Cruisin...

On April 17th, David and I set sail on our first (and last) cruise. We decided it was time for us to go on a trip with just the two of us, and we decided to go on a cruise since neither of us had been on one before. We left on Saturday morning for a 5 night cruise that stopped in Progresso and Cozumel, Mexico. David has always wanted to go on a cruise, but I was a bit more hesitant. I am not a big fan of boats or open water, but I decided to give it a try.

Our cruise started off great. The first day David won us scalp massages in the spa, so we booked full body massages with facials to go with the scalp massages. We did some things on the boat during the first day at sea, and we both played our first game of black jack. (we started and ended with $10) We had the most fun laying out in the sun...it was very relaxing...especially when drinking a pina colada.

During our first port day we stopped in Progresso, Mexico. In stead of doing an excursion that day, we booked our spa appointments. It was a very relaxing morning of pampering. Afterwards we decided to get off the boat just to say we had been there.

The next day was our port day in Cozumel. This was by far our most favorite day. We got off the boat around 8:30 to go on our excursion. We took a catamaran out to a reef off the coast where we went snorkeling. It was so much fun. The water was so beautiful, and it was amazing to see all the fish under the water. We even got to see a HUGE school of fish. After snorkeling we took the catamaran to a private beach with all sorts of activities.

We did a little bit of shopping in Cozumel, and then we headed back to the boat. We had one more day at sea. It was such a calm day, the water was like glass.

Little did we know how our day would turn out. At 12:55pm the boat started leaning to one side. At first we didn't think anything of it, but then it just kept leaning. We were right beside the dining room where we could hear dishes slide off tables and breaking, and could see all the bottles and glasses break from a bar below us. Finally the boat settled back to level. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. I really thought we were about to tip over. After about 5 minutes, where everyone was freaking out, they came on the PA system and said the boat had to make a sudden turn to avoid a buoy. It was amazing how much stuff was damaged on the boat in such a short period of time. We were mostly amazed with how much stuff is not secured on the boat. The picture below is of the liquor store. The cabinets fell over, and people had to be shoved out of the way so they didn't fall on the shoppers.

While they kept telling us it was a buoy, we were all convinced the boat made a turn due to how close we were to these little small islands that were out in the gulf. Below is our path and the sudden turn was when we were right next to the green dots.

Here is a desk that slid all the way across a walk way and slammed into the outer wall. It put a rather large dent in the wall and broke the desk.

Every time the boat tilted at all after, I got a little paranoid, but thankfully everything was ok. Here is a picture of us with our wait staff. They were so nice, and made our dinner every evening very enjoyable.

All in all, it was a good trip, but I don't think we will ever go on another cruise. I'm not very sure David and I are "cruise" people...next time we will just fly to our destination.