Chil's Point of View….

Fun day at the Sea. Last fun day at Sea

It was a tough day. We had been having so much fun, and the trip was almost over.
Throughout this trip, we realized that cruising has to be one of the best vacations someone can take. It was the most relaxing one we have been on. There were a string of good-byes the whole evening.

There was also a holiday show where Santa and his crew showed up. The kids on the ship were going crazy as they saw this guy. The Holiday Show was put in place so as to celebrate the festive time of the year. And as usual, the show was well organized, and the kids-guest also put up a cool performance that they have been working on since the cruise started.

Not looking forward to leaving the ship. It was fun. We would do this again in a heart beat.
Well Done Carnival!

Another Cruise Elegant Night theme.

Just before 7AM, we arrived at third port of call – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
This time, the ship was not supposed to go too close to the shore (not deep enough). So we had to take ‘Tender Boats’ which would get us from the ship to the shore – a 10 minute journey to the pier.

Our excursion – “Land’s End Boat, Beach, and Shopping”
We would jump on the Catamaran on an hour journey to Land’s End; hang out at the beach for sun, food, and drink; and then end up at a Cabo Shopping Mall.

On the Catamaran, we cruised to tip of world’s largest Peninsula. We saw the Land’s End arch – a famous Cabo landmark.

After the Catamaran cruise, we went back to the pier where we jumped on a motor-coach which took us to a Beach Club resort for a Mexican lunch, complete with some drinks. The beach was amazing! Really beautiful!

On the way back to the ship, the motor-coach stopped at a Mall. There wasn’t anything extra ordinary to see there. But I was able to score some shot glasses for my collection; and for Godwell.

After our excursion, we came back on the ship, and decided to stay by the pool side. Nelly started reading ‘The Alchemist’ since I finally finished it. She has been finding it hard to put the book down, as she likes that kind of story – it looks like she wants to finish the book today even though I estimated she would finish it tomorrow.

Elegant nightDressed up again. People this time were less formal as not many of them dressed up.
The wait-staff were all dressed-up too. As usual, there was a performance by them where they danced on tables.

Night entertainment –

 Again, we are amazed by performances every night. The dancers and singers took us on a music trip touching acts such as – Motown classics with Diana Ross, Rock n Roll with Elvis, some Michael Jackson, Disco days (complete with outfits), YMCA with the Village People (crowd sing-along favorite), Yellow Submarine, Right Said Fred – Too Sexy… amazing performances.

The R-Rated comedy show by (JeROME) was pretty funny too. This comedian, just like first comedian we had seen, threw in some cruise ship experiences we are all going through – making things more funny.

Cabo pictures are here 

Around 9AM, we arrived at second port of call – Mazatlan, Mexico
Our excursion – “Shopping, Beach, and Lunch”

The excursion starts off by jumping into jeep like taxis, which take us from the ship dock through town (on what is described as a ‘scenic ride’) to the Golden Zone at the Aztec Theatre. There are some traditional performances happening at the theatre, with a young boy playing with cow-boy rope. The highlight at the show are the daredevil Totona Indian ‘Papantla Flyers’ who perform stuffs on a very-very-very tall pole. These guys were swinging about 100 feet high, with rope tied to their feet! Crazy!

We walked around after the show, and we found ponchos which were way-cheaper than the ones we had seen at the previous port. Oh well…. I decided to get another one from here. My Poncho collection has increased.

After that, we walked across the street to the resort hotel (I don’t remember the name) where we were to have lunch, and have a chance to be on the beach. The lunch was not that good, but it was edible. We also each had 2 drink tickets – and I used mine to try out the Mexican Pacifico beer. Just like the other resort in Puerto Vallarta, we swam at this resort pool. We lazy’ed around on the pool chairs, and I finished up reading my book – The Alchemist.

Shopping, Beach & Lunch excursion -
Shopping: Exposure to the Aztec Theatre
Beach: Walk on the beach at the hotel resort
Lunch: The OK food at the resort

Later in the evening on the ship, there was comedy by JeROME (http://www.myspace.com/jeromeplanet)  - a comic based in LA. He has some pretty cool stuff, and did some Michael Jackson moves.

Pictures of time in port can be found here

Around 8Am, we arrived at first port of call – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Our shore excursion was starting around noon, so Nelly and I had a few hours to explore this city. We jumped on a taxi into the city. We went on a hunt for ‘Ponchos’. Chilumba was on a quest to finally purchase a Mexican Poncho. After struggling with Spanish, and not letting Nelly take over all speaking, there was success – we found many different types of ponchos. I was happy.

We went back to the ship dock, and got ready for the planned shore activity.
Our excursion – “Exclusive Resort Getaway”
This was described as

Discover paradise at one of the finest beach resorts in Puerto Vallarta, the Mismaloya Resort. On this excursion you will: Have all-inclusive access to all of the resort’s restaurants, bars and amenities. Enjoy a beautiful beach, large swimming pool, Jacuzzis, water aerobics, and tennis. Sign out boogie boards and ocean kayaks or just lay back in a comfortable lounge chair or hammock. Do as much or as little as you desire. You can also shop or explore the town. Note: Buffet-style lunch and drinks are included. Guests wishing to stay downtown will be responsible for your return transportation to the ship.  Motor-coach transfer to the resort is approximately 45 minutes.

So we spent the rest of the day at Mismaloya Resort, in a all-you-can-eat, and all-you-can-drink afternoon in the sun. Nelly and I swam in the resort pool, and took a nap on a reclined, pool-side chaise.
PS – No, I was not drinking alcohol, and then swimming. I did the opposite – plus, we were not planning on get smashed-hammered-drunk in a place were staying for just part of the day.

Later in the evening, we went back to the ship, and the initial planned event was a ‘Folkloric Show’ which featured a local Mexican International Dance troupe. These included a Mariachi group, who also performed for Nelly and I while having dinner.

It was a short, but sweet stop.
Pictures can be found here

Another fun day at the Sea.

We finally located the gym. Nelly and I decided that we will go to the gym every morning for quick work-outs in the morning, and then go for breakfast right after that before we proceed with the day. The place has decent machines which include elliptical machines, treadmills, Stairmaster steppers, bike machines, various wait machines, rowers, stability balls, dumbbells, and a few other equipment.

We wen’Port Shopping Talk’, which was orientation on what to do when we get to a port.
The most funny is one where were are advised to always carry the Carnival Beach towel, as people in the city would understand what you mean even if you don’t speak the language. He gave an example of being hammered by Tequila, and then trying to get a taxi – just go to the driver, and pull towel out, and they will know what to do.

There were tons of events happening on the ship, and we only went to a few of them. We are definitely digging this holiday-style.

The evening was the Vegas Style show called ‘Showtime’. This was a really-really-really-really cool show. The dancers, and singers, were amazing.

Pictures can be found here

Fun day at the Sea.
We toured the ship today, and admired how big the Carnival Pride is.
Today’s theme is ‘Cruise Elegant Night’, where we got to dress up for dinner (Chilumba is a spiffy sports jacket, and dress up pants; Nelly is a beautiful evening dress). It was also the night for the ‘Captains Reception’, a cocktail party, where we meet the ship captain and his crew; they also offered cocktails on the house – I enjoyed the well made whisky-sour!

Later in the evening, we went to see Stephen Thomas’s R-Rated comedy show. It was R-Rated meaning there was going to be language, and he would make fun of everything – explicitly. It was a really fun comedy show. Among other jokes, Stephen made fun of the Ship’s architecture, the bathroom sizes, how the ship is constantly feeding people, and wife-sprinkle-dust.

A short entry – but it was a full day. We were never board at all today.

Embarkation sucked!
Cruise seemed disorganized – no one to really direct you to place where to put your luggage. We had to haul suitcase around until we found someone we could ask. We went to place for drop-off, and there wasn’t a process in place which one could easily follow. We just loaded suitcase on cart with other people’s luggage, and porter rolled it. No-one was there to direct us, and there wasn’t any signage on what to do next. Asked again, and we were told to stand in line for check-in.We waited outside (in the cold) for close to two hours waiting to check-in. There was another line which seemed to have already checked in, and proceeding to the ship. It was pretty confusing. We had already checked in on the internet, and thought that we should be checked in. But that did not help, as we continue to wait-and-wait-and-wait – and the damn line was not moving!

When we eventually checked in, progressing through other check-points was a breeze. But one thing Carnival can do better is invest in some signage with arrows which direct passengers where to go next. The cruise line assumes that all passengers have cruised before, and makes navigation harder for first time cruisers.

Checked-in, and finally found our room (stateroom).
What next? Again, we are not sure of the process. Do we just stay there?
We proceed to information desk, so that we (the first time cruisers) can get an idea of what to do next. The lady at the information desk was not too helpful. She just wanted us to believe we were already given information when checking in. We showed her the papers we got, but she insisted we should have got the information. We asked about the safety-drill, since people in line had been mussing about it, and we saw people moving with their life jackets. But again, the lady was of no help because she believed we should have received information about this. I was pretty pissed off about this since I heard the Carnival Cruise staff members were pretty helpful. With the way things were going, it was scary to think about how our Seven days would proceed.

Located eating place:
We located the restaurant with the different options – buffet style. It was on the 9^th deck (9^th floor), and very close to our room – pretty convenient. While at the table, we sat next to a mother and daughter who were originally born in Seattle. After the pair left, another couple sat next to us. Where were they from? Seattle. Actually, the guy lived pretty close to our house (he lives in Kirkland), and his sweetie was from Thailand. Is this a Seattle cruise? A couple which was a few people ahead of us, in line during embarkation, was from Seattle too.

Night events:
Broadway style dancers and singers were introduced. It looks like they will be performing every night with different themes.
A funny comedian ‘Stephen Thomas’ was also at the show. He spoke about how sprinkling’ magic wife dust’ on every situation which does not goes his wife ways. <- I don’t know how to clearly describe this one. Stephen was really funny – he had a tamed ‘all ages’ show just to showcase comedy on board, and he will be having an ‘R-Rated’ show tomorrow night. We are sold!

During our LA trip, we finally got a chance to do some touristy stuff. One of the activities we did included stopping in Hollywood, checking out where the stars hang out. We checked out the Kodak Theatre, the place where the Academy Awards are hosted, and we took a stroll on “The Walk of Fame” which has with over 1,800 famous stars names engraved on Hollywood Boulevard.

While at the Grauman’s Chineese Theatre, we got to jump on one of the ‘Celebrity Homes’ tour which also took us to Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Strip. The tour was on an open air mini-bus.
We stopped on a spot to get the best view of the Hollywood sign; but my camera was not meant to take pictures at a distance – it did a decent job though.

Pictures of us in Hollywood are posted here.

Oh yeah…
As tourists, we also stopped for some Christmas lights in Pasadena, and also did a fun day at the beach in Santa Monica.

Pasadena pictures are here

Santa Monica pictures are here

After being on a long vacation, I am finally back home.

Email – I think I am caught up with email. If I have not hit you back, my apologies – I may have “accidentatlly” forget to hit reply when I read your email; process of triaging through hundreds of emails.

Text Messages – I think I replied to all the ones I recieved. If I did not, I would like to blame the phone networks for not delivering things accurately.

School – classes kicked in, and I already have homework; I know what I am doing on the weekend.

Work – I am back to productivity mode. Vacation-to-work transition is interesting the first couple of days. No – I do not need another vacation to recover from the vacation I just came from.

Vacation – Nelly and I enjoyed this vacation. I will soon post some notes I made on the trip. Perhaps we have finally found our new way of spending our times off? Maybe…

Language – My spanish has not gotten any better. But I might have a new expression to supplement my famous “Si” expression. New one : “¿dónde está el mercado de ponchos”

This is a hilarious video. I was LMAO while watching it. At the end, it left me trying to figure out what the next episode will look like, and how the plot will be twisted.

R.Kelly needs to watch out – there is an artist out there who can sing, and make funny videos. I want to believe it is by a Nigerian artist, but I could be wrong. But none-the-less, check it out: 

Will they ever find the person who stole the meat from the cooking pot?

Feliz Nuevo Años!
Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the best for 2009.

My mommy called me to wish me happy new year right as I was hitting 2009 in my time zone.

Christmas is here again. I hope you all have a beautiful holiday season.

(Video comes with sound)

Merry Christmas.

Santa Chilumba

Zambia’s independence day is on 24th October. The Zambian community in Seattle decided to celebrate a week earlier. It was definately a good time.

Check out the few event pictures from my camera here.

My new toy.

3 in 1 gas powered toy – Leaf blower, Leaf Vacuum, Leaf Mulcher. This bad boy is the Poulan Pro. As fall sets in, you will not find me raking large areas – I will blow the leaves into one huge pile.

Where did the summer go? Are we already going back to class? Next week, I am in “Marketing Magament” and “Databases in Business” courses.

Nelly on the other hand is taking 3 classes!!!!! I guess I know what here weekends will look like for the next three months. By the time we hit decemeber, she is will be dying for vacation.