Now, in all honesty, things did not go as smoothly as I had hoped when I was preparing everything for us to go on the cruise. With pregnancy brain going at full force and me being the forgetful person that I am lately, I made sure to make a pretty thorough list of everything we might need for the cruise. I also had the husband look at it to make sure we weren't missing anything. We packed everything we thought we might possibly need (and then some) and made sure we were out of the house by 10 a.m. the day of the cruise to get down to Long Beach in time. The cruise was set to leave at 5:30 that evening so I figured that gave us plenty of time. Here's where we encountered a few different issues...
Problem #1. Not remembering to print out boarding passes. - I suppose I should have actually figured that one out since I have flown before and everything, but from everything I had read I thought we would just need our birth certificates and photo ID's in order for them to let us board. I didn't read about the boarding pass part until we were about an hour away from actually getting on the boat and sitting in LA traffic. Perfect. So I call Expedia who was so helpful and explained to me that I wouldn't need them, and that I would just need to fill out some paperwork once we got to the boat. No worries. Then they
mentioned another perfect little fact....
Problem #2. Even though the boat was set to leave at 5:30, they would stop letting people on at 4:30. - Here is where I start freaking out. At around 3:30 we were sitting in a bit of LA traffic (which if you have never been to LA this can mean anything from a few minutes to a few hours) and we still had a ways to go before even getting to the boat. And throw in the paperwork that I now needed to fill out and I was having a meltdown. I was in tears telling my husband how they were going to leave without us, and that there was no way we would make it on time, and that we couldn't even get our money back if we missed it because it was non-refundable. Luckily he is usually able to remain calm and collected and assured me he would do everything in his power to get us there on time. So all I could do was hope for the best and try to relax. I figured the best way to do this was to make sure I had everything in order so that once we arrived we would be able to rush and not have to search for things like our ID's and whatnot. Let the next breakdown begin...
Problem #3. Pregnant women not allowed on cruises. - While I was getting the paperwork together I started to read some of the tiny print on one of the itineraries. One key piece that I had missed said "If you are less than 24 weeks pregant, you will need a doctors note stating it's okay for you to cruise. If you are more than 24 weeks pregnant, you will not be allowed to cruise." Now I know there are a lot of restrictions on things when you are pregnant, but for some reason I didn't even think about this one at all. I had just hit 24 weeks pregnant the day before we left for the cruise and now all I could think about was that even if we made it to the cruise on time, they would turn me away for being too pregnant. And since I'm clearly pregnant when you see my stomach, I just felt really hopeless. After a little bit of thinking my husband had the brilliant idea of having me wear his sweatshirt once we got down there to help "hide" my stomach a little bit so they might not notice. So we just decided to give it a shot.
By some miracle the traffic cleared up and we were able to make it down in time, with enough time to spare to get checked in and do paperwork. I put on his sweatshirt in the parking garage and just hoped for the best, and somehow it ended up working. Not one person questioned me and the paperwork we needed to do was done in less than 3 minutes. They scanned our luggage and away we went!
(One thing I will say is I do understand why cruises do not want women who are at a certain point in their pregnancy to sail. As you get further along you never really know what might happen, and if you did need medical assistance they are very limited as to what they can do for you on the boat. One man had a mild heart attack on our cruise and they had to send out the coast guard to come and get him. A woman in labor? A whole different story. So I do respect and understand their reasoning behind this.)
Overall the cruise was a huge success and it was nice to be able to relax a bit before we become parents of two in a few months. I do wish that I had taken more photos than I did, but I am glad that I got a lot of the ones that I have. So without further ado I give you "Babymoon 2013 - Cruise to Catalina Island and Mexico." =)
(Some of the cutest cottages you could rent in Catalina.)
(Our home for the week. The Carnival Inspiration)
(Want to know one of the best things about the cruise? 24 hour frozen yogurt.)
(Even though you can hardly see it, our ship is behind us)
(Me and the baby bump in Catalina)
(The company we rented our motorized bicycles from. So much fun!)
(Taking a break from the ride to figure out where to go next. Those little bikes can go up to 20 mph! And of course, the ship in the background.)
(The Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden in Catalina.)
(Making new friends in Ensenada, Mexico)
(Me and my amigo, just hanging out)
(La Bufadora, one of the largest natural blowholes in North America. Legend says that a mother and baby whale were swimming in the area, when the baby decided to go in towards a cave to explore. Baby whales grow at a very quick rate so the baby got stuck and the water you see spouting out today is from the now full grown whale. It's only a legend though ;) right?)
(Who needs souvenirs when you can meet a baby lion? We didn't want to spend a ton of money on things we didn't need while in Ensenada, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture with a lion. Kiara is about 6 months old and already weighing in at over 100 pounds. That's a pretty big "baby" if you ask me.)
(Towel animals that house cleaning will leave you. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was about this.)
(The girls from our nightly dinner table and myself, enjoying a late night comedy show. The comedians were hilarious and it was awesome meeting some nice new friends.)
(The husband and myself on the last night at dinner. I love this guy with all my heart)
Until next time Mexico!
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