“This is the nicest cruise ship I’ve ever been on” said my 85 year old mother as she surveyed the promenade area of Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas. The Navigator is loaded with lots of luxurious light fixtures, bronze statues, beautiful nautical themed areas and a funky sofa that frames the person sitting in it. The main deck is kind of like walking down a…. well…I guess a promenade. There’s lots of cute themed bars scattered throughout the ship as well, but my mom is not a drinker, so I figured I’d be on the ship and the wagon at the same time.
So much for the drink package.
I’ve taken my mom on a trip every year since her husband passed away, but this was the first time we did a cruise together. Her days of mountain climbing and winning dance contests appear to be over, so we thought a cruise might be a pretty effortless option. Worst case scenario, there’s always buffets and a place to rest her head. I wasn’t sure about sharing a room with her at first, but the steward set us up with separate beds. Our balcony room was large enough that we both had enough of our own space. My mom has a few medical issues, so I figured I needed to be on hand if anything went awry.
This was the first trip where my mother needed a wheelchair and I wasn’t entirely sure how I could make that happen. To my surprise, there was a staff member from Royal Caribbean available to set everything up and get us on the cruise ship ahead of the queue of 3500 future passengers. An attendant took us all the way to the pool area where we could wait until our stateroom was ready. Boarding the ship had been one of my mom’s biggest fears; along with her dreading searches by TSA at the airport. However, both events were smooth and painless, so she was finally worry free. She could unpack and gloat from our balcony. Within a few hours after boarding, we set sail for Ensenada.
I’m not one to set up excursions in advance. I prefer the freedom of last minute, so when my mom decided to skip the first port, I was glad I hadn’t pre-booked anything. The seven day cruise has 3 ports: Ensenada, Cabo and Mazatlan. Although mom stayed on board at Ensenada, she was excited to visit the last 2 stops.
I made a list of top 5 things to do in each port and just booked Uber and taxis to get us around. The tourist infrastructure of Mexico is very good. There’s dozens of tour mongers waiting outside the port gate and the prices are reasonable if you want to do an excursion on the fly. If you’re super experienced and want to skip the buses, you can always opt for DIY like I do. Between ride apps, anxious taxi drivers and the operators hawking their adventures, it’s very easy to get around.
We didn’t do a lot of the activities on the ship in spite of all the offerings. My mom is more content reading books from the library room than learning napkin folding or doing trivia contests. I’m a fast traveler as a rule, but I got connected to the ship WiFi and spent my extra hours catching up on blogs and handling my airbnb business. The WiFi has come a long way since it was first introduced. I was able to upload videos and had very few connection issues.
My mom isn’t an adventurous eater, so I was not surprised when she skipped the escargot (which was an option nearly every night). However, when she spurned the lobster and baked Alaskan for a Caesar salad and dinner rolls, I nearly disowned her. The French onion soup was epic, but apparently“too European” for her palate.
I made the mistake of choosing the late seating option: 7:30 rather than 5. I learned an important lesson on this cruise. Older people don’t want to wait to eat. They want food NOW. Fortunately, the hostess was able to change our time and got us a permanent table for the entire cruise. I love the fine dining option on cruise ships; waiters who change your forks every 5 minutes and bring you extra everything your heart desires. Mom turned out to be more excited about the endless buffet stations on the 11th floor than all that fancy white linen nonsense.
Things went smoothly until the end of the cruise. My mom started feeling faint and noticed blood in the shower. I tried to be calm, but knew it was a bad idea to ignore such things at her age. I called 911 and within minutes, a security officer, a nurse and an assistant appeared and wheeled her to the medical center on the first floor. After some tests, it was determined that her blood pressure was way too high- dangerously so and after observing her for a few hours, giving her medication and setting her up with what she needed until she could visit her doctor. They checked her twice the following day as free follow-ups, and she was back to normal in no time. My mom, with her usual sense of humor pretended to be dead when I took this photo.
It’s an entirely different vibe traveling with my mom, but I feel like its one of the most rewarding experiences. Life is short and we never know how long we’ll have the ones we love with us.
