Dastardly Dorian Dumps on Halifax

We've had marvelous weather in Nova Scotia since the fog of the first day lifted. Daytime highs of around 70 degrees, sunny, with a slight breeze. That's about to change.

Just before we left, Hurricane Dorian pummeled and devastated the Bahamas on its course through the Caribbean. As of this writing, 58 people have been killed, more than 600 are still missing, and some endangered species...like the Bahamas nuthatch...are now believed to be extinct after the storm.

Dorian left the Caribbean, headed out to sea, and is now headed north. Looking at the track on the weather map, we can see a dot right smack in the middle of the storm's path...the next landfall will be Halifax.

We are going to experience our first hurricane.

Walking along the waterfront, we see changes. The floating pedestrian bridge is gone, it's been stowed away for the storm. A parade of Navy ships are headed out of the harbor from the big base here. They're headed to safer waters for the duration. Cranes are being lowered. The ferries have stopped running. Waterfront restaurants are boarding up their windows and, in our hotel, dozens of cots have been set out in the conference room to accommodate employees who can't go home and stranded guests who can't leave.

It's Saturday morning. On the news, the storm is expected to make landfall sometime in the afternoon. We head to a nearby convenience store to load up on snacks and drinks to hold us over until the storm passes. We each get a microwavable dinner from the hotel's lobby shop to have some nutrition to go with it.

Then, we get comfortable in the room. We're hunkering down, waiting for the storm, and will not be leaving the hotel until it's gone.

A consideration for us is that our room is on the 10th floor. We visit with the manager to see if we need to be concerned. We're told that all should be well, the hotel (Homewood Suites) has plenty of backup generator power and the elevators will still be running in the case that the local power goes out.

Now we wait...as long as the cable TV, lights, and internet hold out, we'll be good. Hopefully, the large windows will remain intact as well.

Mid afternoon, the rain starts. Not long after that the wind kicks up. Soon, we also have snow that is blowing sideways. The snow doesn't last long and then the rain comes in sheets with 80-90 mile per hour sustained winds.

Hurricane Dorian has arrived. A category 1 storm, just enough to be a hurricane, but not the category 5 that hit the Caribbean, thank God.

The windows shake...even the building shakes with the buffeting of the winds. I make a quick trip to the lobby just to take a little video of the storm for posterity. No way I'm going beyond the front door.

Back upstairs, now and again, the internet and cable go out. Just for a few minutes at a time. The lights flicker now and again but no sustained power interruptions. If you're our friends on Facebook, we apologize for all the silly posts...mainly, we were bored.

We're lucky...the neighborhood around us is lights out and the area to the east of us would not see a flicker of electricity for three more days.

By 10 o'clock that night, the winds have died down and now it's just a steady rain.

Halifax was very lucky...no one died, no major injuries. A crane toppled onto an empty apartment building under construction, hundreds of trees were taken out, windows broken, and hundreds of thousands of Nova Scotians were without power for several days. Minor inconveniences in the big scheme of things.

Some things we planned to do will either have to be modified or scrubbed but now it's time to count our blessings and continue our trip.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Caribbean Rum Taste Off

We recently cruised to the Bahamas (story on that coming later) so does that count at our 5th Caribbean island? Technically, no, I guess but close enough.

I got a couple of bottles of rum in the duty shop, who promptly messed up my order, but it gave me an excuse to do another Cocktail Hour taste off with Tim.

Watch the Video!

In this corner, our control rum, is Captain Morgan Spiced Rum.  Good rum, fairly cheap and common, it will be the standard for taste against the other three. It's slightly vanilla spice notes help smooth the harshness of the mass-produced beverage.

Next it Royal Jamaican rum. Aged 10 years and using only Jamaican produced molasses from Jamaican grown sugar cane, Tim and I both are a bit surprised at how harsh this pricey bottle is.

Moving on, it's Captain Morgan's Private Stock, a clear cut above the regular Captain's spiced rum. Still has a lush, vanilla based spice taste with a very smooth swallow down the throat. Both Captain Morgan varieties are U.S. made in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Last, its 1888 Cinco Generaciones from Brugal in the Dominican Republic. Double-aged, this has a very nice, clean rum taste with a sharp little back-of-the-throat taste that I'm pegging to the barrel it's aged in. Very smooth, very good but Tim and I give a slight edge to the Captain's Private Stock, then this one, with the Royal Jamaican coming in dead last even behind the common Captain Morgan Spiced Rum

Cheers!

Darryl

Shelter in Place De Ja Vu: Memories of Travel Lockdowns

Living in this time of Covid 19 related lockdowns, shelter-in-place, safer-at-home, or whatever you'd like to call this quasi-quarantine, we sit in our homes doing our best to keep from getting a bad case of cabin fever and dreaming of what we're going to do once we're allowed to live normal lives again.

While sitting here wondering, I am reminded of at least two times we lived under government imposed shelter-in-place orders while we were traveling. It's not like now, where we're sitting here at home for 23 hours a day (I like to go out for a little officially approved, socially-distanced exercize each day) for at least 7 weeks and counting...these only lasted for a day but did give us a little taste of what it would be like when the virus hit the fan this spring.

One time happened just last September when we visited Nova Scotia in the Maritimes of eastern Canada.

Watching hurricane Dorian ravage the Bahamas on the news was one thing. It was another a few days later into our vacation in Halifax that we were surprised that the storm's track took it far to the north and the next landfall bullseye was directly on the city we were now staying in.

Life went on as usual in Halifax for a couple of days. That started to change the day before predicted landfall as we saw restaurants and other businesses on the waterfront starting to board up windows. A floating pedestrian bridge was removed, and a parade of naval vessels greeted us as all the ships from a large, nearby base headed out to find safer waters.

We check with the manager of our hotel as to what we should do, especially as we were staying on the 10th floor with a wheelchair user. Assured that there was onsite power generation and that inside the hotel, things would operate as normal, we prepared by buying a ton of snacks and a few microwavable meals to tide us over.

Tomorrow, the city would be on lockdown. Like now, you were to shelter in place and not leave your building. You could go out if you really wanted...there was no law against it...but it was highly discouraged and you were let known in no uncertain terms that it was at your risk and...if you were out, got injured, or even died...that it would be too bad and your fault if something happened to you.

We hunkered down, the building shook a bit, the windows rattled, the cable TV and internet went out a couple of times but, other than boredom, we came through it fine. A few times, we'd go to the lobby and walk around just for a change of pace and one time, I went a few feet out the front door just to see what the force of the wind felt like.

For the next few days, we lived with the aftereffects. Power was out in most of the city, stores and restaurants were mostly closed (I did find a microbrewery near the hotel doing business by candlelight and cash only), and there was a lot of trees and a tall crane down. On the plus side, no one was killed or injured.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Adam Stacey under CC BY 2.5 license

The other time was a more serious and deadly lockdown. The time was in London in the summer of 2005.

The day started out like any other and we were going to head out to see the observatory at Greenwich, which meant a significant journey by tube from our hotel in Chelsea.

After stopping for a cup of coffee at a Starbucks located in the station, we went to make our way to the platform only to be turned away by staff closing the gates. Buses outside were also refusing to take on passengers.

Our only option at that point was to go back to our hotel and see what else we could do. Of course, back in our room, Tim turned on the TV and we found out the problem...terrorists had set off bombs in the Underground and on a bus, killing many people.

The city was shut down. Everybody was ordered to stay right where they were. Many people already at work in the busy city had to walk home, some for many miles.

Our hotel fed us and set up some large TVs in the lobby so we could follow along with our fellow guests the events of the day. Like now, we could go outside and take a stroll through our immediate area. We walked the short distance from our hotel to the nearby banks of the River Thames where we could look towards the city and see hundreds of people, walking home over the bridges.

The Queen said we should stand up to the terrorists and get back at them by living life like normal so the next day, the Underground and the buses were back. Businesses were open, and...although shocked and saddened...the residents (and tourists) in London went on with their lives.

Now, we're faced with another, invisible foe who is not going to let us go after a day. It's tough...we've got to keep fed, well, and deal with unforeseen incidents while trying not to leave our homes...but most people are healthy. They're bored and grumpy but healthy.

It's just patience we need as we try to get through this very long enforced stay at home.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2020 - All Rights Reserved

The End of the Quest: Gameday in Miami

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, Phoenix, San Fransisco, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Chicago, Chicago again, Pittsburgh, New York, New York again, Philadelphia, Seattle, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, Oakland, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and St. Petersburg.

That is our trail and our route, as best as I can remember. For the past decade and a half we have been on a quest to see every Major League Baseball stadium. There are 30 teams...29 in the U.S.A. and one in Canada. There are 24 outdoor stadiums, 6 with retractable roofs, and 1 indoor stadium. 28 feature natural grass, two use artificial grass.  20 are downtown stadiums while 10 are a bit more removed from their city centers. 15 play in the American League...where a designated hitter bats for the pitcher...and 15 in the National League where pitchers come up to bat like everyone else.

Watch the Video!

Some are good, some are bad, and others are squarely in the middle. Most have great customer service while one wasn't so nice to us. And, at the end of it all, each one is unique and his it's own personality.

If you count that list of team cities at the top of this article, you'll notice there are 29. We have one more to go, tonight we will cross the last team off of our list as we go to see the Miami Marlins host the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After spending a mostly delightful afternoon in Little Havana, after a little rest we gear up for the game. When we arrived here last week to take our Bahamas cruise, we turned in the rental car and have been relying on public transit and Lyft while here in the city. That poses a bit of a quandary because Marlins Park, although near downtown, is not what I'd call a transit friendly stadium.

Pouring over Google Maps and local transit sites, we decided we'd take Miami's Metro...basically an elevated subway-like system similar to Chicago's...to the Civic  Center station. This would put us about a mile north of the stadium where we could take a bus or one of Miami's trolleys.

Once we arrived at the station, we checked the online bus locators, which told us that it would be about 40 minutes before the next one arrived.

"It's not really that far, let's walk," my wife said.

A half hour and a gallon of sweat later, we arrive.  The stadium still has about 20 minutes to go until the gates open. Just outside is a party tent called the Fifth Base. The stadium security guards tell us we should wait there. It's air conditioned and the beer is cheap.

Sounds good to me.

The a/c felt very good after that walk in Miami's hot and fetid air. The tall, ice cold Modelos at $6 also helped to take away the heat and to replenish all that we'd sweated off. 

Inside, we find our seats near homebase after perusing the park's bobblehead museum, basically a large display case filled with hundreds of little bobblehead figures that are occasionally given away at sporting events. The shelves even vibrate so that the heads bobble.

It is kind of amazing we did find our seat, if indeed we did. We kind of took a guess. The section was right on the sign but none of the seats were numbered. Maybe if we could have found an usher nearby, we could have been sure, but none were to be found.

Then, there was the case of the t-shirt.

For background, about halfway through this project, Tim decided he wanted to buy a t-shirt from each park to commemorate it. That is usually accomplished by a quick visit to the team store after finding our seats. 

In Miami, there was a store called "Team Store" behind our seats. It was about a quarter the size of any other team store we've seen and had a very paltry and generic selection of shirts (Tim likes to get one featuring the name of his favorite player on the team). 

I asked the clerk in the store, "is this all you have? It seems very limited."

"There's a bigger store downstairs that has what you're looking for, it's directly beneath this one," he tells me. 

Since it's kind of a pain to take Tim back downstairs, I ask him who he wants on his shirt and then walk down the stairs of our section towards the field, where a tunnel leads to the concourse below ours.

An usher (!) down there stops me. "May I see your tickets? Do you have tickets to the Diamond Club?"

I tell her no, I'm sitting a few rows up from where we're standing. I point to Tim and Letty to show her.

"I'm trying to get to the team store," I tell here.

"You need to have Diamond Club tickets."
Thinking she's misunderstanding me, I tell her what the clerk at the store by our seats said.

"You need to have Diamond Club tickets."

Now I'm thinking that I just can't go through the Diamond Club seats to get there so I ask in there's another way, "maybe if I go down the escalators behind our seats?"

"You need to have Diamond Club tickets."

I tell her I not trying to get into the Diamond Club, just the store.

"Sir, you need to have Diamond Club tickets just to get into the store."

"You've got to be kidding me," I tell her. "The Marlins don't want to sell souvenirs to their fans?"

"That's all I know, you need to have Diamond Club tickets to get into the store."

I left and went back to the clerk in the store near us and tell him what happened, "That's right, you need to have Diamond Club tickets to get in there."

I tell him again, "I cannot believe the team does not want to sell merchandise to it's fans. There's what...30 people sitting in the Diamond Club? That's enough to support the team store?"

Seeing my frustration, he walks Tim and I to guest relations and tells them what we're trying to do. 

"You need to have Diamond Club tickets," I hear the guest relations person say. 

I basically launch into the same spiel with her, she calls upstairs to the main office. 

"What we can do is escort you downstairs. The head usher will have to sign your tickets, saying you can re-enter the stadium. You'll be escorted to the outside entrance of the store," where anybody can enter from the outside, "and then you'll need to go back through security and be escorted back to the elevator to return to your seats."

And, that is just what happened. We spent five minutes buying the shirt and a half hour negotiating with the powers that be just to make that happen.

Even a nearby security guard told me, "This team and management is the worst in the league."

Hard to disagree.

So, now, we can relax and enjoy the game. Which we do with very expensive snacks and beer.

It's a good game, the Marlins went on to beat the Dodgers 4-2. The crowd was very thin, so the noise level from the PA system and a roving band of drummers was very high trying to rally the crowd.  It didn't work...even though their team was winning, the few people that were there were very quiet.

All in all, kind of a disappointing stadium to finish off our quest in. Probably should have made Tampa Bay's stadium the last one, it was a lot more fun, but it is what it is.

This massive undertaking, which overall was a great blast to accomplish, will finish not with a bang but a whimper.

Take heart, though, the rest of Miami is fantastic and we'll be experiencing more of it next time.

Darry Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Back on Dry Land in Miami, Florida

We're back from our less than stellar Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. Now, it's on to the longest segment of this trip, five nights in Miami before returning home. If you've been following along, you might remember way back at the beginning that we're paying for this trip mostly with points and rewards accumulated over the last few years. Hilton Hhonors members can get an extra free night if they cash in four nights so that's what we've done...cashed in four nights so we can stay five nights here at the Homewood Suites in the Brickell neighborhood of downtown Miami.

It seems like so long ago that we were landing in Atlanta to start this grand tour...either tied for the longest trip we've ever taken (according to Letty) or the second longest trip at one day shorter (according to me)...so five nights in one location seems like a luxury at this point.

So it's been four nights in Atlanta, four in St. Petersburg, three nights cruising in the Bahamas, and now five here in Miami for a total of 16. I think we we did 17 on our East Coast Adventure a few years ago but my wife thinks I'm off by a day. Either way, it's a long time...especially if you dealing with caring for someone in a wheelchair.

At the port, we've packed up. Actually, we packed last night because we had to have our luggage ready for the porter by 11pm. We're told to vacate our room by 8:30 and also pick up our duty free purchases (I'd purchased two bottles of rum) by the same time. 

We wait in a cocktail lounge at the front of the ship with my duty free box and carry on luggage until we're called to leave the ship. After processing through customs and immigration, we collect our bags at the carousel...actually just a big storeroom...and then we're outside.

Officially done with Royal Caribbean, as they are with us, a porter helps us with our luggage and let's the taxi stand manager know we need a wheelchair accessible vehicle. She's in a mood for some reason and takes it out on our poor porter but she does call an accessible cab and then promptly leaves as her replacement comes on duty.

A few minutes later, the ramped taxi van pulls up...and another group of passengers promptly cuts in front of us trying to steal it.  A few tense words and they back off. We're in and on our way...thankfully we didn't have to pay for that weekend or I would have been sorely disappointed. As it was, it was OK but not great in the way cruises used to be.

Our driver pulls into our hotel a few minutes later. The staff at Homewood Suites is very welcoming and our room is excellent.

Ah...let's just let the stress of the day melt away for awhile before we go out and try to find something to eat. 

We do find a very good pizza place, Mister 01 Pizza, where we have this star-shaped pizza while the rains poured outside. 

As we finish, the weather clears and we have a hot and humid walk back to the hotel where we will rest and recover from the weekend.  

It's time for Miami! Stay tuned for that, it'll be a blast.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

The Castaways of Coco Cay - A Private Island Day in the Bahamas

Thankfully, after the hassles and fiascoes of the first day of this trip, we got a good night's sleep. Morning found us still at sea. Soon, an island came into view along our side of the ship. This must be Coco Cay, one of the Bahamas' Berry Islands, Royal Caribbean's private island. We are to spend the day here.

First, we must eat breakfast and the buffet is at the bow of the ship. We're eating there because the dress code is more relaxed. Tim and I are dressed in swim trunks (I want to change his clothes as few times as possible) so we're skipping the main dining room for today and hitting the buffet instead.

The buffet is a zoo, with everybody cutting in line, butting their way in to grab some bacon, being wide to scoop up some scrambled eggs. There's no rhyme or reason to how people should line up or what direction to go in.

I finally grab some food for Tim and I...Letty's on her own for this one.

The announcement comes over the PA that the boats to the island are now in operation and to make our way down to the bottom deck to go to the island.

This is the great unknown for us. Coco Cay is a tender port, meaning that there is no pier for the ship to dock at. Smaller boats...tenders...shuttle passengers back and forth to shore all day long.  Tenders mean that there is no guarantee that wheelchairs will be able to disembark, it's strictly at the crew's discretion.

I had tried to ascertain with Royal Caribbean before we left on if a wheelchair would be able to go on the tender. All I could get was "we can't guarantee it," but browsing through people's reviews and trip reports online before we left suggested that it could be done so this will be a gamble for us.

(NOTE: Royal Caribbean is in the middle of a massive construction project on the island. A new pier has opened for the ships to dock at, making the tender transfer obsolete. There is also now a large water park on the island)

No need to worry, though, there's a ramp to the tender (after going through security to get off the boat) and a flat area up front where wheelchairs are allowed to sit during the short journey. The crew graciously lets me stand there with Tim, although Letty is told she must sit in the seats inside with the rest of the passengers.

A shore excursion specialist is standing next to me for the trip. He tells me he's from Chile and we talk about all the things to see and do there, also telling me what destinations I should see, where to fly to, and more. A font of information for a future trip...I'm putting his suggestions into the memory bank for that distant vacation.

We talk about shore excursions and I tell him that in Nassau, we plan to take the glass bottom boat because that's the only one that was listed as accessible.

"Oh, that excursion's been cancelled to to lack of bookings," he tells me, "but we have one on the island today."

Once on the island, I follow him to the excursion office to sign us up, "be back here at 1:15 this afternoon."

I should also mention that when we left the tender, Tim's power wheelchair was traded for a beach wheelchair with fat tires for the sand. We'll exchange them back when we leave (NOTE: although special needs passengers are advised to get on the island early because beach wheelchairs are first-come, first-served, we noticed that there were a lot of beach wheelchairs, much more than the demand for them).

With that taken care of, the three of us head to the sand where we have an easy time finding some lounge chairs to relax on.

The Bahamas, while usually uttered with the word "Caribbean," are not part of that tropical sea. Rather, it lies just outside of the warm Caribbean east of Florida. This is readily apparent when I go for a swim and there is a definite chill in the water.

It's clear. I can see the coral, some fish swimming around, and not a trace of cloudiness. It's just not warm. I do my best to get used to it but a half hour in that chilly ocean water is really all I need. It actually feels warmer when I get out and back into the air.

I go to get some snacks. I went healthy for Tim and I, mostly because the more 'junk' food stands at the Island buffet were overrun just like the breakfast buffet. The salad and cold cut bars were mostly untouched.

Letty went to get a bucket 'o pina colada from one of the bars. I had a beer and filled up two of our soda glasses. Then is was time to go on our glass bottom boat ride.

Arriving at the counter, we're given the bad news...the weather's not good enough to go out so it's been cancelled.  We've pretty much done all we wanted to do so we trade back for our power chair, go through security, and get back on the tender to the ship.

About halfway back, cool drops of rain fall on Tim and I...exposed on the bow of the tender...while we wait to get back on the ship.

Since Tim won't go in the ocean, I take him up to the pool deck. There are a couple of lifts for handicapped people. He usually floats around in an inner tube we bring along, The ship also has a variety of swim vests, intended for children but some of the larger sizes looked like they'd fit. We ask the lifeguard...who's Russian...what we should do for Tim.  He says to go with our inner tube.

After we get it inflated, the lifeguard along with a pool attendant comes over to operate the lift. We get Tim in the chair and I jump in to get him out and ease him into the inner tube. That's when I found out that the ship's pool is not heated.

Tim is eased down and is also a bit shocked at how cold the water is but he's still game and in he goes.  I figure we'll get used to it...which we do for the most part...and float around for an hour before moving on to something else.

About 20 minutes later, the lifeguard comes back up..."you done with swim?"

"Well, no, I figured we'd stay in for awhile longer to make it worthwhile," I tell him.

"That okay but you know rain coming. Lightning."

"Oh, I understand, let's get out then."

We get out, drops start falling so we move under shelter near the side of the ship. Then, a deluge hits. Lightning, thunder, and buckets of water. We're fine under the roof but many out in the pool and lounge chairs are caught out. I also think of the hundreds of passengers that are still on the island and have to make their way back.

I see that we're next to the Windjammer buffet's side door, which I can get to without getting too wet so I go in to grab some hot dogs, fries, and fruit for Tim and I.  I also take our soda cups to their machines...which are out of everything except Diet Fanta.

That's when I find the only other soda machine onboard is in the middle atrium, on the 6th deck. So, get cups good for unlimited soda on the ship. There are only three machines...two in the buffet and one in the center...for 2,400 passengers.  You can see where the math gets dicey. You can also get soda from the bars and main dining room, but the cups are specifically for the three machines on board. To fill 'at your leisure.'

Well, the food's still good so we relax here until the storm passes then we go to our cabin until dinnertime.

Dinnertime comes and, true to their word, we have a more accessible and appropriately-sized table assigned.  The food is good, the waiter is very good if a bit on the talkative side, and it all goes off without a hitch.

We do a little shopping in the duty-free mall onboard but Letty and Tim aren't onboard on with seeing any of the ship's entertainment that night.

All in all, this was a much better day than the first day. Still a few issues here and there but even Tim said he had fun today. After a couple of cocktails in the quiet mid-ship bar, we call it a night and head back to our cabin to relax until bedtime.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Shipping Out To The Bahamas From Miami

It's been a frustrating day getting into Miami, returning the rental car, and getting on board our ship. Now, two out of three checked bags have arrived in our state room. I also notice that we have been given two soda cups...

(Here is where I need to take a little side trip to explain that on Royal Caribbean, if you want more than juice, generic coffee, tea, or tap water, you have to pay for it. Now, the thing is to buy drink packages...all inclusive bar tab is $55 per day, per passenger. I don't see the three of us racking up $165 in drinks, especially since the first and last days are very short. We choose the all you can drink soda package where the ship gives you special souvenir glasses that work in the soda machines at a more reasonable $8.50 per day. If we want a cocktail, we'll just purchase them one at a time.

Now, back to your story...)

...where there are three of us that should have them. I tell the room steward, he says it's not his responsibility, we have to go to guest services but he'll try to remember to tell someone.

Next, Letty has changed her mind and wants to stay connected while we're on the ship this weekend...so does Tim...so I buy a package so the three of us can connect our devices but only one will connect at a time.

It's almost time for our dinner seating so we first head over to guest services where there is a long line of people waiting to complain. It seems that most of them are here to try to wrangle an upgraded cabin.

Finally, one of the staff works the line to see if there are easier problems to solve to get people through faster.  When he gets to me, I tell them about our missing soda glass, suitcase, and our internet problem. He says we must wait until 8pm to see if the bag arrives before we complain about that. He'll check into the glass. We must go up to the deck above to see the IT guy but hurry, he's only there for another hour (for a total of two hours a day of IT help).

We stand in line upstairs with our devices, finally get to the front, and the IT guy changes our account so that all are able to connect now.

We get to the dining room, a waiter has us follow him in. He takes us to the center of the room, and says to follow him...our table is right over here.  "Here" is a table where we'd have to navigate a path of about twenty inches wide, and that's with no people sitting at the tables between us and the one assigned to us.

Tim's wheelchair is a bit wider than twenty inches. We bring this to his attention that we can't fit.

"No worries, we'll move stuff around to get you in."

"What about when we're done and people are sitting in these other seats? There will be even less room," my wife tells him.

"You don't want to sit here?" he asks.

"It's not accessible," I tell him. "We need to sit somewhere else."

"OK, come with me and we'll take to the head waiter."

I follow him to the podium. There is a man in a tuxedo there and a line of about 40 people waiting to talk to him.

"Just stand in that line and he'll take care of it."

Just to recap...Letty and Tim had to stand in the sun for almost two hours before they let us go into preboarding security. We had to navigate a crowded line to find someone to tell us where our cabin was. We had to wait in an even longer line to get an elevator to our room and, a little later, again to go up to the deck for lifeboat drills. We just had to wait in another line to complain about our missing luggage and soda glass then another to get our devices connected right. Now...when we're assigned an inaccessible table (when we were explicit during the whole booking and checkin process that we have a wheelchair)...I'm told I have to wait in yet another long line.

That, my friends, is where my rope ended.

"I've been standing in lines all damn day ever since I boarded this damn ship. I will not stand in another line, either get us a decent table or I'm leaving!" I exclaimed, a bit more forcefully than reading these words suggest (that quote may have been sanitized a bit for our reader's protection-Ed).

"Please, it's ok...we'll work something else out," the waiter said.

He went off to get someone. In a little while, another man in a tuxedo showed up and took us to a table that would hold a dozen people and said to sit here and tomorrow there will be a better table that we'd be assigned to for the rest of the cruise.

Seated, our order was taken. A minute later, a family of about twelve showed up.  Guess what? This was THEIR assigned table. Of course, they complained and we were moved yet again to a four seat table across the aisle. Why not this table in the first place? Ah...you're thinking too logical, at least more logical than the dining crew of the Enchantment of the Seas.

Finally, fed.  We leave after dinner, have a couple of cocktails in the uppermost bar before calling it a night where Letty and Tim snoozed in their comfy beds and me on my little bunk at the ceiling where it seemed like I was a larger than life elf on a shelf.

Tim said one thing before turning in..."If I could, I'd get off right now. I never want to go on a cruise again."

I really could think of no argument against that after this long day so I just said goodnight and went to sleep. Here's hoping tomorrow will go a bit better.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Casting Off: A Questionable Start to Another Caribbean Adventure

It's about four hours from our hotel in Saint Petersburg to the Port of Miami.

Leaving town, we climb over the impressive Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It's a fairly easy drive, with a couple of sightings of alligators in the freeway median. A stop for gas to fill up our rental before turning it in, and then straight to the port.

We arrive at 11:30am. We also have a reservation at 12:30pm to check in for a three night cruise to the Bahamas on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas.

Dropping Letty and Tim at the curb and assigning our luggage to a porter, I head over to the Hyatt Regency in downtown Miami where I'm supposed to drop off our rental car at the Enterprise counter there.

Sounds easy, doesn't it?

Nothing's easy in Miami...once I get off the port bridge into downtown, the traffic is at a standstill and there's construction everywhere. My phone's GPS is lecturing me to go straight but the road is closed with a huge hole in the middle. Horns, like in midtown Manhattan, blare constantly.

I'm turning down a street at random, hoping my GPS will adjust accordingly. I have to look at the map at the next stop.

Finally, I see the hotel ahead but the driveway to the lobby is stuffed with construction vehicles, taxis, and the occasional passenger car. It's a dead stop, I'm not going to get in there. I see a parking structure labeled "Hyatt self parking." I turn in there.

I find a spot, lock the car, and walk over to the hotel. I see the Enterprise counter and walk up with my keys, "I'm dropping off my car."

"Where is it?" the agent asks.

"In the parking structure."

"No, you have to bring it up to the lobby."

I point outside..."look, there is no way I'm going to get a car up there."

"You have to take it there anyway, give the keys to the valet when you get there."

Sheesh...

Hike back to the parking lot, whose main, hotel adjacent exit is closed. I have to exit out via another street, that's one-way...the wrong way, coincidentally...and navigate a jammed up four blocks back to the hotel entrance.

A half hour later, with my phone buzzing because my wife's calling wondering where I disappeared to...I make it back to the hotel driveway. Somehow, I find an opening and jam myself in. Eventually, I see a spot open in front of the door. I pull in and hand my keys to the valet.

"Checking in, sir? he asks.

"No, I'm dropping off my rental for Enterprise," I reply.

"You cannot do that."

I point over to the counter, which is visible from here..."that guy says I can"...and I walk off to the counter.

"Did you drop off the car?" the Enterprise agent asks.

"Yes but the valet says I can't do it."

The agent walks over with me, explains something to the valet, and it's good. I ask if I can get a ride back to the port and the agent, working for a company who's tagline explains how they'll give you a ride, says no.

Finally, I get him to hail me a taxi and a $25 dollar ride later, I'm back at the port. At 1:15pm. Yes, that is 45 minutes later than our appointment and almost two hours after I left Letty and Tim in front of the checkin building. They are still there.

Royal Caribbean would not let them into the air-conditioned building until I got back so they basically had to find a scrap of shade somewhere in the blazingly hot and humid front porch of the building until I got back.

All together again at last, we head in to get scanned and search through security. Upstairs, we get our cabin assignment and room cards...which also act as ID and charge cards on the ship...and a nice gentleman escorts us to the boarding ramp of the ship.

Inside, a narrow passage way is clogged with passengers who are just standing there. A photographer is blocking the way, taking everybody's picture to sell as souvenirs later. We finally get there and my wife is not having a good hair day anymore, is pissed about waiting in the heat, and doesn't like her picture taken in general.

"I'd rather not have a picture, thank you," she tells the photographer.

"You have to have a picture to remember your cruise!"

"No!" she says a little more emphatically.

"Everybody gets one," the photographer says.

"We're not taking any pictures," I tell him.

Finally, they let us by and now we're on our own in the crowded atrium with no idea what to do or where to go, still carrying our smaller bags.

It takes awhile to flag down a crew member who must scuffle off to find an English speaker.

"Where is our cabin?" we ask when they come back.

"Take the elevator down two decks."

The elevator. Where there are about two hundred people waiting on six cabs that can hold maybe ten people.  About ten minutes later, we're finally able to force our way onto one and squeeze in.

We find our cabin easily enough. This is an older ship and the cabin smells a bit musty but we can live with it. It's just large enough and has a roll-in shower in the bathroom, where an airplane style toilet is also located. Our room steward tells us another bed is lowered from the ceiling, like a navy bunk, and the now king sized bed can be split in two for two twin beds.

We go with that option because I'll never get Tim up into that bunk so I'll sleep up there and the other two will have their own twin sized beds.

While we wait for our luggage to be delivered, we're going to go to our lifeboat drill.

Every cabin is given a location of a lifeboat to go to. As we head...up the crowded elevators again..to deck 5 and over to our station, a crew member intercepts us and herds us into a bar midship. This is where the mobility challenged passengers will muster to in a drill and then be helped into lifeboats in an emergency.

Afterward, we make our way up to the upper deck where we have a cocktail as we watch the ship cast off. Soon, we see the last condos on South Beach glide by as we head out to the Atlantic.

It's been a hectic afternoon so far, will it get any better? For now, we'll head back to our cabin to get ready for dinner. We'll let you know how the rest of the day goes in our next post.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved