18th Annual Cruise to Mexico - MDSF

For the first time in years, I went on the Mother, Daughters, Sisters, and Friends cruise. My mother has been putting on this trip for 18 years and this year we had about 65 women. At one point we had 140 women but that was just too difficult and drama filled.

The only reason I agreed to go was because my best friend needed a weekend away from everything….PERFECT……it gave me the excuse I needed to go on the cruise. I couldn’t justify the trip (costs) but I needed to put family and friends first, and this allowed me to just suck it up.

The trip started in Bakersfield, CA; we left my parents house Friday around 9am. The drinking started around ohhhh 9:05am. Those women can put it away, that’s all I have to say. Well, that and I did join them. I know, right. Me, the non-drinker actually had a drink.

We made it to the ship and the experience was a bit different. First, muster does not include the life preserver but does require a trip to the life boat. Ok. Then we did the group photo.  Lord help us.

Let’s just say, trying to get a bunch of tipsy women to pose for a picture is like herding cats. My sister Elisa was doing her best as “Picture Bitch” to get them to line up. Yes, she called herself Picture Bitch and when she said to me “hey, line up, I’m picture bitch…” I turned around and said “Hey, I’m all the time bitch and I’m already in line!” We ended up getting a good group picture and a fantastic one of the Francis Ladies.

Saturday we went in to Ensenada for facials, massages, shrimp taco’s, mango margaritas, and shopping. Most of the group went to Papa’s and Beer’s but not CeCe, Mom, and I. We walked back to the ship or make that tried to find our way back through packed streets due to the parade. It turns out that it was Mardi Gras and the street between us, Papas and the ship was blocked off for the parade. We didn’t even attempt to cross but a lot of our people did and made it to the bar. We had a nice day in Ensenada and a good dinner on board the ship. Plus, we took a great family picture.

Sunday was filled with more alcohol, shopping, and the Disney themed cocktail party. I loved all the costumes. Mine was good but not great. There were four Cruella’s and mine was the hottest by far. I even had teenagers asking to take pictures with me, not to mention older men giving me a thumbs up and telling me “that’s hot girl”.

Dinner, well that wasn’t much fun for me. Everyone was hammered and the service that night was horrible. My appetizer didn’t come and the drink waiter never came to our table. I almost lost it and said “that’s it, I’m going DC snooty bitch on these people”. That is when Mom stepped in and mentioned my appetizer never came and that we would like the drink waiter to finally come over and take our orders. This was an hour in to dinner.

Monday I came back to Virginia with a hangover, swollen feet, legs, hands, headache, and wonderful memories.