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Sail away was scheduled for 3:30. As of 3:00, they were still making announcements for people to come and do their muster drill. At 3:15..still calling for people. 3:30.....STILL calling for people! The bars and everything shut down at that point in an effort to get those stragglers to go do their muster drill! Come on, already! Is this so difficult?!?! Now this is something I simply cannot understand and my own personal pet peeve. We all KNOW that EVERYONE is required to do the muster drill before we can sail. It takes like 5 minutes, for crying out loud! I much prefer the new muster process to the old way when we all had to go stand in a crush of people on a hot deck. Please, please just go do your muster drill! Why is this so hard!?!?! They kept calling for people to come to do the drill and finally, a little before 4:00pm, we were ready to sail. The harbor pilot was circling beside us. He was growing tired of waiting, too. Finally, the lines were cast off and we were ready to go! I didn’t realize that we were standing right in front of the ships’ horn until they sounded the alarm signal. LOL It was deafening! I knew better than that!! I will not forget that again! We edged away from the dock and headed toward the bridge. Sailing under a bridge is always interesting. It always looks like something is going to stick up too far and not make it under. We, of course, sailed under without incident and were on our way. I think Carnival will always have to have a few smaller ships simply so they can fit under the bridges. No way Excel or Vista class is fitting in that space! Here's the bridge in the distance Almost there.... here's our "proof of life" picture in case we don't make it. And just like that, the bridge was behind us. We were underway! After being out on deck for a while, we went back down to our room to rest a bit. Our luggage had been delivered by that time, so we unpacked and changed for dinner. On a couple of sailings prior to ours Elation was suffering with propulsion issues. I checked the TV and we were sailing along at 12.7 knots, so I guess the issues were fixed. According to our Facebook group, the prior two sailings never broke 10 knots. The sea depth was only 33 ft at that point. Seems very shallow! Right before dinner it would be 79 ft and I saw 85 ft after dinner. Getting better! Over the week I would glance at the sea depth multiple times. The deepest I saw was 12,240 ft and the shallowest was the 33 ft. We headed to the Inspiration dining room. We had stopped by earlier in the day and asked for a table for two. Ann took our request and was happy to help us. We didn’t really expect the change would happen on this first day but within a couple of hours the app reflected our new table number and we sat there for the entire week. Our servers for the week would be Gusti and Sadia. I can’t say enough about how awesome they were! Ann came to check on us to see if we were happy with our table. We were tucked away in a little corner. It was perfect! I don't ever remember someone coming to check to see if we liked our table assignment and we have asked for a two-person table on every sailing except those with our friends. One thing we quickly learned about Elation was that they certainly had their act together! We both ordered the paradelle for an appetizer. I had the Cornish game hen as an entrée and the melting cake for dessert. Ron had steak and cheesecake. The service was super-fast, probably the best we’ve ever had. The food on Elation is the best we’ve had in multiple cruises including our Thanksgiving sailing on Celebration. They may be small and old but they’re doing a great job! The menu was the same, but the quality was way better. Way to go, Elation! During dinner Ramesh, the maître d, came by and asked about dinner. He would continue to do this every night. He took time to speak to basically everyone in the dining room over the next couple of nights. We told him how impressed we were with the food and service and that it was much better than on Celebration a few months ago. He grinned and said, “Maybe older is better”! I'll be back later!

(I hope to get the rest of Embarkation up throughout the day today.) After we finished eating, we took a stroll around decks 9, 8 and 7 which compromised the rest of the “commercial” areas. Ron and I are real estate appraisers. I do strictly residential appraisals and he does both residential and commercial. We have always separated decks into “residential” and “commercial” without really meaning to do so. Job hazard, I guess! LOL Library....we meant to come in here and play cards later in the cruise, but it was quite often in use for private functions. We walked by one day while a wedding was being performed. Promenade Java Blue Java Blue Java Blue menu - I recommend the lemon meringue cupcake! Entrance to Alchemy Bar aft. This space wasn't used much. There were more chairs at night but that's about it...at least that I observed. It often turned into a waiting area for Limelight Lounge. Spacious Alchemy Bar Inspiration Dining Room - aft Stage on Promenade near Drama Bar - this place was hopping at night! Drama Bar - beside casino Casino Casino Looking down into atrium This is the closest I got to the spa! LOL Atrium - Lido Deck Serenity - I'll show you more of this area later! Mikado Lounge/Theatre - I didn't get this picture on embarkation day because it was in use as a muster station. This was taken the next day. Romeo and Juliet Bar Elation does not have a movie screen on the Lido deck like most of the other ships. They DO show movies daily in the Limelight Lounge. I had seen the list of movies for May that was released by John Heald and there were several that looked promising however, I would learn that Elation only had two movies during the entire cruise, Wonka and Aquaman, and they replayed those same two over and over all week. Go figure. I wasn’t interested in either of those, so I didn’t attend any movies during this cruise. (I'll show you some pictures of Limelight Lounge a little later.) By this time, our room was ready. We always choose a room on a deck sandwiched between two “residential” decks. For the first time, I decided I wanted to try a porthole room. We were all the way forward on Deck 6 in room U7. This would prove to be an interesting choice later in the cruise. At first glance, I really like the little windows and the big shelf. On our way to our room. We lived so far forward the hallways were pretty empty in our area. Home sweet home If you have a big shelf in your room, you have to try it out! Our room steward, Gede, stopped by and introduced himself. He was very nice, a little on the quite side, but did a great job for the entire cruise. There were no small cups for brushing teeth in the bathroom. When he asked if we needed anything we asked him for those small cups. He looked totally confused by that request. More about that later! Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet so after relaxing for a bit and dropping off my backpack, we opted to head up to the Sun Deck and wait for Sail Away. Sail Away was at 3:30, which is a little earlier than most sail aways. I enjoy the sail away party, but I also like being near the front of the ship as we sail out of port. I sometimes have trouble deciding which one I want to do. I opted for the front this time, after all, there is a bridge involved in this sail away. Waiting for Sail Away Waiting to cast our lines Harbor pilot is in place and waiting, too. That's it for the moment as I have to do some laundry, but I will be back later today!

Drama over, we showed our passports and immediately boarded the ship. A long and winding gangway... ......that reaches really high for a Deck 7 entrance point. Almost on board First step on Elation As I mentioned, Elation is the smallest, oldest ship in the Carnival fleet. She was built in 1996 and is one of only two Fantasy class ships still in operation. I had previously sailed on Sensation, Ecstasy and Fascination but this was our first time sailing a Fantasy class since 2019. Elation was in dry dock in 2023 and she is in absolutely pristine condition. You can tell she has been very well maintained. Her paint is still crisp and new looking. She may be old but she’s still beautiful. After completing our muster drill, which we always do immediately upon boarding, we started our “tour”. We started at the top and worked our way down. The very top deck was the Sun Deck. While there was a stack of loungers tied together, there were only a few actually out on the deck. As far as I can tell it is basically a large, windy, unused space. During the entirety of the cruise, we would never see many people in that area. The next deck down had the mini-golf course. Below that were several loungers, ping pong tables and other seating areas. That deck surrounded Lido. On this ship, Lido is deck 10. Mini golf is right beside shuffleboard Does anyone actually play shuffleboard? I don't think I've ever seen it used. I certainly don't know how to play! Covered areas on either side of the deck surrounding Lido (Verenda Deck). The covered area opposite this one was a smoking area. Water Works Love that Whale Tail Funnel! Entrance to the slides Since it was about 12:30 by this time, we decided to go ahead and eat lunch while we were there. It was still a little cool outside I like the peacocks! Buffet Dining area Sneaky little aft deck on each side of Lido I liked the peacocks all lit up at night Elation doesn’t have as many dining options as the larger ships. There is a Guy’s Burger, Blue Iguana, deli and Pizza Pirate. I usually like a Guy’s burger on embarkation day but since I’d had a burger the day before I decided I wanted pizza. I went back to Pizza Pirate, which is at the rear of the Lido deck and it was closed. Wait…what??? How can the pizza place be closed on embarkation day at 12:30? The sign said it was open at 11 but that was definitely not the case. Huh?!? Very strange. There was a huge line at the deli, so I got a salad and a few items off the buffet instead. They DID have the Funfetti cheesecake. Sign me up! I think I'm going to stop here for the evening. I'll be back tomorrow to add some more!

Me, too!

Embarkation Day – April 29th Here are the FunTimes for Embarkation Day You know how it was always hard to go to sleep but not hard to wake up for the first day of school? The night before a cruise is typically like that for me. I have the worst time going to sleep. I usually go to sleep but wake up multiple times through the night and check the time. Is it time yet?? Finally, morning dawned, and it was time to get up and get started. We got ready and headed down to the hotel breakfast room. They had a hot breakfast, and it was quite nice. We’re usually not big breakfast eaters so this worked perfectly for us. After breakfast we ticked off those last-minute items, gathered our suitcases and headed on to the final leg of our journey. We were about an hour north of JAXPORT and the end of the journey was in sight. We found a radio station playing 70’s and 80’s music. It was called “Classic Radio SSI” (Social Security Insurance is for retirees…of which we aspire to be some day) which we thought was really funny. It was going to be a good day! My final road sign! The port is somewhat on the north side of Jacksonville. We didn’t actually go into Jacksonville proper. The turns to the port were well marked and we had no trouble finding the way to the parking area. We crossed a bridge, and I got my first glimpse of Carnival Elation. I’m sure I was bouncing in my seat like a little girl. She may be small, but she looks massive and beautiful to me! The drive was well marked. Jaxport makes it pretty easy to find them! Almost there! Look! I see a whale tail in the distance! There she is! Ron got in line, and we were directed into the parking lot pretty quickly. I had already reserved our parking so basically, we pulled up, showed our paperwork, and were immediately waved through. There were no specific parking places. The parking lot was immediately beside the ship, and you just parked wherever you wanted. We parked, grabbed our luggage and headed to the terminal building. We were right on time for our 11am boarding slot. The porters met us at the beginning of the line and we each checked one suitcase. The line moved quickly and before long we were inside the terminal. I still had my backpack. As we snaked through the line there was one section where the dog was sniffing everyone’s bags. There was a yellow line painted on the floor. You stepped up, placed any belongings on the yellow line and stepped back. The dog then made a pass down the line and back up the same line. I never saw him alert at any point. My backpack sailed through this canine scrutiny with no problem. That group of people would then move on to the metal detector and a new group would step into place at the yellow line. It seemed very efficient and didn’t take long at all. We joined the line The line inside the terminal building We were successfully sniffed by the dog. He was working and we couldn't pet him. 😞 After getting the “all clear” from the dog we got in line for the scanning and walked through the metal detector. This is where it “got interesting” for me. I have no idea why but for some reason, I always seem to be the one who gets caught in all the random searches and stopped for weird reasons. I have been in several random searches and once at the airport in Concord, NC, they even patted me down, wiped my hands, went through my bags, even went through all of my prescriptions in the bag because they detected traces of fertilizer. To this day I have no idea why and I don’t know where I got into anything like fertilizer, but the moral of the story is if it is going to happen to anyone, it will happen to me. I had been through a few screenings since that airport debacle (it’s in my “Sunrise Story” if you’re interested) with no problems and I had decided I had put those things behind me. I always try to dress carefully when I know I have to go through a screening. I thought I was beyond all of this but noooo……as I stepped through the metal detector, bells started ringing. I went through a second time. Same result. I took off my shoes and showed the gate attendant the buttons on my shorts. None of these things caused the problem. He asked me about my clothes. Nothing, I mean NOTHING, should have triggered that alarm! I was holding up the line, so he finally sent me to the side to be patted down. At this point, I don’t care and it’s kind of funny. Ron was cracking up and took a picture to send to our cruise friends and, of course, everyone thought it was pretty hysterical. Lots of comments, especially from Liz, were flying around on our Messenger group chat. The port officials couldn’t find any problems during the pat down and couldn’t discover what was setting off the alarm. They finally decided to let me board anyway. Later that night, after I changed, I had Ron go through the clothes I had been wearing to see if he could figure out what had triggered the alarm. We were both completely flummoxed. We can’t find any reason for that alarm to sound. The only thing I could come up with was that I have a dental implant which had a good size screw that went into the bone. I have had that for years and, to my knowledge, it has never set off anything before. It certainly isn’t as large as a belt buckle and doesn’t SEEM like it should be a problem. I honestly don’t know what caused it! So I'm going to have to leave you right here for a little while but I'll be back later to put up the next segment. Thanks for reading along!

Thanks so much for joining me for the story and congrats on the retirement! I aspire to be able to retire at some point. I hope I can do some extra cruising during my retirement for sure!

I’m curious now…. What is Karl’s real first name? Did I miss that somewhere!

Thank you so much for reading along! One nice thing about the smaller ships is how easy it is to get from point A to point B. You're never too far from where you need to go. I confess, I'm a fan of the large ships. I loved Mardi Gras and Celebration. Horizon was probably my favorite so far, but Elation was such a sweet surprise. I've never had a bad cruise. I think many of us took our very first cruises on the Fantasy class ships and they will forever have a special place in our hearts. I also wonder about the bridges that you have to pass under in some places, Jacksonville being one of them. I don't believe it would be possible to fit one of the larger ships under that bridge. I guess they'll always need at least a few smaller ships for that very reason. Or.....people smarter than me will figure something out! LOL

Thank you so much and thanks for coming back to read this one! I appreciate you! Thanks so much for reading along and you're very welcome! I hope it works as well for you as it did for me. I can't take much credit. My son suggested it. I really liked being able to see all the availability, with prices, in the various towns. It made the whole process so much easier. Thank you so much and thanks for reading along! Elation was such a pleasant surprise. I had sailed Fantasy class before, and it was fine, but this one was certainly the best of the small ships. Thank you so much and thanks for reading along! That sounds so much like Paul Harvey "The Rest of the Story"! LOL

Thanks so much for coming along! I truly hope you enjoy the trip! I think I can remember reading about the training camps! Golf seems to be their favorite sport. The resort is owned by our governor and it’s a gorgeous facility. I would love to be able to stay a couple of days and try out some of the activities. Maybe someday…. Thanks for reading along!

I’m late but I’m here!!

I think I remember passing a sign for Yulee. Is Kings Bay Naval Base in Kingsland? Please tell your son I said, “Thank you!” for his service. My dad was in Vietnam and I’m an “Air Force Brat” myself. LOL How awesome! We were the same way… we hadn’t done a Fantasy class for several years. I’d say Elation is the “pick of the litter”! Enjoy your cruise!

Travel Day – April 28th As I said earlier, we had opted to leave right after church on Sunday morning and drive most of the way to Jacksonville. I am the pianist for our church and Ron plays bass guitar. While everyone on our worship team would understand if we decided to skip that day and leave earlier, we felt like we’d have plenty of time and didn’t want to make it difficult for anyone else. We loaded our luggage and headed to church. There are six musicians and two regular singers in our group. We meet every Sunday at 8:45 to get in a quick practice before the service starts at 10:30. Right after service we jumped in the car and headed south. Vacation mode at last! We made a quick stop for gas and lunch but mainly drove through the day. We were excited and ready to get this show on the road. We work really hard to be able to afford these vacations, so we were determined to enjoy every minute. Hitting the road! As we passed through states, I took pictures of road signs...just for fun. Just a couple of miles to reach Virginia... Then into North Carolina.... Next up was South Carolina. I thought I had taken a picture but apparently I missed it. Oops! Here's a stock photo from Google Images..... ....and finally into Georgia! By around 6pm, we had made it to Pooler, GA. We decided to stop for a bit of dinner. A road sign advertised a Chipotle, and we thought that sounded good, so we headed that direction. When we pulled into the parking lot, we realized that it was REALLY crowded… I mean “line all the way out of the front door” crowded. We quickly decided that we weren’t about to wait that long and opted to go next door to Five Guy’s Burgers and Fries. It wasn’t crowded at all. That works. I downloaded a new (to me) app called Hotel Tonight. It’s unusual for me to not make a reservation ahead of time but since I didn’t know how far we’d be traveling I thought this might be a better solution. While we were eating, I opened that app to see what was available. We also looked at a map to figure out what towns were approximately an hour north of Jacksonville. We settled on Brunswick, GA. We found a Holiday Inn Express right off I-95 in Brunswick. It was only $103 on the app. The app was super easy to use and in just a few minutes, I had booked the room, and we had a plan in place. We traveled about another hour before arriving in Brunswick. We simply followed the maps GPS directions and drove straight to the hotel. It was very nice, and the price was right. No complaints at all! We checked in. We were ready to NOT be driving for a while. I promise to start getting ACTUAL CRUISE pictures up tomorrow as soon as possible! Thanks! I'll be back!

Thank so much for reading! I always love your reviews. I thought she was in amazing condition considering her age. I wouldn't hesitate to sail on her again. Thank you so much and thank you for reading along! I was so pleasantly surprised by Elation. I've sailed on three other Fantasy class ships....all retired now.....and Elation was, by far, my favorite. How wonderful! She is such a great ship! I was so impressed with her condition, the service, the FOOD....I won't spoil it for you because I have a lot of that coming up over the next few days but let me say, she is, by far, the best Fantasy class ship I've sailed. I hope you have an amazing trip!

Thank you so much! I’m really glad you’re able to join me! Thanks so much! I will be sailing on the Spirit next year and I’m very excited about that! So glad you’re reading along! Thank you so much and I’m so glad you’ll be reading along with me! Hopefully I’ll be able to get a little more posted tonight.

Yay! So glad you joined me! I wish I could post more but my lunch hour is over. Hopefully I'lll be back with a little more later tonight. Thanks again for reading along!

Check-In Two weeks before the cruise and time to check-in. It just so happened that the check-in date corresponded with a trip I made to my parents. I live about 2.5 hours south of them. My mom wanted to take a day trip on Amtrak to the beautiful Greenbrier Resort and tour the bunker. Sounds like a plan! I’m in! My niece and great-niece joined us for the trip. We left Mom’s just a little before 7am on April 14th. She’s about an hour south of Charleston, our capital city. We caught the train at 8:30 and traveled to White Sulphur Springs, arriving around noon. None of us had ever visited the Greenbrier so it was really interesting to visit the grounds and wander around the inside. I’d seen lots of photos over the years and I was finally seeing it in person for the first time. Four generations...my mom, Donna; my niece, Sarah; and my great-niece, Gracelynn. What a treasure to be able to spend time with them! Traveling on Amtrak The beautiful Greenbrier Resort - we weren't allowed to take pictures in the Bunker. That's my sweet mom, Donna. I want to be just like her when I grow up! Isn't she beautiful?!? She'll be 80 next month. Waiting on the train One of the most interesting things about the Greenbrier is that there was a Cold War bunker constructed on the West Virginia Wing for the purpose of housing congress in the event of an attack on Washington. The Greenbrier is about 5 hours away from Washington, D.C by train. The bunker was a huge secret for 30+ years and was finally decommissioned in 1992 when the story broke in the Washington Post. Since it was after the Cold War and the secret was out, the government didn’t need it any longer. (If you’re interested in the bunker, there’s a lot of info online and a Dateline televised tour that aired in the 90’s.) We caught the train back to Charleston at 5pm and finally arrived back at Mom’s around 9:30. Now…I’ve told you all of that to say this……by this time, I was tired. Really tired. More tired than I expected to be. Why is this important, you may ask? Because I always stay up until midnight to check in and get the earliest possible boarding time. Some folks prefer a later time for a more relaxed boarding and the option of going straight to their cabin. I want to get on as early as possible to start exploring and get into full vacation mode. Either way is fine….there’s not really a “right” or “wrong”…..early is just our preference. Since we’re gold level (this will be our last cruise as gold!) all of the Platinum and Diamond guests who wanted to check in early had already done so. I stay up until the clock ticks over to the “next day” and get the earliest time still available to me. So….back from the Greenbrier at 9:30. I still had a little while to wait. Like I said, I was tired. I was having more trouble than usual staying up that late. (I’m usually in bed around 10:30 to 11ish.) I had this internal dialogue going: Me: I am so sleepy! Myself: Listen, you’ve got to push through. It’s time to check in! Me: Maybe it won’t matter this time? Myself: Of course it will matter! Don’t be lazy! You can do this! Finally, I won the battle (or lost, as the case may be) and at 12:01 I checked in. The earliest available time was 11am. I snagged it, closed my tablet and immediately fell asleep. I had done the best I could. Mission Accomplished!

Here are some of the photos of our activities...... Liz receiving her award Proud of my girl! Andrew (my oldest son) and I on top of the work at the Raptor Observatory (no raptors were observed) A West Virginia mountain view from the observatory

Background – What happened leading up to the cruise? Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! Santa came through in a big way this year! (In my defense, my behavior was impeccable all year.) After getting so sick on our Celebration cruise in November, Ron (quality guy that he is!) gave me a short spring cruise for Christmas. Right after Christmas we booked a short, 5 day cruise on the smallest, oldest ship in the Carnival fleet…Elation. This would be the first time since 2019 that we have sailed on a Fantasy class ship, and we were very much looking forward to stepping back in time a little. Should be interesting since we’d just sailed on the biggest ship (at that time, Celebration) in the fleet at Thanksgiving. Biggest to smallest…newest to oldest! Since we didn’t get to do any snorkeling or diving on our November cruise and didn’t get to do ANY of our planned excursions, we decided to do our best to make sure that we would snorkel this trip. This cruise had stops in Princess Cay (which is supposed to have good snorkeling) and Nassau. We planned to snorkel in both locations. For this trip, we decided to drive instead of flying. This would only be the fourth time in about fourteen cruises that we’ve driven to our embarkation point. Jacksonville is approximately eight hours from home so the drive wouldn’t be much worse, time wise, than the time we’d spend waiting in airports, flying, and THEN driving home from the airport. This was our first time sailing from Jacksonville and our first visit to Princess Cay. Several firsts this trip! Time to begin researching. Yay! I came here to Cruise Critic to read some reviews of this ship and these locations. We’ve been to Nassau multiple times, but we keep finding new things to do there. We’ve snorkeled there before but this time we would be snorkeling with Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas. Their reviews were excellent, and they offered lots of options. I was also looking forward to seeing the new port area as construction was finally completed. Princess Cay is reported to be a good place to snorkel, both by some of the folks on Cruise Critic who have done it, vloggers that we like to follow AND our close friends who visited last fall and did some snorkeling. Sign me up! The countdown began. We weren’t having a bad winter at all in WV, so I stayed busy at work right up to time to sail. I also had some things to occupy me as I waited….my first 5K with my son, a good friend’s wedding, a hike to the Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory with my son, a trip with my mom, niece and great-niece to the Greenbrier Resort to tour the famous Greenbrier Bunker, an award ceremony where Liz, my “adopted” adult daughter, was being honored for excellence in her job, etc. I didn’t suffer too much with waiting this time! Since we were driving, we were planning to leave right after church on Sunday morning and drive until we were about an hour or so from Jacksonville. We would then get up the next morning and drive the rest of the way on embarkation day. Sounds like a plan.

What follows is a study in opposites….old and new, large and small….and realizing that “newer and larger” doesn’t always men “faster and better”. Thanks for joining me as I tell you about our latest “adventure”! If you’re joining me for the first time, my name is Michelle and one of my favorite things to do is to travel with my BFF who is also my husband, Ron. Cruises are our favorite! We are both real estate appraisers and we try to go on a couple of cruises a year, if possible. The Caribbean is usually our “go to” choice. We live in the beautiful Mountain State of West Virginia, just a few miles from the southernmost Virginia border. Some call my stories reviews, some say trip reports but I call it a “story” because that’s what I’m doing…telling the story of our trip. I like to read stories of other Cruise Critic members’ cruises and I guess I tend to enjoy writing the same kinds of things that I like to read. My stories are not necessarily better or worse than a fact filled review or a LIVE report…just different. If you prefer to skip my telling of all the things that happened up until the time that I actually boarded the ship, that is fine. I get it! My feelings aren’t hurt! I’ll tell you my feelings and thoughts on the things that we experienced. We’re pretty easy to please, generally. We don’t spend much time in the casino, and I’ve never darkened the door of the spa because I just don’t like that type of thing at all. We DO like physical activities and games. I’m very much a “you do you” kind of person. I’m not upset if someone comes to the dining room wearing something outlandish. I might write about it, I might even sneak a picture, but it doesn’t offend me. It’s your vacation and you should absolutely do whatever makes you happy. I’ll do the same. If you want to skip ahead to where the cruise actually starts it’s labeled “Embarkation Day” BUT…if you’re here for ALL of it, the entire story, then you are MY “people”! Here we go!

My mom does this! I put the butter on the bread myself. Gotta have one or the other, though!

My heart goes out to Karl. He’s a good egg! He and Sakari are the kind of kids who give me hope for a bright future. Her thoughtfulness of him is commendable and rare. I hope Karl does try it again with a better instructor. My first attempt at diving was a horrible experience. I was, quite literally, pushed off the boat by the captain. I didn’t know that I had to hold my regulator in my mouth with my hand. When I hit the water it flew out of my mouth, nearly taking my teeth with it. After going down a long way and swallowing a good amount of seawater, I finally broke the surface and began coughing it all back up. The instructor thought that was pretty funny. She was diving with 8 new divers. I later learned that it was supposed to be a maximum of three. She chose me to do my skill test first. I tried but I was so shaken and upset at that point I just couldn’t do it. I gave up and got back on the boat. I was so embarrassed. She said, “I promise to take good care of your husband since you aren’t going” and down they went. I got my snorkel gear and snorkeled the rest of the time. I was absolutely mortified and ashamed of myself. After that experience I wanted so badly to prove to myself that I could do it but I was terrified at the very thought. The next year I worked up the courage to try it again in Cozumel. There was an in classroom class, only 3 students per instructor and I was able to gradually walk into the water. The instructor saw that I was shaking with fright and stayed with me the whole time. He was wonderful, I felt so much better about myself after that. Did I love it? No. Will I do it again? Maybe. But I was able to overcome my fear a little bit at least. Hopefully in the future Karl will have an opportunity to overcome his fear and have a good experience. With a fun and supportive bunch like you guys, I like his chances!

What a relief! Definitely helps you feel better about their earlier shortcomings.

😩 Oh no! I’m on pins and needles here!

The whale pics and your descriptions are amazing! I’m so glad you found them! I’m headed to Alaska next summer and seeing the whales is pretty much a bucket list item. Fingers crossed that my experience will be as good as yours! So sorry to hear about Karl’s seasickness. I have heard that is absolutely miserable. Glad he seems to have recovered quickly. You mentioned jumping off waterfalls in Dominican Republic. Was it the Waterfalls of Damajauga? We had a blast doing that, too! I always get excited when someone else mentions it. Lol Thanks for the review! Your reviews (and Jamman) were some of my favorites here on Cruise Critic and a big part of the reason I’ve started writing myself. Thank you!