2013 Cruise!

*this is a pretty boring post. It really is just for a journal entry*

Our cruise was pretty much amazing. There are lots of comparisons to make with our other cruise, but I'll get to that a little bit later. 

We decided to go on this cruise when my Grandma Ruth had said she'd always wanted to go on a cruise, but it was too late now. If you know my mom, you would know that she takes that as a challenge. So, for our last vacation before we all move on with our lives, we decided to take my Grandma on a short 4 day cruise from Long Beach California, to Catalina Island, and then to Ensanada Mexico. 

Saturday was pretty difficult. We wanted to actually go on our cruise the week before we did. Everything was perfect about that week, except, Karly had to take the ACT on Tuesday. Or it literally would have been thee perfect week.

Why it WAS NOT the perfect week? 

1. We were going to miss Bachelor FINALE (sad that this comes in as number one)

2. It was college spring break so all my friends were coming down. 

3. My mom had the humanitarian thing on Saturday so we couldn't leave till late Saturday or early Sunday. 

4. We had our family "pi" party. 

5. There was a mission farewell in our ward I wanted to go to. 

6. Ashley got invited to play in the all-star game that week. 

7. The girls had their girls camp kick off. 

Crazy. I know. And guess what? The week before, nothing. Nothing was going on. 

But that's ok :) we still got out there and had a ton of fun! 

We left Saturday afternoon like I said from our house. I didn't want to miss church at all on Sunday, so I told my mom we had to do something that would make it so we would be able to still go. 

As we left our house finally after everything was done (we already were leaving a lot later than we planned because my mom had to re-pack the car and we forgot about our formal dresses), we realized that we had forgot something... Ash's book for her homework. Yeah. We went back for it when we were almost to A.F. (even though she didn't touch it the whole time haha). But it was good because we had forgotten some other things too (which is to be expected with our family). Not quite good enough though- after we picked up my Grandma we made it to Provo and my mom realized that we had forgotten our passports. We were trying to think of ways to have someone send them to us or something because that would put an extra hour on our trip. But we just ended up going back to get them. 

FINALLY we were off. The drive was long, and not too bad. It was a little harder with my grandma though, one more person, so someone had to sit in the very back with all the stuff. And, she's a little old so we had to take quite a few bathroom breaks. 

We stayed with my mom's cousin Carey. They were so nice to us as always and we had a ton of fun at their church and playing games and eating yummy food on Sunday. 

We left Monday morning for the beach. On our way all of us were dancing to "Party in the U.S.A" of course, because we were in Cali. Ash did this weird dance move and right as she was doing it this truck with 2 boys that looked about my age (and quite attractive) just busted a gut laughing at her. Then, of course, we all started peeing our pants with laughter. She said- "I've never been so embarrassed in my life!" Then to make things even more awkward and funny they drove by the other side of our car and started doing the same dance move. We laughed pretty hard haha. 

We went to the beach, but it was way too cold to get all the way in the water. So we just splashed a little bit and messed around. 

We got on our cruise and just ate and hung out for a while. 

The next day we arrived in Catalina. It was so pretty! If only it just had the blue water that the Caribbean did, then it would have been perfect. Everyone there just drives golf carts around because the streets aren't that big, and neither is the island. So we decided that we would rent one to see the island. I think this was my Grandmas' favorite part. She talked about it for a while after that. The island was beautiful and we were able to see it all in a really fun way. We also looked around the shops and spent a while in Del Sol. It still wasn't warm all day, but for about 2 hours, the full sunshine was out, so we laid on the beach for a while.

The rest of the night we relaxed on the boat, eating, reading, and laying out. 

The next day was Ensanada. On our last cruise we went to Cozumel Mexico, but we didn't get to see any of it because we did an excursion with dolphins. So this time we decided we would experience it all. We took an hour long bus ride to the blow hole. It was pretty cool. But I'm not sure if it was worth 27$ a person and an hour bus ride. But we had fun! Then we walked down "the street" with all the sellers... It was a good thing we learned how to say no in Jamaica, these people were exactly the same. Except they have the best tacos and churos you can even imagine. Before we did all of this, we walked around the streets shopping and things. We found a puppet that we loved for only 3$. We named him Monte (mon-tee). He's actually really creepy. Then when we were at the blow hole we found one that was a grandpa that we couldn't pass up. After the blow hole we got back on the boat and couldn't stop thinking about our puppets. We wanted more. So- we decided that we would get back off the ship to get 3 more. It was going to be hard though because we didn't have much time before our dinner time (8:15) so we had to run a little bit and hurry. I do not advise this. Although it was totally worth it to find our precious puppets, 5 girls in the streets of a sketchy part of Mexico in the night? Not a good idea. But we got them! We played with them the rest of the night. 

The next day was a sea day. We didn't have much to do so we read a lot, took some naps, hung out eating and going to shows. We even made a music video. It will be coming soon, don't get too excited. That was a super fun day because my sisters and I stayed up till 1:00am making this cray cray video. The next day was the worst. We had to wake up early and get off. Checking my grandmas wheelchair back in, was a nightmare. It literally took 25minutes. We could have gone through the line to get out at least 4 times. We were getting so frustrated. We have no idea why it took so long. But it made me want to punch somebody. The rest of getting off was to be expected from our last cruise. But the beginning was horrible. We drove home that night because Karly had to be back for prom. 

All in all, it was super fun! Quick and simple. That's what we needed it to be for my grandma though. 

What we didn't like about Carnival:

The food wasn't even half as good as Norwegian's. 

The boat was a lot older, and more confusing to get around. I still didn't have it down by the time we got off. On Norwegian's I could find my way around like a pro the second day. 

The boat wasn't designed as well, that's why it was so hard to get around. 

There wasn't as much to do. There was always multiple things going on on Norwegian, but there didn't seem to be as many things to pick from on Carnival. 

The hot tub was never open. That probably has to do with the millions of college students on board, but still... it stunk. We were always in it on our last one. 

The pool was way too cold. Hardly anyone ever got in. 

My mom spend hours trying to check in online but we could never do it. So we had to input all our information when we got there, which took a long time. 

My mom also said she hated their website. 

The dinning room didn't have as many choices, and the deserts were not good. I couldn't stop eating deserts on Norwegian, I took one bite of something and didn't want the rest. 

We could feel the boat moving, all the time. We only felt it one night on Norwegian, and that night was the same as every day on Carnival. I'm still recovering from it, and I don't get motion sick. 

Getting off the boat didn't seem as organized, but it wasn't too bad. 

We liked the many different choices of fancy restaurants that we could go to anytime after 4. 

There was 24 hour pizza and ice-cream. But really- it wasn't 24 hours. The machine broke a few times because there was only 2 of them. Norwegian had like 4. Plus, you had to order your pizza and then they made it. That's nice, but sometimes you just want to grab some. Norwegian just had the best food ever is all. 24 hour, DELICIOUS cookies as well. Good news right there. 

The good things:

It was a short fun cruise. 

They still had fun entertainment. 

We liked the arranged seating because we got to know the family on our table really well. We also liked having our same waiter. But like I said, we kind of liked the freedom of choosing different restaurants and being able to go when we want. It really is a win-win on that one. Unless you include the food... that's a different story. But I already discussed that. 

But really- for what it was and what we were expecting, it was great! Not complaining here... well... I just did. But you know! We are so glad we went on it and that we got to share that experience with my grandma! 

Sorry their aren't many pictures, blogger isn't too good at uploading them. So I just chose some. You can look on my Facebook if you are friends with me :) 

We get to watch Bachelor!!!!!!!!

The waiter dropped bread in my grandmas drink. He was so embarrassed and we just laughed.