Week 1

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Hey all,

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update, but the thing is.....I'm on a freakin' cruise ship!!!!! So, I'll try to get everyone back up to speed 😊


So, the first day we left San Diego, and then we spent the next two days at sea. During the sea days, I became friends with several members of the crew, like the Cruise Director (JT, who is only 24 and has a HUGE responsibility.....he does all the talks and announcements and all the introductions to big acts. It is very rare to have someone so young in that large of a roll. He's the coolest guy on the ship), the Assistant Cruise Director (His name's Dan, but he also doubles as the DJ for the Dance Club, so everyone calls him DJ Dan. He is also my age, and he is a lot of fun. His Dance club is next door to my piano bar, so we have become very close very quickly. He has decided to put me under his wing and show me all the ports in Mexico), and lots of very attractive dancers (I don't know their names yet, but I wanna know. HA!)


We finally reached our first port, Puerto Vallarta, early the 10th of Feb. Dan and I headed to a place called Crystal, which has an amazingly huge pool with a swim-up bar, which is all only about 30 steps from the ocean. We met up with some other musicians/crew from our ship, and the crew from the Sapphire Princess ship that is taking the same cruise we are. We played frisbee and drank tequila for 2 hours before attempting drunk volleyball and almost drowning in the ocean (don't worry mom, I wore my floatys).

Our next port was Mazatlan. DJ Dan and I went to a place called Joe's Oyster Bar, which is a secluded ocean bar that is a half hour taxi drive away from the ship's dock (only $10 US cab fare!!!!) The views here are absolutely amazing!! There are also hundreds of beach merchants who are CONSTANTLY trying to sell you shit....every 4 seconds, I found myself saying "No, gracias". Dan and I brought some "friends" with us, and the four of us had drinks and food and laid out on the beach. Dan got really drunk and we all laughed at him....good times. By the way, the exchange rate varied at each of the ports, but they were all around 12-14 pesos : $1 US.

Yesterday was our last port, Cabo San Lucas, which turns out to be my favorite port of all. I WENT SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! It was the most fun!! Usually it cost guests $180 US per person for an hour swim. Since I'm a crew member, however, I only had to pay $40 US for the hour!!! I went with Dan, who had never done it before either. I got the idea the night before when I was at work and someone in the crowd mentioned that they went swimming with the dolphins in Mazatlan. My immediate response was "Oh my God..... I want to swim with dolphins." And just like that, 12 hours later, I was in the pool hanging onto Oline's dorsal fin for dear life as she effortlessly dragged my ragdoll body across the entire length of 30 yards!! I swallowed about two gallons of salt water, which I've done before on accident on my own, but it's never been more fun doing it while on a dolphin's back. (Jon and Michelle, the girls would LOVE it!!! Start saving 😊 ) After the dolphins, we went to a bar called No Worries, which had the best fish I've ever had in my life. It didn't need any sauce or anything, just nice tasting fish. And yes Mom, I ate the carrots and broccoli. They tasted good too 😊

Now, I'm at sea for the final day, and we are arriving in San Diego at 6am tomorrow (9am Michigan time), which is when I have to be up in the morning because I have a US immigration meeting to attend to because I'm a new crew member. I will be making phone calls as soon as I possibly can, most likely around noon, after we get the old passengers off and the crew can get off after.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, keep writing me messages!!! I love hearing about the things going on at home. Congrats Mom on being the 2008 champ!! I'm so proud. Congrats Dennis on getting that deer....I'd recommend shooting the next one, it might be cheaper. Sorry to hear you're sick, Mya Papaya, but I hope you feel better soon. Jon and Michelle....good luck 😊 and yes Jon, if I need to, I will 😉 Again, I'm sorry for the delay, but I find that I have more free time on days at sea vs. port days, which have lots of events, some of which I go for fun but others I'm required to attend (pool volleyball crew vs. guests.....we lost, but it was fun.) So, I'll try to make updates on the sea days, which is the first two days and the 7th day.

LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH!!!!

--Charlie

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