Cruisin' 2011

I went on my first ever cruise last Friday to Ensenada, Mexico on the Carnival Paradise ship! It was a short 4 day, 3 night trip, but boy it was super fun! The ship itself is pretty awesome. There is food available 24/7, so many activities to do, shows to watch, things to look at. It was a light-lover's dream! :D

On the first day, Steven and I left our bags in the room and took a short walk around, trying to familiarize ourselves with the place. After 4 days I think I'd still get lost. Day 1!


Looking out from the ship, it was absolutely beautiful. I brought along a circular polarizer, which really brought the clouds out, and shooting with it was awesome. The only peeve I have with it is that there was some heavy vignetting going on in the corners, but that's probably because I stacked filters.. so most of these photos are cropped to try to hide those vignettes!


When the ship finally took off at around 5PM, Steven and I decided to go to the front of the ship to look at the ocean. It was soooo windy! You can see in the last picture how crazy my hair was!


Every night, dinner was served for us at the Destiny Dining Room. You can eat as much as you want! We were seated at a table with two other couple groups, which we quickly befriended since we had so much in common. I think Carnival really did some thoughtful table-seating choices! We were all around ages 21-23, it was mostly our first time on a cruise, and one couple, Jennifer and Josh, were actually UCSB class of 2011 alumni, what a coinkidink! Our server Joel was very really nice. I never brought my DSLR out to dinner though. On a couple nights I did bring my iPhone along, so below includes some crappy iPhone photos. :P


Here are some interior shots of the ship. The atrium is absolutely beautiful - so many colors and so many lights! The Normandie theater is also amazing and huge; we watched several shows there, learned how to 70s dance up on that stage, played BINGO, and watched married couples duke it out on the "Game of Love."


There was always late night coffee and hot chocolate available.


A couple iPhone pictures of random things, including us on the windy deck again, a souvenir coconut monkey drink holder thingy, and some pretty beverages.


At Ensenada, Mexico! Had some authentic fish tacos there as well.


A really nifty part of the cruise was the complimentary room service. On the second day, we had breakfast delivered to us, and whenever we were hungry, we just called up room service and had them deliver us food!


A window with a view of the ocean in our room was pretty neat. On the second day, I woke up oddly early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I sat on the window sill, took pictures, and painted my nails. It was really, really amazing. :) On the last picture, we spotted two people on a boat, and they waved back at us. :P




A much needed vacation from my third year of college!