Sunday Night

While we were getting ready for the formal night, we did have the game on and saw the last few disappointing minutes. Once we were ready we went down for dinner and ran into Nancy who had a table for 4 with the her and Rick, Ally and Rich. We asked the Maitre d if we could join them and he put another table up and we joined them for dinner. Dinner was lots of fun and the dessert was great.

Here is Karen’s love boat dream.

Here is mine.

After dinner we all made our way up to club fusion to play Jeopardized Gameshow. Like trivia you can have teams of 6, so we were all a team. I hate to say we were the loud obnoxious group but we were. Sean and Jorge were the cruise director staff on our side and so we wanted to help them have the loudest side. I have to admit it was lots of fun. It also helped that we were doing good – in fact we got every question right. Then we bet all our money on the final question and got that one right too. Then the announcement of the prizes came – first of all the table with the most spirit – we lost we could not believe it, we by far were the most obnoxious table. But then they announced the winner and it was us. We were told we could not win both prizes, but were really the table with the most spirit as well. Our prize was a bottle of Champaign, which Ally took with her, and we never saw it again. :) It was fun to be the winner.

After Jeopardy was the first heat of Princess Pop Star – the ship’s passenger singing competition. In Alaska it was like pulling teeth to find people to compete, but on this cruise people were coming out of the woodwork and they were good. The first singer was Chantelle and she was good, I mean really good. You could tell she was a professional singer. Once I got home, I found her online and she has quite the story, here is her Wiki entry….

Chantelle Barry is a Perth, Australia-born singer-songwriter and actress best known for being in the original line up of girl group Bardot before departing in sudden and controversial circumstances only weeks after the group was formed on the first season of the Australian version of Popstars.

Rumors in magazines and newspapers suggested that Barry had been caught stealing items from other members (whom at the time were forced to live together) and was ordered to leave the group. Barry remained silent on the issue until 2006, when she appeared on the program Where Are They Now to speak for the first time about the incident, in which she claimed to have accidentally kept member Sophie Monk's money allowance with the intention of giving it back to her, but forgot to do this and was therefore removed from the group. She was replaced by Tiffani Wood in the final line up.

Leaving Australia after the scandal, during the next few years Barry continued making inroads with her music and acting career, appearing in a number of independent films and in small roles on the television series Water Rats, General Hospital, Entourage and How I Met Your Mother. She also placed 3rd in the Song of the Year songwriting contest, and reached the quarter-finals in the Music Nation online music competition. Barry also appeared in a pictorial for FHM in the months after leaving Bardot, and made a more recent appearance for the magazine in 2007.

Barry currently plays the recurring role of Nina, a friend of main character Naomi Clark on the television series 90210.

In August 2009, she officially launched her debut solo album 'Simple Things' in the U.S.

After Chantelle sang her boyfriend Scott Whyte sang Suspicious Minds by Elvis. It was so great, so funny. He did a total Elvis impression and was all over the stage talking to different people and just being entertaining. It ends up he is an actor and has been in several shows and movies. Here is his wiki entry...

Scott Whyte (born January 8, 1978 in Manhattan Beach, California) is an American actor who is best known for his role on City Guys where he portrayed Chris, one of the main characters. He has also appeared in other TV series such as That '70s Show, and Just Shoot Me!, as well as appearing in the films D2: The Mighty Ducks and its sequel, D3, although as different characters.

Whyte has spent his entire life living in the South Bay of California. Whyte, always interested in the arts, has been leaping from one form to the other, having spent time in animation along with playing music, all while maintaining an acting career. Whyte also attended the University of Southern California briefly until he landed a starring role on NBC’s City Guys. Whyte made his film debut in the Mel Gibson/Kurt Russell feature Tequila Sunrise. At age ten, after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, Whyte figured he could become the next Indiana Jones. But after breaking his wrist swinging from a tree, he set his sights on the goal of becoming an actor, so that he "could do all those fun things and not get hurt." He landed his first part at the age of 13, appearing in a commercial for Pop Tarts, and later appeared in the television series That '70s Show, Just Shoot Me!, The Nanny, Full House, Locals and TNBC's Hang Time, along with hosting the television series Chicken Soup for the Soul, based on the best selling books. His current films include Reeker, The Fallen Ones, Voodoo Moon, All In, and Death Row.

You never know who you meet on a cruise.

Linda was another contestant. She was so cute, so sweet and so nervous. She started singing and she was so quiet and timid. Then her boyfriend Steve ran on stage and started dancing to take the pressure off of her and to encourage her. It totally boosted her confidence and she did much better from that point on. Steve’s dancing left a little to be desired, but everyone thought he was great for helping Linda out.

Marcus was another singing who was such a hoot. He was trying to get the crowd involved and having a great time. Of course there was a person or two who really should not be singing, but over all it was a really talented group. Chantelle won that round and a place in the finals.

After pop star we headed up to Skywalkers, which was really full. The cruise director’s staff was up there and we chatted and hung with some of them for a while. We also spent some time with Linda and Steve.

Here is Karen with Linda and Steve.

Here is Linda, Karen and I. It was another fun and late night. :)

Sunday February 1, 2009, Superbowl Sunday

Our first full day on the ship was a day at sea. I slept in that morning. Karen was good and actually got up and worked out in the morning. I have no idea what time she got up since I slept through it all – this would be true each morning of the cruise. I would sleep threw all the noise we heard in our cabin and Karen getting up and Karen would wake up with any little noise.

After getting up, getting ready and eating breakfast we went to the morning trivia contest. At trivia you can be on teams of up to 6 people and questions range from very easy to very hard. Some people take trivia seriously – very seriously to win the lucrative prize of luggage tags or if you are really lucky a princess tote bag. Other people, like me just like to have fun. Since it was superbowl bowl Sunday there were some football questions peppered in with the regular questions. Trevor was the host of the game. One of the questions was who is the only NFL team to have a perfect season. I called out the Lions – to commemorate the 2008 0-16 season –prefect losing season. Trevor laughed and said no, perfect winning season. Karen and I had joined with one other couple and we did decent, but did not win.

After the trivia game I went up to Trevor and asked him if he had been on the Star Princess in September. He replied that he had been the naturalist, he went on to say something about his fiancé and I said Becky? He gave me a strange look and I went on to explain I had heard they were dating. He also said that I was the first person to recognize him. We chatted for a bit and as I walked away I began to think, he must think I am some kind of crazy stalker passenger that I knew who was dating, since I did not explain how I knew. I thought maybe I should explain to him the next time I saw him how I knew.

After trivia we hung out at the indoor pool for awhile. Here we are. We then grabbed some lunch and headed over to Club Fusion to watch the Superbowl. We had made arraignments to watch the game with Nancy, Rick, Ally and Rich, and some of their friends. When we got there, Ally was holding the table for everyone and we sat and chatted with her for a while. The rest of the gang joined us by the start of the game. Rich was a huge Cardinals fan since he had lived in Arizona for a while, so we decided to cheer for the Cardinals (obviously we didn’t care a ton.) Pretty early on it became evident that the feed we were getting did not include the superbowl commercials. I was pretty bummed since that is my favorite part of the game. It was fun to watch the game with a big crowd of people.

Here are some pictures of everyone watching the game. The half time show was good – Journey performed and we really enjoyed it. I love “Don’t stop believing.”

That night was the first of the formal nights on the cruise, so we left during the 3rd quarter to go back to the cabin and get ready for dinner. We did have the game on and saw the disappointing last few seconds. We continued to get ready for the night a head…..

Day 1 – January 31, 2009

The first thing we did on the ship was take part of the Treasure Hunt. Basically you picked up a card that had 10 different locations for you to find and get a stamp for. This brought you around to all the major public places of the ship and was a great way to help you get to know the ship. For me the nice thing was that the ship was similar to the Star and so I felt like I knew where most things were. Karen and I were able to find all the place and got all our stamps.

So it was time for the muster drill. Our muster station was in the Theater and we filed in. A few rows ahead of us where a couple who had just gotten married, in fact she was still in her dress carrying her bouquet. After the muster drill we brought our life jackets back to the cabin, and then headed up to the Sail Away party. It was located at the aft of the ship. Before the festivities really started I quick made my last phone calls for a whole week. When I got outside to the party I saw that Odysea was the band – they were one of the bands on the Alaskan cruise and I had enjoyed them. It does not hurt that the lead singer has kind of a Jon Bon Jovi look.

Here is Odysea performing.
A closer look. Another angle with the crowd in the background. Here is a view of San Pedro as we left. The Cruise Director staff was part of the sail away program. They announced the winners of the Treasure Hunt – which sadly was not us. One of the guys of the Cruise Director Staff looked familiar to me. I knew he was not on the Cruise Director Staff in Alaska, so I just thought he must look like someone I know.

Here is a view of the ocean as we hit the open sea. Here is another. After the sail away we went back to the cabin and unpacked, then went to dinner. One difference between the Star and the Sapphire were the anytime dining rooms. On the Star there were larger dining rooms with tables that sat 8-10 – the Sapphire had 4 small specialty restaurants. Each of them served the same menu on each of the different theme nights, but each one had specialty items that were always available. These rooms had a bunch of small tables and Karen and I ended up eating dinner alone each night. Meeting other people at diner was such a highlight of Alaskan cruise, I really missed it in Mexico.

On the first night we went to diner and on the menu was a Pina Colada soup. I had to try that and laughed when it came out in a glass with a straw.

Here is a picture of my soup (yes I know I look very tired) After dinner we went to the “Sapphire Show” which is a welcome show that highlights some of the performers and the ship’s singers and dancers. One of the singers had also been on the Star, Becky Allen, she is a great singer and I had enjoyed her performances a ton in September. I was excited to see she was on this cruise as well. Once I saw her, all of a sudden it hit me, on who the familiar looking crew member on the Cruise Director Staff, her finance Trevor – who was the naturalist in Alaska. Another Star crew member had mentioned they were dating during that cruise and it made sense that they were both now on the Sapphire. During the show I also found out that Steve Moris, one of the comedians from the Star was on the ship too – I still laugh at his Little Bunny FooFoo act and looked forward to seeing that again.

After the show we went up to skywalkers for a little while and then back to the room to get some sleep.

Getting on the Sapphire Princess – January 31, 2009

I am not sure I can adequately describe our first time meeting Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick. We found them down in the lobby and Nancy quickly ushered us all over to the shuttle. Thankfully she had made a reservation for us the day before and so we could all go over together. Within the first few minutes we heard about their adventures the night before which consisted of Ally biting into glass when she took a bite of the hotel’s complementary cookie and the whole group getting pulled over for speeding on the way back from picking up Ally and Rich at the airport. They were all so animated and gregarious; I knew we were in for great, amusing week.

Once we got to the sapphire, Karen was stunned by the sheer size of the ship. It is pretty impressive to see this huge vessel, our home for the next week.

We stayed with the group as we moved through the check in process, and then went over to a waiting area for our group to be called. Nancy and Rick were giving a lower number then the rest of us. When they were called they had us come with them so that we could stay together as a group. We made our way through the building, stopping to get the obligatory pictures taken and then onto the ship.

The first thing you do when boarding the ship is get your “mug shot” taken for security. As you enter the ship they take your room key card and digitally embed your picture so that they have a visual reference of you when you get back on the ship in the different ports. It is reassuring to know that Princess takes security that seriously.

After we got through security we went to the Emerald deck, down to cabin 107 and entered our cabin. It was so funny how the little things can make such a big difference. Our cabin was on the odd side of the ship or starboard side. On the Alaskan cruise we were on the port side, so basically the room was the exact opposite and I will be honest, I never got used to it the entire week. Once we got to our room we decided to take some pictures of it. One question I kept getting over and over again after the last cruise was how small are the rooms? So I took lots of pictures to show the room.

Here are the beds and nightstands. The desk/vanity/TV area. The desk area showing the hall with me standing in it looking at the pictures I just took.The closet. The cupboard with shelves – there is lots of storage space. The bathroom – which is admittedly pretty small. The sink/counter with some nice shelves for stuff. To get a really good idea of how small the shower is, I thought I would demonstrate by standing in it. And here I am in the shower with my foot on the toilet. After we checked out the room we went to go explore the ship before the muster drill.

LA/San Pedro - January 30-31, 2009

We left Detroit at 5:40 pm and flew to Phoenix where we had a short layover. While we were in Phoenix I got a phone call. As soon as we booked the cruise I checked out the roll call on Cruise Critic to “get to know” some of the people taking the cruise with us before we left. At one point Ally asked if anyone was interested in taking a sail boat, whale watching tour in Mazatlan. Karen and I decided that is sounded like fun and joined Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick on the tour. Prior to leaving we all emailed to start to get to know each other. Nancy had offered to pick us up from LAX. Anyone who knows me at all, knows I like to be in control of things, especially things as important as getting myself to where I need to be. So many of my friends were very surprised to hear that I had agreed to let someone I did not know pick me up from the airport. Well, as we were sitting in the phoenix airport Nancy called and told me she had misjudged the time and now could not pick us up. Now normally something like this would totally freak me out… But thanks to another trait of my, obsessive planning for every possible scenario, I had a back up plan of a shuttle that you did not need reservations for at the airport that would take us to the hotel. Karen was so surprised I was not freaking out.

Our flight from Phoenix left at 8:08 pm and we were just an hour away from LA. Flying into Los Angeles in the dark was an interesting experience. I have flown into big cities before, New York and London, but I was blown away by the size of the LA area, the lights from the city when on and on and on. It was like there was no end. I was really surprised about it. After another smooth landing we were here!! We got off the plane, collected our luggage and found the shuttle.

I had to commemorate my arrival.
Here are Karen and I outside the airport.
Originally we were going to stay in a hotel near the airport, but after talking to Nancy I decided to try my luck at priceline to get a room close to the pier in San Pedro. I was able to get a super deal on priceline and a room at the San Pedro Double tree was cheaper then one right by the hotel and it was much nicer. So we got into the shuttle and took about a 20 minute ride to the hotel.

We checked into the hotel with no problem and went up to our room.

Here is the room. The nice “sweet dreams” pillow. The other side of the room. The view of the marina in the dark. By the time we got into our room it was getting late – it was probably only midnight California time, but since we were still on Eastern time, it was 3 am. So we went to sleep.

Karen woke up much earlier then I did and took some pictures of the sun rising over the marina.
Look at all those boats. I’ll take that one. Or any of these. We decided not to eat breakfast at the hotel, but to walk up to town to find a place to eat. We were recommended a place called Rex. It was really good and a great value.Look at the size of Karen’s pancake! After we left Rex we ran into the convenience store across the street to pick a couple things up. Well Karen grabbed a few things, I chatted on the phone. I needed to get my fix in before I was phoneless for a week.

Here are some palm trees we walked past on our way to town. Here I am standing by the palm tree. Look at all these lush, green plants – such a site for a Michiganders eyes in January.

Here is our hotel.
A fun little fountain. Here I am on a bench, still on the phone – big surprise. :) After our walk into town we went back to our room to gather our things and meet up with Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick to take the shuttle to the ship.

Mexico Riviera Cruise - the beginning

So how did I end up on a cruise to Mexico a mere 4 months after the Alaska cruise?
I am still not sure I have an answer for that. When I returned from the Alaskan cruise I was totally and completely bitten by the cruise bug. I was ready to go work on a cruise ship and even send in a resume to Princess within a few weeks of returning. As the weeks went by the more I began to question whither my desires were based just on the emotional response from the Alaskan cruise or something I really wanted to pursue.

I also spent a lot of time looking at different cruises on Princess’ site and daydreaming about going on another one. Then I found a 7 day, Mexican Riviera cruise from January 31 – February 7, 2009 for ridiculously cheap, like $400. I kept an eye on that cruise as well as airfare out to Los Angeles. Tickets from Detroit and Chicago kept going down in price to around $200, so I decided I could totally afford it and began looking for someone to go. Shannon was, of course, the first person I asked. She could not go since she had to be in a wedding in CA in March and could not swing two trips out there with in a few months of each other. So then I pretty much asked everyone I knew if they wanted to go. After thinking about it for a few weeks, my friend Karen, who I had meet through the bike tour I worked on in 2007-2008, decided she wanted to go. After we got through the holidays I asked for the time off from work and five weeks before the cruise we booked the cruise and got great airfare from Detroit to LAX.

I am not why, but in the weeks between the time we booked and when we sailed away, I became increasingly more nervous about this trip. I was concerned about setting expectations for this trip based on the amazing time I had in Alaska. I knew there was no comparison between the two; they were two completely different types of trips, but with Alaska so fresh I did not want to set myself up to be disappointed. I had been on one other cruise, back in 2001 Shannon and I went on a 3 day Carnival cruise, and I hated it. In all fairness, I was sick, not sea sick, but just hours into the 24 drive down to Florida I started to crash and by the time we boarded the ship I was full fledge sick (when I got home I went to the Dr and had bronchitis, a sinus infection and a secondary infection in my lungs.) So while a part of me knows that tainted my impression of that trip, I still was batting .500 – hated one cruise, totally loved the other. I was nervous about not having enough time to fully plan for this trip, about traveling with someone I had not traveled before, not knowing where some crew members were, and nervous that this would show that I was so wrong about my desire to work on a cruise ship. In the few days before we left I was a complete wreak. I even resorted to mass email updates to friends which is something I have not had to do for years and years. It was all quite distressing.

The ship set sail on Saturday, January 31st, out of San Pedro pier in the Los Angeles area. I was excited about this since I had not been to California before and could add another state to my list – number 37. We decided to fly out Friday afternoon to play it safe instead of going the morning the ship sailed. Karen, who lives in the Toronto area, decided to drive to my house first and then we would drive down to Detroit together. Since it was winter and weather can be a factor, Karen wanted to give herself plenty of time, so she drove over on Wednesday. That also gave her time to run some errands in the states and take advantage of the cheaper prices/exchange rate. Thankfully the weather was nice (for January) and Karen had no issues on the drive over. She arrived Wednesday afternoon, while I was at work and made herself at home. I had to work on Thursday as well. While I was working Karen decided to start documenting the trip by taking pictures of the cold snowy weather we were leaving.

Outside my front window

My deck and backyard

Karen's car - look at the snow!! After work on Thursday I ran a few errands and then came home to pack. Due to my lack of planning and state of totally and complete basketcase, packing was more of an issue then it normally is, and I ended up throwing a bunch of extra stuff in. Sometime late that night I went to bed.

We left Grand Rapids mid-morning for our flight that left at 5:40 pm. Detroit is only about 2 – 2 ½ hours away, but we wanted to give ourselves extra time so that we could stop at the outlet mall on the way down. Again the weather turned out to be fine and we were soon at the outlet mall. I did not get anything, but made Karen try on a bunch of stuff and she bought several tops.

One thing we were not able to find at the outlet mall was a wrap for Karen. So we had to make a second side trip in Brighton to find a store. We found a Marshall’s ran in and got a wrap and continued on our way. But by this time we were behind schedule. I was beginning to get a little nervous because I did not want to miss our plan. It is one thing to cut it close in Grand Rapids, but Detroit is a whole other matter.

In my planning for this trip I found an off site location to park for the time we were gone. This lot was significantly cheaper then the airport’s lots. The lot, Park N Go was located a short drive from the airport and offered a shuttle. Thankfully we found a spot close to the entrance and quickly began gathering all our things. The shuttle was there with a couple minutes and we striped off our winter clothes to keep in the car while we were gone, grabbed our luggage and were on our way.

Thankfully once when we got to the airport the lines at the ticket counter was short and we checked in before the cut off time. We then proceeded through security and to our gate, just as they began boarding the plane. I was very relieved when we were finally on the plane. I really did not like cutting it that close.

Once we left the gate and began taxiing towards the run way the pilot announced the plane needed to be deiced and we had to wait our turn. I have been on countless flights, and this was the first time I had ever experienced a deicing. So I took some pictures.

Here are some small planes being deiced The airport. Our plane being deiced. Another view. Once the deicing was completed we headed out to the runway for a smooth take off. Just after take off we witnessed a beautiful sunset. We were then on our way to sunny California and a crazy adventure.