A "One Day" Get-away

I went on a cruise yesterday. Now, I'm back. It was a one day cruise. Seriously, on a great, big, gorgeous ship and everything. We went out about 5 miles into the ocean, did a bunch of ginormous circles, and came back into port this morning.

This all came about because my friend Lisa is a travel agent, and her specialty is selling cruise vacations. Sometimes in her line of work you get these cool little perks, and this was one of them. This was called an inaugural "cruise to no where" and was basically designed to introduce a whole bunch of travel agents to this ship. The cruise line invites all of these agents (who are allowed to bring one guest each, that's where I come in...) to come and see the ship, look at the different classes of state rooms, eat in the restaurants, visit the bars, see the shows, etc., so then they can go home, and start telling all of their customers how awesome the ship is, and why they should book a vacation on it.

This particular ship was Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas. Saying that the ship is awesome is a total understatement. It was fabulous! (Even if we were only on it for roughly 20 hours!) I've been on quite a few cruise ships, on several different lines, but this one was the cream of the crop from what I've experienced so far. The pictures I'm going to share don't do it justice. Even Norm, the Gnome (my travel companion) was impressed - (those pictures will come soon). Oh, by the way, did I mention this little adventure, food, drinks & all was FREE? Who can beat FREE? Oh, I LOVE FREE!


Yes, I think it's safe to say I could be happy on a ship like this for a couple of days...or weeks... or longer!

The gorgeous Mariner of the Seas

Looking down from the 8th floor onto the "Promonade" shopping area.

One of the many banks of elevators.

Looking down into the dining room

One of the stained glass windows in a cool little bar/dance area called the "Dragon's Lair"

One of the several pool areas on the ship; this is the "Solarium"

Another of the pool areas.

A carved watermelon

The end of the ice skating show - that's right, this ship has an ice rink on it! (It also has a rock climbing wall, a full sized basket ball court, video game lounge, running track, ping pong tables, huge gym....you name it!)

Looking down onto the main pool deck.

It also has a mini golf course

There are tons of things to do on this ship!

Leaving the port of Los Angeles

It was a short little trip, but really a great time...with tons of great food! In fact, I'm still full!