It has been quite awhile since I have posted a blog. Well over a month, actually. I had planned on writing about my incessant road rage and then another blog on my review of my last cruise. I think that I will skip the road rage blog and keep that locked away for a rainy day.
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| The interior promenade on the Carnival Inspiration |
It is so hard to believe that summer is over and I am already 3 days in to the new school year. I was hoping to remain positive, upbeat, and happy, but, as always, those feelings disappeared after about an hour of being back. Not because I do not like my job, as I enjoy it very much. I just know that with each new school year, a whole mess of new problems arise. I am hoping to make the best out of this school year. It seems like I have gotten off topic here, and in a way I have, but I haven't told you
how I plan on making the best out of this school year. Cruises. Lots and lots of cruises.
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| The coffee bar on the Carnival Inspiration |
Earlier this year, I was fortunate to work for a tutoring company that paid 25 dollars an hour and essentially worked me 30-40 hours a week. That job is no more, but I was able to plan my school year with as many cruises as I could fit in. So, over the next few months, I booked a total of 7. I finally decided it was time to move away from the cruises out of Long Beach/Los Angeles and try a few new destinations. Of course, I do still have a few Mexican Riviera cruises planned, but those are just quick weekend getaways. My longer trips will be taking me to the Caribbean via Grand Turk, Nassau, and Ocho Rios; Canada via Boston, Portland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia; and Alaska via Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. And, most of these trips will coincide with my breaks from school.
The first cruise I booked, a 4-day to Catalina and Ensenada, took place last week. I was actually a little apprehensive about this cruise, I will admit. We sailed on the Carnival Inspiration, and after seeing some of the photographs, it truly reminded me of the Wal-Mart of the cruise line industry. It looked like bad taste vomited all over the insides. However, I was pleasantly surprised! The ship had just undergone a recent dry dock and renovation, making it look, for the most part, new and clean.
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| The Carnival Inspiration in Catalina |
The staff, as always, were very friendly and incredibly accommodating. The food was fantastic, the alcohol expensive. The ship never felt crowded, and there were always places to go to find a nice place to sit in the sun or in the shade. All in all, it was an incredibly enjoyable and relaxing vacation. Catalina Island was absolutely beautiful, and by far one of my all-time favorite ports. We rented a golf cart and took a one-hour scenic drive around the city of Avalon. The views were beautiful! The island, which is part of California, had all the amenities a person could dream of!
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| The city of Avalon (Catalina Island) |
However, with every good, there is always a bad. For the first time ever, I was actually annoyed with Carnival during a few moments of the vacation. It really had nothing to do with the normal things people complain about (lines to board, amount of time it takes to debark, chair hogs, etc). In fact, we were first to board, debarked in less than 15 minutes, and always found a place to relax. What irked me was the fact that Carnival is getting way to lax on enforcing their own rules. Nothing annoys me more than a company who creates rules and then does not have the balls to enforce them. I noticed this at least twice on this 4-day cruise.
The first instance was children in the hot tub. It is very simple: children are not allowed in. After we had lunch, we notice that an entire hot tub was overflowing with children. I literally mean that there were 30 kids in this hot tub in various stages of soaking. Some were all the way in, some were half way out, some were just dangling their big toes. It was a little ridiculous. A security guard came up and told them they had to get out (Go Carnival!). About 5 minutes later, all the kids were out. 5 minutes after that, all the kids were back in. What did the security guard do? Just stood there and never again said anything to them! Why did you even go up to them in the first place, then? Grow some balls and throw them out of the damn hot tub!
Another instance was the line to debark the ship. Now, again, I had no problems getting off and it went, for the most part, very smoothly. However, I was still incredibly irritated by Carnival's lack of enforcing their policies! When you self-assist your luggage (that means you, personally, take your luggage off), you get to leave the ship first. They do this by decks. Our cabin was on deck 7. Also on deck 7 is the gangway to leave the ship. The night before, Carnival puts these nifty little notes in your cabin telling you when you can debark the ship and the decks that go first, etc. Deck 7 (us) were the first to leave. So, as we line up to get off, what do we see? People from decks 3, 4, 5, and 6 in line waiting to get off. Now, keep in mind, it is not
that serious if they were to wait patiently in line. But, that was not how it worked. People came up the stairwells and cut everyone in line, rudely pushed people out of the way, and ran over people's feet with their luggage. All so they could get off the ship first. And, what did Carnival do? Absolutely nothing! The commotion and bottlenecks these people created would have made for one hell of a horrible accident if something had gone wrong. The fact that Carnival allowed them to join the line, instead of saying "your deck wasn't called, get back to your rooms," was annoying. Despite the fact we all got off the ship quickly, it annoyed me that people who are rude when it comes to following rules. But then again, why follow rules when the company doesn't even try to enforce them?
I still had an amazing time. I don't think there will ever be a time where I do not enjoy myself. As everyone knows, cruising is my way of vacationing and one of the only ways I can truly relax. I have plans to go on the Inspiration two more times this year, for 3-day cruises. And, even though I probably won't write a review on it, I am sure I will have a blast!
The first cruise I booked, a 4-day to Catalina and Ensenada, took place last week. I was actually a little apprehensive about this cruise, I will admit. We sailed on the Carnival Inspiration, and after seeing some of the photographs, it truly reminded me of the Wal-Mart of the cruise line industry. It looked like bad taste vomited all over the insides. However, I was pleasantly surprised! The ship had just undergone a recent dry dock and renovation, making it look, for the most part, new and clean.
The first instance was children in the hot tub. It is very simple: children are not allowed in. After we had lunch, we notice that an entire hot tub was overflowing with children. I literally mean that there were 30 kids in this hot tub in various stages of soaking. Some were all the way in, some were half way out, some were just dangling their big toes. It was a little ridiculous. A security guard came up and told them they had to get out (Go Carnival!). About 5 minutes later, all the kids were out. 5 minutes after that, all the kids were back in. What did the security guard do? Just stood there and never again said anything to them! Why did you even go up to them in the first place, then? Grow some balls and throw them out of the damn hot tub!
Another instance was the line to debark the ship. Now, again, I had no problems getting off and it went, for the most part, very smoothly. However, I was still incredibly irritated by Carnival's lack of enforcing their policies! When you self-assist your luggage (that means you, personally, take your luggage off), you get to leave the ship first. They do this by decks. Our cabin was on deck 7. Also on deck 7 is the gangway to leave the ship. The night before, Carnival puts these nifty little notes in your cabin telling you when you can debark the ship and the decks that go first, etc. Deck 7 (us) were the first to leave. So, as we line up to get off, what do we see? People from decks 3, 4, 5, and 6 in line waiting to get off. Now, keep in mind, it is not that serious if they were to wait patiently in line. But, that was not how it worked. People came up the stairwells and cut everyone in line, rudely pushed people out of the way, and ran over people's feet with their luggage. All so they could get off the ship first. And, what did Carnival do? Absolutely nothing! The commotion and bottlenecks these people created would have made for one hell of a horrible accident if something had gone wrong. The fact that Carnival allowed them to join the line, instead of saying "your deck wasn't called, get back to your rooms," was annoying. Despite the fact we all got off the ship quickly, it annoyed me that people who are rude when it comes to following rules. But then again, why follow rules when the company doesn't even try to enforce them?
I still had an amazing time. I don't think there will ever be a time where I do not enjoy myself. As everyone knows, cruising is my way of vacationing and one of the only ways I can truly relax. I have plans to go on the Inspiration two more times this year, for 3-day cruises. And, even though I probably won't write a review on it, I am sure I will have a blast!
