This trip has been the adventure of a lifetime for me. How many people get the opportunity to sail across the Pacific Ocean, meet so many new people, and visit such exotic places? I will admit this trip has had its downsides, and I did have some worries before we left. At one time I almost regretted signing up to come, but now I know that if I had not come I would have ended up regretting it for the rest of my life.

There are a lot of things I wish I had known before I had packed by bags and moved onto this five hundred foot ship. That is part of the reason I had some doubt about coming on this trip, because everything was so disorganized and I was so unsure about what was going on. For my cruise a lot of that confusion did not get cleared up until we were on our way, but they have learned from us and the next group who comes is going to be much more prepared.

Packing was a small problem because I really had no idea what to expect, and therefore no idea what to bring. There was a short packing list which was given to us, but other than that we were on our own. I had no idea what the weather on the ship was going to be like. I knew we were going to tropical places and it would be warm there, but I have never been on a ship like this before. For all I knew it could be windy the whole time we were at sea, and the first couple of days at sea that is exactly what it was like. But after that the weather became nice outside all the time and most people wore shorts and t-shirts all the time. Some days it does get cooler, but never so cold that anything more than a sweatshirt is needed. For girls clothing they made a big deal about how we cannot wear tank tops on the ship, which is true. What they did not tell us is that you cannot wear them off the ship going into port either. Once in port it does not matter, so a light sweater you can wear over a tank top and tie around your waist is perfect to have. Other than that, common sense is basically all you need for packing clothes. A few other key items that no one mentioned are hand soap, because you will have a sink in your room; floor mats for the room and bathroom are also nice; and some type of cleaning product also proves useful.

Knowing things I needed to pack was probably minor compared to knowing what type of people CMA cadets are. I had a very bad experience with them so my view is a little biased, but over all it takes a different type of person to be in CMA. Most people are very nice, but you will soon learn there are two types of CMA cadets - the deckies and the engineers. The engineers are the ones you need to be careful of because there will be a group of them who take things way too seriously. In my biased opinion, they think that the world revolves around CMA and because they are part of it they are better than everyone else. This even includes their fellow cadets, if they happen to be deckies. Most of the time they are avoidable and honestly just funny to watch and see how serious everything is to them, but I ended up being in a clean sweep down group with the worst of them and it was miserable. They took advantage of the situation and were not nice about it at all. That problem has supposedly been taken care of now, and Cal Poly had its own separate clean sweep down group afterward which made everything so much better. Even though not all the CMA cadets are nice people, I do not want anyone not to go on this trip because of that. If I could still have a good time and recommend the trip after what I had to go through because of some of the CMA cadets, anyone can handle them. You just have to ignore them and not let them ruin your good time. Maybe on the next cruise you won't have the same type of people.

Clan sweep down was another mystery to me. I had heard that we had some type of daily job we had to do, but that was all I knew. Do not worry about it because Cal Poly now has their own are they are in charge of cleaning, and it is simple work. There are certain things that need to be done and it is all divided up, so it takes less than fifteen minutes if everyone helps out. It is simple jobs like vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, and wiping down tables. This sounds like a lot, but the areas are so small that it is simple.

Once all the confusion got cleared up, or I at least learned how to deal with it, the trip has been a blast. Every port has been fun, honestly every port has been more than just fun. I can look back at them and see that i have had some of the best times of my so far on this cruise. I have seen tropical beaches that I never imagined I would see except in the pages of a travel magazine, eaten sushi in Japan, and seen fields of baby Albatross. Even the ports that did not sound like they would be that much fun have been great. I had serious doubts about Guam, which ended up being beautiful and I had a great time there. Not only have I seen a lot, but I have made some very close friendships that will last long after I am home.

I have loved every minute I have been on this cruise. At times things have gotten tough, but that can be expected staying on a five hundred foot ship with over two hundred people. But in the end it all works out, and looking back it does nothing to take away from the fun. I would recommend this trip to anyone. If it offers even the slightest appeal you should go, because it will be better than anything you could expect. There is no way I could have imagined that things would turn out as they have, or that I would do the things I have been able to do. There is only a week left in this trip for me, and I am ready to get home and resume my normal life. But I will never forget this trip, what I have seen, who I have met, and what I have learned about myself.