Free Day Off / Cruise Breakdown!

I do not have to go to work today. Work was cancelled due to some kind of hurricane or tropical storm or something. Of course, I still get paid - which is very important because I am in a post-cruise lack of money situation. I will not need shutters, but they are up anyway. It is dark in my cave, which is good for the lobsterfication thing I have going on. Dark is good. UV light is BAD!

So now for the cruise breakdown!

1. People eat a hell of a lot on a cruise. I could not believe it. Its almost like people have not seen food in weeks.

2. The water is HOT! And I do mean HOT! Super HOT! Almost at boiling point. In the shower, turn the cold water on max then ever so slightly bump up the hot water. It will not take much. Want to see for yourself? When you get in your cabin, turn on the hot water and close the bathroom door. Wait just a few minutes. It will be raining inside the bathroom.

3. The toilet flushes with a vengeance. It uses a powerful vacuum and not much water. Do not be sitting on the bowl when you push the flush button! You may get stuck.

4. People like to DRINK on the ship! I mean, I am not opposed to drinking - but holy crap! For some people, the whole cruise is one big drinking game. One drinking game is "the wave game". Everytime you see a wave, you drink. I am surprised the people at my dinner seating were all still alive at the end of the cruise.

5. You sit with the same people at the dinner seating for the entire cruise. The cruise I went on was done through the university I graduated from - so my table was full of other FIU people. And the booze! Every night someone at the table was smashed. In Mexico, they drank 80 Caronas! They were ordering them 20 at a time. In Mexico beer is only 10 pesos a bottle, which in gringo money works out to $1. 80 beers?!?!?!?! For only 8 people?!?!?! And not all 8 people drank their 10 beers. Some only had 4 or 5. Which means someone else had to drink the extras. In contrast I had one shot of fresh tequila and ONE "Cervesa Barrelito".

6. In Mexico they have crazy flavors of snack foods. Like lime and salt fritos. If you ever go, DO look for crazy flavors of stuff.

7. In the Yucatan, the water IS safe to drink. The geology is a lot like Florida - a thin layer of dirt on top of limestone. The water seeps into the ground forming fast underground rivers. The water pumped from this underground river is about as clean and pure as you can get. There is very little surface water, unlike Florida - so there are fewer swamps and I did not detect any bugs. I could go back to Cozumel for at least a week and just stay there! The beaches are white and sandy, with no broken sea shells and crap - and the water is clear, turquoise blue. Stunning.

8. In Mexico, the street conversion rate is 10 pesos to one gringo dollar. But if you use plastic, the conversion rate is 11 pesos to one gringo dollar. So, unlike everywhere else in the known universe, you get a 10% discount if you pay with plastic. This means, mis amigos, that one can barter if they pay cash (and by cash I mean gringo dollars). The merchants know the credit card conversion rate is not 10 to 1, and they know that they have to pay a percentage to Visa or Master Card. So if you use cash, do not hesitate to deduct 10% (or more) from the list price. Si? Bueno!

9. Do not be cheap. Pay the little bit extra for an ocean view cabin. The inside cabins have no window. You want the window. It lets light in. With the inside cabin, you have a cave. No sunlight in the morning. The balcony rooms are good if you plan to hang in the cabin - otherwise do not bother. On a short cruise (three to four day) I do not think that the balcony is really needed. For a longer cruise, or an Alaska cruise, I would book a balcony cabin.

10. The cabins are small. A family of four may be able to squeeze into one stateroom - but it will be very cramped. So keep this in mind. For families, the balcony suites do offer far more room.

Humm. What else? I guess that is about it - for now. If I think up more stuff, Ill post it. I am working on getting my cruise photo page up. I got some pretty good pics - Ill put the best ones online.

But right now it is TROPICAL STORM TIME! It feels like something is on the way. The cats are slightly bugging. They can tell something is on the way. But everything will be OK. It will not be a big storm - nothing like a category 3 or 5 storm. Just a little wind and some rain. At the most, it will be a minimal cat 1 storm. That is 75 mph winds. Just like Katrina, which only took out the power for about a week. Happy times!