Well, five days to be exact. We're back!
The cruise was amazing and way more insanely awesome then I had ever hoped! A lot of firsts happened over the course of our vacation and I'll never be able to put the entire experience into words.
As I mentioned before, our cruise was going to St John, New Brunswick, Canada and we set sail from NYC. It was really cool starting the journey in the city because we passed all of the major landmarks on our way to the Atlantic. We sat on the deck of the ship as the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the Freedom Tower (under construction) and the Statue of Liberty passed by. Our ship even went underneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which made everyone pause for a second and hold their breath as it looked as if we were going to clear it by a few feet. I'm sure we had plenty of room but from where we were sitting, it looked seriously sketchy. Very cool indeed.
The weather was a huge concern for us since we were heading north and had no idea what to expect. The weather reports all week leading up to the trip predicted terrible storms the entire time but we lucked out and missed all of the major thunderstorms by about thirty minutes during each leg of the trip. When we left NYC, everyone was out on deck enjoying the beautiful sunshine and the moment we could access our rooms,we went and got changed into our bathing suits and hit the pool and crazy-awesome-twisting water slide. About an hour later, we were leaning against the railing on the back of the ship, watching an insane thunderstorm wash over the city we had just left. The lightning was absolutely uncanny and we thanked our lucky stars our ship didn't have to pass through any of that. It was a perfect start to the trip. There was a lovely breeze and four of us stood at the back of the ship, watching mother nature's amazing light show do her thing as the sun went down.
A little sidenote about the water slide..... We had not gone into the pool yet and thought the water slide would be a perfect way to get acclimated to the chilly waters down below. This would have been a great plan had someone informed us the water in all of the pools was of the salt variety and not chlorine as we had thought and were prepared for. Nothing like being jettisoned down a huge plastic tube consisting of about six insane turns only to land in a huge wave as salt water blasts into your mouth and up your nose. I honestly thought I was going to die. It was disgusting and my lips tasted like a salt lick for hours afterward. Really would have appreciated a heads up about the salt water, just sayin'.
I'm not going to go into detail about everything we had done but it was definitely a blasty-blast. Picture a giant hotel on water that had a buffet, movie theater, casino, performance stage and mall all in one. All of the activities, shows and most of the food were included. We had nothing to worry about and spent our five days at sea relaxing. If we felt like seeing a show, we would go see a show. If we felt like taking a nap and skipping dinner, we'd go take a nap and grab some pizza for a late night snack and then walk around the ship at midnight while the rest of the passengers attended parties or slept. It was the most relaxing vacation one could ever ask for.
I wanted to get a couples massage with Joe at the on board spa but that service was around $300 bucks so we opted out of that. Joe and his father took an exclusive tour of the ship and got to meet the captain and while they did that, I hit up the spa for a cheaper, salon sampler and got good and pampered. I'd never been to a spa before so that was a lovely first.
I then reversed pretty much everything that I had done afterward because I'm an idiot. The guys weren't going to be done with their tour for another two hours so I thought I'd wait for them and get some sun. I changed into my bathing suit and put sunscreen on my face. I only protected my face because it was still early in the morning and the sky was quite overcast so I wasn't expecting to get too toasty. A two hour nap later and I woke up feeling very warm and uncomfortable and when I went back to my room I noticed I had managed to get quite crispy. And the sunblock I had put on my face failed me completely. I had worn my giant sunglasses I bought on our trip to Nebraska which only added to my overall ridiculous look. Now, I don't look nearly as bad as our friend Kim Kardashian here, but I certainly felt like I did:
So the mini facial I had just gotten at the spa was all for naught. I did get a nice foot massage though and luckily my toes didn't fry in the morning sun. I also received a hair conditioning treatment which consisted of oil being poured over my head as my hair was teased into what could only be described as the Trojan "blow your hair back" look:
I felt like I had a greasy rats nest hanging off of the back of my head and the oil was nearly impossible to rinse out. Two days later however, my hair feels luxurious. Luckily the oil was stronger then the morning sun and my hair didn't get bleached or fried from the product it was soaking in. I did rinse some of it out and put my hair in a nice braid so at least I didn't look a complete mess as I was baking by the pool.
Now I had asked a lot of people about their cruise experiences and the one thing I was really excited for was the towel animals. Yes, I'm lame, I cared about towel animals more then anything else. It was my first cruise ever and all I wanted to see each night was what towel animal would be awaiting me in our room. Well here they are:
Now, the monkey was not ours, they made different animals each night for everyone and Joe's father and sister got the monkey in their room. The other four animals are from our room and the only one we can really decipher is the seal on the bottom. It's a weird (almost phallic) seal but at least you can figure out what it's suppose to be. We think the first one is a bunny although it was the first animal we got on the trip so there's a chance it's suppose to resemble the whale-tail chimney on the back of the boat. The other two are just too asexual to figure out. I think the second one is a cat and the third possibly a bear? No idea. Joe's sister Marie even got an instructional book on making these creatures and the first three weren't even in it so who knows?
I had looked so forward to getting these animals that I had even put each one aside to keep it nice and safe in the hopes that I could line them all up at the end of the trip for a cute towel animal group shot. That's a waste of perfectly good towels apparently and each night we got back to the room to discover that evening's towel animal had replaced the one from the night before. Oh well.
In addition to the huge buffet, the ship had three restaurants and each night we'd all change into business casual attire and enjoy a nice meal together. There was eight of us in our group and each day we'd all go off and do our own thing so it was nice to sit down and talk about our day each night. The waitstaff was very nice and at the end of the meal they would put on a little show. The maitre d' would say "showtime" and the lights would flash and change color and then he would don a wig and sunglasses and walk around the restaurant singing to everyone. I wouldn't make such a big deal about this normally.... but the maitre d' looked and sounded like Borat, I kid you not.
Imagine this guy in a very nice nautical style suit singing "That's Amore" while the other members of the waitstaff stood around swinging linen napkins over their heads and singing along. It was hilarious and extremely weird. I mean really take a moment and think about that for a second. A grown man with a middle eastern accent, dressed in a curly wig, wearing sunglasses and singing an Italian song. Very odd/super awesome.
Now our voyage took us to St John where the big tourist attraction for the town was the Reverse Falls in the Bay of Fundy. Here's a video of the Falls:
I did not take this video so I apologize for the weird sounds in the background but that's what we saw. The video is actually a little better because when we visited it was extremely foggy and the visibility wasn't the best. But basically what happens each day, is the sea water from the Atlantic, pours into the freshwater bay and huge whirlpools are created throughout and the tides ebb and flow at tremendous heights and speeds. The video is taken at high tide and when we went the tide was low. Here's a picture from our trip-compare the distance of the water to the bridge between the video and the picture:
The dark line along the bottom of the rock face is the water line. The picture is taken from some distance away but the tides go up about 25 feet. Pretty crazy. The whirlpools were really fun to watch as well. Some were tiny little pools that looked like your sink draining after doing dishes while others were huge and would open up into gaping black holes that reminded me of the end of the Little Mermaid when Eric crashes the sunken ship into Ursula. None of them were big enough to actually swallow a ship but still, they were impressive.
We got to ride through the city in super cute double decker buses that were sponsored by the Canadian Breast Cancer Society and as such, were wrapped in super cute bright pink graphics. So fun! I even got a little model bus to add to my already "kitsched-out" desk at the office. It was a great trip. And riding a double decker bus-another first!
As many of you know, I love me some free swag. And when I travel, I always make it a point to bring my own toiletries so I can pocket the free stuff we're given by the hotel, or in this case, ship. Now when we arrived, I found a few sample lotions and hair care products and also a travel size bottle of this:
At first I was a little bummed that we had gotten name brand samples because I like getting trip specific swag, not stuff we could easily pick up in the super market. But thank you Carnival Cruiseline! After we got settled in at home I realized I wouldn't be able to use my regular shower gel because it had exfoliating beads in it that would positively destroy my sun burnt skin. So I pulled out the Caress sample I brought home from the ship and O.M.G!!!! The Velvet Bliss in Blackberry and Vanilla is my dream scent! It smells exactly like the beach! For years I have been trying to find that perfect sunblock that everyone else at the beach seems to be wearing and have never found anything that makes me smell like the perfect combination of sunkissed sands and tropical fruits. Until today. I am going to run to the nearest super market and pick up about 50 bottles of this body wash sent from the heavens! I'm telling you people, go get it. I've been home for a day and when I put that stuff on I felt like I was back on the lido deck catching some rays as the soothing ocean air swept over me. Just heaven I tell you! What a perfect way to come home from a vacation!
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