Tri As I Might: Vacation Revue

OK, I suspect this will be more of a review than a revue, but there could be some singing and dancing included, so it is feasible that someone would consider the alternate word. OK, maybe not.

Ok, I'm really pissed off at Comcast right now, but I'll try to finish this post which I started more than a week ago (#14 in the online chat waiting list).

Here's a picture of when I was really happy and not thinking about my crappy cable provider. Perhaps it's just the cocktail I was holding.

This was taken aboard the incredibly LAME-O Carnival cruise ship, "Holiday".

Now let me start by saying that I had a marvelous time on our cruise. Every single one of the personnel aboard the ship was professional, courteous and helpful. It was awesome to reconnect and spend some quality time with old friends aboard ship.

But, the ship is definitely showing it's age. I knew we were in trouble going in when I checked out the Carnival website and the "Holiday" was the only ship in the line that Carnival decided not to put their line name in front of. You know, "Carnival Destination", "Carnival Party Boat", "Carnival Merchant of Death" or something like that. No, we were sailing on "Holiday". Uh oh.

We opted for the best cabin they had: suite, balcony, jacuzzi tub. We walked in and it looked nice. How odd - one of the drawers is broken. Look, there's a nasty crack in the bottom of the sink. Honey, do you smell that (always make sure there is water in the toilet or the sewer gas will back up into the room). Later we found out that you couldn't actually get enough water in the jacuzzi tub to turn the jets on (and I'm betting there was no turning the jets on) and the shower head was at about 5'. Anita's 5'4"...it just occurred to me (I'm a little slow sometimes) that the gym was about 25' from our room and had individual showers - bet Anita could have gotten a nice shower. Oh well.

# 11 in the Comcast customer service online queue.

Anita competed in the "Master Mixologist" competition. She signed up before they published the rules, which said you could only use one type of liquor. So much for the No Recall Martini she is now famous for. Here's a pic.

We think she came in 2nd (a bartender won). She did really well, considering she had a migraine and the competition was in the direct Mexican sun and about 100 degrees.

#9 in line...

Here's some pics of how lame the ship was. Here's the bar, which was used only twice for events the entire cruise. Most events were held in the Bus Stop Bar, which was a lot more like a bus stop than a bar. 4 chairs, 4 stools, 400 people wanting to sing karaoke....maybe it was a good thing there were no chairs. Scheduling everything here w

as absolutely due to greed by the cruise line. The Bus Stop was right outside the casino and beside the picture selling area. Bastards. Good thing we snuck liquor on and didn't have to pay $6 a drink.

Dead Cow Chairs, Check.

Saddles for Bar Stools, check (why are Terry & Geoffrey so happy?)

Strange, red leather bondage chairs in the middle of the same bar, check.

I did think those would be more fun.

Cupholder on a saddle, OMG, I'm in love.

#14 in line WTF!!!! I HATE COMCAST.

First port was Progreso. As far as I can tell, Progreso consists of a 5 mile long pier and nothing else. On the bright side, we decided to take the 2.5 hour bus ride to the Mayan ruins named Chichen Itza (pronounced chicken pizza by most of my friends). There were no chickens on the bus, so that was a plus. We were not hijacked and kidnapped - another plus. This place was amazing. The Pyramid of Culculcan represents a calendar. There are 91 steps on each of 4 sides, then one step at the top (365 days). On the solstice (I don't remember which one or all), the sunlight makes it appear as if a snake is coming down the steps and the sunlight goes through the openings at the top. Cool.

Hopefully, this pic gives an idea of the scale of this massive thing.