set a course for adventure

“The key to a successful cruise experience,”

I emailed to my mother,

“is to fully embrace the love boat-esque weirdness that is available to us! To never pass up the chance to pose for a staged photo (without buying prints, of course), to attend all the captain's parties and Vegas-meets-Pocmont shows, to eat like total pigs, and of course to find our favorite spots to soak up the sun and watch the ocean glide by =) It's going to be SO GREAT!!!"

It really was. We embraced it all head on.
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The photo ops are so weird. From the moment you set foot upon Carnival soil, your vogue is requested in front of a background screen that often blocks one’s view of the very thing it is depicting. I was all over those photo ops, so were the kids. The photographers print up your images and store them in a big gallery on the ship, you can stroll through and pick out your poses from among the thousands on display. We never ceased being amused by the sight of ourselves in sombreros with a stuffed lizard, or winking provocatively in front of a romantic sunset, or grabbing on to the captain’s wheel as if the deck was lilting toward an iceberg. And then there is formal night, when the freaks come out.

This is one of the places where they set up for formal night photos, and the peeps are all decked out for their turn. I wore my fancy flip flops to honor the regal occasion.

The cruise is chock full of opportunities for adventure, you've got your soduko , mini golf and karoke tournaments; spin classes, spa lectures, ice cream sundae parties, a hairy chest competition, and dance lessons. Each day’s activities are announced in a handy little booklet that is left on your turned down bed at night, along with a whimsical towel beast and some chocolate:

While our happiest moments were spent in those lovely chairs on the Lido deck, enjoying the drink of the day

We did participate in many silly things, like the cha-cha slide

And the hip hop show.

My boy and I may or may not have been called up to participate in the show. There may or may not be a video.

Being dorks adventurous definitely has its perks. If we had not shown up for the Captain's party and endured the eternal introduction of senior officers, we would have enjoyed neither free booze nor the opportunity to be interviewed for the ship-wide tv station!

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Not much time is spent in the cabin, except to refill unobtrusive souvenior cups with contraband booze.

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or have our own formal night photo op in the pretty window seat

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It's a funny, freaky, relaxing adventure at sea. Like the Love Boat, there's something for everyone.

And every night in the dining room, there is Ivan:

What's not to love?