Craig Ewing's "Space"
A Description Of My Cruise To Mexico in January, 2008

January 26, 2008
My mom arrived in the morning and we took a shuttle from my house to the dock.   Going through registration
et al was relatively painless.   However, we went through 3 scanners prior to boarding the ship!   Note: We saved
time by carrying our luggage onboard instead of checking it in and having it placed in front of our cabin door.
We arrived on the ship early enough in order to have some "daily special drinks" and take some photographs.
(Refer to associated picture page.)   (Note: We were able to save $2, or about 30%, per drink by keeping the
glasses.)
For dinner, one of the choices was lobster.   It was good.
While leaving San Diego Bay, we watched a golf tournament.   (It was yet another win for Tiger Woods.)   A man
sat next to us and told us that he had been a bodyguard for Tiger during the 2008 Buick Invitational golf
tournament.   (He was retired from the San Diego police department).   He said that he protected Tiger during
the first two days of the tournament.   Tiger asked him to stay with him during the rest of the tournament but the
man said that he could not because he was going on a cruise.   (Note: He said that Tiger has to have bodyguards
all of the time due to constant threats on his life.)

January 27th
Before dinner, we went to the card room and played euchre with a couple.   The next activity was bingo.
Usually I would not play it.   However, it was a "Winner-Take-All" for $600.   We bought three cards for $20.
We did not win.   Try, try again.
For dinner, we switched to the other dining room because a friend of mine who had been on the same cruise and
the same ship one month beforehand suggested that we get the same waiters that he and his family had.
Unfortunately, we did not find them.   We had a group of 7 people sitting with us, all from northern California,
including a family with three daughters.   They were traveling with around 100 other people to support a
Christian rock group.
We spent some time on deck, enjoying views of the ocean.   However, because of the season, it was too cold to
stay outside for too long unless we were in a shaded area.   Other than while we were in Cabo San Lucas, this
was the situation during the entire trip.
After dinner, we decided to do some gambling.   We played slot machines and I ended up winning about $16.

January 28th
We took a local bus from Cabo San Lucas to San Jose.   (If we had taken a taxi, it would have cost us about $25
instead of $2.)   We got lucky since we did not know which bus to take to get there.   We ran into a woman from
Peru who was working on the "Oosterdam" cruise ship.   She had been to Cabo several times and she told us
what bus to take to get there (the green one).   Now the trick was to determine when to get off of it in order to
find the hotel where we were supposed to meet my mom's friend.   When we were at our third stop, I asked the
bus driver (in Spanish) where was the "Tropicana Hotel". He did not know.   So I asked one of the Mexican
women sitting next to us.   She also did not know.   Well, we got lucky again because a Mexican woman sitting
behind her spoke English and told us to get off the bus right away, walk back down the road three blocks, then
turn left, and walk down to the tourist area.   It worked perfectly!   We ate lunch, waited for an hour, and
decided that she was not going to make it for whatever reason.   Guess what?   We were one hour late!   The
time zone for Cabo is the same as that of mountain time zone (in The United States).   That explains why
the news on the television in the cabin was from Denver.   It also explained why the announcement on the ship
when we arrived in Cabo that we should not change the times on our clocks.   Oh, well.   At least we got to see a
local Mexican town for a few hours.   So, we returned to the ship, this time by taking a shuttle instead of a local
bus.   When we were leaving Cabo, my mom and I spotted whales outside of the bay about one mile from The
Arch.

January 29th
My mom's feet were sore from walking around both the ship and Cabo.   So I ended up going into Ensenada by
myself.   It was not a problem since I had been there 6 or 7 times and knew my way around, at least near the
marina area.   First, I walked inland about four blocks and checked out the locals' areas.   Then I headed back
towards the fish market area.   (Refer to the associated picture page.)   I have to admit that, when I returned to
the ship, my feet were somewhat sore.   My mom was smart not to go.
While on my way back to the marina, I encountered two or three blocks that were closed off for a celebration.
There were food stalls, circus-type rides, etc.   Afterwards, I heard from a friend in Ensenada that it is an
annual event that lasts all weekend long.   Maybe I'll check it out next year.
Later, we went back for another round of bingo.   This time, the jackpot was for $3,000.   So it was definitely
worth it!   Beforehand, they had a disco dance lesson class.   We did not participate, but I wish that I had after
watching how much fun they were having.   We agreed that it probably would have been a good idea for this
activity in the beginning of the cruise because it might have @quot;kick started@quot; the energy level of the
customers.

January 30th
We decided to spend the day relaxing.   So we went to one of the decks and read our books.   We also listened to
a band on one of the decks playing Jamaica-style music.
A funny moment -- We were riding in an elevator with an older couple.   We stopped at one floor and the woman
asked "Is this where we are?"   (Well, it was funny to me!)
After dinner, we went to a show.   Approximately two dozen people performed dances from 20th century
America.   There were also some dances from other countries.   The entire staff encompassed 52 countries.
Some of the countries included Honduras (our waiter), Thailand, The Philippines, Eastern Europe, India,
England, Australia, Jamaica, and Indonesia.

January 31st
We arrived at the dock in San Diego early in the morning.   Disembarking started at 8:30.   The process involved
nine groups leaving when their numbers were called.   We were in the seventh group.   Overall, it took us
approximately 45 minutes to finish the process.


Epilogue (in no particular order)
1) Both my mom and I agreed that the best food on the trip was the pizza.   Also, we agreed that, compared to
other cruises that we had been on, the service on this cruise was not as good.   We concluded that the reason for
these situations was related to the cost of the cruise.   "You get what you pay for."   Nevertheless, it was an
overall great time.
2) One thing that we noticed was that our cell phone times were not correct.   Even stranger was that they were
not off by one hour or two hours.   They were off by 2-1/2 hours!   We never did determine why.
3) Another thing that I learned is that cruise ships typically travel in pairs.   This was a recently-created
practice for ships that get into trouble for situations such as excessive food poisoning, fires, etc.   Our " sister"
ship was the Oosterdam from Holland America cruise lines.   Our ships traveled together to Cabo.
Afterwards, we headed north to Ensenada while the Oosterdam headed south to Puerto Vallarta and other
destinations.
4) I also learned that cruise ships use stabilizers during dinnertime in order to keep the ship as level as possible
(to help people avoid seasickness).   The stabilizers are not used during the entire trip because of functionality
reasons such as slowing down the ship and the extra cost of utilizing them.
5) There were approximately 2,000 passengers on the trip.   My mom pointed out that she had been on a cruise
one year before where the ship had around 150 passengers.   She liked it better because the passengers shared a camaraderie and it made the trip more enjoyable.   I hope that I am able to have that experience someday.


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