plate? more like platter...

The Biggest Loser trainers would have a coronary just stepping onto this ship. I'm not kidding. I'm pretty sure they'd burn the buffet AND the five dining rooms and tell us all to jump overboard and spear fish for our dinner or we wouldn't be allowed back onboard... and then the evil trainer lady would flaunt her perfect abs in HER swimsuit and we WOULD spear something. Mutiny. That's all I'm sayin.

Anyways... were starving. It was like 2pm and we were ready for some grub. Little did I know that’d be the last time I felt hunger pangs for a week… HOLY CRAP.

The food lines here go really fast, but it’s just because you grab a little bit of everything -even if you think you wont like it- just because you can. When I got in line I grabbed a plate for the buffet and someone, Joy or Danel, said “that’s not a plate” and I looked around and realized I’d grabbed the dessert (normal dinner sized plate) and everyone else had what looked like PLATTERS for their food. I shrugged and grabbed a platter and jumped in line.

So much food… too small of a stomach.

Faith and Danel insisted on taking a tour of the boat, so we did. Ironically, we took a tour of the spa (and Gym facilities) after lunch. The gym instructor, who looked like a younger, tanner, Jean Claude Vandamm (with bad highlights), told us the average person gains 7-14 lbs on a cruise and we girls looked at each other and moved on. Poor highlighted, buff, food nazi dude… but he wasn’t about to guilt us into visiting the gym. No siree.

Throughout the rest of the tour we’d look up and see a notification for “Deck 5” about the time Faith would say “now we’re on Deck 5” and this happened with every area, deck, club, bar or restaurant we came to. She was so excited I didn’t have the heart to shut her up. I’m just surprised Danel let her lead the way. Sometimes being around these two administrators is like having ropes on each of your arms and being in the middle of a tug of war towards one woman‘s intuition or the other‘s. Ha!

The Sailaway party as we left the LA Port was so much fun. Jamaican music and not-yet-sunscorched people all getting trashed on margaritas and dancing with strangers. They just enjoyed alot of laughing, drinking and hooking up... and all in the first couple hours onboard. Partaaaay. Oh boy...

Faith and I and Joy joined the conga line and danced for a bit and then we left to go get changed for dinner.

My first experience at the served dinner was awesome. Napkin in my lap, waiters named Dennis and Edgardo at our service, and the Princess treatment was served up in style. Danel explained that there were no rules when it came to dinner, so we ordered whatever and however much we wanted of EVERYTHING! We can watch the water out the dining room windows and it’s so surreal to enjoy a great meal while watching the world float by.

We four ladies have our very own table. It is pretty stinkin great, and we laugh when we see awkward conversations happening -or trying to happen- at tables nearby. Our waiters obviously love us too, because they are extremely attentive. Danel loves watching everyone react to Faith and I and Joy… like bears to honey. I guess the old addige is true: “Nothing promotes speculation more than the sight of a woman enjoying herself”… and there are four of us! Lucky.

Danel likes to point out that we always seem to have more than our fair share of waiters around our table, and at least once every night, one of them gets in trouble for neglecting another table - and sometimes in a different section of the dining room. The other night we had four around us… all of them trying to stump Joy on a joke or trick of some kind.

We went to the welcome aboard show with dancing and singing after dinner and Danel almost tripped and tanked it down the theater stairs. We can tell we’ll have to watch her close and make sure she doesn’t fall over some railings or something. She can barely stay upright on solid ground, let alone a rocking cruise ship. We have a battle plan… Faith on the right arm, Joy on the left, and me behind her… at all times.

Oh... and by the way, her balance problems onboard are caused by wearing shoes like this...

We should just LET her fall. Sometimes children need to learn lessons the hard way. ;o)

i'm going on a cruise!

i'm going on a cruise!

it's my first cruise and i'm so excited i can barely contain my glee. i will be leaving tomorrow morning with my friend danel, twin sister faith and our sister joy. mexican rivierra for seven days? yes please...

it's been more than a year since i've taken a larger lump of time off. a day here and a day there gets routine after awhile, although every moment of every vacation day is equally appreciated and relished with mornings spent sleeping in, some relaxation and then finding some low maintenance friend to enjoy the day with.

so as thoughts of this cruise run through my head, i really have no idea what to expect other than what's in the cruise brochure and confirmation letters we receive. disappointingly, i've dealt with a loss of creativity in my girlish brain... all i can think about is romantic adventures... and it's all leonardo's fault.

when i think of my cruise, i can't stop thinking titanic. all my stinkin facebook status's in the last week have been things like:

"this time next week, i do believe i'll queue up some celine dion on the ipod, stand on the front of my cruise ship and wait for leonardo to come help me 'fly'..."

and

"what if I get to dance below ship on my cruise with a band of handsome ruffians just like Rose got to do on Titanic?"

it's just so amusing. to think about being stuck on a big boat in the middle of the ocean with thousands of strangers... to ponder the new temporary (or long term) friendships that could be struck up... adventures with random people from all different walks of life... it's so exciting!

here's hoping i don't get stung by jellyfish while snorkeling, baked on a beach for lack of sunscreen or fall off a mountain while riding a horse up to waterfalls in puerto vallarta...

see you on the flip side!

if i can blog my adventures from the ship, i'll try...