DAY 3 - COZUMEL
The day begins around 8:45 or so when my wife calls me at the new room, and said reception called and wants to know if we want to move, we need to answer now as they need the room for another guest getting on the ship. 8505 is at the extreme front of the ship, and my wife is prone to seasickness. We decided the chance that my wife gets seasick is a gamble we're willing to take when the other option is the high pitched squeal all night. She had to get to her message so I packed up the room and just as I finish there's a knock on the door and outside stands a guy with a giant pull cart there to move our stuff. He wore a halo and was back-lit by a huge white light....ok that may have just been my perspective, but I was dreading moving all of this stuff and suddenly this guy showed up....thank you NCL.
We were quickly up in the new room and I had everything unpacked when my wife returned from her hot stone message. $149 plus tip was a bit pricey, but hey we'd had a rough go of it so far and she deserved it. So we shower and get off the boat and do some shopping. We passed by Carlos and Charlies and I immediately got sick to my stomach. The last time we were in Cozumel I hit C&C's pretty hard...and it hit me back...pretty hard.
So we did some shopping (if you have people to buy souveniers for, this is definately the place), ate at the Hard Rock cafe, which was the smallest Hard Rock I had ever seen (which was later confirmed by the giant sign on top of the bar that said "This is the worlds smallest Hard Rock Cafe.")
We got back on the ship and took a nap, showered, got ready and caught the Second City show. Very Funny...and it was supposed to be too! After that, off to Dinner in Indigo, service was pretty slow, but not a huge deal. Then it was off to the Spinaker for the 50's and 60's sock hop. Which was pretty much the same as the other 2 50's and 60's sock hops we have been too on previous NCL cruises, we hung out there for a bit, went back to the casino and off to bed. We slept like babies.
DAY 4 - Grand Caymen
The last time we were in Grand Caymen we made the mistake of going during the Heat and Humidity festival of 2006. It wasn't a real festival...it was just brutally hot. This time is was quite comfortable. Did some more shopping and grabbed lunch at the Margarittaville in Grand Caymen. We grabbed dinner at Summer Palace again and it was off to the Spinaker for another couples game show and the unscripted performance of the Second City. I got my times messed up and we were there a lot earlier then need be, which actually worked out, the place was already packed, and they were still calling the first game of bingo. We decided to jump in and lost again, the couple game show was hosted by the ACD...Paul I think his name was. I wish I new what his name was for sure because he was outstanding. Very energetic, very funny...and he sounded like the Geico Gecco to boot. He should've been the CD (I should say here the rest of the cruise staff was outstanding as well). We caught the Second City show, and decided to head to the nightclub "Bliss" before we made our nightly trip to the Casino. The place wasn't bad, they had music videos to accompany the music, they played a little from today, a little from the 70's and 80's, everyone was having a great time. Then it was time for the Bollywood party. Everyone, not so happy anymore. The DJ announced it was time for everyone to get an education in Indian Music. The dance floor cleared. We went outside for a smoke where everyone was wondering why this guy was still playing Indian music when it was clear that no one wanted to hear it. He finally got back to other music after about 20 minutes.
I appreciate the fact that they tried to change things up with the Indian music, but it wasn't working and no one wanted to hear it. We hung out there and did some people watching for a bit, I went to the bathroom and came back and saw my wife talk to two guys at the bar. It was Kevin and Chris from the Second City Troupe. Very funny guys, we had a lot in common (I'm in the entertainment biz as well), next thing we knew the lights came on and they were playing Closing Time by Semisonic...by the way, closing time is 4am...we made it to bed that night close to 5...yikes. Most days I'm up at 3am for work.
DAY 5 - SEA DAY
My room phone rings at 8:45am...Somebody was about to make my nasty list. It was reception...they were calling to inform me that because we had to change rooms and because of the High Pitch squel they decided to give us a $100 OBC. How quickly they go from the nasty list to the Christmas Card list. I never asked reception for a credit...the way I viewed it, I picked the room, I asked to move, I moved, I apologized for inconveniencing them. They sent me someone to help me move and gave me a $100 OBC. I knew if I complained I could get an OBC, but that's not the way I operate, I viewed this as my fault and a learning experience never to pick a room on the 4th floor again. Kudos to NCL for going well above the call of duty here. I hung up the phone and went back to sleep...till the captain came on about 9:30 to make his announcement...At this point I got up not wanting to spoil my last day on the ship sleeping.
We went out to the deck, where it was packed and the chair hogs were out in full force. We sat at the sky high bar and watched the volleyball tourney hosted by the Gecco dressed in all black...long sleeve shirt and pants....absolutely insane. It was brutally hot. After the tourney he looked like he had been in the pool.
We did a little shopping on board and found some NCL Christmas ornaments, they had the Pearl the Dream and the Jewel, so we bought all three to commemorate our past and current voyages. We went back up to the pool area and miraculously found two lounge chairs right next to the pool. Finally...some relaxing time in the sun!
We did dinner at Summer Palace again (we tried to get reservations at La Cucina to no avail) and back up to the Spinaker for the Trivia game show. Second City's adult only scriptless show was coming up and we wanted to get seats this time, so we got there early. My wife went back to pack while I watched Kenosis for an hour and saved the seats. Kenosis was OK for the most part. The male lead singer can really sing. The female lead can sing a bit, and gave me a couple of chuckles when she forgot the lyrics to "I've Had the Time of My Life," the male lead did a great job bailing here out, I was probably the only one who noticed having heard the song 200 millions times (I DJ weddings ). They were OK...my favorite Spinaker act has to be Jose and Patty on the Dream, they should be on one of the bigger ships...unfortunately they are a 2 person act, and I think NCL wants more of a band on their bigger ships.
Second City was great again (see all of their shows if they are on your ship), then it was off to the casino to get smoked one more time.
DAY 6 - GETTING OFF THE SHIP AND GETTING HOME
Very Sad! I'll never do another 5 day again...with the hell we endured getting to the ship, and by the time we got into the swing of things it was over. 5 Days was just too short. Getting off the ship was very easy, we had no problem getting a ride back to the airport where we had to deal with Delta again. We asked for an earlier flight, and they could get us back to Albany 4 hours earlier.........for an extra $50 a piece. God I hate Delta!
No problems getting back home (first time I've ever not been delayed at the Atlanta airport...has anyone ever uttered the words...Oh, you have a layover in Atlanta, what a great airport, you'll have a blast. Actually most people's airline horror stories start off...so I had a layover in Atlanta and...). Just a funny note, we ate at TGI Friday's at the Atlanta airport, and I had a couple of beers at dinner...my bottle of Coors Light was MORE EXPENSIVE at the Friday's then on the Cruise ship.
I'll wrap everything up when I get back from Grocery shopping, we'll have some aftermath from the Hotel and from Delta as well as a wrapping up the Pearl.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Day 1 Aboard the NCL Pearl
Day 1
REVIEW WRITTEN BY BOB
We got to the port around 11:30 and we're on the ship by 12:15. Very quick, our room was not ready yet so we went to the Sky High Bar for a drink. After we called everyone who knew about our previous days escapades and letting them know we indeed made it on the ship OK, an announcement comes over the PA saying that the rooms are ready, we were in 4596 with a porthole oceanview. Decent sized room, good sized bathrooms, not bad at all. We immediately called Teppanyaki to get a reservation, and we were set for 8pm that night.
My goal was to find a place to watch the Pats-Chargers AFC Championship game, and we saw that the place to watch it was in the Atrium. We explored the ship before kickoff and found the Bliss lounge where they had bowling alley's and they had the Nintendo WII set up in there. It was quite cool, after a couple of games of tennis we were off to the Atrium to watch the game on a 40 FT, yes 40 FT big screen TV. Unfortunately right after kickoff we were informed that everything was shutting down for the muster drill. I stayed until I saw people coming into the Atrium with the lifejackets on (how lucky were you if your muster station was right in the lounge.) After the drill I watched a little more of the game and at 4:15 we took a little break to take in the Sailaway party.
It wasn't bad, however my head was elsewhere (and anyone who saw my bright red lucky Tom Brady jersey knew it). Just then a Carnival ship passed us, I thought it was cool I had a 40 FT TV to watch the game on. They had a giant TV on the deck. I could clearly see what the score was on their ship. The TV Had to be a good 2000 yards away. After the sailaway party wrapped up it was back to the Atrium for the 2nd Half. San Diego was trying to make their move. Everytime they made a big play most of the crowd cheered. My wife couldn't beleive how many San Diego fans were on board. I had to explain to here they weren't all Charger fans, and that the Patriots were basically the Yankees of football.
After the game ended we got ready for dinner, I hit the casino while my wife was getting ready and promptly lost $80 at the black jack table.
TEPPANYAKI
I wasn't exactly looking forward to this one. I'm a Pizza, Burger, Steak guy, and just didn't see Japenese food appealing to me. My wife really wanted to go, so we went. I WAS IMPRESSED. The chefs put on a great show, the food was excellent! I was kind of dreading it on the way in and was expecting to stop at the Garden Cafe afterward so I could it...I left thanking my wife for insisting we go. Teppanyaki is a must do!
After dinner it was off to the Spinaker for the 70's party. This is our third NCL Cruise since Nov 2005. It was the same 70's party as the first two times. NCL, you have a lattitudes program where you want people to come back for cruise after cruise, yet everything is the exact same thing cruise after cruise. I propose somebody comes up with another week or two worth of activities and parties and rotate them. If they had two weeks worth of activites what are the odds I'd see the same one three times in a row. What are other activities on a 14 day cruise, is it the same itinerary on a back to back?
Then after the party it was Karaoke. It was much better run then on the Norwegian Dream, good selection of songs. It only lasted about 45 minutes so get there early if you want to sing. Then back to the Casino (broke even this time). A late night meal at the Blue Lagoon and off to bed.
We get back to the room and hear this annoying noise...but we were both just so tired from the previous day we passed out.
DAY 2 - DAY AT SEA
It rained, the seas were rough but we were going to make the best of it. At breakfast we bypassed the Garden Cafe and went straight to the Great Outdoors (we learned that trick on the Jewel), plenty of seating, no line for the buffet. Had a few drinks, and went off to play Bingo (we usually don't play but there wasn't a whole ton of stuff going on with the bad weather). After Bingo we went outside to see it had finally cleared out and the Caribbean band was playing so we stayed there, had a drink or two and it was off to the Summer Palace for dinner. Food wasn't bad, then we noticed it was about 9:25 when we walked past the Stardust lounge and we figured we'd check out the Jean Ann Ryan Company production of Sea Legs.
It was a funny show...granted it wasn't supposed to be. The people who did acrobatic stuff were outstanding. The lead vocalists weren't bad. The dancers did some back-up vocals...the dancers needed to just be dancers. Take 12 of your friends and have them start singing songs, most of them will be off key, singing different notes...well thats basically what this sounded like. The song choices were pretty bad too. I mean, a show like this is clearly geared to an older audience, so why are we singing "Sexyback," by Justin Timberlake and "Crazy Right Now" by Beyonce and Jay-Z...and more importantly, why did they include Jay-Z's rap part? They could've done the song without the back-up dancer who looked like Kirk Cameron doing the rap part. Didn't Kevin Federline teach us that back-up dancers shouldn't be rapping under any circumstances? Anyway, they whole show seemed flawed, do a show that'll attract parents and grandparents, and basically do songs that drove those same parents and grandparents insane when their kids and grandkids played them on their stereo.
Then it was time for the Not so Newlywed game hosted by Ray Ray the cruise director. Ray Ray was a mediocre CD. He had a very deadpan, sarcastic delivery, his jokes often fell flat. His deadpan delivery just doesn't do it for a cruise ship IMHO. It didn't help that the couples he got weren't that great for the game. He had to force a couple of them out to play. Boring couples, boring CD (though it's the hosts job to make the couples more interesting...it's not the couples job to be entertaining on their own) made the game...well kinda boring.
After that it was back to the casino (up $60 whoo hoo) and off to bed. Well that annoying noise was back and this time I wasn't overtired. It was this high pitched shreik that would last 6 seconds then go silent for 2 seconds and back for 6 more seconds. After a few hours I couldn't take it anymore and went to reception to see if they had anything else available, they got me in 8505 for the night. My wife had somehow fallen asleep so i went off to 8505 and finally crashed around 5am.
I'm gonna take a little break here, before moving on. I just want to say we had a blast on this cruise and I still love NCL. I know I'm doing a lot of bashing...This is my 4th cruise, and I am comparing some aspects to the other 3, maybe a bit unfairly so. I'm totally in the camp of a bad day cruising is still a great day (and to say we had bad days would be incorrect), so try to keep the review in that context...and I'll answer any questions you may have about the Pearl or the review so far. Again, we had a lot of fun.
Coming up Cozumel, Grand Caymen and how NCL handled the high pitch noise.....
REVIEW WRITTEN BY BOB
We got to the port around 11:30 and we're on the ship by 12:15. Very quick, our room was not ready yet so we went to the Sky High Bar for a drink. After we called everyone who knew about our previous days escapades and letting them know we indeed made it on the ship OK, an announcement comes over the PA saying that the rooms are ready, we were in 4596 with a porthole oceanview. Decent sized room, good sized bathrooms, not bad at all. We immediately called Teppanyaki to get a reservation, and we were set for 8pm that night.
My goal was to find a place to watch the Pats-Chargers AFC Championship game, and we saw that the place to watch it was in the Atrium. We explored the ship before kickoff and found the Bliss lounge where they had bowling alley's and they had the Nintendo WII set up in there. It was quite cool, after a couple of games of tennis we were off to the Atrium to watch the game on a 40 FT, yes 40 FT big screen TV. Unfortunately right after kickoff we were informed that everything was shutting down for the muster drill. I stayed until I saw people coming into the Atrium with the lifejackets on (how lucky were you if your muster station was right in the lounge.) After the drill I watched a little more of the game and at 4:15 we took a little break to take in the Sailaway party.
It wasn't bad, however my head was elsewhere (and anyone who saw my bright red lucky Tom Brady jersey knew it). Just then a Carnival ship passed us, I thought it was cool I had a 40 FT TV to watch the game on. They had a giant TV on the deck. I could clearly see what the score was on their ship. The TV Had to be a good 2000 yards away. After the sailaway party wrapped up it was back to the Atrium for the 2nd Half. San Diego was trying to make their move. Everytime they made a big play most of the crowd cheered. My wife couldn't beleive how many San Diego fans were on board. I had to explain to here they weren't all Charger fans, and that the Patriots were basically the Yankees of football.
After the game ended we got ready for dinner, I hit the casino while my wife was getting ready and promptly lost $80 at the black jack table.
TEPPANYAKI
I wasn't exactly looking forward to this one. I'm a Pizza, Burger, Steak guy, and just didn't see Japenese food appealing to me. My wife really wanted to go, so we went. I WAS IMPRESSED. The chefs put on a great show, the food was excellent! I was kind of dreading it on the way in and was expecting to stop at the Garden Cafe afterward so I could it...I left thanking my wife for insisting we go. Teppanyaki is a must do!
After dinner it was off to the Spinaker for the 70's party. This is our third NCL Cruise since Nov 2005. It was the same 70's party as the first two times. NCL, you have a lattitudes program where you want people to come back for cruise after cruise, yet everything is the exact same thing cruise after cruise. I propose somebody comes up with another week or two worth of activities and parties and rotate them. If they had two weeks worth of activites what are the odds I'd see the same one three times in a row. What are other activities on a 14 day cruise, is it the same itinerary on a back to back?
Then after the party it was Karaoke. It was much better run then on the Norwegian Dream, good selection of songs. It only lasted about 45 minutes so get there early if you want to sing. Then back to the Casino (broke even this time). A late night meal at the Blue Lagoon and off to bed.
We get back to the room and hear this annoying noise...but we were both just so tired from the previous day we passed out.
DAY 2 - DAY AT SEA
It rained, the seas were rough but we were going to make the best of it. At breakfast we bypassed the Garden Cafe and went straight to the Great Outdoors (we learned that trick on the Jewel), plenty of seating, no line for the buffet. Had a few drinks, and went off to play Bingo (we usually don't play but there wasn't a whole ton of stuff going on with the bad weather). After Bingo we went outside to see it had finally cleared out and the Caribbean band was playing so we stayed there, had a drink or two and it was off to the Summer Palace for dinner. Food wasn't bad, then we noticed it was about 9:25 when we walked past the Stardust lounge and we figured we'd check out the Jean Ann Ryan Company production of Sea Legs.
It was a funny show...granted it wasn't supposed to be. The people who did acrobatic stuff were outstanding. The lead vocalists weren't bad. The dancers did some back-up vocals...the dancers needed to just be dancers. Take 12 of your friends and have them start singing songs, most of them will be off key, singing different notes...well thats basically what this sounded like. The song choices were pretty bad too. I mean, a show like this is clearly geared to an older audience, so why are we singing "Sexyback," by Justin Timberlake and "Crazy Right Now" by Beyonce and Jay-Z...and more importantly, why did they include Jay-Z's rap part? They could've done the song without the back-up dancer who looked like Kirk Cameron doing the rap part. Didn't Kevin Federline teach us that back-up dancers shouldn't be rapping under any circumstances? Anyway, they whole show seemed flawed, do a show that'll attract parents and grandparents, and basically do songs that drove those same parents and grandparents insane when their kids and grandkids played them on their stereo.
Then it was time for the Not so Newlywed game hosted by Ray Ray the cruise director. Ray Ray was a mediocre CD. He had a very deadpan, sarcastic delivery, his jokes often fell flat. His deadpan delivery just doesn't do it for a cruise ship IMHO. It didn't help that the couples he got weren't that great for the game. He had to force a couple of them out to play. Boring couples, boring CD (though it's the hosts job to make the couples more interesting...it's not the couples job to be entertaining on their own) made the game...well kinda boring.
After that it was back to the casino (up $60 whoo hoo) and off to bed. Well that annoying noise was back and this time I wasn't overtired. It was this high pitched shreik that would last 6 seconds then go silent for 2 seconds and back for 6 more seconds. After a few hours I couldn't take it anymore and went to reception to see if they had anything else available, they got me in 8505 for the night. My wife had somehow fallen asleep so i went off to 8505 and finally crashed around 5am.
I'm gonna take a little break here, before moving on. I just want to say we had a blast on this cruise and I still love NCL. I know I'm doing a lot of bashing...This is my 4th cruise, and I am comparing some aspects to the other 3, maybe a bit unfairly so. I'm totally in the camp of a bad day cruising is still a great day (and to say we had bad days would be incorrect), so try to keep the review in that context...and I'll answer any questions you may have about the Pearl or the review so far. Again, we had a lot of fun.
Coming up Cozumel, Grand Caymen and how NCL handled the high pitch noise.....
Bob's Review of NCL Pearl
Bob's review on Cruise Critic:
My wife and I went on the five day NCL Pearl cruise Jan 20 - 25th, overall, it was a beautiful ship with lots to do. We had kind of a rough year heading into the cruise so we were REALLY looking forward to getting away....we ran into a few issues however, some were handled very well, others not so much.
PRE PRE CRUISE (1/18)
Since it was only a 5 day cruise we decided to make sure we got on the ship as refreshed as possible. We were scheduled fo a 7:40 flight on 1/19 out of Albany, NY and we live an hour away. Granted our original flight was scheduled for a 6:50 AM departure until Delta changed the itinerary a couple of months before hand (kind of funny how if I wanted to change the itinerary they would whack me with re-booking fees, but they can change it whenever they want!!!)
We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, in Albany NY for $52. I'm still confused on the whole advertising other website thing here on CC so lets just say Denny Crane got us a great deal. A very nice hotel with a shuttle right to the airport, we left our car at the hotel. Everyone was very helpful. We had dinner at the Olive Garden (everyone insists on getting us Gift Cards to restaurants we have to travel an hour or more to get to for Christmas...it was nice to get an opportunity to use one). Overall an A+ to the Hilton Garden Inn.
PRE CRUISE (1/19...aka the day from HELL!)
We arrive at the airport at 6:20 AM after a quick shuttle from the hotel. We check in at the airport and are told that our 11:55 flight from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale had been cancelled, but "it's no big deal, you're rebooked on the 2:25 flight, so grab a bite to eat in Atlanta and you'll be in Ft. Lauderdale by 4." OK...4pm, not a huge deal we can still relax for a bit, we may have to push back our reservations at Tiramasu (an outstanding italian restaurant at the Lincoln Mall in Miami Beach, the whole reason we booked a hotel on Miami Beach was to go to this restauarant) but we can still make it. As we waited for our flight in Albany I called Delta reservations to see if there was a way to get an earlier flight to Ft. Lauderdale or even to Miami, but after being told how important my call was and listening to horrible music for 20 minutes I hung up cause we had to get on the plane. I'll see what we can do in Atlanta.
As we push back from the gate the captain says there's a little rain in Atlanta, nothing to worry about.
We get to Atlanta and the rain had changed to snow. It wasn't much though, we'll grab a bite to eat and be off to Ft. Lauderdale in no time. I look at the big board to see what our options might be and I'm greeted with a sea of red "CANCELLED" notices on the big board. But I do see two flights to Miami and an earlier flight to Ft. Lauderdale, so I talk to the ticket guy behind the counter, and he says, "oh, the other flights are booked up, but they'll probably all get cancelled anyway because of the snow." You see, they don't get much snow in Atlanta, so snow removal equipment is pretty much non existent. He goes on to tell us that it's all supposed to freeze overnight so getting out tomorrow might be a problem too. It's about 11:15 AM at this point and renting a car for a 10 hour drive suddenly looks like and excellent idea.
There's a Miami flight at 12:15, so we try to get stand-by on that flight, we get to the counter and our told we'd have to go back to ticketing to try and get on the flight because it was a different destination. While in the long line to try to go standby on this flight we stood next to another couple whose cruise left THAT DAY. Their earlier flight got cancelled and getting on this flight was their only hope of making the cruise. I don't know how they made out, but I felt horrible for them and was glad we were flying in the day before.
We go back to a different ticket counter and after waiting in line we are told that we'd be better off sticking to what we have because we would be 61st on the stand-by list, and she was pretty sure our flight would go out on time.
So it looked like we'd make it to Tiramasu after all to re-live some memories, not before we re-lived some memories at the Sam Adams restaurant in Atlanta, where we had dinner that last time we got delayed there for a few hours.
So after ending up 44th on the Stand-by list for the 1:30 flight to Ft. Lauderdale (I figured an hour trying to go stand-by would be moderately more entertaining then sitting at the gate for two and a half hours we go down to our gate, only to find out the gate was changed and we had to walk all the way down the other end of the terminal, where our flight was scheduled to leave on time. I talked to the guy at the counter to be sure we were set on this flight and he said yes. I asked him if this flight was 100% a go and he said 100% this flight would leave. Excellent, we'd be in Ft. Lauderdale by 4:30 at the hotel by 5:30, showered, shaved and ready to go by 7 to enjoy our night.
Then we hear an announcement, "We're getting ready to board you for you flight to Ft. Lauderdale...(at this point everyone in the gate area broke into a riotous applause)...unfortunately the flight your flight attendent's were on got delayed a bit, but their on their was from a different terminal and they'll be here in a bit." Fifteen minutes later they arrived and we were about ready to go. Then another announcement....
"All right, whose ready to go to Ft. Lauderdale (annother riotous applause). All right, we're set to begin boarding, but the captain has informed me that there is a line for de-icing and it looks like we'll be on the runway for about 2 1/2 hours before take off (a collective groan from the passengers at the gate), but then after that we're off to Ft. Lauderdale. Sorry for the inconvenience."
OK, OK...that sucks but at least we're getting out, we'll be at the hotel by 8 and at the restauarant by 10 then back to the hotel for sleep and begin the cruise tomorrow...not a huge deal.
After we get on the plane the captain, not once, not twice, but three times says "it appears that things are moving more smoothly then anticipated so we'll be our of here sooner then expected." They put on a movie for us and even decided that they'd give us free earphones for our inconvenience (YAY, I just saved myself $2 bucks, things are starting to go my way!)
So we sit and we sit and we sit and we sit, the movie ends...a new one begins, that's when I look at my clock and realize it's 5:30...we've been on this plane for 3 hours now and haven't heard a thing from mister "things are moving quicker then expected." Finally he comes on and says "it's moving slower then expected" (WELL NO $*^%) but we're next in line for de-icing and we'll be first for take off.
We de-ice and now it's 6:15 and we're informed that we're now number 2 for take off (didn't he just say there was no one in front of us). We finally take off at 6:45pm...we had been sitting on that plane for 4 hours and 20 minutes for a 90 minute flight. People were yelling at the flight attendants, it was a horrible scene. While we were waiting I went back and talked with the flight attendants for a bit amidst the other screaming passengers. The flight attendents were upset too...they wanted to get home, it had been a long day for them too, and this wasn't their fault.
Finally we arrive at Ft. Lauderdale around 9:15 pm, where we get our luggage (which is absolutely soaking wet!), but we didn't care, we had missed our 6:30 reservations at Tiramasu, we called them and told them what had happened and they couldn't have been nicer about it. They said they would have a table ready for us when we got there. We wanted to get a taxi and get the hell out of there. A woman approached us and asked if she could share a ride with us, she would pay (it was a business write off for her anyways) she just didn't want to be alone. I could understand, and we dropped her off at the Doubletree in downtown Miami about 10:15, the cab drops us off at the Ocean Spray Hotel in Miami Beach at about 10:30pm (just a reminder that our original flight plan had us in Ft. Lauderdale at 1:15PM).
THE OCEAN SPRAY HOTEL
We booked this for $120 and we didn't use the services of Denny Crane, but after I booked it through another discount website I had something orbiting around my head, I don't what the heck that was, but here we were at the Ocean Spray...FINALLY!
I gave the guy at the counter my name and waited for the room key. Then I think I heard "I'm sorry Mister Heck but there was a flood today and your room won't be available." I was pretty shocked, but not nearly as shocked as the guy at the counter when my head did a full rotation like Linda Blair. I didn't know what to say, I started looking around the place, my wife was wondering what I was doing, "where are the camera's, this has got to be a joke, where's Ashton Kutcher, I'm getting punked right, this can't be real."
He tells us the Days Inn up the street always has rooms available...so I called them, and they DIDN'T HAVE ROOMS AVAILABLE! I ran across the street to the Best Western, no rooms available. I ran to another place and another...nothing. I get back to the Ocean Spray and the guy in the red suit (at least I think it was red...though it may have been white and turned red after the blood shot out of my eyes) says he has a place called the Paridise Hotel that has rooms available.
So we take the room and the cab driver, who had never heard of the place pulls out in front of the hotel. We weren't sure if this was the place or not. It could have been the place it did say "HOTEL" in big letters on the side, then a strange man came out of the "HOTEL" and start yelling at our cab driver to move his cab. I asked the man if this was the Paridise "HOTEL" and he said yes, so I asked the cab driver if HE would stay there and he said "yes". So I go in and the guy who yelled at our cab driver was the counter guy. I think he was confused though, he wasn't dressed like a hotel counter guy, but I left that up to my imagination (Ohhh, I work tonight and get drunk and watch soccer tomorrow...ohh, my mistake). I didn't care at this point and it was up to our room, we tried the elevator...soccer guy tells us it's not working, so we carry our bags up two flights of stairs and into the hallway, where we find what we think is rat poop. Gil Grisson wasn't available for comprehensive testing of what we found so I can't verify that it indeed was rat poop, but we got into the room.
My wife broke out in tears, I had decided we were only going to be here for a few hours and this room was fine. I went down to the lobby to have a smoke (I've pretty much been chain smoking since we got off the flight.) and came up with a movie idea, it's called Paradise "HOTEL" and stars Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th. After realizing how perfect the location was for a horror movie I decided my wife was right and we needed to get the hell out of there.
We found a room at the doubletree by the port for $231 dollars...it could've been $1000 a night, I would've taken it, so we hop in a cab and he drops us off at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Miami around midnight (yes, the same exact hotel we dropped the other girl off at an hour and 45 minutes ago.
We check in and the guy says, "well if you stayed at a doubletree before you know we give you a chocolate chip cookie when you check in.....but we are all out of chocolate chip cookies." And the hits just keep on coming...........
(BTW...we never did make it to Tiramasu)
My next post will actually be about the cruise.
My wife and I went on the five day NCL Pearl cruise Jan 20 - 25th, overall, it was a beautiful ship with lots to do. We had kind of a rough year heading into the cruise so we were REALLY looking forward to getting away....we ran into a few issues however, some were handled very well, others not so much.
PRE PRE CRUISE (1/18)
Since it was only a 5 day cruise we decided to make sure we got on the ship as refreshed as possible. We were scheduled fo a 7:40 flight on 1/19 out of Albany, NY and we live an hour away. Granted our original flight was scheduled for a 6:50 AM departure until Delta changed the itinerary a couple of months before hand (kind of funny how if I wanted to change the itinerary they would whack me with re-booking fees, but they can change it whenever they want!!!)
We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, in Albany NY for $52. I'm still confused on the whole advertising other website thing here on CC so lets just say Denny Crane got us a great deal. A very nice hotel with a shuttle right to the airport, we left our car at the hotel. Everyone was very helpful. We had dinner at the Olive Garden (everyone insists on getting us Gift Cards to restaurants we have to travel an hour or more to get to for Christmas...it was nice to get an opportunity to use one). Overall an A+ to the Hilton Garden Inn.
PRE CRUISE (1/19...aka the day from HELL!)
We arrive at the airport at 6:20 AM after a quick shuttle from the hotel. We check in at the airport and are told that our 11:55 flight from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale had been cancelled, but "it's no big deal, you're rebooked on the 2:25 flight, so grab a bite to eat in Atlanta and you'll be in Ft. Lauderdale by 4." OK...4pm, not a huge deal we can still relax for a bit, we may have to push back our reservations at Tiramasu (an outstanding italian restaurant at the Lincoln Mall in Miami Beach, the whole reason we booked a hotel on Miami Beach was to go to this restauarant) but we can still make it. As we waited for our flight in Albany I called Delta reservations to see if there was a way to get an earlier flight to Ft. Lauderdale or even to Miami, but after being told how important my call was and listening to horrible music for 20 minutes I hung up cause we had to get on the plane. I'll see what we can do in Atlanta.
As we push back from the gate the captain says there's a little rain in Atlanta, nothing to worry about.
We get to Atlanta and the rain had changed to snow. It wasn't much though, we'll grab a bite to eat and be off to Ft. Lauderdale in no time. I look at the big board to see what our options might be and I'm greeted with a sea of red "CANCELLED" notices on the big board. But I do see two flights to Miami and an earlier flight to Ft. Lauderdale, so I talk to the ticket guy behind the counter, and he says, "oh, the other flights are booked up, but they'll probably all get cancelled anyway because of the snow." You see, they don't get much snow in Atlanta, so snow removal equipment is pretty much non existent. He goes on to tell us that it's all supposed to freeze overnight so getting out tomorrow might be a problem too. It's about 11:15 AM at this point and renting a car for a 10 hour drive suddenly looks like and excellent idea.
There's a Miami flight at 12:15, so we try to get stand-by on that flight, we get to the counter and our told we'd have to go back to ticketing to try and get on the flight because it was a different destination. While in the long line to try to go standby on this flight we stood next to another couple whose cruise left THAT DAY. Their earlier flight got cancelled and getting on this flight was their only hope of making the cruise. I don't know how they made out, but I felt horrible for them and was glad we were flying in the day before.
We go back to a different ticket counter and after waiting in line we are told that we'd be better off sticking to what we have because we would be 61st on the stand-by list, and she was pretty sure our flight would go out on time.
So it looked like we'd make it to Tiramasu after all to re-live some memories, not before we re-lived some memories at the Sam Adams restaurant in Atlanta, where we had dinner that last time we got delayed there for a few hours.
So after ending up 44th on the Stand-by list for the 1:30 flight to Ft. Lauderdale (I figured an hour trying to go stand-by would be moderately more entertaining then sitting at the gate for two and a half hours we go down to our gate, only to find out the gate was changed and we had to walk all the way down the other end of the terminal, where our flight was scheduled to leave on time. I talked to the guy at the counter to be sure we were set on this flight and he said yes. I asked him if this flight was 100% a go and he said 100% this flight would leave. Excellent, we'd be in Ft. Lauderdale by 4:30 at the hotel by 5:30, showered, shaved and ready to go by 7 to enjoy our night.
Then we hear an announcement, "We're getting ready to board you for you flight to Ft. Lauderdale...(at this point everyone in the gate area broke into a riotous applause)...unfortunately the flight your flight attendent's were on got delayed a bit, but their on their was from a different terminal and they'll be here in a bit." Fifteen minutes later they arrived and we were about ready to go. Then another announcement....
"All right, whose ready to go to Ft. Lauderdale (annother riotous applause). All right, we're set to begin boarding, but the captain has informed me that there is a line for de-icing and it looks like we'll be on the runway for about 2 1/2 hours before take off (a collective groan from the passengers at the gate), but then after that we're off to Ft. Lauderdale. Sorry for the inconvenience."
OK, OK...that sucks but at least we're getting out, we'll be at the hotel by 8 and at the restauarant by 10 then back to the hotel for sleep and begin the cruise tomorrow...not a huge deal.
After we get on the plane the captain, not once, not twice, but three times says "it appears that things are moving more smoothly then anticipated so we'll be our of here sooner then expected." They put on a movie for us and even decided that they'd give us free earphones for our inconvenience (YAY, I just saved myself $2 bucks, things are starting to go my way!)
So we sit and we sit and we sit and we sit, the movie ends...a new one begins, that's when I look at my clock and realize it's 5:30...we've been on this plane for 3 hours now and haven't heard a thing from mister "things are moving quicker then expected." Finally he comes on and says "it's moving slower then expected" (WELL NO $*^%) but we're next in line for de-icing and we'll be first for take off.
We de-ice and now it's 6:15 and we're informed that we're now number 2 for take off (didn't he just say there was no one in front of us). We finally take off at 6:45pm...we had been sitting on that plane for 4 hours and 20 minutes for a 90 minute flight. People were yelling at the flight attendants, it was a horrible scene. While we were waiting I went back and talked with the flight attendants for a bit amidst the other screaming passengers. The flight attendents were upset too...they wanted to get home, it had been a long day for them too, and this wasn't their fault.
Finally we arrive at Ft. Lauderdale around 9:15 pm, where we get our luggage (which is absolutely soaking wet!), but we didn't care, we had missed our 6:30 reservations at Tiramasu, we called them and told them what had happened and they couldn't have been nicer about it. They said they would have a table ready for us when we got there. We wanted to get a taxi and get the hell out of there. A woman approached us and asked if she could share a ride with us, she would pay (it was a business write off for her anyways) she just didn't want to be alone. I could understand, and we dropped her off at the Doubletree in downtown Miami about 10:15, the cab drops us off at the Ocean Spray Hotel in Miami Beach at about 10:30pm (just a reminder that our original flight plan had us in Ft. Lauderdale at 1:15PM).
THE OCEAN SPRAY HOTEL
We booked this for $120 and we didn't use the services of Denny Crane, but after I booked it through another discount website I had something orbiting around my head, I don't what the heck that was, but here we were at the Ocean Spray...FINALLY!
I gave the guy at the counter my name and waited for the room key. Then I think I heard "I'm sorry Mister Heck but there was a flood today and your room won't be available." I was pretty shocked, but not nearly as shocked as the guy at the counter when my head did a full rotation like Linda Blair. I didn't know what to say, I started looking around the place, my wife was wondering what I was doing, "where are the camera's, this has got to be a joke, where's Ashton Kutcher, I'm getting punked right, this can't be real."
He tells us the Days Inn up the street always has rooms available...so I called them, and they DIDN'T HAVE ROOMS AVAILABLE! I ran across the street to the Best Western, no rooms available. I ran to another place and another...nothing. I get back to the Ocean Spray and the guy in the red suit (at least I think it was red...though it may have been white and turned red after the blood shot out of my eyes) says he has a place called the Paridise Hotel that has rooms available.
So we take the room and the cab driver, who had never heard of the place pulls out in front of the hotel. We weren't sure if this was the place or not. It could have been the place it did say "HOTEL" in big letters on the side, then a strange man came out of the "HOTEL" and start yelling at our cab driver to move his cab. I asked the man if this was the Paridise "HOTEL" and he said yes, so I asked the cab driver if HE would stay there and he said "yes". So I go in and the guy who yelled at our cab driver was the counter guy. I think he was confused though, he wasn't dressed like a hotel counter guy, but I left that up to my imagination (Ohhh, I work tonight and get drunk and watch soccer tomorrow...ohh, my mistake). I didn't care at this point and it was up to our room, we tried the elevator...soccer guy tells us it's not working, so we carry our bags up two flights of stairs and into the hallway, where we find what we think is rat poop. Gil Grisson wasn't available for comprehensive testing of what we found so I can't verify that it indeed was rat poop, but we got into the room.
My wife broke out in tears, I had decided we were only going to be here for a few hours and this room was fine. I went down to the lobby to have a smoke (I've pretty much been chain smoking since we got off the flight.) and came up with a movie idea, it's called Paradise "HOTEL" and stars Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th. After realizing how perfect the location was for a horror movie I decided my wife was right and we needed to get the hell out of there.
We found a room at the doubletree by the port for $231 dollars...it could've been $1000 a night, I would've taken it, so we hop in a cab and he drops us off at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Miami around midnight (yes, the same exact hotel we dropped the other girl off at an hour and 45 minutes ago.
We check in and the guy says, "well if you stayed at a doubletree before you know we give you a chocolate chip cookie when you check in.....but we are all out of chocolate chip cookies." And the hits just keep on coming...........
(BTW...we never did make it to Tiramasu)
My next post will actually be about the cruise.
IVF TIME AGAIN
Well IVF #3 is underway. We were praying this cycle wasn't a bust. AF wasn't due until 1/26 and instead she showed up the day we go on our ship. Which means I had no syrings no lupron with me to start the supression phase in IVF. I went this morning for my baseline, all looked good, and as long as my E2 levels are good, I can start stimming on 2/1.
ER & ET is tentative for the week of 2/11 ~ 2/15
I will keep you all updated thru monitering, the next couple of weeks! Pray for us that this is the one...I just can't take another BFN or M/C.
ER & ET is tentative for the week of 2/11 ~ 2/15
I will keep you all updated thru monitering, the next couple of weeks! Pray for us that this is the one...I just can't take another BFN or M/C.
Back from our Cruise Good & Bad
Well we are back from our Cruise on the Norwegian Pearl….
Our vacation started off as a complete nightmare. First and foremost I came down with a nasty cold the day we left. By that night I was feeling very shitty. We drove to Albany after work, as we were staying over for our early morning flight. We went to Olive Garden for dinner, and were in bed by 9:30 or so. We woke up at about 5:00am Saturday morning for our flight. We get take the shuttle to the airport, and the when we check in our luggage the Delta ticket agent advises us that our connecting flight in Atlanta had been cancelled, and that were on the 1:35pm flight instead. Not really a big deal to us, we are only going have a 6 hr lay over in Atlanta. We finally arrive in Atlanta, and see it's snowing, and everything is icing over. I am not talking about little flurries, I am talking about the big ass snowflakes we get here in the northeast. In Atlanta even the smallest of snow flakes equals chaos. Needless to say countless flights were being cancelled, and it was just a disaster in Atlanta. I called my good friend back in Boston , and she and her husband (God Bless them) were trying to figure out for us if it was just better for us to rent a car, and drive down to Florida. We were looking at about an 11 hour drive time. We tried to get on the standby list to two different flights but there were about 130 people on each flight already on standby....we didn't have a prayer. We were finally able to board our new flight at around 2:25. We were suppose to take off at 1:35, and we had to wait for the crew to get a "bite to eat" we are already now an hour behind scheduled take off time at this time. They finally allow us to board, and there we sit on the aircraft for a whopping 4 hours on the runway!!!!! We finally take off, after de-icing, and being the 105th in line for take off. We arrive in Fort Lauderdale at about 9:00, get our luggage, and get a cab to take us to South Beach Miami. A 45 min cab ride later we finally arrive at our hotel. We get inside, and my ears and head at this point are so painful, and congested the guy at the front desk sounded like the Teacher from Charlie Brown and all I heard was "Wa wa wa wa wa wa wa we can't accommodate you tonight wa wa wa wa" I go up to Bob and say "What did he just say? They can't accommodate us?" Apparently a pipe burst and flooded that entire floor. Bob just looks at the guy and say's "You're kidding me right?" Then turns to me and says ok where the hell is Ashton we're being Punked right? Nope...we were shit out of luck. Apparently there was a big comedy festival in town that weekend, and every hotel in the South Beach area were sold old. We were screwed....it was raining, and a muggy 83 degrees a record high for Miami in January. After about 45 mins of my friend back in Boston calling hotels in the area, the guy at the front desk tells us he got us a room at a hotel down the street. We hail another cab, and tell him where we need to go, the man says he's never heard of the hotel. This can't be good.....they've never heard of it...oh lord. So we tell the guy to go ahead we'll figure it out...we are told it was right around the corner, yeah not so much. We hail another cab, and after 30 mins of driving around Collins Ave in Miami we find the hotel, however it's not at the address that the other hotel told us, and it isn't even the same name. The cab is now parked on the street, and the guy from the new hotel comes out and yells at him to just park his cab. Bob goes in to check out the hotel, and to him it seems ok. So we lug our luggage in. As soon as I get in the lobby I got a bad feeling...there were NO other people..no signs of life. So we get our luggage inside, the man tells us our room is on the 2nd floor, we head towards the elevator, and the man says oh the elevator doesn't work. We end up having to use the back stairs, and of course the man doesn't offer to help us with our bags. We make it upstairs, open the door, and the theme music from a horror movie starts to play in my head. The floors are disgusting, spots of mouse/rat feces I spot on the floors...we trek on to our room....Now I am in tears. God knows how many murders or whores had been in these rooms..I can usually rough it but there was no way in hell I was roughing it here. Needless to say we spent about 4 mins in our room, and hightailed it out of there. My friend back in Boston was able to get us a room at the Doubletree....THANK GOD!!!
So we hail yet ANOTHER cab, and make the 40 min trek back towards the port, and get to the Doubletree. At this point it's about 11:30 at night...we get in, shower, and head downstairs for dinner finally!!!
The next morning we get up early, have breakfast, and head to the ship..finally our vacation is going to go right. Well wouldn't ya know temps dropped down, and it was raining...EXCELLENT.
The Norwegian Pearl is the biggest ship in the NCL fleet, she was beautiful! 2 Pools, 4 Jacuzzi's and a huge water slide. There were 2600 total passengers, not including crew. We went to the sail away party for a little bit, and then headed inside to watch the Patriots came on the 40 foot yes I said 40 foot TV in the main part of the ship..it was packed. more Packers fans than Pats fans though. We went to dinner, and were in bed pretty early as we were exhausted. Our first night was good We went to Teppernaki (it's like a Bennihanna's) and it was so good! I wish I wasn't so sick so that I could have enjoyed it more, but Bob loved it, and was so happy...that was good enough for me. He had worked so hard in planning this trip, and I felt terrible that I was sick, and I didn't want anything more to happen on this vacation...then 2nd night nightmare hits again. Apparently we were buy a mechanical room, and at night all you could hear was this screeching noise, that bob calls the "retarded Teradactyl" so Bob wakes me up at 230 am and says he went to reception and they have one room left on the ship however it's not made up yet, and it's at the front of the ship (aka AFT) Me being a person who gets seasick this is not a prime stateroom for me. At this point I am in tears...I have been sick for 3 days at this point, very little sleep, and just not a happy girl. Bob ended up going to the new room, and I stayed in the old for the night I just didn't care I just wanted to sleep. I got about 3 hours that night, and reception calls at 8:00 and says if you want to move your room you have to do it now b/c we have guests coming on the ship in Cozumel and we need one of the rooms so we need to know what you want to do now. Mind you I was to be at my massage at 9:00 so now I have about 15 mins to pack all our stuff up and move it to the new room. Bob told me to just go ahead to my massage and he'd take care of everything. I get to my massage and the woman asks if I want to upgrade to the Hot Stone Massage for an extra $20.00 heck yes!!!!! It was the best $159 I have ever spent. I got back to the new room, and told Bob I spent the extra $20 and he just looked at me and said "honey, after the night we've had whatever you want to do today is just fine with me" It was so cute...he felt so bad, but it wasn't his fault how was he to know that was going to happen? By the next day we finally getting into the swing of things. We enjoyed the food on board, and were happy with the staff, service was slow some nights, but we understand how demanding their jobs are. We felt the cruise director lacked…he was just ok not to excited about anything, and just "I am here to do my job" type attitude. The Activities Manager was a hoot…he sounded just like the talking Gecko from the Geico commercials so that was hysterical to us. We also met the cast of "Second City" sort of a cross between SNL and Whose Line is it Anyways…some of the biggest comics started off at Second City. So we hung out with 2 of them until 4am one night that was fun. They were an absolute riot. Cozumel and Grand Cayman were great. We went to the Hard Rock in Cozumel which is the "Smallest Hard Rock Café in the World" and the Margaritaville in Grand Cayman was one of the biggest we have seen/been in. The last day on the Ship was an at sea day. There wasn't to much to do aside from shopping and Bingo and the Casino, which as one fellow passenger said is not one designed to win. There seemed to be a massive amount of small children on this ship too, more than we've ever seen on a cruise. That was fine, but sometimes it was just more annoying. For instance when you're trying to have a nice dinner for two at the restaurant, and the child at the next table over is crawling under the tables, over chairs, screaming and crying…umm hello…parents feel free to step in and tend to your child at any point now….
All in all this trip had it's good and bad…We would never do a 5 day cruise again it's too short, and we really feel we need a vacation from our vacation now. I am still sick, and have to really painful, and blocked ears still. What was important though was that Bob and I got to spend some quality time together away from the rest of the world., well for a little while anyways.
Oh and when we were at Fort Lauderdale aiport waiting for our flight back home, Fat Joe, and Terror Squad sat next to us...that was interesting..lol
Our vacation started off as a complete nightmare. First and foremost I came down with a nasty cold the day we left. By that night I was feeling very shitty. We drove to Albany after work, as we were staying over for our early morning flight. We went to Olive Garden for dinner, and were in bed by 9:30 or so. We woke up at about 5:00am Saturday morning for our flight. We get take the shuttle to the airport, and the when we check in our luggage the Delta ticket agent advises us that our connecting flight in Atlanta had been cancelled, and that were on the 1:35pm flight instead. Not really a big deal to us, we are only going have a 6 hr lay over in Atlanta. We finally arrive in Atlanta, and see it's snowing, and everything is icing over. I am not talking about little flurries, I am talking about the big ass snowflakes we get here in the northeast. In Atlanta even the smallest of snow flakes equals chaos. Needless to say countless flights were being cancelled, and it was just a disaster in Atlanta. I called my good friend back in Boston , and she and her husband (God Bless them) were trying to figure out for us if it was just better for us to rent a car, and drive down to Florida. We were looking at about an 11 hour drive time. We tried to get on the standby list to two different flights but there were about 130 people on each flight already on standby....we didn't have a prayer. We were finally able to board our new flight at around 2:25. We were suppose to take off at 1:35, and we had to wait for the crew to get a "bite to eat" we are already now an hour behind scheduled take off time at this time. They finally allow us to board, and there we sit on the aircraft for a whopping 4 hours on the runway!!!!! We finally take off, after de-icing, and being the 105th in line for take off. We arrive in Fort Lauderdale at about 9:00, get our luggage, and get a cab to take us to South Beach Miami. A 45 min cab ride later we finally arrive at our hotel. We get inside, and my ears and head at this point are so painful, and congested the guy at the front desk sounded like the Teacher from Charlie Brown and all I heard was "Wa wa wa wa wa wa wa we can't accommodate you tonight wa wa wa wa" I go up to Bob and say "What did he just say? They can't accommodate us?" Apparently a pipe burst and flooded that entire floor. Bob just looks at the guy and say's "You're kidding me right?" Then turns to me and says ok where the hell is Ashton we're being Punked right? Nope...we were shit out of luck. Apparently there was a big comedy festival in town that weekend, and every hotel in the South Beach area were sold old. We were screwed....it was raining, and a muggy 83 degrees a record high for Miami in January. After about 45 mins of my friend back in Boston calling hotels in the area, the guy at the front desk tells us he got us a room at a hotel down the street. We hail another cab, and tell him where we need to go, the man says he's never heard of the hotel. This can't be good.....they've never heard of it...oh lord. So we tell the guy to go ahead we'll figure it out...we are told it was right around the corner, yeah not so much. We hail another cab, and after 30 mins of driving around Collins Ave in Miami we find the hotel, however it's not at the address that the other hotel told us, and it isn't even the same name. The cab is now parked on the street, and the guy from the new hotel comes out and yells at him to just park his cab. Bob goes in to check out the hotel, and to him it seems ok. So we lug our luggage in. As soon as I get in the lobby I got a bad feeling...there were NO other people..no signs of life. So we get our luggage inside, the man tells us our room is on the 2nd floor, we head towards the elevator, and the man says oh the elevator doesn't work. We end up having to use the back stairs, and of course the man doesn't offer to help us with our bags. We make it upstairs, open the door, and the theme music from a horror movie starts to play in my head. The floors are disgusting, spots of mouse/rat feces I spot on the floors...we trek on to our room....Now I am in tears. God knows how many murders or whores had been in these rooms..I can usually rough it but there was no way in hell I was roughing it here. Needless to say we spent about 4 mins in our room, and hightailed it out of there. My friend back in Boston was able to get us a room at the Doubletree....THANK GOD!!!
So we hail yet ANOTHER cab, and make the 40 min trek back towards the port, and get to the Doubletree. At this point it's about 11:30 at night...we get in, shower, and head downstairs for dinner finally!!!
The next morning we get up early, have breakfast, and head to the ship..finally our vacation is going to go right. Well wouldn't ya know temps dropped down, and it was raining...EXCELLENT.
The Norwegian Pearl is the biggest ship in the NCL fleet, she was beautiful! 2 Pools, 4 Jacuzzi's and a huge water slide. There were 2600 total passengers, not including crew. We went to the sail away party for a little bit, and then headed inside to watch the Patriots came on the 40 foot yes I said 40 foot TV in the main part of the ship..it was packed. more Packers fans than Pats fans though. We went to dinner, and were in bed pretty early as we were exhausted. Our first night was good We went to Teppernaki (it's like a Bennihanna's) and it was so good! I wish I wasn't so sick so that I could have enjoyed it more, but Bob loved it, and was so happy...that was good enough for me. He had worked so hard in planning this trip, and I felt terrible that I was sick, and I didn't want anything more to happen on this vacation...then 2nd night nightmare hits again. Apparently we were buy a mechanical room, and at night all you could hear was this screeching noise, that bob calls the "retarded Teradactyl" so Bob wakes me up at 230 am and says he went to reception and they have one room left on the ship however it's not made up yet, and it's at the front of the ship (aka AFT) Me being a person who gets seasick this is not a prime stateroom for me. At this point I am in tears...I have been sick for 3 days at this point, very little sleep, and just not a happy girl. Bob ended up going to the new room, and I stayed in the old for the night I just didn't care I just wanted to sleep. I got about 3 hours that night, and reception calls at 8:00 and says if you want to move your room you have to do it now b/c we have guests coming on the ship in Cozumel and we need one of the rooms so we need to know what you want to do now. Mind you I was to be at my massage at 9:00 so now I have about 15 mins to pack all our stuff up and move it to the new room. Bob told me to just go ahead to my massage and he'd take care of everything. I get to my massage and the woman asks if I want to upgrade to the Hot Stone Massage for an extra $20.00 heck yes!!!!! It was the best $159 I have ever spent. I got back to the new room, and told Bob I spent the extra $20 and he just looked at me and said "honey, after the night we've had whatever you want to do today is just fine with me" It was so cute...he felt so bad, but it wasn't his fault how was he to know that was going to happen? By the next day we finally getting into the swing of things. We enjoyed the food on board, and were happy with the staff, service was slow some nights, but we understand how demanding their jobs are. We felt the cruise director lacked…he was just ok not to excited about anything, and just "I am here to do my job" type attitude. The Activities Manager was a hoot…he sounded just like the talking Gecko from the Geico commercials so that was hysterical to us. We also met the cast of "Second City" sort of a cross between SNL and Whose Line is it Anyways…some of the biggest comics started off at Second City. So we hung out with 2 of them until 4am one night that was fun. They were an absolute riot. Cozumel and Grand Cayman were great. We went to the Hard Rock in Cozumel which is the "Smallest Hard Rock Café in the World" and the Margaritaville in Grand Cayman was one of the biggest we have seen/been in. The last day on the Ship was an at sea day. There wasn't to much to do aside from shopping and Bingo and the Casino, which as one fellow passenger said is not one designed to win. There seemed to be a massive amount of small children on this ship too, more than we've ever seen on a cruise. That was fine, but sometimes it was just more annoying. For instance when you're trying to have a nice dinner for two at the restaurant, and the child at the next table over is crawling under the tables, over chairs, screaming and crying…umm hello…parents feel free to step in and tend to your child at any point now….
All in all this trip had it's good and bad…We would never do a 5 day cruise again it's too short, and we really feel we need a vacation from our vacation now. I am still sick, and have to really painful, and blocked ears still. What was important though was that Bob and I got to spend some quality time together away from the rest of the world., well for a little while anyways.
Oh and when we were at Fort Lauderdale aiport waiting for our flight back home, Fat Joe, and Terror Squad sat next to us...that was interesting..lol
Friday, January 11, 2008
Babies..Babies...everywhere
There are certain feelings that we women dealing with infertility cannot hide, we don't want to be this way nor did we ask to be, it is just what it is. Bitterness, and jealousy. It seems lately everywhere I am there is a baby shower being talked about, there has been an explosion of twins on the IF support boards, one of my closest friends got a BFP during her struggle with IF her first time around, and my cousin gave birth just this morning to her second baby. I am so happy for them all, but at the same time I can't help but scream "WHY NOT US!!!!!!"
Seriously haven't we suffered enough????
Seriously haven't we suffered enough????
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Things NOT to say to a woman going thru IF
As a woman dealing with infertility there are classic lines that are NO NO and a DO NOT SAY TO a woman going thru miscarriage or dealing with infertility...this was a list taken from my support forum...
"It's probably for the best."
"It probably wouldn't have been a healthy baby anyway."
"At least it happened early."
"You probably should have waited longer after the last miscarriage."
"My friend had 3 miscarriages before they found the problem." (said after my 2nd)
"Are you pregnant yet?"
"I don't know what to say, I never had any trouble having babies."
"I'm pregnant!"
"Just relax"
"Stress wont help"
"your still young you got plenty of time"
"God has a plan"
"it will happen, I just know it"
"you need to calm down" If it is meant to be, it will happen"
"You shouldn't have children anyway because you have such a busy and full life now"
"Once you stop trying you will get pregnant"
Enjoy this now while you have your freedom"
"--any complaint about your current pregnancy--"
"Do you need to borrow some my husband's swimmers!"
"I had a neighbor who tried for years, and once they adopted, poof! - They got pregnant!"
"Maybe you're trying too hard."
"Miscarriage is just soooo common you know."
"This is just a speed bump."
"Be glad you still have your figure."
"Sometimes you just need to not try so hard"
"It's probably for the best."
"It probably wouldn't have been a healthy baby anyway."
"At least it happened early."
"You probably should have waited longer after the last miscarriage."
"My friend had 3 miscarriages before they found the problem." (said after my 2nd)
"Are you pregnant yet?"
"I don't know what to say, I never had any trouble having babies."
"I'm pregnant!"
"Just relax"
"Stress wont help"
"your still young you got plenty of time"
"God has a plan"
"it will happen, I just know it"
"you need to calm down" If it is meant to be, it will happen"
"You shouldn't have children anyway because you have such a busy and full life now"
"Once you stop trying you will get pregnant"
Enjoy this now while you have your freedom"
"--any complaint about your current pregnancy--"
"Do you need to borrow some my husband's swimmers!"
"I had a neighbor who tried for years, and once they adopted, poof! - They got pregnant!"
"Maybe you're trying too hard."
"Miscarriage is just soooo common you know."
"This is just a speed bump."
"Be glad you still have your figure."
"Sometimes you just need to not try so hard"
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Only 10 days to go until V day!!!!
Until we are on vacation! A much needed vacation at that!! We are embarking on The Norwegian Pearl..here is a couple of pictures of our ship, and where we are visiting!
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We are spending the night before we leave for cruise we are staying in Beautiful South Beach Miami it's going to be so nice and relaxing!! We are so excited about this vacation just the two of us, no dr's appts, no where to be, but together, in love, and enjoying vacation. =0)
We are spending the night before we leave for cruise we are staying in Beautiful South Beach Miami it's going to be so nice and relaxing!! We are so excited about this vacation just the two of us, no dr's appts, no where to be, but together, in love, and enjoying vacation. =0)
Friday, January 4, 2008
Headaches are really getting to me!
It's been weeks with a constant headache...the ones that start off sharp, and on one side, and over the yes, and then I get so tired as well as out of wack feeling that I can't function! They are small migraines brought on by hormones mainly BCP, and the IVF drugs. Maybe even throw a little stress in there.
THIS BLOWS! I just want to freaking feel NORMAL again! I want to not feel like I am going to throw up, or fall over any minute, and feeling as if someone slipped me a sleeping pill. At the very least if I am going to feel this shitty it should be for a good cause such as BEING PREGNANT! But of COURSE not...I have to continuously feel every symptom, and not have anything to show for it. Infertility sucks! People do NOT realize just how much bull**** we infertile's go thru on a daily basis, and all the while we are suppose to smile, suck it up and just deal right? Wrong!
God our vacation can't come soon enough!
THIS BLOWS! I just want to freaking feel NORMAL again! I want to not feel like I am going to throw up, or fall over any minute, and feeling as if someone slipped me a sleeping pill. At the very least if I am going to feel this shitty it should be for a good cause such as BEING PREGNANT! But of COURSE not...I have to continuously feel every symptom, and not have anything to show for it. Infertility sucks! People do NOT realize just how much bull**** we infertile's go thru on a daily basis, and all the while we are suppose to smile, suck it up and just deal right? Wrong!
God our vacation can't come soon enough!
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