that," Tex said as he passed out the beads to us. Of course all of us immediately yelled back, "But we're not even drunk yet." I think both us and Tex knew we were all in for a long night.
The party then moved upstairs to another bar. The second bar, called the Forum, was in kind of a hallway near the casino. The party seemed to double in size as it made its way to the Forum, so we were pretty much taking up the entire hall. This competition would win the teams beads and the winning players drinks. With free drinks in mind Heather and Mandy bot immediately volunteered. Since the lady from the blue team that volunteered was pushing 60, we pretty much knew a win was in the bag. While the blue team woman did "win" a complimentary free drink for playing, Heather took the prize that night, and of course the drink. The rest of us settled for more beads.
Next the party moved into the Cat's Lounge to listen to the live band. We danced and sang with band whiel earning more beads. Eventually the party moved next door to the Electricity Discotheque where we learned some new dances. Chelsy's favorite was the Cupid Shuffle. It was easy enough for even uncoordinated people to do drunk. Not that any of us are uncoordinated though. We also learned some new dance moves from our new friends from Texas--Marcus, Eris, and Jamar. Eventually that night we also finally met up with our fellow travellers from Emporia, Eric Peterson, Tyler Wray, Chris Lucas and Kyle Stout. Morgan found out just a few weeks before the trip that her fellow ESU classmates were on the same trip. It really is a small world,isn't it?
We tried our hardest to turn in early, since the next day was Cozumel day, but in the end we figured sleep was overrated, and there would be time for that when we got back home. So, we drank and danced the night away, only to get up a few short hours later and head out to explore the beauty that is Cozumel!
Photo Cutlines:
Top Picture: Heather is on the far left (in the yellow suit) trying her best to be the craziest judge in the Hairiest Man contest.
Middle Picture: Morgan, me and Chelsy showing off our fancy do's and burnt skin before formal dinner.
Bottom Picture: Heather, Chelsy, Morgan and Chass dancing the night away at Electricity Discotheque!!
Cruisin' to Cozumel Day Three:
Ladies and Gentlemen we finally made it to MEXICO and on St. Patrick's Day no less!! And I'm almost embarrassed to admit that in our one day in Cozumel my feet never touched sand. In fact, I don't think I ever even saw a beach. Go figure.
The boat docked bright and early at 8 a.m.and people were lined up to get outside, but we didn't get up and mosey off the boat until about 10 a.m. What can I say, we were all a little tired, although Chass and Mandy were off the boat at 9 a.m. and we never ran into them in Mexico. Since we only had until 4:30 p.m. when we had to be back on the boat we thought we'd get the business out of the way first--souvenirs. Heather, Chelsy, Morgan and Iheaded right across the street from the port and did our shopping. Just when we were ready to head out and explore Cozumel, we stumbled upon somethingwonderful. A little "hot dog" stand serving chips and salsa and 2 cans of Corona for $3. Yes, that's right $3. We ended up making friends with some older couples also visiting Mexico. The patio we were sitting at turned outto be the place women parked their husbands as they did their shopping. We seemed happy to be their entertainment. Almost three hours later we finally wondered to Carlos 'n Charlies.
To our surprise the waiter we got at the bar was the same waiter the girls had at the same bar last year when they were on a cruise. It's probably a good thing he didn't remember them though. Heather said last year they ran out of money to pay their huge tab! Oops!! This year, we weren't going to be there long enough to rack up a large tab. We had exactly one hour and 30 minutes to enjoy the wonder that was a bar in Mexico and I'm proud to say wemade the best of it.
From the time we walked in the door we were dancing on benches and tables, that is until Heather was told to get down because it was unsafe. After 20 minutes of her dancing on the table we didn't think it made much sense, but whatever, this is Mexico. We each ordered a "yard" tall drink, but after all the Coronas I don't think anyone needed it, especially Chelsy. At some point in our short time there we started a popcorn fight with our waiter. It finally climaxed with us throwing bowls of popcorn at each other. Needless to say a mess was made. So, when our waiter came over and handed a broom to Chelsy, she obliged. I think she spent the rest of her time in Mexicosweeping, dancing and singing her heart out! Every table was watching and cheering her on. Even when they tried to take the broom away from her she'd snatch it back and keep sweeping. "My mother would be so proud of me! I never clean at home." she said, at least a million times.
After a while we started to notice that no one from our ship was left in the bar and since none of us had watches, we thought it might be time to head back to the port. After paying our tab and saying goodbye to our waiter, weran out and headed to the boat. When we tried to cross the street a crossing guard began blowing a whistle at us. Chelsy was already half way across, so she ran for it. Heather got stuck in the median and Morgan and I went backto the other side. Heather and Chelsy danced along the street with the crossing guard chasing them and blowing her whistle while Morgan and I laughed and watched hoping they wouldn't get arrested. Somewhere down the line we got separated.
About an hour later we found them on the deck of the ship. Morgan and I were relieved when we found out Heather and Chelsy had run into our "surrogate mothers" from the first night and they helped them get back to the boat safely. "People were looking at us as we were stumbling around and the mom's just kept saying 'They're really good girls, they just had too much too drink,'" Chelsy said.
Since we hadn't really spent much time in the sun Heather, Morgan and I decided to lay out on the deck for a while, while Chelsy went back for to the room to recouperate. Sure enough the ship's director hap planned an activity and who better to volunteer than Heather. This time it was synchronized swimming, with girls versus boys. Now, usually you'd think girls would automatically win that category, but this was not the case. Although the girls did have some original moves, the boys were hilarious. Their finale was a slow motion version of the macarena. The even dove down and did scissor-kicks with their legs in the air. Flippin' sweet. After their hilarious performance they each won "Ships on a Stick." Since some of the boys that volunteered were the Emporia guys, we ended up with two of their trophies because they didn't want them. Hey it's a free souvenir, what's better than that?
After we recouperated from our long day we got ready for dinner. You'd think by this time we'd be running out of steam, but this dinner was just as loud and crazy as the rest of them, thanks again to Mandy. I can't really say anything more than just that that girl is one of the most hilarious people I've ever met. I truly wish I could take her with me everywhere I go! From the things that come out of her mouth to the things she does with her feet at the dinner table, it's nothing but non-stop laughs.
As the tradition with all of our nights on the ship, it was spent drinking and dancing the night away with our friends Eris, Jamar and Marcus from Texas, as well as our fellow Emporians. And of course perfecting our new dance moves. I couldn't even tell you how late we stayed out because well, I didn't know what time it was during the entire trip, but it's safe to say it was another late night. That of course, still wouldn't keep us from getting up early for our last day of fun in the sun, though.
Photo Cutlines:
Top Picture: Heather, Morgan and I with a man who takes St. Patrick's day very seriously.
Picture Two: Chelsy, Me, Morgan and Heather in Mexico! The water is soooo blue.
Picture Three: Chelsy and Heather with some of their new friends.
Bottom Picture: Morgan and I working on "the Yard" at Carlos 'n Charlies.
Cruisin' to Cozumel Day Four:
On our last and final day on the ship the number one priority was sun, followed by a close second, drinks. We got up early and headed out to claim our spot on the top floor of the Lido deck overlooking the stage. We laid there all day, drinking and listening to the band, until we got burnt. We took breaks only to eat, which is where we ran into our surrogate mothers one last time. "you girls have been so fun," they told us. "We hope we see you on the drive home!"
After eating we decided to make one last lap around the ship to take pictures and meet up with our Tecas friends, Eris, Jamar and Marcus. I was in a search for the front of the ship so I could have a Titanic moment, but as it turns out, only the people that work on the ship can get to it. Darn the luck.
Before going back to the room to pack we had to go down to the information desk to see how much money we had left on our Sail and Sign cards. On the first day we loaded up our cards with cash and anything we bought on the ship was deducted from our card. Since all any of us had bought on the ship was alcohol, we thought we'd be okay, but I guess those $7 Fun Ship Specials add up quick because most of us were down to nothing with one whole night left of drinking to be done! Whatever would we do?
Chelsy and Heather had the answer. "Why don't we buy bottles of alcohol and make our own drinks!" We headed to the Galleria on the ship to check out the liquor store. To our delight, a huge bottle of vodka, one that would normally take us a few weekends to finish, was only $15. That's like half-price! So, Morgan and Heather bought some vodka and Chelsy and I bought some orange vodka. When we went to pay, the man at the register informed us that opened bottles of alcohol could not be taken off the ship. "So you're saying we have to drink all this tonight?" Heather asked him. The answer was of course yes, to which Chelsy then said "Well girls, looks like it's gonna be a long night!"
Sure enough it was! We headed to the cafeteria to get free juice. Each filling up at least two or three cups of juice and cups of ice for each of us and then we headed to our room to start in on the bottles of alcohol before dinner. We called Mandy and Chass' room to tell them our plan. They of course volunteered to help us.
What was even better was what we found when we got to our room! While back in the room on a sunbreak earlier in the day the girls and I ran into the guys who work on the ship and make up our room. Every night they had made a towel animal for us, usually an elephant. We thought we'd make a request. "Can you make us a monkey?" Heather asked them. They kind of looked at us like we were crazy, but they came through! Hanging from my bunk was what I can only guess was supposed to be a towel monkey. We named him Mr. Jingles and he became the mascot for the night.
After two more trips upstairs for juice and at least 3/4 of a bottle of vodka later we headed to dinner. We were almost rowdier our last night than we had been the first night, thanks again in part to Mandy and her antics. Although the girls were itching to get back to the room and drink, I made us stay to see the waiters sing. I guess we saw them sing the first night, but I must have missed it somehow. After dinner it was back to the room. I'm proud, but almost embarrassed to admit we finished off both bottles of vodka before heading out that night. This time there was no bar hopping, it was straight to the Electricity Discotheque and the dancing began. Our friends Eris, Jamar and Marcus danced with us for most of the night. We also got to spend some more time with the E-town boys, Tyler, Eric, Kyle and Chris.
Somewhere in there things began to get a little fuzzy. I think we all knew we'd had enough when we looked over and saw Heather stealing a pitcher of water off of a waiter's cart. They decided to call it a night, but Chass and I figured we only had a few hours left before reality would set in, so we continued to party with Kyle and Tyler. It turns out they had the same idea we did about buying their own alcohol, except they'd been smart enough to do it all week. But then again boys are always thinking ahead when it comes to their alcohol. Chass, the boys and I walked around the boat taking some pictures before finally heading to our rooms. By now it would only be a few short hours before we'd be getting up to get off the boat.
When I walked into the room it was dark, so I assumed everyone was sleeping, but as I crawled into bed I heard Chelsy. "Where have you been?!" I told I had been with her sister and the E-town boys. "You got my sister drunk didn't you! Now we're gonna have to take care of her tomorrow! Thanks JT!"
Oh well, I guess Chass can sleep it off in the car and I can sleep on the plane, right?
Top picture: We're finally done sunbathing!
Pic two: Chass, Heather and Freddy Fun Ship
Pic three: Our final dinner.
Bottom picture : Emporia People
Cruisin' to Cozumel Day Five:
After the late night fun on the boat it was almost painful to get up at 7 a.m. A man was announcing when each deck would be released. The girls and I got up and dressed, packed and all ready to go before laying back down. I went to Chass and Mandy's room to check on them and saw the longest line I think I've ever seen, of people waiting to get off the boat. I went back and told the girls we'd have a while to wait, so we all went back to sleep.
I'm fairly certain that we were the last people on our floor to leave our room. We tried to sleep, but the announcer was relentless. Every 20 minutes he was saying something that none of us wanted to hear. We finally got up and started heading upstairs to get off the boat about an hour after the announcer had first released our floor. Almost every other room on our floor had already been cleaned and was ready for the next group of guests. As we made our way out of the boat we took one last look around. After going through customs we met up with Chass and Mandy and I had to say my goodbyes. It wasn't easy, but then again leaving your best friends never is. I think we would have been more emotional about it if we hadn't been so tired. I gave all of them one last hug and then got on my shuttle to head to the airport.
Four naps, two flights, one layover, one delay and one very long train ride later I was finally home.
"Yay! I get my roommate back!" was the first thing I heard from my roommate Jessie, when I walked in the door. I called the girls to tell them I'd made it home and see how their drive was going. It wasn't exactly as fun the second time around. By about 11 p.m. that night they sent me a text message that read "Your Dorothy's and finally back in Kansas! We miss you already!
Cruise part 2 next Spring Break??"
Sounds like a plan to me girls! So, until next time....
Pic One: Us with Marcus, Eris and Jamar
Pic Two: Chass, Heather and her pitcher of water!