Highlights Dos

This week, I could really use some of these cruise highlights again. Bueno, here we go:

• Watching the US-Ghana game of the World Cup on the giant LED screen. It was originally only going to be screened in the sports bar but enough people complained to get it bumped up the big screen in front of the lido deck pool. (On a side note, why do all cruise ships have a Lido deck? I've been to the Lido in Venice, and its not that great.) It was a shame US lost but it was fun to stake out deck chairs, eat greasy pizza, and cheer and moan with the other 300 or so passengers who also showed up to watch the game.
• The final show at the main stage (called the "Spectacular Spectacular" since just calling it the "Spectacular"  just doesn't convey how spectacularly spectacular the stage is). This show featured ten other passengers who had auditioned two nights before in the karaoke lounge for various famous singer positions. With a pool of 3000 passengers pared down to the percentage who auditioned, there were some interesting results. James Brown, for example, was played by an Asian man. My 16 year old (famale, in case you were wondering) cousin played Britney Spears. It was the best show I saw on the trip. The passengers were far better performers than the employed singers and dancers. The James Brown routine was fantastic, and Britney Spears was not bad either, although I'm not sure my grandmother approved of the schoolgirl outfit they gave her. 
• We sucked it up and payed the $70 to go on an excursion. Cabo's known for diving and snorkeling so we jumped on a sail and snorkel package, which took us and a dozen other people out on a big catamaran where we drank and lay out on the 40 minute trip out to the Santa Maria cove. The snorkeling wasn't bad. Lots of fish. I saw trumpetfish, rays, and various other unidentified fish. After about an hour of snorkeling, they took us back and opened up the bar, so we drank tecates and rode the wildly pitching boat, generally enjoying the hell out of the sun and spray and the sea. We even saw a whale shark on the ride back. That was pretty cool.
• Final night of drinking where everyone in the family got their smuggled bottles of booze back from the cabin steward and lay them all out on one of the beds, like we were badass contraband rum runners. There was a fair amount of drinking afterwards, which was also fun.