On a Thursday afternoon, we boarded a ship docked in Long Beach. I turned off my cell phone. And within 30 minutes Ellie had her bathing suit on, had eaten some ice cream, and we were on the water slides. Yep, water slides. We were in the pool and water slides for a couple hours before we changed clothes to get ready for the emergency drill/practice. During which, Ellie was given a bright green bracelet that she had to wear at all times; the bracelet had our muster station on it so in case of an emergency and we were separated she would get to the right location. After the drill we played a round of mini-golf and then headed to dinner as the ship disembarked from Long Beach. After dinner, we headed to the first show of the cruise. Ellie was so excited about all the singing and dancing.
We both went to bed exhausted having been running around the ship for the entire afternoon and staying up past our bedtimes. Ellie was fascinated by our cabin. She thought it was fantastic and so big. We definitely did not splurge and we had an interior stateroom. I told Ellie to pull back the curtain and check out the view...she laughed at my joke. We had enough room both both of us and she quickly took control of the remote. She was also very excited to take a shower on a moving ship, she thought that it would be funny.
The next day we docked in Ensenada, Mexico. The boat was scheduled to dock around 9am. Neither of us slept in, but we did have breakfast delivered bright and early. After we ate we got dressed and headed up for second breakfast. Then we took in a round of mini-golf and watched the boat dock in Ensenada. We actually never watched the boat disembark from Long Beach or Ensenada as we were at dinner, but watching the boat dock was pretty exciting. We watched from the very top deck right at the front of the boat.
I had never been to Ensenada and Ellie had never been to Mexico (first foreign country!). Neither of us knew what to expect and Ellie really wasn't excited to get off the ship (being separated from the water slides was tough). In total, we spent about an hour in Ensenada. The part of town that was walking distance from the ship was definitely not interesting to either of us. Of course we walked to Papas and Beers, because that was what everyone else was doing, and what seems to be pretty famous in Ensenada and we both got a couple little trinkets. But yeah, it wasn't that interesting. Ellie really was uncomfortable with the attention she was getting from shop keepers and didn't find walking and shopping interesting. Also, the fact that I kept having her pose in front of stop signs (because it really was the only landmark that was obvious that we were in Mexico) was a bit frustrating for her. And then we spotted a 7-11. And all she wanted was an Icee (or Frozt as it is known in Mexico). Of course, the only shop keep in Ensenada that didn't speak English was working at the 7-11 and I had to break out my HS Spanish to communicate how much we had to pay for the Icee, and then convert it from pesos to US dollars...it was a debacle. But in the end Ellie was impressed with my Spanish and she was happy. She said that the Icee/Frozt was better in Mexico than the ones in the US, and it definitely was (maybe it was real sugar versus corn syrup that they use at home). Of course, after we had drank more than half did I think about the fact that it may be made with water containing organisms that our stomachs weren't used to...but we both were okay. And we made it back to the ship and quickly changed into bathing suits and found ourselves at a barely crowded pool and water slide area.
That second day of the cruise, despite the adventure into Mexico in the morning, was pretty relaxing. A few hours together in the pool was a lot of fun. After lunch Ellie and I separated for about 90 minutes. Carnival has a kids program on board the ship. Ellie was grouped into a group for kids ages 6-8. We had the schedule of activities for the kids program and we spied a time when the kids were going to go play mini-golf together (she really got into mini-golf on the cruise) and I took the opportunity to grab a lounge chair, a daquari, and read.
However, after about 90 minutes, I couldn't stop thinking about Ellie and whether she was having fun and so I went to pick her up. We then changed into our formal attire for a formal evening at dinner. As we were all dressed up, we also went and got some pre-dinner drinks (of course, Ellie's was off of the children's menu) and took some formal pictures which turned out pretty well. The dinner was great, escargot, lobster, cheeseburgers, chocolate lava cake, chocolate ice cream...quite the indulgent evening. And yes, Ellie ate that all, even the escargot. The evening concluded with some dancing and singing by the serving staff. It was fantastic. When we eventually made it back to our room, Ellie was so excited to see an elephant towel animal. Of course we got on our bathing suits for a late evening hot tub sit, followed by a late show (as the show started at 10:15pm, she didn't last too long and we had to sneak out early and were in bed by 11pm).
The next day was a day at sea. As much as I wanted to sleep in, and thought Ellie would, the lure of the water slides was too much. I was able to put off jumping into the pool until about 11am as it was a little chilly and overcast. We again had two breakfasts. We played a couple rounds of mini-golf (where we actually tied...she's pretty good and even got a couple hold in ones). We also were greeted by a herd of towel animals and attended a show that was towel animal puppets, and even took a class on how to make towel animals.
And yet, the allure of the pool was too much and Ellie and I spent about 4 hours at the pool and water slides. She would bounce between the water slides and the hot tub, then the pool and the hot tub. However, around 2:30pm it started to get pretty crowded with the passengers who were on the cruise to party and had awoken and recovered from the night before. This was a booze cruise and the number of party people definitely outnumbered me and Ellie and the other handful of families on the ship. It got too crazy at the pool and I didn't think it was fun anymore (not to mention unsafe for Ellie). And so I convinced her it was time to go and we could go watch TV and have room service (cake and cookies). However, once we got the room service, I noticed in the daily schedule that they had a high tea. And so we headed up to go to tea! If you ask Ellie what her favorite thing was besides the pool/spa/water slides, she will say the tea. Of course that may be because of the giant piece of chocolate they gave her when she asked for chocolate cake from the trolley.
The day ended with more mini-golf, dinner, more selfies, another evening sit in the hot tub, and watching a movie back in our room (at 11pm she woke me up to tell me the movie was over).
Overall we had a great time and I will definitely go on another vacation with just her (although it would have been nice to have Nick and Calvin around). She said she would go on another cruise, as long as the ship had water slides and I convinced her not to judge all of Mexico based on her experience in Ensenada. I was reminded again and again how bright, funny, and engaging Ellie really is. Nick and I are so lucky to have her as a daughter, and me to have her as a travelling companion.
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