This cruise was to have been shared with our old college friends from Illinois. We have traveled with them in the past and this year was to be their “choice” since they were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.
The two husbands are both divers so the choice was made to sail to the southern Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas (AOS). Having done Western Caribbean ports in the past this would be some new spots to visit and give the guys some great diving sites. The Carnival Victory was also considered, but rejected since we had already sailed on that ship and we didn’t think we would survive a cruise with NO sea days!
I was not excited about the cost of the cruise nor did I care that the ship had a rock climbing wall and a skating rink. Believe it or not we actually have a rock climbing wall in our backyard. (Bob is a rock climber.) And guess how many times I’ve used it…ZERO. Also after being a hockey mom for 20 years, a skating rink just doesn’t have much appeal to me! The AOS sails from San Juan and trying to find affordable, convenient flights from Minneapolis just wasn’t happening.
I started working on plans last fall, but in January my friend experienced some strange, rare health issues. Each time she thought she was improving she would experience another setback. They had pretty much decided that they couldn’t commit to a cruise when a huge storm hit southern Illinois (where they live) and their house was crushed with 3 large trees. This storm was called a derecho or “inland hurricane” for lack of a better description. Another rental house that they own was also crushed. The storm was the final blow that ended their plans since each house required major, costly repairs that wasn’t totally covered by insurance. A 4th large tree in their yard was damaged as well and had to be removed at a cost of nearly $4,000…and insurance wouldn’t cover a penny of that since it hadn’t fallen on the house. So…their “cruise savings” went to tree removal. (When the tree was cut down, our friend had them leave about an 8 foot stump and he did a wood carving of a giraffe which they named "Aruba"...after the cruise that never happened!)
 |
| (Here is the expen$ive giraffe that replaced the cruise.) |
Since Bob and I were now on our own to make plans I started researching again. Carnival was offering a nice Minnesota resident discount on the Freedom 8 day western cruise and the thought of FOUR sea days sounded wonderful. Bob is a supervisor at a feed mill for his “regular” job and also works as an EMT for our local hospital’s ambulance squad. If two jobs weren’t enough…this past spring he started training to become a paramedic. This is an extremely demanding process and add on the other jobs and it becomes off-the-charts stressful. Taking a week off for the cruise was not easy…but something that he needed.
The paramedic class met from 6 to 10 pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights…so as soon as class was over on Thursday, July 2nd, we hit the road for Minneapolis…a little over 3 hours away. We crashed at our son & daughter-in-law’s apartment and then had them drop us off at the Minneapolis airport the next morning for a direct flight to Ft. Lauderdale.
I had made reservations for the Hyatt Place hotel and once we landed at FLL they provided a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Our room had a king bed and a separate seating area which made it feel much more spacious.
The weather had taken a turn for the worse when we arrived, but in between thunder storms, we walked from the hotel to the nearby shopping center and just browsed. An Outback Steakhouse shared the parking lot with the hotel and that is where we had dinner. Luckily we timed it right again and got there just in time before another big storm hit. The thunder was booming throughout our meal.
I had debated about taking the water taxi in the evening to see some of the elaborate mansions in the area (rates after 7 pm are $7/person for unlimited travel)...but we were tired from traveling and decided to make it an earlier evening.
Only one more sleep...and then we cruise!
No comments:
Post a Comment