Setting Sail

We experienced more than our fair share of hiccups before we even arrived on board our cruise ship, the Carnival Splendor.

After a slightly frantic, absolutely stressful, time of transferring all 14 of us from our hotel to the pier, we were met with a 3 1/2 hour line before we could even check in. (Yes...unbelievable.) How do you wait in line that long with 7 children? Yeah...I don't know either. Although, Curtis showed signs of contentment every once in a while.

After the interminable wait we finally got our turn at the check-in desk only to find out that the children's birth certificates were not in Ian's backpack, but in his suitcase...the suitcase that we had already sent on board with the porter approximately 3 hours earlier!!! (I may have actually screamed at this point, I'm not sure.)

Our solution? Send Jody on a sprint through a HUGE cruise ship, down to our rooms to see if the suitcase had already been delivered, see if she could locate the documents, and bring them back to the check-in desk to us.

As we waited (yes, again) Ian expressed his burgeoning dislike for cruising...at which point I may, or may not, have threatened to ignore him for the remainder of the trip.

Jody arrived breathless, but triumphant. (You rock, sis.) The kids were soon checked in and we were given the go-ahead to board the ship.

That turned out to be a dreadful mistake.