In the Air Again…

We are now on the way to Atlanta. Amazingly, this flight is quiet. I’m gonna enjoy it too, cuz I’m sure the next flight will be maddening.

We had another wonderfully quiet motel room last night at a different motel, and although I did sleep, I could’ve slept another 4-6 hours. Although we heard car stereos in The Bahamas and Puerto Rico, Ft. Lauderdale has a ban on car stereos, so Tom learned when he went to the nearby beach. It was a sign the local police posted saying: No Loud Music.

They should have these signs everywhere and impose stiff penalties for the most rebellious and desperate of the attention-hungry losers out there.

Tom finally got to not just see, but feel the Atlantic as well. He said it was warmer than the Pacific is at its warmest time during the peak of summer. He said Florida’s just okay and isn’t sure he could deal with the summer humidity. Yeah, I’m sure it’d be rough.

I’m so glad this vacation is almost over! Even Tom’s beginning to agree it wasn’t worth the money we spent. As for me, I totally regret not forfeiting this trip. Sure it had its good points, but overall it just wasn’t worth the aggravation. I can think of better reasons to lose sleep, money and time spent doing paperwork like we did with customs and other things.

We’re descending now so my ears are popping. Too bad I have two ears to pop now.

Later…

We are on the other plane now heading for Portland, and yes, it’s chock full of screaming animals as I figured it would be, but they’ve momentarily shut up.

I was listening to music, but they kept butting in with announcements every few minutes, so I won’t bother unless the animals start shrieking like hyenas again. I’m sooo glad I never had my own! When I asked Tom why the mothers didn’t do shit about all the screaming, he said you just get used to it. How can you just “get used to” such shrilly chaotic screaming like that???

Although I’m tired, I’m just glad my allergies are getting better little by little. I had a sore throat and sneezing fits just like I had in Arizona. I even wondered if I had my first cold in 10 years. I felt, and still feel, very rundown. I worry that all warm climates will cause me to have sinus or lung problems, though my lungs and ear actually did just fine.

We’re at a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet because it was too rough at 32,000 feet, so they said.

Fortunately, no one hit us for a radio interview, which was lucky for them since I wouldn’t have had many nice things to say, though I do intend to say it in an email when we get back. I’ll be sure to let her know I’m sorry we’re out two grand for all the noise, the friendly yet pushy crew, the not-so-fantastic food, the letdown of not being able to go to the Grand Turk, etc. I’ll also let them know the hot tubs were closed half the time, nor did we get our room service menu till the end. I had been getting coffee from the get-go via room service, but we didn’t know what other things we could get until we finally got the menu. The selection wasn’t that great and not all things were available at all times.

Nor was Doe and Art waiting for us at the Ft. Lauderdale dock, but believe me, if I thought there was the slightest chance they would be, I’d never have sent the card from Puerto Rico.

They’re playing a movie on overhead screens that are spaced every 15’ or so along the aisle. You can hear the voices on one of their 12 channels, but like I said, the interruptions get old. As long as the animals stay civilized, I’ll just listen to the hum of the engines.

To back up to when we got aboard the ship, we had cabbed over to Port Everglades where the ship was docked. We then stood in a very long line in a very large room. After what seemed like quite a while, we went up to a window with our tickets and to get our key cards. They took our pictures from their computers. This displayed on the ship’s screens when the card was scanned, and of course we had to walk through metal detectors and have our stuff x-rayed. I almost felt like I was back in jail, though they never did strip searches!

There were lots of ships docked in Florida, and small boats owned by individuals who would cruise around the area, too.

When we first got on board we couldn’t go to our rooms because they were still working on them as the previous group of cruisers had disembarked just hours before we got on. We waited up on the Lido deck and had a snack since only the sweets section was open at the time.

Because the food and service weren’t that good, Tom asked for our tips back in the end so they wouldn’t automatically go and help themselves to $10 a day like they usually do.

They were just too in our faces. If I thought dealing with housekeepers once a day was a pain, well, they did the room twice a day on the ship! I could usually keep Johannes, the guy tending to us, from bothering us in the evenings by sticking the privacy card out, though a couple of times there were others who knocked, then came right in without waiting for a reply. What’s the point of knocking if you’re just gonna barge right in?

At least Jo tried to make us happy. He’d sometimes fold towels in animal shapes and leave them on the bed. Once he did a swan, then an aardvark.

The room was small and simple but with adequate storage space. We started off with the bed set up as a king-size and him sleeping on the loveseat in the sitting area, but that was uncomfortable so we had Jo separate the beds. We slept with the TV on one of the music stations and threw a spare blanket over the screen to block the light. Of course I also had my earplug in, but this wasn’t just to help block out outside noise, but his snoring as well.

They gave us shampoo, conditioner and lotion as I expected, but the room didn’t have the plush carpet I also expected. It was flat and hard.

The room had a wet bar with soda, but since that would’ve been charged to our card, we decided to skip the soda. And of course, we don’t drink.

The verandah was private in that you couldn’t see other people on their verandahs unless you stuck your head around the partitions. At night, though, I could sometimes see someone else’s reflection next door in the glass railings.

We had a wicker chair out on the verandah and a cushioned chair with a wicker footrest. That table I wish we’d had for coffee cups never arrived till the very last day.

They supplied two robes, but you had to buy them if you wanted to keep them. We decided they weren’t worth the $50 they wanted for them. They weren’t even of terrycloth, but some coarse fabric.

Where there was a floor of clouds below us a moment ago, there’s now nothing but snow. That was fast. It seems we were where it was nice not so long ago.

Anyway, there was a married couple to our right that was in their 40s. They were usually quiet. The two single ladies to our left, however, were a bit loud and they even woke us up with rowdy laughter our first night. I mentioned it to Jo who mentioned it to them and Paula apologized from her verandah when she heard me go out on ours. I told her, “No problem. We understood your excitement. Especially being in your 20s like you are.”

That’s when she told me she was 46. I was like, wow! She looked great for her age.

It turns out that one of them was also a cruise winner, but they got to have all their expenses paid because they won it from their local radio station in Texas. Another difference is that they were having a blast like most people, and thought the music was great.

If we’re flying over Wyoming now, and I think we are, it’s too bad I hate snow so much. Most of the houses are way isolated!

So anyway, once the guests got situated in their rooms, it was off for an emergency escape drill where we had to don our lifejackets and line up on a particular deck, women and animals first. While waiting on the deck until our room numbers were called and checked off their list, I noticed all the other women had their toenails polished red while mine were still bare.

My tooth aggravated me for the first two days, then when that stopped my allergies took over. Yes, God really loves to see me suffer and always keeps me going with something, doesn’t He?

We were late in taking off from Florida because they were waiting for someone, so we didn’t leave till after dark. I was lying down when we started moving. I could suddenly hear the soft hum of the propeller and feel a slight motion. I got up and ran out to the verandah where people were cheering us off from a large apartment building. I couldn’t see anyone, but I could hear them.

Because the ship’s so big we had a small pilot boat guide us out till we were out on the open ocean. They use tugboats to push ships into spaces against the docks which have little bumpers alongside them.

It sure was weird falling asleep in the US and waking up in The Bahamas! The sun was just rising when we were approaching The Bahamas. Because we visited a touristy section, we could use US currency. They were giving guided tours on buses and horse-drawn carriages, but we remained on foot. I didn’t realize The Bahamas were all blacks, but it sure was. I guess that makes sense, seeing that most of the southeastern US is infested with the damn things. At least the blacks we encountered were friendly store-keepers and not vindictive, loud, obnoxious, gang-banging, drug-toting neighbors. The streets were very narrow and the steering wheels were on the other side of their cars, but it otherwise looked like it could’ve been a place in Florida for all I knew. I was shocked to learn that The Bahamas consists of over 700 islands! The beaches we saw seemed wimpy and remote. There wasn’t much of a shore or very many people on it.

While in The Bahamas, I got blue glitter nail polish that turns green when in sunlight. We also got a couple of postcards we decided to keep for ourselves, along with the postcards we decided to write out to each other in Georgia.

Lastly, I got a couple of dresses. One’s light pink up top, turning to darker pink on the bottom. The bottom is also bedecked with silver sequins. The other dress has a pink and purple background with black palm tree silhouettes and a tasseled hem. This one is mostly a cover-up for at the beach or pool, though it can be worn elsewhere with a slip underneath.

There was a Disney ship docked next to us and it looked way awesome with a really cool waterslide on top of it, though I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be on it.

Later…

I’m now going to start putting in PT times in these entries, though I put in ET times at sea. We still have nearly two hours of flying to do. Meanwhile, did the fucking flight attendants really have to interrupt the music 3 times to tell us they were serving snacks?! Why don’t they just do it?!

I had to go back to the music because the animals started up again. They just keep cycling through the same small selection of songs and sometimes I still hear the animals screaming even though I’ve got it up full blast.

Now we’ve been interrupted twice more to tell us to buckle up through the turbulence that only lasted two seconds.

We spent Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at sea since we couldn’t go to the Grand Turk on Friday like we were supposed to. We were hoping they’d have more sales and raffles to make up for it, but they didn’t. We explored the ship in greater depth instead. Tom exercised on the treadmills in the gym, and we found that the view from the back of the ship was way cool. The waves in the wake of the ship’s path were really cool to see and it sounded like we were by a giant waterfall.

Since there were no more raffles to hope to win, I bought a custom-made bracelet with a magnetic clasp for $22. I love the magnetic clasp and it’s gorgeous! It’s gold with shiny round light-colored gems spaced out around it in light green, green, blue and pink. Because I like pink, the guy added an extra pink gem in the middle of it. The only thing I’d change is the light green. I’d make that lavender.

There was this chick I saw a few times. First we were in line at the bistro, which always changes its menu, and she was telling me what was what since I didn’t know what half the stuff was. The second time, she and a couple of guys were having their picture taken and she waved me over to join in. Tom searched for it the next day in the photo gallery but didn’t find it.

Midway through the voyage, they gave us canvas bags with notepads, pens and planners.

We never went to the formal dining rooms because their menu had stuff on it we’d never heard of. They even had a barbecue one day by the family pool, though even that wasn’t too great.

I had the most fun in Puerto Rico which I fell right in love with! It had an ugly dock where I could see a bunch of clear jellyfish hanging around, and the cab drivers were crazy driving so fast through the narrow streets, most of which had no traffic lights, but shopping there was a blast. I dug how most of the signs were in Spanish.

There were vendors by the ship, and one gave us samples of Puerto Rican rum which we both wouldn’t touch after I tried a tiny sip that was so gross I spit it right out.

Although my feet were killing me, we browsed through several shops where I got an 8-pack of patchouli incense that I couldn’t burn till we got back to Florida. Got a box of several little decorative monarchs. I thought one would make a good replacement for the old, stained dove my Joy doll holds. Lastly, I got a cup that says Puerto Rico along the rim and has colorful decorations that float in a glittery fluid between the walls and the bottom of the cup.

It started raining pretty hard toward the evening before we left port. It had tapered off to just a bare drizzle by the time we were pushing off, waving to the people left on the dock. It amused me to see so many people get a kick out of waving to perfect strangers, but even I got into it, too.