Back in the Sunshine State
My vacation has officially begun. I’m far far away from that dastardly place called home and am sailing the aqua seas of the Caribbean about the Legend of the Seas. It should be the most wonderful vacation ever, but so far has shaped up to be less than awesome. It’s still super nice, but since the moment we left the island we’ve been plagued with misfortune. Starting with Thursday night at the airport hotel. I went to be at 10pm, didn’t fall asleep until 1:30am then had to wake up at 4am to go to the airport. You can see where my troubles began. The first flight then, was almost two hours late to take off because the plane, it seems, was just falling apart.The flight lasted about 4 hours, have of which I slept fitfully. We finally landed in Dallas about twenty minutes after our connecting flight left. We were then bumped to a 7:10pm flight to Orlando. Seeing as it was about 3pm Dallas time, we had about four hours to kill. We ended up having a meal that was meant be a mixture of Lunch and Dinner at T.G.I.Fridays. It was delicious. The rest of our hours were spent sitting around waiting for the flight.
We finally landed in Orlando just after 10pm EST. We gathered our baggage, which had evidently arrived in Orlando hours before us, and then got ourselves a rental car. We then proceeded to get lost driving around Orlando because mom did head towards Disney World when I told her to. We were looking for the I-4, which of course runs right by Disney, so clearly, had we followed the signs leading us to Disney World, we would have come upon the I-4. But she didn’t, and we ended up in Downtown Orlando. Of course the entire time we were driving around I didn’t give a crap if we were lost because I was in Florida again, Orlando even. The haven from which I was forced to leave nearly four months ago. When we finally got on the I-4 and drove by Disney I nearly threw up I was so consumed with elation and sadness. I saw Vista, and the front window of my apartment. The light was on, someone else is living there now. I didn’t actually see any of the world, as we didn’t actually venture in. Just knowing I was so close, though, was enough to tie my stomach up in knots.
Eventually the I-4 took us from Orlando into the abyss. Basically that means, parts of Florida that aren’t Orlando. One thing about freeways in the states, they are long, boring and endless.
We finally got to Tampa around 1am. I was starving by then as we’d had our lunch in Dallas hours before. We proceeded to drive around in search of any fast food that happened to be open. We finally found a Taco Bell with a line of cars so long that it took us almost half an hour to get through it. Then we hit the hotel and got our rooms.
Meanwhile the Jeffery’s had planned to fly out of Seattle on Friday morning, in order to meet us Friday night in Tampa. Their plans were thwarted, however, by a storm with hurricane force winds. The entire SeaTac Airport lost power and all flights (including theirs) were cancelled. This of course sent them into a tailspin, how were they to get to Florida? They ended up having to drive all the way back up to Vancouver to catch a later flight. Then they had to spend the night in Dallas, taking a flight early Saturday morning to Tampa.
So while they were trapped in Dallas, their hotel room in Tampa was going unused. So it took it. I had an entire hotel room to myself, no snoring parents. It was wonderful. Of course at about the time we were checking into the hotel, my throat started to get a little scratchy. Not a good sign.
Saturday morning, or yesterday, I got up at 10am and repacked my stuff and got ready. We drove our rental car back to the agency, took a shuttle to the port and behold, there was our cruise ship. The Jeffery’s had been dropped off about two minutes earlier and the moment we stepped out of the shuttle, there they were.
We went about the normal boarding procedures. Security check point, check in, Sail Pass picture. Then we made it onto the ship. We had lunch then ventured down to our cabin. We didn’t have to go far, as it’s on Deck 8. A suite, though a suite is not as sweet when it’s occupied by eight people, as it is. All five Jeffery’s plus me, mom and dad. Nana has her own cabin down the hall a bit. It’s nice to have all the free space.
The ship eventually departed from Tampa at 5pm. We had dinner at 6pm. A show at 7:45pm. Then a bit of a rest in the cabin. We went up to the Viking Crown Lounge at 10pm to watch Karaoke. Worst ever. I love Karaoke, well I love to sing it. With a passion. I’ve been practicing my songs for weeks. But low and behold, I’ve lost my voice. I now sound like a sqaking goose. It’s ridiculous, and life ruining. How am I ever going to enjoy this cruise if I can’t sing?
After the Karaoke we headed down to the Casino where I proceeded to lose twenty dollars. They had my machine though, the one where you put the quarters in and the thingy slides knocking them off. I love that. I spent ages there.
After gambling we went to the Solarium for a snack. As we sat there munching on our burgers and pizza we witnessed a drunk college guy and this other guy get into a very verbal argument. Apparently drunk guy had ordered two pieces of cheese pizza, but this other guy was given them. The drunk guy got very angry and belligerent.
Then I went to bed.
This morning I woke up feeling like crap. I hate being sick, and I’m sick. Though dad is also sick, but with something else flu like. So I’m sure he feels worse. I’ve just basically lost the ability to talk…or sing.
I didn’t so much as wake up this morning, as I was forced into it as everyone but myself was up at about 8am, being louder than ever. I’m sharing a room with Hannah and Sarah. I love them dearly, but please learn that if you need to turn on the light in a room when someone else is sleeping, then turn it off when you leave. I had to get up like four times to turn of that blasted light. And there are only so many times one can wake up and fall back asleep before they can no more. So I’m basically exhausted because of lack of sleep. And not getting much better because I’m not sleeping well. I usually only get sick when I’m sleep deprived.
So that’s been my vacation so far. It’s nice, but could be better. If we could just remain healthy human beings. Only 6 days until I’m in Disney World. You can’t imagine how excited I am. I nearly had a heart attack just thinking about it!
Tomorrow we hit Grand Cayman. Been there, done that. But oh well. We’re doing some weird pirate excursion, so hopefully that’s fun. I should stop typing now, as I’m sure most of you have stopped reading by now.
Brynna