Setting Course To Beautiful Mexico

Firstly DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT wait last minute to get your passport; put your papers in for a passport as soon as possible! Trust me it is a pain and so stressful, tears will be involved I promise!

I kept pushing off my passport because I kept telling myself that I didn’t have the money but in reality I did and I was just talking myself out of it, playing mind games with myself.

I waited until like a month and a half until the cruise to finally go get my passport. It was the first time I had to get a passport so I didn’t realize my stupid mistake and by that I mean it takes FOREVER for passports. I went in got it all done, then thought cool I should be good to go…….WRONG oh how I was very wrong. That stupid passport, sorry it’s not the passport’s fault, caused so much stress and anxiety in my life.

Tip

So if you don’t know how to take a cruise outside of the States you have to have either a passport or a birth certificate plus ID. Well, in order to get a passport you have to give them your birth certificate……Yeah so fast forward to 2 WEEKS before the cruise, I was freaking out and losing my mind! My Passport Status said it was still being processed and I didn’t have my birth certificate either because it was with my passport stuff.

I called trying to get Express Delivery, so I could have my passport in time, but it didn’t help because my passport was still being processed. What could they do? Send an incomplete passport? That would cause a lot more problems.

The moral of the Story is if you are planning on going somewhere that requires a Passport or Visa. You really shouldn’t wait last minute and get it done and over with as soon as possible. Play it smart and give yourself some space in between your trip so there are no snags on the way. Or if any problems do arise, you’ll have enough time to deal with them.

Well, I started looking into getting another birth certificate sent to me, but it wouldn’t make it here in time. Now is when the real panic settled in, I called so many places and numbers trying to figure something out.

Do you know how many HOURS I spent on hold? because I lost track after 10 hours……in a span of 5 days. After a lot of tears, frustration, and long work days it was 2 days before the cruise. I didn’t know what to do, I was lost………UNTIL I was reminded of an old birth certificate copy that I had, and luckily it was still in the filing cabinet. Long story short, sorry about my rant, I was able to go on the cruise with my Birth certificate and ID….. and maybe a little luck. Scratch that a LOT of luck!

Make sure you have enough clothing options. I packed for hot weather only, which is just dumb I know. I had: shorts, tang-tops, short-sleeved shirts, bathing suits, sandals, a nice summery outfit, 1 pair of leggings, and my favorite jacket (Thank goodness). Don’t get me wrong Mexico was really hot and humid but…….the cruise to Mexico had its cold moments, especially in the mornings. I wasn’t prepared for the cold weather that hit me but you could be! I remember one of the days being really cloudy and cold, that’s how it was for the whole day!

Have enough cash money when going to Mexico, It’s more spendy in Mexico than you think; Just because when you go on a Cruise they take you to the more touristy places and the people in Mexico know this and use this (Not meaning this in a mean way, people got to make a living).

But they do have really cool and authentic things that are so worth it, for example, they have large bottles of vanilla bean extract for a really good price plus not a lot of people know this but you can haggle. What haggle means is “dispute or bargain persistently, especially over the cost of something” (Oxford English Dictionary). So let me tell you, for spending 3 days in Mexico (and 4 on the cruise ship) $100 in cash isn’t enough trust me lol.

There are so many fun things to do and unexpected things that might happen, so It’s a good idea to bring a little extra spending cash but if you’re tight on money don’t worry because I was in the same boat and it’s okay; You can still have a lot of fun without spending a fortune, there are times I look back and think I wish I could’ve done this but I don’t regret a single thing. The people you go with help make it really fun and memorable too.

Download the cruise app, most of them have an app so you can see what’s going on during the cruise. The cruise line often offers a lot of fun things to do, at least on Carnaval, we missed a lot of things and opportunities because we didn’t know they were going on. There is so much that happens, like talk events, comedy shows, performances, fun activities, special deals, and more. There were even dances, single mixers for certain ages, and movie nights so don’t miss out on any events!!

Live in the Moment. Living in the moment is incredibly important, it’s sometimes hard to remember that you have to let things go and just be present. Like 2 months before the cruise I got promoted to Assistant Housekeeper, which meant I had more responsibilities and seemed to always be working.

Even when I got home my phone would still be going off and on my days off I would go to work. I always had my phone turned on and the notification sound all the way up because I worked constantly. It was hard for me to be in the moment on the first day of the cruise because my phone was constantly going off and it seemed like everything was going wrong when I was, it was stressful, to say the least.

But after we started sailing away and my phone was losing bars, I was finally able to relax because my phone wasn’t getting any notifications anymore. I was at peace, because what else could I do? I already got my time off approved, I was in a whole other State going out of the Country. And to top it all off I couldn’t get anymore more work-related messages (just messages in general).