As spontaneous as I'm not, Tony and I actually booked one of those last-minute cruise deals back in April! Tony was stressed, tired, and overwhelmed from his basketball season, and then losing the coaching job, and he really just wanted to get away from it all. He was thinking maybe a weekend to SLC, but I suggested a cruise. At first, he was hesitant, but then, after I reminded him of the great food and total relaxation we could enjoy, he gave me the go-ahead to book it. Although the cruise prices for the Bahamas were fantastic, and that has been our favorite cruise destination, the flights were outrageous, and we knew we couldn't spend that kind of money on a whim. So we booked a 3-day cruise out of Long Beach and drove the 11 and a half hours to the port.
Without kids along, the drive really wasn't bad. On the way down, we split it up, driving to Primm, NV, the first day and staying in a cheap hotel there, then on to Long Beach the next day. We got there before noon and were able to board immediately. We couldn't go to our room for a few hours yet, but the buffet was up and there were lots of places available to relax.
This cruise only had one port, Ensenada, Mexico. There really isn't much special about Ensenada, and we had been there before. We knew that we really wouldn't be experiencing anything new on this cruise, but we still had a great time enjoying the relaxation, the nightly entertainment (one band in particular that was fabulous!), and of course, the food.
We did get off the boat for the day at Ensenada. We didn't want to spend any money, so we just walked around for a bit, checked out the local fish market, went to an old mission that has been converted into a museum and convention center, walked around some more, hiked a huge hill where we could see out over the harbor and all of Ensenada, and finally enjoyed some tacos and horchata from a street vendor. YUM!!
If I were to rank this cruise with our others (we've been on 2 others, and I've been on one more with my mom and her family) it would be last. But it was still good. Just a little too short, not enough ports, and I didn't like Carnival as well as Royal Caribbean or Holland America. However, we are thinking we would do this ship again sometime if we took our kids. It had lots of fun things for kids, including water slides, miniature golf, and even nightly shows geared toward the kids.
The drive home seemed a lot longer, partly because we did it all in one day, partly because we lost a couple hours in construction between Las Vegas, and Mesquite, and partly because when we got to Evanston (just 30 mins from home) the interstate was closed!?! Luckily, Tony knew how to get home on the back dirt roads and we made it home a little after 1am. A long day in the car, but at least we could spend it with each other.
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