Day one

Background music:  "Under Pressure", Queen

The pirate king is a little bit organized.  He packs three days before the trip, prints out tickets and itineraries, checks details multiple times.

I'm not so organized.  As in, I was still packing at 4:00 this morning.  Caught a few hours' sleep, and stopped at the drugstore for a few last-minute items before heading to the pirate king's house.

The plan was to drive to our friend Donna's house, so that Donna could drive us to the airport.  Since the king didn't want to leave his brand-new, picked-up-from-the-dealer-last-week minivan on the street by Donna's house, we decided to take my car. 

Which meant I actually had to clean all of the junk out of my car.  I think I found the lost treasure of the Incas in there.

So the idea was to get to the airport by 1:00 for a 2:55 flight.  Got to La Guardia and to the curbside checkout.

And that's when Mr. Organized realized that he left both his passport and driver's license at home!

So I checked two suitcases and got my boarding pass, and took the rest of the lugguage to the food court, got some lunch and found a table.  And waited for Donna abd the king to race back to his house and then back to the airport.

The only reason we made the plane is because boarding was delayed until 3:15.  First time I've ever been happy for a flight delay.

Mostly slept on the plane.  Not well, though.  We were in the very last row of the plane, right near the restrooms, and EVERYONE used the restrooms.

Background music:  "Changes in Lattitude, Changes in Attitude"

There's always something magical about arriving in Florida, more so in winter when there's snow back home.  But palm trees scream that you aren't home anymore.  Love it.

But didn't love the Baatan Death March from the plane to baggage claim.  Thought about taking the Sky Train, but the escalators up to the platform were out of order.

So we wound up at the La Quinta, too tired and frazzled to do much more than order room service (Cuban sandwiches, rice and beans), watch tv and go to bed.

 This will be my first post in my Cruise Critic trip report:


Music cue:  Come Sail Away by Styx

First a bit about us.  I'm known as "songbird" because of my love for music.  Too bad my singing voice is suited only for the shower.  In gentler times I'd be referred to as "a woman of a certain age".  Let's put it this way -- my daughters are 22 and 21, so I'm just a tad bit older than that.

My traveling companion is referred to in this trip report as "the pirate king" (after the character in Pirates of Penzance) and/or "Jack Sparrow", for what girl wouldn't love to sail the Caribbean with a dashing pirate?  but he's also got a bit of the Pirate Captain from that animated movie -- The Pirates! Band of Misfits -- he can make me laugh.


A bit of backstory.  The pirate king and I married, produced two beautiful children, divorced and eventually found each other again.  Our first cruise was in 1987,  on Premier's Oceanic. The Big Red Boat was Disney's official cruise line then, offering a cruise to the Bahamas combined with a Disneyworld vacation.  We sailed on Monday, visited Nassau and Premier's private island Salt Cay, and returned to Port Canaveral on Friday for the Disney portion of our vacation.


Our second cruise was in February 2010.  The Carnival Valor.  A seven day cruise, Western Caribbean, stopping at Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.
 
Music cue:  Sea Cruise by Frankie Ford

So the idea for this cruise came to us in March 2012.  We're friends with another couple, who proposed that we take a cruise together. The idea was to cruise during President's week, February 2013, when schools on Long Island close for a week.  Jack Sparrow's secret identity is " high school teacher", and our friends planned to bring their son, a high school student. So we booked the Carnival Liberty, a seven day cruise with an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.  And began to plan -- dinner at the steakhouse, an excursion to the Bacardi distillery in Puerto Rico . . .

Music cue.  Oh Sandy by John Travolta

October 29, 2012.  Superstorm Sandy devastated the tri-state area.  The coastal communities of Long Island, especially those on the South Shore, took the brunt of it.  Homes severely damaged or destroyed.  A year later the residents are still struggling with the storm's aftermath.  Those of us who live further inland had to deal with downed trees, days without electricity and long lines at the gas station.  Major inconvenience, but life went back to normal eventually.

One problem, though.  Schools cancelled February break to make up for time lost as a result of the storm. Our friends decided to pull their son out of school and go on the cruise anyhow.  But the pirate king . . . he'd been scheduled for surgery on 10/29,  finally had the surgery in the middle of November, and used up all his sick days recovering from the surgery.   He couldn't lose that much in pay to go on the cruise.   So we bit the bullet and cancelled the cruise.

Music cue:  Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts

So our consolation prize:   an 8 day cruise on the Carnival Breeze.  Eastern Caribbean, making port at Puerto Rico, Grand Turk, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.  And the planning began again.

Music cue:  a medley of Boat Drinks by Jimmy Buffett  and The Waiting by Tom Petty

So we spent the winter being tormented by TV commercials, being told that "the sea is calling", that we should "cruise like a Norwegian", that "it's better in the Bahamas", and we should be "Cayman kind"... but the worst was the one for Carnival cruise lines.  You know, the one that had the couple on board the ship, happy that their vacation is "better than last year"...  Even with Carnival's problems -- the Triumph of course, as well as the Dream and the Legend all made the news, we would not be deterred...

RIP Love Boat

One of my favorite shows at the time:

The Pacific Princess a/k/a the MS Pacific, has been retired and sent to the scrap yard.  Built for 350 crew and about 700 passengers, it seemed huge on that show.

Alas...times have changed.

Details, details

The cruise is imminent.  The major planning was done long ago.  All that's left is details.


Found a great app from Travelguard, helps keep all your info organized.  A little surprised they're still using the "Chartis" logo on the app when the rest of the company switched back to "AIG" months ago.


We checked our airline information.  American changed its flight numbers and never bothered to tell us.  Worse yet, they changed the time of our flight home.  At least they made it later, not earlier.  Considering our Jet Blue problems last cruise, this would have been nice to know earlier.


Found a neat website, www.cruiseoutlook.com.  Gives the weather forecast based on your cruise itinerary, so you don't have to look up each port separately on weather.com.  I just have to remember that the site made an error on the Breeze itinerary and I have to use a different ship (the Freedom's Eastern Caribbean itinerary for August 10) to see all our ports.

Got global services for my phone but I am not likely to use it much.  Going to turn off the data plan on the tablet and use ship's wifi, it's not cheap but a lot less expensive than Verizon.


We got the infamous "betcha can't wait" email from Carnival, the one that tells you to wait until 1:00 to board the ship.  The pirate king actually took it seriously -- he doesn't read Cruise Critic.  But our Faster to tge Fun "excursion" is scheduled to start at 11:00.  We still plan to board early and lunch on the ship.


So now it's just laundry and packing and getting excited.

Ha!

So you know I'm a tad bit upset that Jimmy Buffett's Jones Beach concerts coincide with our trip. 


Pirate King isn't happy right now.  He just found out Adam Ant is doing a concert.  He'd love to go, but it's while we're on the cruise.

one week

one week from today I will be on a flight to Miami.

single digit dance