7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise aboard
Carnival Cruise Line’s ship the “Elation”
The idea of a cruise conjures up images
of retired folks, newly-weds, couples celebrating anniversaries, family
reunions, or people wanting to escape their dreary lives. Not exactly
the mix of people I'm itching to hang around with for 7 days. So, when
Marcelo, Salsa Salvaje (www.salsasalvaje.com)
instructor, announced that John Riddle of DanceFun (www.dancefun.com)
asked us to teach on the cruise, I was skeptical about how much fun I’d
have. Would it be worth the money I’d be spending to just get on the
cruise?
I consulted friends about what to expect on cruises. Responses ranged
from, “Aren’t you worried about the virus outbreaks on that cruise
line?” to “I’m jealous. Salsa, sun, water, Mexico, sun, food, pampering,
sun. What’s not to enjoy?” (Credit first quote to co-worker Elizabeth.
Credit the second quote to Salsacrazy himself.)
After a bit of research, I discovered
that 1. I didn’t need to bring a lot of cash with me (a good thing since
graduate student life leaves one with no disposable income) and 2. the
virus outbreaks were mostly in Florida area cruises and that they were
contained, but if I kept to bottled water and cooked foods, I’d be
pretty safe from catching something that would give me diarrhea. On
Hallie Kuperman’s (www.centuryballroom.com)
suggestion, I bought bonine, which is a milder form of dramamine, to
prevent seasickness. I also packed my little vial of White Flower Oil, a
Chinese ointment that smells like eucalyptus and is a cure-all for
everything from headaches to nausea. As a last thought, I brought a
piece of ginger with me in case I felt sick.
Before I bombard you with my day-by-day
account of the cruise, here’s a summary of the trip. Over 100 people
attended the DanceFun event. People came from Seattle, Oregon, the San
Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San
Diego. Our small but significant group was less than 10% of the 2000
people who were on the cruise ship. The cruise set-sail from Los
Angeles, spent the first 2 days at sea, the next couple of days at
different ports in Mexico, and the last day or so back at sea returning
to Los Angeles.
During days at sea, DanceFun organized
several hours of salsa workshops at all levels for each day. Privates
lessons were available and arranged independently between students and
instructors. Each day, DanceFun organized a salsa dance social, DJ’d by
Tony “El Tigron” Gomez of Los Angeles. Some of the highlights for the
salsa socials included a 70s theme social, birthday and anniversary
celebration night, and prizes for the best cabin-door decorations.
Aside from the organized socials, some of us die-hard salsa dancers got
a hold of a boombox (thanks Alma!) and danced to salsa CDs late at night
in one of the ships clubrooms. The floors inside the ship were marble
and were a little sticky for dance sneakers. Floors outside on the deck
were wooden and great for dancing in either dance sneakers or dance
heels.
Dancers ranged from raw beginners to
professionals, with about 15% at the beginner range, 15% at the
professional range, and bulk in the intermediate-advanced range. Ratios
of gents to dames on some nights seemed to favor the ladies, and on
other nights definitely favored the men. One of the best things about
DanceFun events is that everyone has fun dancing with everyone and
getting turned down for a dance is rare. Intimidation factor sinks to
near zero when you get a group of people who are real and not
egotistical and just love to dance. It’s one of the characteristics that
makes DanceFun’s well-organized events so successful.
Now on to the details of my salsa
cruise experience:
Day 1 – Sunday
5:45am. With barely 90 minutes of sleep
the night before, I drove to pick up Naomi at 6am. The Salvaje crew met
up at Marcelo’s pad at 6:15am. Michael drove us to the airport, and
while he and Marcelo were discussing the pros and cons of buying your
own pad versus paying rent, the rest of us dozed or watched a dark and
drizzly Seattle whiz by. The flight itself was uneventful.
10am. When we landed in LAX, we faced
a long, unmoving line for the shuttle to the port. After standing in
that line (and not advancing) for what seemed like hours, the five of us
ditched the line and decided to catch our own taxi-van to the port. Heh
heh, we beat the lines to the port. Or so we thought.
12:30pm. At the LA port, there must
have been over a 1000 people trying to check-in to the ship. That line
was probably the longest line I’ve ever stood in. Despite the long
line, people were all very patient. We all must’ve been eager to get the
vacation started. The trip officially began when, after checking us
onto the cruise, just prior to boarding the ship “Elation”, crewmembers
took the first of our many cruise photos.
3pm. Once on the ship, we dropped off
our luggage in our respective cabins, and made a beeline to the buffet
at Tiffany’s. Boy was I starving! On my second plate of food, I finally
exhaled a sigh of relief, inhaled the relaxing air of the ship, and
looked out the window. It was then that I noticed no lines on the
pier. Mental note: next time, check onto ship after 3pm.
5:30pm By this time, the ship had just
started to set sail. DanceFun hosts John and Anita greeted the group at
our first salsa social. We received name tags, salsa canvas bags, and a
convenient little schedule of events for the week that we could tuck
into the plastic nametag holder. Our hosts welcomed us to the event,
introduced the instructors, and let DJ Tony spin the salsa while
everyone worked off their giddiness on the dance floor. Excited to
debut my sexy new dance shoes from Jim Hadley’s Experience Store (www.salsapromotions.com),
I stepped onto the dance floor. Whoa. It was gonna be a little trickier
dancing on a floor that was moving at who-knows-how-many-knots-an-hour
in the ocean. Even with the ship’s anti-rocking vertical stabilizers,
yes, you could feel the ship move. The experience reminded me of the
nights I danced on one of those salsa cruises around Elliott Bay that
Claudio Valentino organized every Friday night in the summer. I had to
focus to hold my balance (or more like regain my balance after losing
it!). It definitely would be too tricky to Argentine tango on a cruise.
8pm. The formal dinners were
outstanding, with a different 4 course menu selection each night.
Vegetarian, seafood, and meat options made the nightly decisions
tantalizingly difficult. We were shy about ordering stuff on the first
night. But boy, on the second night, when I realized we could order more
than one appetizer/entrée, well, then the feasting commenced. Thus
began my nightly pig-out sessions.
11pm. After dinner, our group checked
out one of the clubs on the ship called “Jekyl and Hyde.” The dj’d
played top pop hits, a little hip hop, 80s music, and other clubby dance
stuff. Needing to work off our dinner, we busted a few moves on the
dance floor. Rather than let the bronze pole in the middle of the dance
floor be an obstruction, Paula took the opportunity to exhibit a sultry
pole dance. Then, so did a few other ladies. Yes, we have footage
captured on video tape. We also have footage of people doing the
electric slide, dancing salsa to non-salsa music, and simply goofing
around. It was hilarious! Or maybe we were delirious from how little
sleep we had the night before.
Working up a sweat, we thought it would
be perfect to jump into one of the Jacuzzis on the boat. Unfortunately,
we found out the jacuzzi’s were drained after something like 9pm each
night. While on deck, though, we noticed how pleasantly warm the night
air was. We then wandered to club on the ship called the “Cole Porter
Lounge.” There, a band of Filipino men were doing an amazing job
covering old hits like BeeGees tunes or Smokey Robinson’s stuff. In
between sets, they let us play a salsa cd, and the dancers took over the
floor. After their final set was over, we were still not ready to turn
in for the night. Alma Frey went to her room and brought up her boombox.
Voila. As long as the music kept playing, we kept dancing. By the end,
there were only about 5 of us left. The person with the most endurance
must have been El Tigron, who, as it turns, out, is a Seaon Stylist
dancer. While he was patiently showing us a few cool shines on 2, one
by one, we sat down, exhausted and without enough brainpower to continue
absorbing new footwork. Now that’s the way a night should end!!
Day 2 – Monday
The next morning, Paula got up around
6am. Naomi and I probably wouldn’t have known to get up if she hadn’t
returned at 10am. Ours was an indoor cabin, with no window, so it was
pitch black if no lights were on. Groggily, Naomi and I got ready for
the day as Paula gushed about how warm and sunny it was outside, how she
had already gotten a chance to do a power walk on the track on deck, lay
out in the sun, and jump in the Jacuzzi. Our first workshop was going to
begin soon, and we had just enough time to dress, grab some breakfast,
and head off to teach our first lesson.
Workshops on Monday ran til about 5pm
today. Several workshops ran simultaneously in different rooms. Each
room was wired for sound, and the instructors had wireless
headset/microphones to speak into. The workshops were well attended.
Immediately after the day’s workshops,
we had a salsa social. After that was over, a few of us headed to the
Jacuzzi for a much needed soak at the end of a long day! While relaxing
in the outdoor Jacuzzi, we spotted an orbiting satellite above us.
That night was the cruise’s formal
dinner night. Everyone on the boat was decked out. I mean tuxes, ties,
suits, cuff-links, up-dos, manicures, etc. And then there were the
salsa dancers…in our finest salsa wear, some in black dance sneakers and
all.
After dinner, several dancers met up
for late night salsa and reportedly took over the Jekyl and Hyde club
til 4am. There was a mix-up about our room key so a few of us crashed in
another room. With all the buzz in the room, it was bound to be another
sleepless night.
Day 3 – Tuesday
After a private lesson, I headed over
to where our first workshop was. In today’s workshops, Marcelo and I
got to teach a meringue and then a salsa class. Marcelo felt a bit sick
and had to run out of the meringue class for a second. He caught
whatever Rachel had the night before (which she got before getting on
the ship). By the end of the night, though, Marcelo was back up to
speed. We hit the jacuzzi again at night before heading out to dinner.
At the social dance tonight, John and Anita called out all the people
who had birthdays and anniversaries in the month of January. Each of the
celebrants received a birthday card and t-shirt. What a great way to
recognize individuals. Stacey and Francisco then led us into a birthday
dance tradition. All the guys formed one circle. All the ladies formed a
second circle. In the middle of each circle were the dancers of the
opposite sex who were celebrating something. While the DJ played a
song, the people outside of the circle got to dance for a few bars with
each of the people in the middle of the circle. It was very cool. Not
sure what else we did tonight, but we might have gone to check out the
ship’s nightly big show and then to Tiffany’s for the crepes at the
midnight buffet before calling it a night.
Next: The salseros land – Puerto
Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas --
READ PART 2 NOW!
2-15-03
-- by Nadine!
