Mid-October 2022
We decided to take a cruise over Fall Break. Carnival Paradise leaves out of Tampa, so we had to reposition there to catch the ship. My family flew Southwest from Atlanta to Tampa. My parents took Southwest from Baltimore to meet us. Our flights landed on Sunday, 30 minutes and three gates apart from each other. We checked in to the JW Marriott Tampa and then walked around Downtown Tampa and the Tampa waterfront. Afterwards, we went back to our room and caught a good night’s sleep.
Monday
We checked out of the JW on Monday at 11am. I had my concierge set up a return trip back from the port to the airport right before we left. We took the tram (which stops right in front of the hotel) about a mile to the Port of Tampa. My parents took an Uber 0.9 miles to the port. Embarkation was seamless, most likely because I had completed all of the embarkation documentation and had them verified before arriving at the port.
Our embarkation time was 12 noon. My parents’ time was 12:30. But because they are elderly with mobility issues, they were processed as soon as they arrived to the port. (They actually beat us onboard.). Once aboard, we hit the lido deck for some lunch while our cabins were getting ready. We had 2 cabins on the port side in the aft of the Riviera deck. My parents had a cabin in the mid to forward section of the port side of the same deck.
As we left port, the kids played on the water slides. I caught a brilliant 6pm sunset and then afterwards, we hit up dinner in the main dining room. After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening getting acclimated to the ship. We turned in relatively early (the Raymonds in one room, the girls in the other). This was fine because the next day was a fun day at sea. We would make no port calls. So, we had the whole day to experience the ship.
Tuesday
The next day (Tuesday) was my birthday. I woke up early and watched the sunrise somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean Sea. I can’t really think of what we did on this particular day. I know the kids went to their camp. Oh, and I played a round of miniature golf on the 14th deck (I beat the pants off of the two dudes I was playing in with.). I spent a number of minutes (hours?) lounging on Deck 11 just soaking in the sun. It was beautiful – perfect weather. Makayla had checked herself out of her camp and decided to go back to the water slide. (How surprised she was when she saw me sitting in the section right before the slides!)
We had lunch with my parents and I did a bit of people watching and picture taking throughout the day. We did go back to the main dining room to celebrate my birthday. Tommy, our head waiter, was so nice. He made my dinner really special. RJ wanted to go back to his camp so we sent him back. The camp closes at 10pm so we had to pick him up in like 50 minutes. (Dinner ended around 9pm.). When I picked him up, he said that he was still hungry so I took him to get some late night pizza.
After dropping him off back in the cabin, I decided to check out the ship nightlife a bit. I went to the Latin club for about an hour before going to the other club that was playing R&B and Pop hits. I got back to the room about 1:30am and hit the hay. I wanted to catch a couple of zzz’s before my big day in Grand Cayman.
Wednesday
Guess what? Despite going to sleep about 2am, I was up at 6am to catch another sunrise. And God rewarded my persistence with another glorious sunrise. After breakfast, we caught one of the first tenders to Grand Cayman Island. We booked an excursion with a local tour company. Our tour would take us to snorkel, swim with stingrays, and fondle starfish. And wow! The snorkeling was awesome! Unlike our snorkeling trip in Maui last year, there were sooo many fish where we had dropped anchor. The tour guides did a great job by throwing bait into the water. This ensured that the fish would come right near us. I took a video of the snorkeling so I don’t have many still shots. But trust me, it was one of my best snorkeling trips ever.
After snorkeling, we headed to the stingray spot where I was kissed by a stingray. The underside of these majestic creatures is so smooth. (I enjoyed the massage that the stingray gave me.). We bought some pics of our encounters with the stingrays. After this, we headed to the starfish.
Starfish don’t do much. So, we just held them. As such, this stop was the least interesting and fun. We stayed here about 15 minutes before high tailing it back to the shore to catch our ride back to the port. Because we did not reserve a Carnival excursion, if something would’ve happened to delay our return to the port, Carnival would have been under no obligation for us to get back to the ship before they headed out of port. As it was, we caught the last tender back to the ship.
Once we got back on the ship, we ate dinner. Makayla hung out with my parents for a few before heading back to the cabin. We were all pretty tired so we turned in early and prepared for our next port of call - Cozumel, Mexico.
Thursday
Thursday. Cozumel is our port of call. But before the port, the sunrise of course! Yep, I caught another one at 6am. Actually, Suazette and RJ joined me for this one. We had Deck 11 to ourselves at 6:30am. It was so peaceful. After sunrise, we headed to breakfast. On the pool deck was a slew of towel animals. The crew gave RJ a white and red one and he was so happy. I wish I knew how to make these. (There’s a book they sell that will teach you how to, but I’m too cheap to buy it.)
Unlike Grand Cayman, Carnival has its own port in Cozumel. We walked right off the ship and into port. Our plan for the day was to just drive around the island and do some sightseeing. Unfortunately, it was a very dreary rainy day. Because of this, the family had no appetite to actually go swimming. I rented a Jeep so that I could ride top down. Regardless if it was raining or not, I was going to ride with the top down – and I did just that (at least my part). The western part of the island is the touristy part (Downtown is 3 miles from the ports) and this is where most of the tourists stay. The eastern part is undeveloped. The island is only 65km in circumference. Without stops, it’ll take about 90 minutes to go all the way around.
On our way around, we stopped by the side of the road and shared two coconuts. The coconut lady recommended a place that sells good fish and we decided to take her advice. We stopped by the restaurant for lunch but unfortunately, they only take cash. They don’t accept credit card because they have no WiFi signal on this side of the island. They also have no ATMs. Luckily, I had a little cash on me. And man oh man – that fish was sooo good. We shared some beef tacos and fish tacos and I had a whole fish (not sure what kind it was). We had enough cash for the food but not enough for drinks. (Actually, I found an extra $20 so we bought another plate of fish tacos but still no drinks.). I’m glad we stopped there.
After lunch, we kept driving to the one touristy spot on this side of the island. We walked around the shops but didn’t buy anything because they were offering tourist prices. Suazette saw a beautiful spice bowl that she almost bought but the vendor wanted $100 US for it. No sir. We are not falling for the okey doke. He wouldn’t negotiate so we walked away.
After this stop, we stopped by another restaurant where we got some beef nachos and a couple of drinks. By this time, it was time to head back to the ship since ship time was one hour ahead of the local Mexican time. Again, if we were late, we would’ve been left. On our way back, we stopped by a local food market and got some snacks and some local drinks. We made one more stop at the pharmacy to get some more lotion before returning the Jeep. We walked back onto the ship and yep, got some more lunch.
And believe or not, I caught another sweet sunset. Back aboard, I watched Deal or No Deal (where the banker offered the contestant $2) and did a bit more people watching. After a full day, I decided to get some more sleep. When I woke up, it would be time for another fun day at sea.
Friday
Soo… you notice a pattern yet? I caught another sunrise… and this one was quite spectacular indeed. We dropped RJ off at his camp one more time. We played Bingo (we didn’t win). Later in the afternoon, the kids did a scavenger hunt (I chaperoned RJ) around the ship before heading to the kids’ camp Halloween party. Later, I lounged near the pool on Deck 10. Surprisingly, I didn’t get into the pool one time during the week. (But it did look a bit Covid-y to me.).
Later in the afternoon, I listened to a man playing steel pan for a few minutes before heading to the karaoke club where I caught … you guessed it … one final sunset. I wanted to do karaoke but I chickened out at the last minute. I didn’t think of a song that I really wanted to sing and I couldn’t find the song list. But those who sang got my respect. Some sounded good, some didn’t. But it didn’t matter. A good time was had by all.
As I left karaoke, I stumbled onto an 80s party led by Cruise Director KeKe. Man, this party was sooo much fun. It was Team Prince against Team Whitney (Houston). In the end, it was a tie between the teams. (I wasn’t on either team.) I just enjoyed the trip down memory lane. It was at this point I realized that my cruise was coming to a close.
Saturday
As I looked out of my window at 4:48am on Saturday, I could see a line of lights on the horizon. This was land. We had almost made our way back to the Port of Tampa. After a couple more hours, I headed up for breakfast where I caught a couple shots of the sun rising above the Tampa landscape.
After breakfast, we waited for instruction on how to get off the ship. We had checked 4 of our bags the night before so we wouldn’t have to carry them off the ship. This may have been an error since they called the people who were not checking their luggage off the ship first. My parents didn’t check any bags so they were off the ship in 10 minutes. We ended up getting off about an hour later. Then, we were stuck for about 30 minutes at Customs. My private van was about to leave us because I reserved the van for 9am, about an hour after we were scheduled to get back into port (8am). We didn’t get to the van until 9:30am and he had another appointment after us. Luckily, I had my parents get on the van so he would wait for us. Once we got to the van, we quickly stowed our bags and headed to the airport. And yes, I gave the driver a nice tip for his willingness to wait for me and the fam.
When we got to the airport, we split up. Suazette and the kids got in line at Delta to check in. I stayed with my parents to find a wheelchair for Mom for her to use for her Southwest flight. By the time I and my Dad could find a wheelchair, it was time for me to rejoin my family and check-in for Delta. Our flight was leaving from one concourse and my parents’ flight was leaving from a different one. Because of the way the Tampa airport, we couldn’t travel between concourses. This means that the kids were not able to say goodbye to their grandparents.
By the time we cleared security, our flight was in 40 minutes. My parents’ flight was 2 hours later. I spent my time in the Delta lounge while the family stayed at the gate (Don’t judge me.). While in the lounge, my parents Facetimed me to let me know that they had got through security ok. (It was the first time that they had flown with an electronic ticket and not a printout of the ticket – Baby Boomers. ). I gave them the kids number so they could say goodbye to them. By the time, I rejoined my family, they had already called and said their goodbyes.
After our hour long flight, we landed back in Atlanta. By the time we got to the luggage carousel, our bags were waiting for us. We scooped them up and caught the off-airport parking van that transported us to our awaiting car. My Groupon paid parking spot meant that I didn’t have to shell out any more money for parking. I drove home, dropped off the bags, dropped off the family, and proceeded to pick up our four-legged family member Oreo from her Conyers pet resort. I think I returned home by about 5pm. My trip was officially over.
My parents, on the other hand, had to connect in Nashville. After leaving two hours later than us, catching a 2.5 hour flight, waiting for a 40 minute connection, and then catching another hour 47 minute flight, my parents didn’t land until 7:20ish. It was 10pm when they finally called me to let me know that they made it home safely.
