I now have time to tell you about my first cruise vacation.

My boyfriend Jay and I went on the Norwegian Cruise ship, the Norwegian Sun, to Costa  Maya Mexico, then to Guatemala, next stop Belize, and then last to Cozumel Mexico. 

But first, since we live in Oregon, we had to take a plane to New Orleans, where the ship was located. We had to go to Salt Lake City then change planes to get to Louisiana. That was my first trip to New Orleans. We stayed there for one night.

We stayed at the gorgeous Bourbon Hotel in the French Quarter section of New Orleans. Fortunately, that area was not hit by Katrina. The Hotel room we stayed in had two floors, with the bedroom and bathroom upstairs. Downstairs was a huge living room. It was very beautiful.

Later, on the day we arrived, we strolled down famous Bourbon Street. It was cool to be able to drink alcoholic beverages while walking down the streets. It’s a very liberal, anything goes kind of town!

We bought some souvenirs and ate at a nice outdoor restaurant, where we watched the house band play. They played a sort of Dixie kind of music (surprise, surprise). Dixie music is OK for a while, but then it gets boring.

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel, then went sight-seeing again. BTW, the French Quarter also has a street filled with museums, art shops, very cultural and great for the artsy-fartsy people like me. I’m surprised this area isn’t as publicized as it should be.

In the afternoon, we went to the Norwegian Sun to board. They confiscated our booze, as well as other peoples’ alcohol until the day before we leave the ship. Other cruise lines do, this so beware if you are considering taking a cruise.

All food and non-alcoholic beverages were free on the ship. The adult drinks were expensive. There were a lot of things that were not free that we were not aware of….

Going down the river on the ship was great, but once we got into the ocean, I started getting sea-sick: I got very dizzy and had a headache. At one point I felt nauseous, but fortunately the nausea went away. The dizziness and headache feeling stayed with me for the entire trip! I did bring along motion sickness pills and bought more; it helped a little. The ship rocked quite a bit! At times, people staggered while walking down the hallway because of the roughness of the ocean!

We toured ruins in Mexico, and shopped a lot in Guatemala and Belize.

We didn’t do anything much on the ship, which had a lot of planned social activities. We went to many of the restaurants on board; the food was delicious. Amazingly, I didn’t gain any weight!

We watched all the World Series. Too bad the Tigers lost.

All-in-all, we had a wonderful time. We both decided that we want to take another cruise trip again. I’d LOVE to take one down the Mississippi River; it would be a much more smoother boat ride!

BTW, when I said yesterday how slow it was at ImLive; well it picked up and I wound up making my own personal quota–barely, but I made it!

It’s weird. It never fails: When it’s slow and I start to get worried, then suddenly it picks up!

I just need to be more patient.