So it took awhile, but here is the cruise recap, from what I can remember. I’m in the processes of uploading photos to an online gallery and labeling them, so I’ll link that as soon as I get through them all.
We sailed out of Miami on the Liberty of the Seas. We did this ship 2 years ago, but it’s a nice ship, and frankly the new big mama the Oasis of the Seas was only sailing a month at this point and was twice as expensive. We’ll do that one next year when it’s cheaper. We’ve already looked at the prices, it’s less than what we paid for this cruise shockingly. I think the economy has part to do with that as well.
As it so happened, the week after our cruise was the big gay cruise (done by Atlantis, not Big Gay Al). So we kept having staff all week ask if we’d be staying for the following week too? I guess we were that obvious! We had thought about doing one of the Atlantis cruises, but they are really expensive as well (about twice as what a regular cruise costs as they bring in their own entertainment they have to pay for, plus they rent out the whole boat as well, which doesn’t always sell out).
As you might have guessed from the Florida posts, it was COLD and the weather the first several days wasn’t so great. It was better than home for sure, but the sun didn’t come out until the last 2-3 days and it wasn’t exactly hang around outside and get sun weather for most of the cruise. This however didn’t bother me too much to be honest. I am not a sit in the sun and get a tan kinda person. So for the most part, it’s not like this killed the cruise the way it would have for others. It was warm enough, I got to put on shorts, I was happy. Sure, would have been nice if the sun came out a little more though I’ll admit. Fortunately it was nothing like a cruise we took a few years back where it was just cold and windy the whole time. Brrrr! That cruise is the reason we will probably not go out of San Diego this time of year again . . . Mexican Riviera be damned!
The first day on the boat though it became apparent that this was going to be a unique cruise. There is a community board where you can fill out cards to suggest groups of people with like minds or interests meet. Usually it’s usurped by the Red Hats or people wanting to play Chess or Bridge. Well from day one there was someone suggesting “Friends of Dorothy” meet in one of the bars. This is code for gay in case you didn’t know. John and I tried this one year, it didn’t work though. As it turned out another 30-something couple, Brian and Christopher, posted this message, and we became good friends.
However there were many many more of “us” on the boat it seemed, an unusual amount. David and Shaun were another couple we met, from Canada. There was also Billy, who was from the Michigan area and the only one of us on the boat the following week for the big gay cruise. To prove it is a small world, there was a guy who is from our town and whose mom shops at the farm! In total I think there were about 15 gays (that we met) on board, highly unusual! They were all fairly young too, very unusual! Sure you’ll see the older gay couple each year, and usually the lesbian couple with their kids, but you don’t see them out and about much when the sun goes down.
This time, with this batch, they were out and about and all over! We were in the club dancing all night, at times I think taking up too much of the dance floor and scaring others away 🙂 We also hit the hot tub late at night after we were done at the clubs, which was funny when other people would approach as if they wanted to get in, but then get scared off by us. Not that we were doing anything other than laughing and talking, but clearly some were intimidated! Usually it was the straight men, as their girlfriends tried their best to convince them to jump in with us. They usually ended up going to one of the other hot tubs open late at night though.
So aside from the massive amounts of dancing I did each night . . . what else went on? Well Matt Yee was on board, as he was part of the entertainment the following week. He hosts the adult sing-along show in the piano bar. He’s a hoot and lots of fun, so that got John out of the room for sure at nights. We saw him two cruises ago and it was dumb luck he was on this ship. You can visit his website mattyee.com to get an idea. His shows are so much fun. The last night of the cruise he had many of the entertainment staff performing with him (as to save his voice for the following week). They were great and sang a lot of Broadway tunes. Two of them did “Wicked” when suggested it and gave me a hug. Another, who was the main female headliner of the ship’s shows, came over and sat with our group saying “I’m instinctively drawn to this area of the crowd!”
Moving on with the recap, again as much as I can recall . . . Our excursion stops were Costa Maya, Belize and Cozumel. In Costa Maya John and I headed to see the ruins of Chockchoban, which is a classic period Mayan city that has only partially been uncovered and opened to the public within the last 10 years or so. Really neat because we could climb the pyramids, whereas in many other places you no longer can because of the wear and tear tourists have caused.
In Belize we had planned to do river tubing, but the weather the week up to when we got there was too rainy and windy, and thus they were canceled as the rivers were too rough. We got off the ship and looked around the port of Belize, where a scary woman offered us a massage and a man offered to get us anything illegal we wanted. No thanks!
In Cozumel we headed off with our travel mates Keith and Amber to find some yummy Mexican food and we had a good lunch. John and I walked around the town that night as well, while Keith and Amber got sloshed at Senior Frogs.
In Cozumel we stayed longer than expected, basically until midnight, which we found out was because of a maintenance problem that wasn’t well publicized and for good reason. It seemed the plumbing on the ship needed fixing and toilets weren’t flushing like they should have. Yeah, the last thing you want on a cruise ship. We woke up that morning and our cabin toilet wouldn’t flush. I called maintenance and that’s how I found out it was a ship wide problem effecting some, but not others. Fortunately it got fixed.
This time around I weighed more than I would have liked, definitely more than last year, so I didn’t care too much about how I ate. So I did enjoy lots of yummy deserts which I skipped last year. I think food probably helped put me in a better mood this year, but a lot also had to do with the whole atmosphere of the ship too.
I got two massages on board, my usual hot stones massage and then a seaweed wrap and a regular massage as well. The second massage left me hurting the next day, which was when we got off the ship and flew home. I have to say I was really hurting and not comfortable. I think she was a little too rough with the deep tissue massage! Mental note, don’t get the deep tissue again, at least not the last day!
All in all, a great cruise, probably one of the best I’ve done in several years. I think meeting all the gays and actually having people to go out with at night (and John actually coming out many of the nights as well) made things better this time around for sure. Way better than having to entertain myself each night 🙂
