I Went on a Cruise!

Last week, during my last (undergraduate) spring break, I went on my first cruise!  I traveled on the Carnival Paradise, and honestly, the cruise ship itself wasn't quite what I was expecting - but it was still pretty awesome (and I mostly slept on it anyways).  It was a party of four with Kyle - my boyfriend, Tara, Jason, and I.

The Carnival Paradise

While I don't feel like going into detail of the cruise ship itself, I will say that I did the early saver deal and it was most certainly worth the price.  There was a lot of food - both great and sub par, a few hot tubs and bars galore.  They definitely wanted to make sure you drank enough on the cruise.

Surprisingly, the majority of the people on the ship were from NC State... go figure.  We had a wonderful server who did a few magic tricks and sat with a couple from Belmont University who were a lot of fun and we got to spend a fair amount of time with.  If you have the time, stick around for a little bit after eating and they do a fun dance and get everyone involved with it in the dining room.

Carnival also had a "Serenity Lounge" meant for people 21 and older.  Ironically, they didn't have a bar at the lounge although they had occasional servers come through.  They had the most comfortable chairs ever though and I took a nap out there everyday.

Kyle, me, Tara and Jason

The Cayman Islands - Snorkeling/7 Mile Beach

Our first port was in Georgetown, Grand Cayman.  We had done some research ahead of time that amounted to: don't book with the cruise, get there, find a place to snorkel with, then go to the beach for the rest of the day.  That's exactly what we did, and we went with one of the tents right in the cruise dock area for the snorkeling.  One thing I discovered is that it really doesn't matter which one of those tents you go with... the captain grabbed all of the people from the various tents and we all went on the same trip.  I have no idea if prices were any different, but I doubt they were.

Regardless, the snorkeling was great.  Unfortunately, Stingray City was closed which was where we were aiming for, but we still saw an amazing amount of colorful tropical fish.  It was rather standard snorkeling, but amazing nonetheless and completely worth the $35.

Seven Mile Beach

We then went to Seven Mile Beach that was quite frankly rather... normal.  Maybe it's just because I grew up close enough to the beach to take consistent day trips, but the beach area was small - the water was pretty but cool, and it consisted mostly of a bunch of drunk college students which can be either a good thing or a bad thing.  However, for me, I wanted to relax and there wasn't much area to relax.  In addition, the Caymans are rather expensive as I assume they base their money on the Euro since they're a British entity (don't take my word on that, but it just wouldn't surprise me).  To get to Seven Mile Beach, we took a taxi from the dock area for about $4 a person, then it cost $2 a person to get into the beach area.  You would most definitely have to take a taxi to the area, it was a nice 15 minute taxi ride and we went to the closest beach area to the dock.

Cozumel, Mexico - Punta Sur/Faro Celerain


When arriving in Cozumel, we were hit by stores galore and pushy sales people, then as soon as we got out of the obnoxious store area, we were hit by obnoxious tour guides.  We finally got someone to take us to where we had originally intended on going: Faro Celerain (which apparently also goes by Punta Sur).  There were several guides who tried to throw us off the track of going there, and we began to have some doubts, but we stuck with it and it was completely worth it.

The taxi cost $65 total - both there and back, and we left our wonderful taxi driver a $15 tip as well so it was $20 a person.  If you are considering ever doing this if you take a cruise there, the area we went to was really called Punta Sur Eco Park although it's alternative (and the name we were originally calling it by) is Faro Celerain Eco Park.  The taxi service that was immediately outside of the cruise terminal to the right were the most organized and the friendliest, although I am not sure how their prices compared to others.  Considering the length of the taxi ride (probably around an hour - don't do this trip if you don't have a lot of time), and most of it was off-road in a standard Nissan sedan, $65was a bargain.  The road to Punta Sur was the regular highway, but once we got to the national park, we arrived at a ticket booth.  Thinking that was it, we began to get out, but the taxi driver told us he would drive us the rest of the way.  The tickets into the park were only $12 a person, and in comparison to other parks we had seen in the area - that was next to nothing.  Then we drove into the park from the ticket booth which took about half of the trip's total time.  It was completely off road so it was slow going (we now understand why we saw so many people renting Jeeps), but the sites were wonderful and we got to watch the ocean and iguanas scurrying on the road.

When we got there, we immediately noticed the people - there were barely any!  The water was a gorgeous blue, there was a decent snack stand, and more.  As pictured above, there were these wonderful hammocks lined up under a shaded area.  When we first got there after the hour long cab ride, we set our stuff down by the hammocks and we were approached by one of the staff asking us if we wanted to go snorkeling.  As soon as he asked, he noted that we had our own snorkeling gear.  I asked him how much it was to go snorkeling and he seemed confused at first, "What? You mean like a tour guide? You can just follow the platforms if you'd like," and then proceeded to show us the pathway through the water.  Yup, that's right - we just swam out there.  At first, there wasn't much to see and it was an exciting moment when we saw the first fish.  He had told us that most of the wildlife would be around one particular buoy, but it was our last stop.  Gradually, as we got closer, we saw more and more fish until all of a sudden I saw a blotch of purple fan coral.  I stared at it for a bit, thinking of how unique that was, when I finally turned and it was everywhere.  There were hundreds of fish of various colors - yellow, striped, florescent blue within the most magical purple coral reef forest.

Not my picture, but what the purple fan coral looked like.

Again, not mine but the "forest" view!
This is an actual picture in Punta Sur!

After we returned from snorkeling (about an hour and a half - our backs were burnt to pieces, but entirely worth it), we went on a free thirty minute boat ride through their mangrove lagoon.  The very funny and nice tour guide told us how the ecosystem impacted the ocean, told us about the species living in the lagoon, and a small history of it.  The park itself is the largest natural reserve on Cozumel, and it was massive.  Although we didn't see any, about 250 (or "too many" as our taxi driver said) alligators living there.

We went back to the beach area and had some delicious food from the snack bar that was reasonably priced.  I also had the absolutely MOST delicious pina colada I have ever had.  It was made with real coconut juice and absolutely heavenly.  We took short, but amazing, naps in the hammocks then headed back.  The taxi driver that took us there was charming, and ended up staying at the beach all day long since it was such a long drive and we were only staying there for about four hours (the area closes at 4pm unfortunately).  Be sure if your taxi driver does decide to leave to make sure he knows what time to pick you up and you have an alternative way to contact them.  Or just rent a Jeep, it was relatively easy looking to get there.

End!


Overall, the trip was amazing. Grand Cayman was nice - next time I would attempt going to Hell or somewhere else although I personally won't aim to go there again, and Cozumel... was amazing.  I honestly would like to go back there simply to go to Punta Sur every single day.  I couldn't have imagined a better place to spend our time and there were only locals and a few straggling tourists there.  The waters were amazing and the snorkeling was by far the most unique thing I have ever seen in my entire life.