Always Want To Go

People usually feel stressed when unexpected events occur with awful timing. I know I do, and I always strive to regain control of the situation quickly as best I can. Here is the story of how we set about proving Murphy’s Law is real.

Today is eight days into a beautiful 14-day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona. We had a challenging start to our cruise this time around. Sometimes, things do not always go perfectly or smoothly, despite how carefully we plan.

For example, the weather has been overcast, translating into sporadic and undependable internet connections. For that reason, I am not sure I will be able to post my blog – still, I am giving it a go.

Although our challenges have been relatively minor, this trip had the worst start ever in our traveling lives. Fortunately, we have resolved all issues, and we have not had another single challenge since those first few days other than how to limit our soft-serve ice cream cone intake.

These are not life or death terrible things but certainly, put a different spin on the beginning of our trip. Any one of these challenges could have ended our over a year-long planned adventure.

Just a few of the lessons we learned here include being flexible, having backup plans, reconfirming everything, paying attention, and being able to laugh at our mistakes.

Last minute hiccups

We did not get in a rush, but we still had a few housekeeping and health things pop up that were out of our control. Steve accidentally dropped a keychain down one of the bathroom sinks, and one of my teeth broke in half. The drain is okay, and the tooth still does not hurt. All is okay but stressful.

Why do you need a pre-cruise Covid test backup plan?

We purchased eMed tests from Optum, as recommended by Royal Caribbean. We already have one test that has an expired date and is unusable. For that reason, we CHOSE not to purchase backup tests because we have taken these tests several times, and we knew what we were doing, right?

Unfortunately, we had a small problem this time around. I quickly received a negative result, but Steve was not so lucky. At the end of the 15-minute test time, the test card showed a little black blob on his test card.

The proctor deemed the test defective and advised him he would have to take another test!

It was evident to both Steve and me that the black blob was a booger from his nose! The proctor would not accept that explanation which meant Steve had to get a Covid test in the next hour before our driver came to pick us up for the drive to the airport or take a test in Fort Lauderdale.

I quickly made him the only available appointment at CVS, but it was for a PCR test with a 1–2-day turnaround for the result. He jumped in the car, drove to CVS, and took the test with the understanding it would be two days before he received a result, but CVS did not guarantee that.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, we organized an in-room appointment for $95 the following morning so Steve could get his test taken. Amazingly, CVS emailed Steve his negative result early the next day, and we canceled the in-room test; problem solved. Stressful.

Pay attention at your departure gate

Steve and I between us have flown out of airports throughout the world hundreds of times. We know how to do this. BUT, this time, we checked our luggage, breezed through security, had sandwiches at an airport restaurant, and strolled to our nearby Southwest gate.

We sat near the gate and waited 15-20 minutes. Steve and I had wildly different boarding numbers, so I proceeded to my place in line, and he went to his. A young man attempting to find his place in line asked me what my boarding number was. We both had the same number.

He pointed out that we were standing in a line for a flight to Columbus, not to Fort Lauderdale! Oh, how embarrassing. Suddenly, I was that little old lady who required assistance to board the correct plane!

I called Steve to alert him that we were on the wrong line. He accepted my call on speaker, and everyone around him enjoyed a good laugh on me. We quickly moved to our places in the correct line, just as it also began to board.

I believe we both came dangerously close to being turned away at the gate of the wrong flight. I am reasonably confident we will never repeat this mistake.

Always reconfirm hotel reservations

Although I reconfirmed our Fort Lauderdale hotel reservation three days before our arrival, somehow, the hotel system had canceled our reservation! We spent about an hour at the hotel reception desk straightening this issue, but finally hotel reception checked us into our room. Stressful.

Don’t forget items in your hotel room

This is another one of those, never happens to us, things. We always thoroughly check before we leave our hotel room. I cannot remember the last time we forgot and left something in the room. Oh, wait, yes, I can. It was in Fort Lauderdale as we went to catch our cruise shuttle!

Steve has a lovely walking cane that good friends gave him during a trip to New Orleans. For that reason, the cane is important to him even though he does not rely on it all the time. Guess what? We managed to overlook it in the room, and it got left behind.

We were loaded onto the hotel’s crowded shuttle van before Steve realized it was missing. He raced back to our room and retrieved the cane. Not a big deal, huh? Not unless the entire van is full of eager cruisers waiting onboard for over ten minutes, ready to leave for their cruise. Stressful.

All’s well that ends well, right? Everything worked perfectly fine, and I suppose it was just our turn for these challenges. Our travels have always gone smoothly without anything remotely resembling these annoying things.

We had a wonderful day exploring and touring museum homes during our Fort Lauderdale in one day adventure despite our issues before and after we arrived there. One highlight I want to mention was our perfect transportation from our home to Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas.

We scheduled our transportation with Saltwater Mom’s, a small organization of drivers headquartered in Galveston, Texas. These ladies provide excellent, reliable, and affordable transportation to and from our area airports, IAH and Hobby, and the cruise port in Galveston.

We were overwhelmingly pleased with this personal service and very personable driver and look forward to our ride home from IAH at the end our this trip in June.

Despite our stumbles out of the gate, this is most definitely a grand adventure! Check back next week to read about what trouble we do not get into on the ship during our eight consecutive days at sea.