Adrift: Day 1

Monday morning, 6:00am:

I awoke to a sudden lurching and was instantly alert. "That's not normal...", I thought to myself. Moments later the Captain's voice, along with a cacophony of alarms and sirens, came over the PA system, "Alpha team, Alpha team, Deck zero Engine Room".

Yup...that's really not normal (during our safety drill the night before, the Cruise Director had made a point to mention that announcements would never be made within the cabins unless it was an emergency). Then came the smell of smoke. Aw, crap! We grabbed socks, shoes, and jackets, and began herding our trio of trouble-makers up to our designated Muster Station...you know, the place where they have the life boats. As we stood there, my nephew turned to his mom and asked, "Mom...was the Titanic a cruise ship?" (Yikes!) After a short time we were invited to "relax" in the public dining areas rather than hang out near the lifeboats. Okay, so we're not sinking. That's good.

It didn't take us very long, however, to realize that the ship was in bad shape. No engines, no electricity, no water, NO FLUSHING TOILETS! We spent the entire day in our pajamas, on the upper decks, waiting to hear the final diagnoses. It wasn't until that evening that the Cruise Director, John, announced officially that our trip was "terminated". Terminated was good. Terminated meant that we wouldn't be picking up the cruise halfway through and skipping our ports of call. Terminated meant a refund. Wahoo!

Unfortunately, it also meant that the engines were finished. Toast. Kaput. Done. We were officially "dead in the water". Solution: They would be calling in a couple tug boats to come and drag our 113,000 ton ship back to land. Holy crap! We were then informed that we would be stuck on the boat until Wednesday. That when I wanted to:

(Note the spelling: "Vomid" We laughed for hours)

The Night Before

After dumping our belongings unceremoniously into our cabins, the entire clan made way to the Lido deck for a quick buffet lunch/pre-dinner. We piled our plates with various buffet items and gobbled it down with gusto.

We then looked at our watches and realized that our dining time was in a short hour and a half. Darn it.

Promptly at 6:00pm we arrived at the Gold Pearl dining room and were given a menu simply bursting with delicious choices. Soups, salads, baked potatoes, ribs, Indian food...you name it.

What did I order? A caesar salad.

Hindsight kind of stinks. This turned out to be our last chance for a hot meal...and I BLEW IT!

But, with that delicious caesar salad sitting in my belly we bid farewell to the rest of the group and turned in early. And we slept well....until....

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.

Crossing My Fingers

For as long as I can remember I've loved to read. The quirky, often volatile, relationship I have with my eldest daughter has made me worried that she would decide to hate books simply because I like them...

So, it made my heart happy to see her sit down at the airport the other day, whip out a book, and start reading.

(Yay!)

If You're Wondering Where We've Been

(Picture courtesy of Lindy)