So. I'm back. (From outer space. Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da your face...) I had an absolutely amazing time on the cruise. I have never felt so spoiled in my life. I have been contemplating for days on how to best recap my experience, share my stories, whatever. I wondered if I should do it chronologically, or by topic, or just a whole mishmash of things. Would I do it all in one entry, or in several installments to give people a break from the awesomeness. Clearly, I have way too much time on my hands ;) Ultimately, I decided to go fairly chronologically. Sorta. We'll see how it comes out. So without further ado (haha what a funny word), we begin the adventure... dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUN...
January 29, 2009: Trip to Miami
I had traveled to the cities the night before since I had a morning flight to Atlanta to catch. Also, it was my birthday on the 28th, and I very much wanted to hang out with my homies up there. (What, you don't think I have homies? Totally do.) I stayed with my darling Kristen, and of course we stayed up way too late chatting, so I was a bit groggy on the way to the airport. And it was COOOLD. I refused to wear a coat because I wasn't going to deal with it during the trip. Who needs a winter coat in the Caribbean, right? At the airport, I bypassed curbside check in since it was cold, took one look at the check in line, and walked right back out those doors and checked in in -4 degree temperatures. Lines are lame. I met my first interesting person in the security line. She was actually the security lady, and she commented on everyone's name and made sure to say it at least once or twice. I love people, especially when you can tell they enjoy their job so much.
I think airports are funny. They have evolved so that now most airports seem to resemble malls that just happen to have airplanes. Really. Stores everywhere, food places. Of course, the prices for everything are ridiculously inflated, but I guess that's just good business. If you have people waiting for hours, give them something to do, and then force them to pay more. People will do a lot to escape boredom. I blame television.
(I am at Kristen's, and Zach is playing this assassin game, and I keep getting very distracted by it, so if I'm a bit disjointed, blame the assassins.)
My flight to Atlanta was a little bumpy. I was happy to be leaving the snow behind though. I sat next to a nice couple from Wisconsin who were on their way to the Bahamas. They had been delayed several times, but were actually going to make it to their destination about the correct time, which was pretty impressive I thought, since they left about 3 hours later. They were telling me about all the fun things they do in the Bahamas, and then what I should do in Mexico, because they'd been there several times before too. They also warned me that bad weather was coming to Atlanta, which worried me since Angie was headed through late. No worries though, it wasn't as bad as they said, although I heard some flights did end up cancelled. Not Angie's though. Phew!
My flight from Atlanta to Miami was uneventful except for an exceptionally rude passenger right when I got on the plane. I'd already noticed that people were more rude here than in the ever-friendly midwest. One lady was trying to put her luggage in the overhead bin and tried to move aside for another passenger, and the guy was like, we're waiting for YOU to move, all snotty like a middle school girl. The really rude passenger, though, was supposed to sit next to me. I walked to my seat and he took one look at me and said, "This just isn't going to work." He then spent all the time until takeoff moving from empty seat to empty seat until he found one that actually was available. He was a jerk. Joke's on him though, because I had a very pleasant flight with lots of room. ;)
The Miami airport was pretty disappointing. Hardly mall-like at all. I called for a shuttle and waited 45 minutes for it, which was kind of annoying, but I was enjoying the warm weather so much that it didn't bother me too bad. I entertained myself by..well...this is a bit strange. For some reason I got the "Superman" chant in my head, like, "SuperMAAAAN." So I started reading the shuttles in that chant. It worked pretty well for most of them. "Hampton INNN!" "Employee SHUTTLLLE!" "Hyatt PLAAACE!" Oh that was mine! Of course I did that for a good half hour with every car that passed ("Small red CAAAAR!") Don't judge. I got another taste of obnoxiousness when I got in the shuttle though, which was full of a group from Michigan, I believe. They were going on the Carnival Liberty for a 7 day cruise, and they actually got to go to Jamaica and Grand Cayman, as well as Cozumel. They were super rude though, constantly making comments to the driver about his driving and talking about the cars people drove. Just those sort of people who think the world revolves around them. Glad they weren't on my ship ;)
The hotel was super nice. Very fancy, huge rooms, good service, overinflated prices. I checked in and ate at the hotel grill, then just chilled. Angie showed up at about 1am. We went pretty much straight to sleep.
Well Day 1 ended up being longer than I planned. I would like to continue, but I believe I'll wait. Perhaps later in the day I'll make another entry, or tomorrow...or the next day... Promise I'll get to it all though! (Because you all care so much ;))
I'm sitting here feeling like I'm rocking back and forth still. Wonder how long it will take to feel normal on solid ground.
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