Today is New Year’s Eve Day… it is like eighty something degrees here and I have worn my bathing suit ALL DAY LONG. This MUST happen every year now, cause I’m hooked! Even though all this random crap happened to me while on the cruise, I can’t wait to do another one! I’m sure that I’ll have pictures from tonight’s celebration for you guys tomorrow, but for now let’s discuss last night’s adventures and the AWESOMENESS that is the Barrier Reef.


Last night Abbie and I got to be the judges… along with some girl who looks like Rebecca from the show Brother’s and Sisters and we think is from Canada cause she says “Aye” ALL THE TIME! So we picked the person who would be Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Garth Brooks, and Elvis on the last night’s show. Needless to say that Chuck Currie (Abbie’s dad) is going to be Garth Brooks. The audience totally picked that one… and it was hysterical because we are now known throughout the ship! Seriously, I was in the MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN today flippers and all, standing on the reef and a guy still on the boat goes “Wait, you were the one who sang last night!!”. Only now we have more nicknames… “The Divas”, “The Chicago Girls”, “Singin Sisters”, and I am also “The Yodel Girl”. It’s like we’re famous, and it makes us laugh every time someone says something! So, Chicago is seriously representing on the Carnival Cruise Ship for that last Night.


Onto today… I got to snorkel on the barrier reef. I saw soooooo many different kinds of fish… sadly no Nemos. But I got to see some awesome stingrays and the coral was beautiful. I can’t wait to develop the pictures that I took with my underwater disposable camera, cause if they even show half of what I saw, they will be amazing. However, I did totally eat a lot of saltwater… ewww. And when we went out on the excursion, there was this group of girls who were the most obnoxious children that I have ever encountered in my life. At some point during the boat ride, they started playing Rock, Paper, Scissors… only they didn’t do it right… so then we heard “Rock, Paper, Scissors… SUN!”, “Rock, Paper, Scissors… WITCH!!!”, and our personal favorite… “Rock, Paper, Scissors… Barack Obama!!!!” We did laugh at that, but the rest of it was just annoying. So, snorkeling is AMAZING, and I get to do it again tomorrow on the barrier reef in Cozumel, so I’m really excited about it!

P.S. best thing from last night was right before dinner when we were waiting to sit down and are listening to an older brother tell his mom…” Well, if we sell him, we can get a Puppy.” And then just a little bit later… “I bet we could get at least fifty bucks!” Sooooo much fun!!

Our boat as we are leaving to snorkel in Belize.

Waves Breaking on the Barrier Reef.

The Fricket Bird… which I thought the man called the black Frickin’ bird. To me… it will always be the Black Frickin’ bird to me though.

Ladies and Gentleman... I am Britney Spears

All right, I’m back… for your reading pleasure today, this blog will cover just a few things… 1. Only One Day Without a Mishap, 2. Karaoke Kim is Not How He Seems, 3. Cruise Life: Clothing Optional, and 4. I am Britney Spears. I’ll also mention a bit about how beautiful Isla Roatan is, and show you some of those pictures!!


1.Ladies and gentlemen, I am excited and loving this cruise, but no joke… something bad has happened to me EVERY DAY!!! God only help me tomorrow when we go snorkeling… chances are, I’m going to get eaten by a Shark, or I’m going to drown… if I do, I love you all. You heard of my traveling woes, and the next day was clear, the day after that (I left it out of my update) I went to the bathroom and got to step on puke (thank God that as an elementary teacher I have had to deal with puke in my day, so I’m good), then yesterday my camera got stolen. Lucky for me, I’m very adamant about emptying the pictures off of my camera each day, so I did not lose any of my pictures… however it sucks to lose a BRAND NEW camera. I bought a new one here on the ship that is almost identical to the one that was stolen. We say stolen because both Abbie and I KNOW that it was in my pocket, but stupidly, I had the string of it hanging out of said pocket, so we think that someone swiped it. I’m okay about it though because again, I didn’t lose any pictures, I just lost the camera. Today’s mishap will not be blogged about, but just know that it blows…

2. Last night at Karaoke, our flamboyant buddy, Karaoke Kim asked me if I knew “The Prayer” that has been done by both Charlotte Church and Josh Groban as well as Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. OF COURSE I KNOW THAT SONG!! I’m a music teacher!! However, being the karaoke snob that I am I didn’t really want to sing it with him… because well… he is just an interesting character. However I said that while I was on the cruise I would let loose and do stuff that I normally wouldn’t, so I decided to sing it with him… OH MY GOSH… his voice is AMAZING!! When he came in we’ll just say that I said something entirely inappropriate into the microphone. Abbie is posting it on Facebook when we get home, so be prepare.

3. The best part of this whole cruise thing is that until we go to dinner, I am in a bikini and a coverup with flip flops. That is all. The thing about that is that everyone else is in the same!

4. Okay, there is a talent “competition” on the boat. When we got here we were like “Oh, we should do that!!” We figured that we had it in the bag… until they explained that it was a “Legends” show, where they have pick male and female “legends” and a few of their songs out for the people to sing in the huge theatre on the last day of sailing. Female legends include Gloria Estefan “Rhythm is Gonna Get Ya”, Aretha Franklin “Respect”, Madonna “Like a Virgin”, and Britney Spears “Hit me Baby One More Time”. Now that is slim pickins’. Abbie is Aretha, Gina is Gloria, Annika (Canadian chick who is AWESOME-and was on Canada idol top ten females BTW) is Madonna, and I, Stephanie Lee Rains, one of the “Chicago Girls” will be playing the part of Britney Spears. Save me. But nevertheless, it will be cool to say that I got to perform on a cruise ship!! We even get costumes and back up dancers!! More on that later!

Now onto Isla Roatan. Abbie and I opted to stay on the ship today for some sun. I ran two miles along the track this morning and then we have spent the last hours sitting by the adults only pool and sunning ourselves. However the view that we have while doing this is UNBELEIVABLE!! Here’s some photos of where we are in port:

Day 2 LOVE!! And Grand Cayman

Aside from talking about Grand Cayman Islands, this blog has to set straight three things about this cruise… both awesome and not so awesome. 1. Karaoke Kim (not to be confused with my mother), 2. A swaying boat, and 3. Food on a cruise ship.

1.Let me first talk about Karaoke Kim. He is an Asian man who is flamboyantly AWESOME!! No joke, the guy was doing an interpretive dance when Abbie was singing “Broken Wing” by Martina McBride. He is my hero. The second I get ashore in the U.S. I plan on uploading a video of our awesome new friend, Karaoke Kim singing “Loving You”… this will make you laugh. He also gave us our nickname, “the Chicago Girls” for me, Abbie, and Gina (a friend of the Currie’s who is also on the cruise and sings wonderfully)… we also have closed out the first two nights of karaoke with random songs of his chosing for the three of us, including “Lady Marmalade” the first night and “The Hokey Pokey” the second night.

2. I have NEVER been motion sick in my life… until I got on the Carnival Valor. Seriously… even in the tender boats that are much smaller and a lot rockier, it doesn’t phase me, but I admit to you now that I had to man up and take one of the happy pills that they give you at guest services, cause I couldn’t take the slow rocking back and forth. It was not cool. On our Day at Sea headed toward Grand Cayman it has been the worst, to the point where half the people on the boat looked drunk cause we were trying to walk in a straight line and couldn’t do it.

3. You can eat at any time on a cruise ship… including frozen yogurt. You would be very happy about my choices though, cause I have been sooooo good about what I have been eating. I don’t pile my plate, and I make sure that I have plenty of vegetables and fruits on my plate as well. I think I might actually LOSE weight on the cruise. Other members of our party… we can’t figure out where they put it. I am traveling with my good friend Abbie, her mom (Donna) and dad (Chuck), her brother (Matt) and his wife (Lindsay), Lindsay’s mom (Jeannie), and Lindsay’s brother (Aaron) and his friend (Christian). Now when you sit at dinner you can order as many appetizers as you want and as many entrees as you want. Last night Christian and Matt had The lobster and shrimp, The duck, and then the lobster and shrimp again. Yup THREE ENTREES. And it was awesome. Also during the course of this meal, we learned how to say “What’s up Duck” in sign language courtesy of Abbie!

Now that those three things are totally explained, I’ll tell you about Grand Cayman. Abbie’s cousin lives on the island, so we had our very own little tour guide, which was AWESOME!! We went to a little cove beach call Smith’s Cove that was BEAUTIFUL (see the pic below), and we snorkeled for a bit and I got to see a striped fish, then we sunned for a while, then we went to the best place on earth: Coconut Joe’s. Why is it the best place on earth? Because of the Beergherita. It is a margarita with an upside down Corona like beer in it… no joke, this was the best thing in the entire world. So we ate and drank and went back to the ship! Enjoy some pics from the wonderful day…. I’m going to take a nap, then I’m getting dressed, going to the show, going to dinner, then karaoke… man this is the life.

Okay, here is a picture that is HYSTERICAL. There are Chickens ALL over Grand Cayman… but the irony of this shot was too good to pass up.

Here is Smith’s cove where we snorkeled and sunned the day away.

The wonderful Beergharita… seriously… it is a party!!

Traveling to Miami and the First Day of Cruising

Okay, so I figure that there are some people who would find these updates amusing… and because I totally can’t stay away from the internet, you’re going to get one each day or every other day that I’m gone… so enjoy.


Now, let’s begin by saying that I just took a nap… however it wasn’t a very restful nap. Reason: Kamakazi Karaoke is underneath our stateroom… isn’t karma hysterical?

So, for the trip down, I’m just going to give you a schedule of events for this, cause half of you aren’t going to believe all the crap that I had to go through to get down to Miami.  Trust me... it is totally worth the read!!

5:30AM (Chicago Time)- Wake up and finish anything I need.
6:30AM- hot driver dude picks me up and takes me to the airport.
7:30ish AM- get to O’hare and go through security and all that crap.
8:15ish AM- get Starbucks.
9:00AM- board the plane
LET ME STATE THAT THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS GOING DOWN HILL
9:15AM- get plane deiced and pull away for take off.
10:15AM- taxi in plane to the other side of O’Hare for a different runway.
11:45AM- go back to the gate STILL at O’hare for more deicing and fuel (since we spent two and a half hours taxiing around O’hare!)
12:00PM- get pooped on by the dog that belongs to the lady in the seat next to me. (YES, I KNOW THAT THE DOG WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN IT’S CRATE… apparently the lady did not like that)
12:15PM- get really sick of smelling dog diarreah.
12:45ishPM-FINALLY take off.
4:15PM (Eastern Time)- land in Tampa where I have now missed my connecting flight (which is hysterical, considering I had a 3 HOUR layover)
5:00PM- get in line to get new flight out.
5:45PM-finally talk to someone about getting new flight.
6:00PM- start to sob hysterically because they are saying that they can’t fly me out until the next day.
6:15PM- smile, because the crying obviously helped the guy find me a seat on the 8:35 plane to Miami later that night.
6:45PM- go through Tampa security.
7:00PM- sit at Chili’s with a margarita.
7:35PM- get a call from travel agent who wants me to find out where my bag is just to double check.
8:00PM-find out that American Airlines AND United do not know where my bag is and think that it might have flown to Miami without me.
8:15PM- go through Tampa security AGAIN.
8:35PM- get on plane and fly to Miami.
9:35PM- arrive in Miami and go to baggage claim.
10:00PM- realize that my bag is NOT with American Airlines.
10:15PM- am told to walk to Continental (don’t ask about that) to see if my bag is there.
10:45PM- after a half hour of walking (no exaggeration), find my bag at the Continental baggage office.
11:00PM- Arrive in hotel, 7 HOURS LATER than I was supposed to.
So, there you have my day of travel to get to the cruise. But now, I’m here and I’m LOVING IT!! Our first step onto the ship and we got free champagne… 3 glasses of it and ate some lunch! YUM! Then we put bathing suits on and sat out on the Lido deck for some sun and waiting to pull out from the port. Then we dances a little cupid shuffle like big dweebs and the YMCA!!
After eating, which was AMAZING FOOD, we went to a show and then went to Karaoke (yes, Abbie and I are karaokeing even on the ship). There we have gained our new nickname “The Chicago Girls”. Seriously, everyone knows who we are now, and it’s kind of funny. We sang and they loved us for it, and now it is an amusing anecdote.

Today, I woke up after a WONDERFUL night’s sleep and went running (2 miles on a track that is all ocean is AMAZING!), then ate breakfast with Abs, and then sat out by one of the pools with my iPod and a book from 10 to 2!! Now I have napped and we’ve got plans for the evening!

Those of you in Chicago… I hate to rub it in, but… enjoy your foot of snow!!!

Pulling out of Port in Miami

Sunset the first night!!

The craziness of the Ship