Mauritius was a hot mess from the beginning. First we weren't going,
then we were, but only for 4 hours! All the FDPs were cancelled, and we
were all in rush mode. We would be starting the immigration process
around 7am and as soon as everyone went through we could get off the
ship. So Becca, Michael, Lexi, Kevin, Dain and I were outside of the
Glaceier Lounge waiting for the customs officials to come on board at
6:50 so we could clear immigration and get in line at the gangway to be
one of the first ones off. So there were about 20 people ahead of us at
that point, but we were pretty lucky because within 10 minutes there
were at least 100 more. Once we cleared immigration Lexi and Becca went
to claim a spot at the gangway while Michael, Dain, Kevin and I went to
scarf breakfast real quick. Turns out, breakfast turned out to be super
scarfed since about 2 minutes in Becca ran up to tell us how long the
line was getting at the gangway. So I pretty much ate 2 boxes of cocoa
pebbles at lightspeed and was in line with them by 7:10. Everyone else
got there soonafter and we were ready to go. While in line we made a
scavenger hunt list of what everyone needed to get (flags, postcards,
stamps, ect) to make our mission and go. We cleared customs around 8 and
by this point there was a line from Deck 2 up to Deck 4 at the gangway
and we were in the first 10 so that was fantastic. So we ran outside and
just started walking, quickly realizing that just because we knew where
wanted to go didn't mean we knew how to get there. So we ran back to ask
one of the customs officials and once we got directions we ran for it.
We hauled it into town and took some pictures at the beautiful
waterfront. One was a jump picture off a fountain, and of course, since
I was wearing white shorts, I fell in the puddle. But when Dain yelled
"no one fall" I knew he and I both saw that coming. But oh well, you
stop getting embarrassed after a while when you fall as often as I do.
Anyway, after going to an ATM, quickly realized that nothing was even
open. So we walked further and further, and nothing in Port Louis opened
until 10, which sucked since we had to be on the ship by 12 but were
aiming for 11 since we knew this would be a big dock time port. About an
hour in there was an abundance of SAS kids just roaming the streets
looking for open places but it didn't seem that anyone was having any
luck (although plenty of people managed to find beers...but more on that
later). Kevin, Dain, Michael and I decided to hop in a cab to the
nearest beach since that's what Mauritius is famous for and we had
nothing else to do anyway. Initially that wasn't part of our plan since
it's a bit of a drive, but we figured we would go check it out for a few
minutes. Our cab driver told us it would be 15 minutes, but it ended up
being 40. So we stayed at the beach for 20 minutes just to take pictures
and say we went, and then went back. There ended up being A LOT of
traffic on the way back and we started to get really worried. We made it
back to the waterfront, about a half hour walk from the ship, at 10:50,
and pretty much put ourselves on overdrive mode. We ran into the
mall-thing and all went our separate ways on a mission. Dain and I went
into a souvenir store and I'm still not sure how many magnets and
postcards we bought, but we definitely found them. Actually, come to
think of it, I'm not quite sure what else we bought either since we kind
of just threw a bunch of random stuff on the counter and went. Michael
then came in and found us and yelled that he found somewhere that sold
stamps, so next we ran to that store to get stamps but on the way I saw
a flag in a window! So Dain grabbed the flag right from the window, paid
for it and within a minute we were frantically buying stamps. 11:05 we
were all assembled in the lobby and ready to go. A cab driver outside
offered us a really good price for the rush we were in so we hopped in
it and went to the pier. We made it there around 11:20 and the line was
pretty short. So after we got on the ship we sat down and wrote a few
postcards each and then went to Deck 5 to stand outside and watch the
late, and probably drunk, (Mauritius is known as THE party port and
despite us needing to be on the ship by noon, we knew there would be
quite a few drunkies) people rushing in at the last minute. Our
suspicions prevailed and we saw quite a few people being taken away by
the RDs/Deans/Staff to the Drunk Tank and by 11:45 the line was longer
than I have ever seen it. Security started hauling us and the line was
actually clear by 12:05, which annoyed me since I don't think people
should be rewarded for coming late by having security hurry up and be
less thorough, but it was still fun to watch the dumbasses. After that
we went to have lunch and set sail for India!
Alcohol rant:
It's completely obnoxious that so many people disrespected the country
of Mauritius and the reputation of SAS by intentionally getting
completely obliterated. They have 4 hours in this country, and it's
spent getting trashed. There were so many people sentenced to drunk tank
that overflow rooms were being used, and the amount of people that were
drunk, but not as drunk so they got by, was ridiculous. As we were
discussing at lunch, we couldn't find a single place open, so we don't
know how these people even got alcohol but it was clearly made their
mission of the day. Most of the shipboard community was disgusted, from
students to faculty, and more than one discussion was given to the
entire ship on poor behavior. This disgracement lasted for a few days,
and I am still trying to comprehend why anyone would go into a port with
the intention of spending the next 4 hours doing nothing but drinking. I
had a great time for my 4 hours in a country I'll probably never be back
to, do they even remember it?
As Dr. Bill put in pre-port "If you need consume alcoholic beverages
before noon, that's a sign of alcoholism."
Gluten Free: I have no idea. I'd imagine it's fruity.
Safety: No idea, but I'd gather it would be pretty dumb to leave your
bags unattended at a beach.
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