30 should be celebrated over and over again...with a Cruise!

Many moons ago, a year now it feels like (now two considering my blog is officially a year behind), my friend Silva and I decided to celebrate our 30th birthdays big, hers in the fall and mine in the spring. For her leg of the journey, we cruised to Cozumel. For mine, we resorted in Playa del Carmen (considering I'm still very behind in 20145, you can imagine this post is a long time coming, my friends)!

With the planning handed over to a nifty travel agent, we paid our monies slowly as we awaited the day to embark.

When the day finally arrived, with it came an arctic blast. It was grey, drizzly and chilly beyond expectations. Thank goodness we were heading for the tropics with constant sunshine and merriment.

Ha!

We were well on our way into the bright blue yonder before we all realized the storm was coming with us. Here's some math...on a 4-day cruise, how many days of sunshine were there?

Answer: 1.5 (and I'm being generous with the .5)

Suffice it to say, we donned our cold weather jackets as if we were on an Alaskan cruise and not in the Gulf of Mexico. No matter though because Carnival likes to keep you busy. We watched the cheesy opening show (so cheesy and delightfully distracting) and played trivia in the casino (we were pretty good at 80's movies) and ate and drank. I casino'd once, playing Texas Hold 'Em, and ended up winning some monies...maybe most of it was Tanner's, woops!

The moms stayed in the casino the entire time. No really, the entire time. We saw them at meals and meals only.

But a great time was had by all. The kids stuck together most of the time and when the sun finally did come out on our way back, we all hit the decks for the day.

Still grey.

SUNSHINE!

Cruisin' on the cruise around the walking path.

But before that sun shone through we arrived in Cozumel. No, no sun. Well, it was there for about fifteen minutes because the cruise ship was faster than the storm but then the rains came and grey clouds with it. Still fun and relaxing but certainly not as expected.

Massive thing.

Pretty beach and all...

With our afternoon on Paradise Isle whiled away, we made our way back to the ship to start heading back for home.  We danced it up in the DJ room and it was pretty good! Silva and her family took fantastic prom pictures together which we all giggled over and then we all hit the hay as the boat slowly took us back to dry land.

As it was a birthday celebration, here we are!

Party in the room on our last night.

In all, I don't know if I'd cruise again but if I did, here are pointers for my future self:
1) Do not do an excursion...
2) Do not travel in November...damn Smarch weather.
3) ALWAYS travel with good companions because an overly large boat quickly diminishes as you learn its every nook and cranny because you CANNOT LEAVE IT FOR FOUR DAYS.
4) Don't throw out your back right before you leave.

See you in April, Mexico! I'm coming back for more!