Holiday Trilogy Part 1 Sailing Away for the Holiday

I wanted to tell you all about our Holidays this year.  It is a long story, so I have decided to make this story a trilogy.  Holiday Trilogy Part 1 Sailing Away for the Holiday

We decided to go on a cruise this holiday season.  A nice 10 day sail down to the Caribbean sounded like just the thing to avoid the Holiday madness.  My dear husband researched and combed the internet for the best deals on flights and boats.  It was to be a party of four.  I have three children, but my oldest informed us he would not be home for the winter break, as he had swim practice that week, and would be moving into the “Swim House” (read Frat) for the duration.  He told us he would only be home Christmas Eve, and Christmas day, and was fine with spending those days with his aunts, my sisters. We were sad that we would not be with him on Christmas, but he wasn’t bothered in the least. So off we flew to Fort Lauderdale, on Friday the 17^th.  We boarded our ship the next morning.  I should have paid a little more attention to our fellow passengers, for a day or two into the cruise I realized we were on the SS Assisted Living. We were cruising with the walker and cane set. The well off customers, jetted around the place in motorized scooters.

There were loads of seminars, available for the passengers; Complaining 101, Advanced kvetching, Pros and Cons to keep in mind when purchasing your hearing Aid, and making Fiber Flavorful.  I attended the Pros /Cons of Blue rinse for Hair class. I found it very educational, and I have to admit it changed my mind; I am now definitely Pro Blue Hair rinse. Bingo was a popular event, and very well attended. It did proceed a tad slower due to the hearing capabilities of some of my fellow ship mates.  I am happy to report I won a round. I was however nearly tripped by a number of canes when I went up to get my prize, apparently there were many card carrying members of the sore losers club present. I attended the trivia contests that were held daily.  I have to admit I was much in demand at these events. I earned the reputation as a whiz kid at current events. Current events being those things that happened during the past quarter century!  For instance, the God-father of Heavy Metal was Not King Midas, as most players guessed, but Ozzie Osbourne. I also knew that the Beatles were a rock band, not insects. There was some grumbling about trick questions. (Sore losers club strikes again), but our Cruise director held the line.

The food, as on most cruises was abundant.  Notice I didn’t mention quality, but quantity. We did have to wait in lines at the buffets, as there would be walker and scooter grid lock at the more popular offerings. We had much better luck at if we went for the more ‘chewy’, denture unfriendly foods, like bread.  For the sake of the majority, the midnight buffet was moved to 9pm.  By 9:30pm we had the ship to ourselves, as most passengers bunked down for the night.

Now don’t get me wrong, my husband and I had a wonderful time, the bars were still open and the casinos were more than happy to take our money. The island forays were lovely, and they did televise some football games on the big screen. I did feel sorry for my two young sons. Thank God they had each other, and their games boys! It did foster some quality time with each other, as the people closest in age to them on this trip were us.

Truly a Holiday to remember!

As our cruise started to return to port, we began to hear ominous rumblings about a major blizzard blanketing the North East. Ho Ho Ho we laughed, dodged that bullet! We would be disembarking on Tuesday, plenty of time for the airlines to get back on track, and get us home by Tuesday night.

We were very, very wrong.

Holiday Trilogy Part 2   Driving Through Dixie will follow shortly