Malena Cruise 2009 - Post Mortem

The cruise is over, it's been a few days, and so I thought it time to post my thoughts.

Chris and Kevin (my son and his friend): They were a blast. I rarely had to rear the "dad" figurehead during the trip. I was able to be "one of the guys", thanks mostly to these two. Their youthful presence and antics kept things moving nicely. On the ship, they took advantage of all the things available to them (and a few not meant for them as they were under 18, but... anyway...).

The ship: Carnival's "Glory" was a great vessel. After getting used to where you did and did not have the ability to "get through" on certain decks, it was easy to navigate. A floating 12 story building with everything you needed to survive and enjoy time away from reality. Food everywhere, fun events for various age groups, and sushi (I took advantage of this almost every night, oh yeah).

Excursions: With very little in the way of "problems", we had a ton of fun at our ports.

Cozumel: We took a taxi ride to a tiny dock and after some brief shopping, went to our boat (upgraded from the small one we were scheduled for - I believe they just consolidated two tour groups - we lost the glass-bottom in favor of a large catamaran and an extra stop on the tour). We snorkeled at three locations, including over a US Destroyer that was part of the coral infrastructure. We got a ton of photos and videos during the stop (my new underwater camera worked quite well, definitely worth the $149 investment for the photos and video I got from it!).

Belize: We were wisked away in a van (which could not drive in a straight line, but the guy was speeding the entire way anyway... ugh) on a ONE HOUR DRIVE (good Lord!) to a preserve where we proceeded to cave tube (after a long nature walk) and then zip line through the forest (after a high staircase hike, ugh!). I was and am out of shape, so the walking and hiking killed me, but after I revived, it was very fun. The cave tubing was odd, as it was many times in less than 6 inches of water, so we got stuck several times. The zip lining's last leg ended up with about 20 people on the last tree, waiting to get down via rope tether (took about 20+ minutes standing there to get down). This was probably the "least run" leg of the trip, but it was not "bad", just a bit tedious.

Isla Roatan: We walked a couple hundred yards to just outside the cruise ship terminal area (a brand new one) to meet with our tour guides. As we were the first ones there, we were given the smaller vehicle for just the three of us, which ended up pretty awesome (the rest of the group was in a bus). We ended up chauffeured around by a nice woman who gave us details about their tiny island, economy, points of interest, etc. We started by petting the monkey (you need to see the pics), were driven up a "mountain" (large hill) to the top of the jungle "canopy" where we walked to the top of a tree (thank you!!) to begin our zip line adventure. This was 10x better than Belize in every way, even when my foot hit a branch (nice scars!) and I lost a water shoe on the next leg (one guide went back and got it for me, awesome). I took some good pics and video here. It was very fast paced, and we could do it one-armed so I could use the camera more freely. The boys and I could go upside down, twist around, etc. The zip lining could have been all we did and we would have been happy. But then our guide took us to two private beach resorts (both were very vacant so we were either alone or with very few people). Swimming, snorkeling, discovering what appeared to be a sand dollar not yet "flat" (see pics - I brought this sand dollar turtel shell looking thing home with me...), and a brief stop at an internet terminal to contact family were the events for the afternoon. Then we were taken to a couple shopping areas where we bought gifts and momentos. This was an awesome excursion!!

Grand Cayman: Our last cruise stop began with a bus ride to the northside marina on the island, where we took a boat out to the open ocean... where we ended up at a 4-foot deep sand bar. It was very weird being so far from shore, and standing in the middle of the water. But more importantly, we were surrounded by stingrays, which was truly awesome. They swam (or swarmed?) around us, and we picked them up, fed them, kissed them, watched the tour guide stick one of their barbs into his mouth (stupid) to prove we weren't going to be "Steve Irwin'd", and generally just had a blast interacting with these awesome lifeforms. Having your thumb almost ingested by one of these was intersting as well (they didn't just want the squid I was feeding them...). One tour guide had his nipple "bit" by one which was very funny! Then we went to two more snorkeling stops (found another sting ray by itself which I filmed). The snorkeling was fun, and probably the best visual features of all the excursions. The boys were "freezing cold" on the way back (poor guys). This was a great wrap up to our cruise stops.

The cruise home: Food, fun, sun, whirlpool to loosen up the overused muscles... it was great. More sushi. Overeating at dinner (we thought). I ended up losing 8 pounds on this trip, so obviously food intake (as much as we were eating) was superceded by the exertion on our excursions. I mean, I would order plentiful appetizers and main courses with extra portions ("yes, I'd like two lobster tails with that"), and the boys put me to shame, yet we came out ahead.

The boys whined/"cried" multiple times during the drive home from Miami (playfully, but still... it was pretty pathetic... in a good way). I told them I had a Visa and we could turn around and go again... but alas, logic prevailed. We got home and were content with our memories.

For pics (and eventually video), visit my family website and click the Media link. www.malena.net