All jazzed up for "Formal Night."

Lobster Twins! Debbie and Becky had clearly spent this Fun Day At Sea in the sun.

Kirk had a little trouble getting his tie right, and is lent some expert assistance by Mike. Sally is gearing up for some photo fun.

Mike and Faye.

The dashing duo, Sally and Kirk.

Mike, disgusted by our continuous high-jinks, looks away, ashamed.

Our next port of call was Belize City.

Lisa and I had been to Belieze before and knew that Belieze City was not that interesting, so we encouraged Faye to put together an excursion away from the city. She picked a cave-tubing trip, which ended up being the highlight of the whole cruise.

Here are Faye, Mike and Sally waiting for our bus.

Those damn Carnival Cruise photographers were there, as we were crossing the river! I couldn't believe it! I think the disappointment I felt by their intrusion is clearly on my face. And a spare tire is not only on my shoulder, but clearly on my belly.

Lisa, on the other hand, was ecstatic to see that guy in his red, white and blue shirt.

That night, the spirit onboard was festive.

I was feeling a little dour.

See?! Festive! Faye and Mike decided to show off their ballroom dancing skills.

The final shore excursion was in Mexico, at a place dubbed Costa Maya. The cruise industry built a pier and a tourist village on the coast in the Yucatan, to accommodate these massive cruise ships. Here, there are three ships, that collectively contained around ten thousand people.

You've seen those cruise ship ads, where there is a couple all alone on a beach, enjoying some special moment together, alone. It's fiction. Ten thousand people...

and here's where they're all going.

There's a small fishing village down the road from the cruise ship pier where some people went to, and there were quite a few shore excursions, but there were gobs of drunk gringos partying it up at the tourist village.

Kirk, Sally, Faye and Mike went to explore some Mayan ruins, which took them all day. Looks fun.

Lisa and I went on an ATV tour. We blasted through the fishing village, and I felt like a bad American tourist. It was fun though, and good to be off the boat for a while.

Lisa took to the ATV quite naturally.

These were the guides for the trip. They tried explaining to our group how much the cruise ships have affected their communities. One idiot redneck said, "affected how?" Can you believe it?! Thousands and thousands of people disgorged here every day, in an area where there had only been tiny little communities. I was baffled. The husband of the redneck, when the guides asked if anyone had any questions, said "baffroom." He was asking if there was a bathroom. I was so embarrassed.

We decided to get some beers in the tourista village, despite our "too cool for school" attitudes. Here's one view.

On our way back to the boat Lisa blasts some Monkey Ears.

while I strike my "ugly American" pose.

A cute thing the cabin stewards did every evening while we were at dinner, was to make these little critters out of towels. You could buy (of course) a book that showed how to do it. I think Lisa really wanted one.

We held onto them and had them keep each other company. You see, we were running out of fun things to do during the Fun Days At Sea.

A parting shot of the dancing masses, soon to be back in the real world.

Me, I was ready to be back in New York, with other uptight and snobby people just like me.

An interesting experience, but as DFW said...

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