R1: My Intro to Cruising
My introduction to cruising came on a whim in the summer of 2014. It was something I always wanted to do. But there was always something stopping me. Either I was too busy. Or I didn’t have the money. Or I didn’t have anyone else who wanted to go on a cruise.
I had a dog that went practically everywhere with me for over a decade. Two weeks after I lost her I found myself on Carnival Elation. It was good for me to get away and I think it helped to do something I always wanted to do in a place where you couldn’t bring dogs.
Elation was sailing out of New Orleans at the time. I selected this ship and cruise totally based on location and price. New Orleans was a port I could easily drive to and I was able to land a great price on a last minute 5-day cruise to Mexico.
Sitting at the port side bar on Lido deck, I enjoyed my first cruise ship beverage—Guinness. After sucking down the first one in record time, I decided it would be a wise investment to purchase the Cheers Beverage program. I believe at the time it was $45 per day but didn’t include non-alcoholic beverages. It now includes non-alcoholic beverages and is up to $51.99 assuming you purchase it before the cruise. If you purchase it on the ship it will cost you $56.99 these days.
Stateroom
I had no idea how to pick a stateroom. After looking at the limited options so close to the cruise date, I decided to go with a porthole room to have a window and keep the price down. I selected room R1 which is the first room on the first passenger deck. The reason behind selecting that room was in the likely event I became inebriated, the first room on the first deck would be easy to remember.
My steward on this ship was incredible. It seemed like he cleaned my room five times per day. On the door you could hang a sign that said “Cruisin” on one side and “Snoozin” on the other side. I thought you were supposed to put the Cruisin sign out anytime you weren’t in the room so the steward would know you weren’t in the room. On a later cruise I found the sign on another ship said “Cruisin. Service Please.” It was then that I realized on my first cruise the steward was likely thinking I was asking for my room to be serviced every time I left my room.
Dining
I knew nothing about the Main Dining Room on my first cruise. I saw people going in there but I didn’t know if it was for everyone or how it worked. I ate all of my meals at the Lido deck buffet. I’m a bit of a germophobe. I’m not a big fan of random strangers having access to my food. Because of that, I made sure I was first in the buffet line everyday.
I enjoyed eating early. It allowed me to catch all of the main shows as well as the comedy shows.
It was on the night of one of the comedy shows that I realized R1 wasn’t the room for me. R1 is all the way at the front of the ship on the bottom deck. The comedy club is all the way at the back of the ship on deck 9. After showering up and getting dressed one evening, I headed to the comedy club and grabbed my favorite seat on the side of the bar. The bar is in the back of the club so I needed my glasses to see the stage. It turned out I left my glasses on the desk in my cabin. After I just walked from the front of the ship on the first deck to the back of the ship on deck 9, I had to walk all the way back to the front of the ship and down to the first deck to retrieve my glasses, then back to the back of the ship and up to deck 9 before the comedy show started. That was the moment I knew I would never book R1 again.
Ports
We visited the Mexican ports of Progreso and Cozumel on this cruise. Did I mention in room R1 you get to hear a very loud noise for about an hour before arriving and leaving port?
Another aspect of cruising I wasn’t familiar with was excursions. In Progreso I just shopped and walked around town. In Cozumel I took a taxi to Margaritaville and drank a couple margaritas.
Internet
At the time Carnival had the pay per minute internet plans and extremely slow connection speeds. I went in expecting to use email to keep in touch with folks back home. I only used it twice for about five minutes each time. I never was able to read any emails much less send them. The extremely slow connection didn’t allow the emails to load. I was able to view titles of the messages in my inbox, which was enough for me to believe there wasn’t an emergency back home.
On the last day of the cruise I received my bill which included an $80 internet charge. Guest services told me I must have closed the window and not used the proper logout procedures so they continued to charge me while I wasn’t using the internet. At that point I thought I was never going to cruise again.
Debarkation
After getting off of the ship we were in a long line to collect our luggage and go through customs when they walked a dog down the line. I get tapped on the shoulder and asked to step out of line.
They walk me over to the luggage area and ask me to identify my suitcase. They ask me to grab my suitcase and follow them to customs area. At that point they began to question me about drugs. One of them claimed his dog smelled illegal drugs on the bag I was carrying. It was just one of those cheap little drawstring Carnival bags I was given at a future cruise presentation the day before. I’m smiling through this whole thing expecting it to be a practical joke. This guy was barking up the wrong tree. I told him his dog was wrong. He took that comment personally. “He’s never wrong!” Well he’s wrong this time. Now while he’s grilling me and I’m laughing, he has another guy going through everything in my suitcase. It was a bit embarrassing because all of the people I was on the ship with were passing by not far away witnessing this whole thing. My underwear was out on table for everyone to see.
Finally they agree that I am not in fact an international drug smuggler. And I was able to collect my unmentionables and escape the customs area before the full body cavity search commenced.
