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Pre-Trip Blog and Review: Carnival Conquest 5/22/16 – Eastern Caribbean

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UTVolsFan4Life

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May 22nd - 28th, 2016 Half Moon Cay - Amber Cove - Grand Turk

 



Introduction:

Hello Friend! I am so excited to board the Carnival Conquest one week from today. In case our paths have not crossed, let me start out with a little information about us. I’m Kenyon and I will be your tour guide for this adventure. I am 35 years old and a Senior Support Account Manager for a large Global Business Process Outsourcing company. My travel companion is my wonderful wife of almost 5 years. Cynthia is 26 years old and works as a daytime Nanny to two beautiful children; an 8 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. Also, Cynthia is the owner of CK Healthworks, a health and beauty products company.

 

We are from Leesburg, GA. (Hometown to Luke Bryan, Buster Posey, and Phillip Phillips, if you know any of those guys) Leesburg is a small country town outside Albany, GA. We are in the heart of Southwest Georgia and about three hours southwest of Atlanta.

 

This will be our fourth cruise and our third one on Carnival. This will be my third review on Cruise Critic. Links to my other reviews can be found in my signature.

 

Here is a picture of us on our last Carnival Cruise:

 

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On this cruise, we will be bringing a special guest. I’ll make an introduction a little later.

 

About My Pre-Cruise Blog and Review

I’m extremely thankful for all the wonderful information that I have learned on Cruise Critic over the years and I’ve been inspired by some of the great reviewers like Radio, Bugsy4271, Gambee, MrFunInTheSun, Trainman-2, Mitsugirly, Wrigley80, PCWalton1 and whole lot of others that I’ve surely forgotten to name.

 

I started the Pre-Cruise Blog during my last review and had a lot of positive feedback so, I will continue it with this review. Since I booked this cruise, I have been making some notes that may read more like a journal or blog. I have tried to narrow these down to the most important life events and planning details for the trip. This has been a fun way for me to pass the time and countdown the cruise. For my readers, I hope gives you some planning ideas and a little look into our lives. I understand that some readers don’t like to read all the pre-trip information so; please check out https://bigmanken.wordpress.com/carnival-conquest/ and read the whole review with no comments or just the sections that interest you.

 

As I looked for Conquest Reviews, there was some recent ones some that were good and others that were not so helpful. My goal is to provide a detailed review with pictures. I want you to feel like you’re on this journey with me. This will not be a “Live” review. Normally, we use our cruising time to disconnect and reconnect, but since we have already broke one of our cruising rules, I might break another and try the social media package. Once we return, I will start the trip review portion of the report. I am a very visual person, so I like pictures and my hope is that I will be able to provide a lot of pictures and commentary. On our last cruise we took over 400 pictures a day and still did not capture everything. Please be patient with me as I will not be able to post the entire review all at once but I will try to at least post all of one day at a time. In addition, I will attempt to share differences in experiences based on feedback from our group. This will especially be seen with the dining portion of the cruise as Cynthia has a number of food allergies that forces her to be on a restrictive dietary plan. I know that this is going to be so much fun! I hope you will come along for the ride and that I don’t bore you to death.

 

Disclaimer: If you don’t like detailed reviews where you have to wait for the next installment then this may not be the review for you and you should click the back button at this time. As this cruise ends during the Memorial Day weekend, I will try to post as much as possible before returning to work on the Tuesday after the holiday.

 

Carnival Conquest – The Ship

The Conquest was built in 2002 as the first ship in Carnival’s Conquest Class of Ships. The Carnival Conquest is 953 feet in length and has a gross tonnage of 110,000 She can carry 2984 passengers for 24 hours for fun each and every day. There is 1150 crew onboard the ship. The Carnival Conquest is currently based in Fort Lauderdale, FL (Port Everglades) and runs 2-5 day cruises to the Bahamas and 6 and 8 day cruises throughout the Caribbean.

We are booked in an Oceanview stateroom on the Rivera Deck in Room 1316.

 

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Carnival Conquest – The Itinerary

We are super excited about this itinerary. It combines our favorite island of Half Moon Cay then adds two ports of call that we have yet to visit in Amber Cove, Dominican Republic; and Grand Turk. Also, we have a sea day after Half Moon Cay and then our last full day on the Conquest.

 

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Here is our port schedule:

 

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Fort Lauderdale/Port Everglades

This will be our first time leaving out of Port Everglades. Our first three cruises sailed out of Port Canaveral and let me tell you the port and the area certainly spoiled us rotten. We have gotten into a bit of a routine and started some pre-cruise traditions that I hope will get to carry on in Fort Lauderdale.

 

I’m super excited to spend a little time in Fort Lauderdale pre-cruise and get into as much fun as we possibility can in one day. What I’m least looking forward to is the over two hours of additional travel time and Port Everglades. The reviews that talk about Port Everglades are very mixed experiences some are great and others are not so good. I’m hopeful that we’re there on a good embarkation and debarkation days.

 

About this Cruise

This cruise has been named; “Julie’s Surprise Sweet Sixteen/Start of Summer Cruise.” Normally, Cynthia and I use our cruises to get away to ourselves and have some uninterrupted time for us. This cruise is going to be very different for us as we are bringing my SIL, Julie with us on the cruise. Julie has heard us talk a lot about cruising and showed an interest in wanting to give cruising a try. We told her sometime back that we would take her on a cruise sometime in 2016 to celebrate her Sweet Sixteen. Julie has no idea of when, where, or any of the details. We are kind of hoping that she will be a typical teenager and forget our comment since we have not brought it up in a while. The cruise happens to fall on the Sunday after her last day of the school year on Friday, so we are going to celebrate the end school and start of summer all at the same time. Either way, I think that she will be surprised, only time will tell.

 

Pre Booking

Cynthia and I had started talking a little bit about the birthday cruise because I had a feeling that 2016 promotions would be coming soon. We had looked and narrowed down a few selections of possible choices. I had been having a down couple of weeks. My work and personal life was so busy that it felt like I did not have any time to breathe. I had seen a few e-mails from my assigned Carnival PVP, but no time to really take action. One evening, as I was finishing up work for the day, I received a call from a number that looked like a Carnival number so, I took a chance and answered the call. It was Cassie, my Carnival PVP. We spent a few minutes talking and getting to know each other and she let me know about some awesome 2015 promotions that was available for me. I explained to her I had a few dates targeted for 2016. She did a great job of taking the information and updating her system so that she could alert me when an awesome promotion became available. We talked a bit more and she really did a great job of making me smile and just put me in an overall great mood.

 

Normally, when I have booked previous cruises, I just either called in and got the first available person or booked online. I started to see where using a consistent PVP is a real value-add to the cruise booking experience.

 

Cruise Rescheduled

We had originally selected the May 2nd sailing on the Carnival Elation out of Jacksonville. It was a perfect choice since we would be vising Half Moon Cay on Julie’s actual birthday and she has always wanted to go to Atlantis (She’s seen the commercials). When I booked the cruise, I did it in a hurry as it was on a super sale and Cynthia and I was not ready to discuss this with my MIL. Once we did discuss it with her she agreed to let her go, but the date would not work.

 

No worries, that’s why we bought the trip insurance.

 

Since we needed to reschedule, I took the opportunity to re-price all the ports, ships, and destinations. That’s when I found this cruise on the Conquest. A six day cruise for the price of most of the 5 day cruises and we still get to go to Half Moon Cay. We spoke to my MIL twice to confirm everything and even offered to bring her along, but she decided to say at home. Sign me up…

 

I knew the terms of my contract and while I was not happy about losing $150 ($50 per person) I could only be upset at myself with not going with my gut instinct in the first place. I called my Carnival PVP (Cassie) and she was fantastic. She was very empathic and even checked with a supervisor to see if anymore could be done. I did not expect that anything could be done, but I was appreciative that she made an attempt. She made the re-booking process super simple. I am so glad that I did not have to repeat all my information over to her again. She took it all from the previous booking and just confirmed it at the end. It’s still the same booking number. I am starting to really like using a dedicated PVP that I have built a rapport with and who understands me and my cruising style.

 

Since the change is now official, I went and updated my signatures on Cruise Critic and Funville and said my goodbyes on each roll call. That was fairly easy since I created the roll calls and no one had joined them. Next, I searched for the Conquest Roll Call on Cruise Critic and found that one had been started earlier this month. I made my introduction and I am starting to have a conversation with the one other person in the roll call.

Well, its 370, scratch that 390 days until sailing.

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UTVolsFan4Life

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Rewind

Here is where I get you caught up with all the major activities up until this point.

 

389 Days until Sailing

OK, I could not contain my excitement. I had already starting prepping this Pre-Post Trip Review for the Elation so, today it received a makeover to the Conquest.

 

384 Days until Sailing

Happy Birthday, Julie!!! We had an awesome time over the weekend celebrating Julie with dinner and a movie. Wow, I cannot believe she is already 15! This time next year the cruise will be so close we will be able to smell it.

 

365 Days until Sailing

I’m doing a little bit of a happy dance. It’s just 1 year until we sail away on the Conquest. We have been super busy with work and Julie has been winding down the school year with final projects and a band concert. We are so happy and proud of her.

 

According to Cruise_Fishdotnet, our sailing is at 15% full. Also, it shows that some categories have slightly increased in pricing, but our Early Saver rate has not changed.

 

I started looking for Pre-Cruise Hotels. In Port Canaveral, it has been really easy. I just book with the Radisson Resort by the Port about 2 months in advance for a Park & Cruise package. I understand that the Ft. Lauderdale market has a different supply and demand element so, I want to be mindful of that when making my selection. It’s a balance between a good value and our pre-cruise traditions.

 

I checked a few of the hotels and this is what I found:

 

The Marriott and IHG hotels do not have any rates out at this time. It looks like they will be available in about the next 10 -14 days.

 

Hyatt Pier 66 – This is my preferred hotel, however I am not willing to pay $489 (plus tax) Cruise & Park rate for the view that I would like. I’ll continue to check this hotel to see if the rate goes down over time.

 

Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina – This is my second choice and I was pleasantly surprised to find this hotel was going for $189 Regular Rate for the view that I would like. This hotel did not have a Cruise & Park rate. To avoid all the other hassles, I would just drive to the port and pay the $15 per day to park as compared to the $25 per day to park at the hotel plus the taxi to/from port. A total of $279 (plus tax) for the pre-cruise stay and parking. There is an easy cancelation policy of 2 days before arrival to cancel without charge. I was comfortable with the pricing, so I booked the room.

 

My strategy is very simple. I wanted to book a hotel that was nice and a price that I was comfortable with spending. I will say that this is at the maximum side of the budget as I am always looking for a cost savings. I’ll ride the wave and see what the supply and demand does over time. Also, since I have a client in the Ft. Lauderdale area, I hope that I will make at least a couple trips down before the cruise and this will allow me some time to complete a little recon of the port area. Based on my findings, I might consider additional areas for my pre-cruise stay.

 

341 Days until Sailing

I woke up this morning with an e-mail from Carnival. As I was reading the letter attached to the e-mail, I started to become very ill. The letter informed me that the awesome surprise cruise I had planned on the Carnival Breeze for our 5th wedding anniversary was now being changed to the Carnival Splendor. This is due to all of Carnival’s dancing of the ships that are now happening 6 months earlier than previously announced. It was a tough pill to take and it put me in a not so happy mood, but I put on a happy face for Cynthia since I did not want her to know what I was planning. I succeeded for the morning, but that evening was a different story and she was concerned as to why I was not in my normal mood. So, I broke down and told her… She was upset too, but we started looking together at options and there are not many of them at this point. We looked at pictures on Carnival’s website of the Splendor and Cynthia cannot stand all the purple in the décor. I don’t know what we are going to do…

 

332 Days until Sailing

Well, I was supposed to be on a staycation, but a server issue has forced me to work more this week than in a normal week. To top that off, my Dad has been admitted into the hospital with an unknown infection. I’ve been up almost 40 hours straight so, I am going crash for a while.

 

331 Days until Sailing

I’m sitting at the hospital and something reminds me that I need to contact my PVP. Today, is the last day that I can make changes to my Breeze now Splendor cruise. It was about 3 PM when I called and left her a voice message. She is normally very quick to return my calls so when I did not hear from her I called again around 5:45 PM and received her voicemail. I thought well, it partly my fault for waiting so late and we might just have to roll the dice and see what happens. I was just getting ready for bed when my phone rang, I was thinking no, not another problem at work. I put a big smile on my face when I saw the 305 area code. It was Cassie, my PVP! We talked for a moment and looked at a few other sailings, but I was really not ready to make a decision so, I just canceled the trip and they put all the money that would have been returned to this sailing. Score!

 

328 Days until Sailing

Based on comments from John Heald on facebook, I have been really watching for Faster to the Fun (FTTF) and Half Moon Cay (HMC) Excursions. This afternoon, a member of our Cruise Critic Roll Call alerted that FTTF was available. I swooped in and grabbed on up. The first part of my cruise trifecta is complete.

 

326 Days until Sailing

After a very long week, Dad is finally back home from the hospital. The unknown infection has cleared up and we just need to follow-up with his orthopedic doctor about the fluid build-up in his shoulder and his torn rotator cuff.

 

323 Days until Sailing

Happy Independence Day!!! I am so proud to be an American. Thanks to all that protect and serve our great nation.

 

321 Days until Sailing

Dad’s not doing so well the last day or two so we got him into the doctor. All his main vitals are really low, so he is being admitted into the hospital.

 

320 Days until Sailing

Some of the tests start coming back and we have a huge problem. Dad’s blood pressure is really low and he is losing blood from somewhere. The question is where… He has been moved to SICU for closer monitoring and a blood transfusion has been started. Seven pints of blood and two plasmas later his levels are going the right direction. The good news for the day is they found the bleeding. He’ll have a procedure in the morning to check out the cause.

 

319 Days until Sailing

The procedure was a partial success. The doctor found the bleeding in the stomach, but when he started to fix the bleeding, Dad started having breathing issues and the procedure had to be aborted. The doctor wanted him to rest and in the morning he would need to complete the procedure in the OR with Dad completely knocked out and on a vent. We all knew that with his conditions that this was risky, but we did not have much of a choice. If we don’t stop the bleeding he is going to die at the same time, he could die trying to fix the bleeding. We are between a rock and a hard place.

 

318 Days until Sailing

Today was the day, we said our see you later and headed into the waiting area. It seemed like we were there forever. I would sit awhile and pace a while. I guess we had been waiting about an hour and a half to two hours when the nurse came to get us. She took us in an empty room so that we could talk to the doctor. The doctor reported good news. He had stopped the bleeding, took care of a few more potential issues, and he came off the vent without any issues. The only downside is that we need to do this again in a month to fix more potential issues before we are back at where we are now. The doctor said that they were going to monitor him for the next hour or two so, he suggested that we relax, grab some lunch, and that we could see him back in his room.

 

317 Days until Sailing

Dad is starting to get much better. His blood levels and blood pressure is starting to normalize.

 

316 Days until Sailing

Dad was moved out of SICU into the general floor. We are a step closer to getting him back home.

 

315 Days until Sailing

Mom called me this morning because when she arrived at the hospital there was a big sign on the door to see the nurse. She was upset because they had normally been really good about calling her overnight with updates. Dad has developed an infection. It’s one that when the staff come in they have to get in special clothing and family members have to wash hands in hot soapy water after touching. Mom called to let me know so that I would not freak out like she did when she saw the sign and stuff on the door.

 

Cynthia and I had planned a vacation to see some of her family and I was really conflicted about leaving, but Mom assured me that everything was going to be fine and that there was nothing that I could do just sitting there at the hospital. So, off to Hogansville, GA we go to see Cynthia’s Grandma, Aunt, and other relatives.

 

We had a great local Mexican dinner and then we were off to bed as we had an early morning.

 

314 Days until Sailing

We took Grandma to breakfast and then came back to get all packed up for our journey north. I checked in with Mom as she was heading back to work today. She let me know that Dad’s sugar had dropped and they had a hard time getting it back up. It really concerned me as he was as high as 400 during the day and then dropped to the 30’s during the night. He was moved to MICU so that they could watch his sugar closer. They got the diabetic nurse involved and all agreed that they needed to stop manually controlling his sugar and put his insulin pump back on him.

 

Mom said don’t worry that everything will be fine and to head on with the trip. Our next stop was Nashville, TN. We met my Sister-In-Law and Brother-In-Law for dinner at one of my favorites, Maggiano’s Little Italy. After dinner, we traveled about 45 minutes to their house where we are spending most the week. It’s an exciting time for the family because they are pregnant with their first child after having a tough time. This week they are going to find out the sex of the baby.

 

313 Days until Sailing

I woke up this morning and called Mom to see how the night went. He dropped again into the 30’s. She was very frustrated. I suggested to Mom that she needed to talk to the doctor and diabetic nurse about consulting with his Endocrinologist who is in charge of managing his blood sugar. They agreed that they would consult her. Mom took the extra step to reach out to their office and was assured that they would talk with someone at the hospital.

 

Cynthia and I had a relaxing morning, shopping around the local area and just resting. In the afternoon, Cynthia went with her sister to a baby check-up and she got to see the baby. While the ladies were gone, I had two work meetings that could not be rescheduled so, I got them out of the way. That evening, we relaxed at home with some pizza for dinner.

 

I talked to Mom that night and she was happy as the doctors did reach out. They were able to read Dad’s pump and make corrections. I think we are heading in the right direction.

 

311 Days until Sailing

Yesterday, we just hung out and did some local shopping. Today, we headed to Nashville for some shopping. It’s our last full day in Tennessee. We found the Opry Mills Mall and Cynthia made a day of it. I thought it was kinda funny that the mall played nothing but country music. I love it, but Cynthia is not that big of a fan. I guess she wanted to shop bad enough. LOL She was hoping that we could go to Trader Joe’s but I did not want to fight the evening traffic so we headed back. Dad is doing better and his sugar is becoming more stable.

 

310 Days until Sailing

We woke up really early so that we can start heading south. By lunch time we were at the Georgia State Line and just a few short hours later we made it to our destination in Atlanta, GA. I’m excited because we are going to the Braves game. Also, I’m excited because Dad has been moved out of MICU. We had such a fun time at the game, but it was so hot. We were so late getting back to the hotel because someone (me) did not read the directions and listen to his wife therefore, we got off at the wrong Marta station and had to wait for another train. Before we hit the bed it was 309 days until sailing.

 

307 Days until Sailing

I’m up super early this morning as I am leaving town again, but this time on business travel. I’m attending a Summit for my company in Rochester, NY. The best news of the day is that Dad got to come home from the hospital. He is feeling so much better!

 

303 Days until Sailing

It’s been a great week in Rochester, but I am ready to get home and see my family. The weather was absolutely wonderful and a needed break from the South Georgia heat.

 

300 Days until Sailing

I’m up early again this morning as I am leaving town again. I’m headed to Fort Lauderdale. I’ll only be 300 days early! As I came through baggage claim, I saw all the cruise lines setup for their transport service. A big part of me wanted to hop on board, but no time on this trip as it’s strictly business.

 

299 Days until Sailing

Excellent business meetings with my client over the past day and a half. We even got done a little early. That means it’s time to see the beach. We went over to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, but was not impressed with the beach. It was so dirty that we did not want to even sit down and there was a bad fish smell. My guess was that it was coming from the pier. We decided to ride South down A1A and found a better beach. I’m not sure what the area is called but we were near Las Olas Blvd. As we rode around on the way back, I got to recon just a little bit. I would have liked to recon a little more, but I wanted to be mindful of the other person that was with me. I’m sure I can recon more another time.

 

298 Days until Sailing

I’m up again super early for a flight back home. I’m ready to be back home. I love to travel, but I’m exhausted. There is no rest when I get home as I have a few work deadlines for today and a big quarterly presentation tomorrow. I cannot wait for the weekend so, that I can just rest.

 

293 Days until Sailing

Julie started her first day of school for the year. As soon as school ends, our adventure begins.

 

283 Days until Sailing

Tonight, Dad started having another one of his spells and his temp is 103 degrees. Back to the hospital we go…

 

282 Days until Sailing

Dad has another infection coming from somewhere. We are awaiting all the test results and he has been admitted back into the hospital.

 

280 Days until Sailing

We got a surprise this evening as the doctor says that Dad can come home. All his labs and cultures are normal and the infection appears to be from his leg. Another round of antibiotics and he should be good to go.

 

271 Days until Sailing

I got a surprise in my inbox this afternoon. It was an e-mail notification from our roll call. One of our awesome members reported that Half Moon Cay excursions were available, including the cabanas. I quickly moved over to the Carnival site and picked one up. Score!

 

240 Days until Sailing

We admitted Dad into the hospital this morning as a precautionary measure as his blood level has dropped again. He says he feels fine and was really sad to have to go back into the hospital. Goal is to get his levels up by Monday for another surgery. It just so happens that Cynthia and I have a weekend training in Nashville, TN. Since Dad is stable and nothing that we can do for him or Mom at the time, we are leaving later than planned, but we are going to make the trip.

 

It took forever to get to our destination as the traffic and construction was horrible. The rain did not do anything to help the matter. We were able to have dinner and spend the night with Cynthia’s Sister and our Bother-In-Law. Both Mommy-to-be and baby are doing great.

 

239 Days until Sailing

We had an early start to the morning as we had about an hour drive to our training. We picked up breakfast at a local place called Nerdy Birdie. They specialize in gluten free and allergy sensitive foods, mainly sweets, but they do have a few breakfast/lunch selections. We made it to the training way early, but there was people everywhere. There was 4000 people expected and it felt like all of them arrived early. It all worked out in the end, we got to see a lot of people that are in our extended family that we mostly just interact with on social media. We made it in time to get great seats. The training was awesome, we had so much fun! We checked into the hotel and was going to get some dinner with some friends, but everyone was just too tired so we ordered room service and off to bed we went for the night.

 

238 Days until Sailing

Now, the not so fun part is the drive back home. It was a long drive and we were tired, but we got up early and made it home in enough time that we could relax a bit before a busy week.

 

237 Days until Sailing

We are up early to get to the hospital as Dad still does not have an assigned time for surgery. After waiting most the morning, they took him back. The surgery took longer than expected and that always makes you extra nervous, but he did just fine. The only downside is another surgery down the road.

 

236 Days until Sailing

Dad has come home and we are hopeful that we can get back a little piece of normal.

 

181 Days until Sailing

Happy Six Months until sailing! I must admit that we have been super busy and I have not even had the time to keep a check on my price breaks or anything cruise related. I just happen to have a minute today and decided to check out everything. We’ll so much for a price break at this point as our cruise is currently $100 per person more than what we paid. Maybe around the holidays a good special will come up and I can get some savings.

 

I checked in on our Cruise Critic Roll Call and there has not been too much action happening. However, I did find out that there has been a group of college alumni from a school in one of the Carolinas that has booked for this cruise. I’m not sure what that means or how I feel about this addition. I hope that it’s a small group and that they are responsible.

 

178 Days until Sailing

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I’m still up from the previous day as it’s a Thanksgiving tradition for Mom and I to do as much prep work as we can on the Thanksgiving meal and then be downtown at midnight to get a Thanksgiving Day paper with all the sale ads. I’ve looked them all over and I have my eye on a few items. It’s time to get some sleep. Good Night!

 

After about six hours of sleep, breakfast, and a big cup of hot chocolate; I’m ready to tackle the day. The first thing I did was re-look through all the ads to make sure my sleepy eyes did not miss a big sale while Cynthia looked at the ads for the first time. She’s not been feeling well as of late so, she did not stay up late with us to go get the paper. Cynthia pointed out that several places were having a good sale on luggage. Julie needs some luggage for the cruise so, this is her big Christmas gift and part of the trip reveal. We found a 5 Piece Set at Target for $49.99 and decided to purchase online to beat the crowds.

 

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A little later in morning, Cynthia received a text message from Julie of a picture out of the Kohl’s ad of some luggage that she liked. She was with us when we were looking for luggage for us and we asked her if she liked anything. It was a 4 Piece Set and a Multi Dot pattern that was so her style. It was $49.99 as well so, we bought that luggage for her and now I have a new set.

 

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It would not be Thanksgiving without watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and football. I helped Mom finish cooking the meal and about 2 PM and we had Thanksgiving with my parents. We wanted to see Cynthia’s family, but it just did not work out and Cynthia was not feeling well again.

 

177 Days until Sailing

Happy Black Friday! I woke up super early this morning to check my favorite stores that did not have Black Friday ads and I was disappointed to find that there were no sales. Cynthia felt better this morning so, she decided to come out shopping with me. We left the house about 6:15 AM and made it over to Sam’s Club around 6:30 AM for 7:00 AM store opening. There was a small line formed with about 30 people in front of us. They had an easy process and we went in got exactly what we wanted and straight to a no waiting checkout line.

 

I purchased two items that are going to be completely awesome for the cruise. The first item was a Nikon D3300 bundle. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at professional photography and I finally took the plunge. The second items was a surprise as it was not in the sales ad, but was on the table where I had to get the D3300 bundle. A GoPro Hero 3+ Silver! I had planned on getting one closer to the cruise since the D3300 bundle was so expensive, but Sam’s had a deal that I could not turn down. I cannot wait to learn about these cameras and get them ready for the cruise.

 

After Sam’s we were kind of a little hungry so we made our way over to Dunkin Donuts. We took a quick break for a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate minus the salted caramel since they were out. There were a few items at Target that Cynthia wanted to see if they still had so we drove over there. The crowd was not that bad and the store did not seem to be as destroyed as I thought it would be after the madness. Both items were gone so, we decided that since Target was not that bad then we would drive over to Walmart. The crowd was not that bad, but the store was in shambles. You could tell that they were starting to try and get the store back together, but it was going to be slow process. Walmart did not seem to have as many people staffed as Target did and I think it showed in the area of getting the store back to normal as quickly as possible. The good news is that I found a deal an external hard drive which is great because I am starting to have issues with this computer and I need to set it back to factory defaults.

With all the shopping done, we returned home to look over our purchases and get some breakfast. As I was looking over the cameras, Stanley Steamers called to say that they were coming earlier than expected so, I put everything away. Once they arrived Mom decided to let them clean the tile in the Kitchen. They wanted to start on that first so it could dry, but now there is no place to cook breakfast. We left out in search of breakfast and headed out to visit Julie and my MIL. After about an hour we left to meet my BIL for lunch at Golden Corral. As luck would have it we ran into some of Cynthia’s out of town family that we missed the day before. It was great because they had breakfast for lunch going on so I got a plate of breakfast food and a plate of lunch. After being so stuffed, we decided that the Mall parking lot did not look too bad so we decided to go check it out. Before we did that we dropped my MIL off at the hotel so she could spend some time with her sister that is in town. We made a huge mistake going to the mall. It was so crowded, Julie did get a few things on sale. We went back to the hotel to visit with family for a little bit and then we took Julie and my MIL home and called it a night. We were tired!



176 Days until Sailing

I woke up early this morning as I needed to take Mom grocery shopping. Mom’s truck is in the shop being repaired. We arrived to Publix and quickly gathered the items that we needed and headed to the checkout. We always try to stock up the weekend before Thanksgiving for two weeks on most items so we can avoid most of our weekly stores. After Publix we went into town and picked up breakfast for everyone at one of our local favorites, Pearly’s. We arrived back home, put up the groceries, and ate and awesome breakfast. We were ready for the day!

 

It’s like Thanksgiving all over again! Since we did not get to spend any time with Julie and my MIL on Thanksgiving, we invited them over for a late afternoon Thanksgiving lunch. We used a combination of leftovers and I helped Mom make a few smaller dishes so that we would have plenty of food. We ate about 2:00 PM and once we were good and full it was time to go up into the attic and find the Christmas tree. Thankfully, it was easy to find and we had it down in no time flat. I was responsible for setting up the tree with lights and Cynthia and Julie was in charge of the decorations. I think the tree looks great! Next, it was time to watch my Vols beat up Vandy in a little college football. Julie and my MIL went home, another full day was over.

 

175 Days until Sailing

The long weekend was taking a toll on us and we tired. We slept in a bit then had a nice and simple breakfast. We had a list of things that we wanted to get completed around the house over the break and we had not gotten a lot accomplished so, we decided just to stay home all day, focus on our list, and get some rest as we had to go back to work the next day.

 

174 Days until Sailing

Welcome to Cyber Monday! I checked Carnival for their big sale and not so much for our sailing. Our sailing actually increased in price a bit. Now, it’s back to work and back to reality for me.

 

149 Days until Sailing

Merry Christmas!!! All the planning has been done and now it’s time to reveal the surprise. After an awesome Christmas lunch we had our gift opening time. We had a thought that Julie might be catching on so, we waited finished all the gifts, and watched part of a Christmas movie before I went and brought her a huge box to open. The box was the luggage set that I mentioned earlier. She was a bit confused on why she needed luggage when I handed her an envelope. The reaction was priceless.

 

 

We spent the next hour or so, talking about the cruise, the ports, packing, and so much more.

 

127 Days until Sailing

Our Cruise Critic Roll Call has been very quiet at this point, but I have started talking with two people and I hope that others will join in the conversation soon. I had forgotten about the Shipmate App. I have downloaded it to all my devices and looking around to see what I can find.

 

126 Days until Sailing

I woke up at about 3:30 AM this morning with a sick stomach. I think it’s the revenge I get for coming off my meal plan and eating the pancakes and syrup at IHOP yesterday. Did I mention they were all you could eat? All I could think about was the cruise and what time I wanted to leave and how long the drive down was going to take. It took me a bit to fall back asleep. I checked out Shipmate and updated all my information as well as said hello to our cruise.

 

125 Days until Sailing

I checked on our group that cannot be mentioned here and found that the admin had left the group without a goodbye or anything. I decided that I would take over the duties of the page and I thinking of ways to see if I can get more people on it and some good conversation started.

 

124 Days until Sailing

Cynthia just let me know that we are soon going to be adding a new nephew to the family. Her sister is due on Wednesday, but it seems he is serving his eviction notice a bit early. At 3:39 PM a cute 7 lbs and 2 ozs, 21 inches long baby boy was born. Baby Kyle and mommy are doing great. We cannot wait to meet him!

 

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Cynthia was asking if there was any talk on CC about the gluten free options on the Conquest as well as in the Fort Lauderdale Area. So, I started a couple of threads to see what I could find out for her.

 

Cruising Gluten Free on the Conquest

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2302721

 

Gluten Free Restaurants in Fort Lauderdale

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2302703

 

123 Days until Sailing

I checked into that ship app that cannot be mentioned and found that there was a good number of people there so, I made a post to see if we could get more people to that website that we cannot mention.

 

121 Days until Sailing

Did the weather man say chance of snow flurries? I must be hearing things, we don’t know about that stuff here in Southwest GA. The greatest chance is between 4AM – 8AM in the morning.

 

120 Days until Sailing

I woke up at 5 AM this morning and just could not go back to sleep, so I’m relaxing with some music, checking that site that we cannot mention, paying bills, but most importantly on snow alert. My friends as far south as Panama City Beach, FL have reported snow flurries, but we did not get any at our house.

 

118 Days until Sailing

I’m so excited about this cruise! I think Cynthia is tired of me talking about it as we have so much other planning that needs to be completed that is before this cruise. Today I started working on my Cruise Information spreadsheet. This is an Excel file that keeps me organized and on target for planning and packing. Also, it’s a place where I can have all of my information in one place.

 

117 Days until Sailing

I’ve been busy this evening recruiting for that page that cannot be mentioned on that app that cannot be mentioned. It’s worked out quite well and we are a growing!

 

114 Days until Sailing

I could not sleep very well last night. I’m sure it’s the excited energy of moving day. Mom and Dad have found them a nice apartment just down the road from us so, we are moving them out and Cynthia and I are staying in our current house. It was already a very busy day, but then the movers were an hour late. Luckily, in about two and a half hours they had everything loaded up except for clothes and a few small boxes. We dropped the rental truck off and then back to the house to finish a bit of cleanup/loading up before the carpet cleaners arrived. My Aunt and cousin came from Alabama to help Mom get everything set up. When the carpet cleaners left, I went on a mission and found some beautiful flowers and I arrived home and did not even have enough time to get them in the vase before Cynthia arrived home from work. We ate a quick dinner and then spent the rest of the night cleaning and preparing for the next day.

 

The new Cruise Director’s schedule was released today and it show that Wee Jimmy will be our Cruise Director for our sailing. I have not personally sailed with him, but I have read a lot of great and positive feedback so, I’m excited that he will be our Cruise Director.

 

113 Days until Sailing

I got a decent amount of sleep last night, but I wished that I had time for more. I ran some of the final items over to Mom and Dad’s new place. They really have gotten it starting to look great. I visited with them a few minutes and then back to the house I went for more prepping for the furniture move. My MIL and SIL came over and helped us move all the big furniture. Now, all that is left to is the decorating and organizing which means a trip to Walmart.

 

112 Days until Sailing

I slept a little better last night. It was our first sleep in our new bedroom. We have more setup, decorating, and organizing to complete today. We took a break after lunch as we needed to make another Walmart run and Cynthia wanted me to get a haircut. We had a major fail on the length of the curtains we needed in our bedroom. We made it back to the house, installed the new curtains, worked a little more, completed meal prep for our week, and started packing. We still have a loooong way to go before we get everything the way we want it, but all the functional areas are set up.

 

One of the people on our page commented that it was 16 weeks until the cruise. It kind of stunned me a bit that it was that close. I’ve been keeping up with days or months and days. Thinking about it in this manner, makes it seem like it’s just around the corner. Cruise_Fishdotcom reports that our sailing is about 36% full. This number surprises me as a little low and I guess that Carnival thinks so as well, as some of the recent “sales” have seen the price drop from about $400 over what I paid to about $150 over what I paid. I’m hopeful that the price will continue to drop and we can get some price savings.

 

108 Days until Sailing

We are up early and all packed up to head down to sunny Florida. Well, someone should have told the weather that as it’s rainy and quite chilly. Our destination is Tampa for our annual conference. I wanted to use this trip as a bit of a dry run for when we head down for the cruise. We left the house at 7:00 AM and made our traditional stop at the Florida Welcome Center. While we enjoyed the stop, the main purpose for today was to pick up a SunPass. They are now available in the vending machines in the snack area between the Men’s and Women’s restrooms. I’ll activate it shortly before the trip and we will be ready to avoid having to stop for tolls.

 

Even with the weather and our scenic tour, we made great time and made it to the Westin Tampa Harbour Island hotel a little after 1:00 PM. Since we could not check in until 3:30 PM, we walked over to the Tampa Convention Center to register at our conference. There was two lines that was wrapped around the building. We were herded into one of the lines, but I know that this could not be our line since we had the Premium Package. I left Cynthia in line and off I went to see if I could find the area that we were supposed to be in. After a quick walk around the other side of the Convention Center I found our line that only had a short wait. I called Cynthia and directed her where to meet me. By 1:30 PM, we were registered and now standing in line for one of the conference stores. We shopped all afternoon in the different conference stores and we were tried. We walked outside to go back to the hotel and it was pouring down rain. We grabbed a taxi that was doing a $3 per person rate and he took us back over to the hotel. (Cynthia’s first taxi ride.) I thought the rate was high for the distance, but it was better than getting soaked with is cold outside. We don’t have time to be sick! We tried to order pizza from Pizza Hut, but the delivery time was going to be almost two hours. We checked our gluten free app and found a local place that could deliver in 45 minutes to an hour. I placed the order and we waited, waited, and waited. The pizza arrived almost an hour late! We missed the opening session and if we did not leave soon, we would miss the optional worship service which is one of our favorite parts of conference. We hurried and ate our luke warm to cold pizza and darted out of the hotel. No, rain so we speed walked it to the convention center and walked in as worship was starting. After worship, it was a quick and chilly walk back to the hotel and bed time for us.

 

107 Days until Sailing

The one thing that I like about this hotel is that it has a mini fridge and a single cup coffee maker in the room. We brought some instant grits and hot chocolate so, I made a cup of hot water for the coffee pot, poured it in the cups they provided and breakfast is served. Note: The hotel does serve a fairly expensive breakfast, however I did not check it out. We arrived to conference early and got a great seat. The morning session was awesome and we were ready for an afternoon tailgating event (it’s Super Bowl Weekend). We hung out and listened to the band playing for a bit, but it was lunch time and we were hungry. There was all types of food trucks lined up, but with 17,000 people you could say that the lines were a little packed. We decided to make the easy about 10 minute walk to one of our local favorites, Taco Bus. We found this place two years ago and it’s awesome Mexican food, with good prices and they do a great job with gluten free for Cynthia. We arrived and the place was super busy. Cynthia found one booth available and grabbed it while I stood in line. The line was long, but they had it moving quickly. Once I ordered, our food arrived quickly and it was well prepared. We ate and discussed the morning session and used the free WIFI. BTW, this place is Guy Fieri approved.

 

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We finished up and made the walk back down to the convention center, just in time for our team picture. The trip was starting to wear on us so, we headed back to the hotel to rest and to get ready for the parties of all parties later that evening. We got all dressed up and headed to the party where the DJ was awesome. Then about halfway through the party there was a surprise, a concert with American Authors. After the concert the DJ finished out the night. It’s late and we have an early morning so, back to hotel for some sleep we go.

 

106 Days until Sailing

We woke up to another busy day ahead. I peeped out the window shades and Cynthia woke up to me loudly proclaiming, Whale Tail! The Carnival Paradise is coming into port.

 

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Cynthia came over to the window and we watched her for a bit and then realized that if we did not get going soon that we would not have a good seat for the morning session. I started making breakfast only to realize the other grits we brought were not instant, I let them sit and soak while we got ready, but no such luck. We had a very healthy breakfast that included Frosted Cheerios and a chocolate chip cookie. We made it to the conference center and found excellent seats. After an awesome morning session, we had two hours for lunch so, we decided to head back to the hotel and eat in the restaurant. We had food in the room, but we brought some gluten free bread that we had not tried before and it was yucky. We ate in the restaurant two years ago and they were slow on service, but good with gluten free stuff. We head over and are some of the first people over from the conference. We sit down and wait for a minute on a menu. Wow, the menu has gotten way smaller. We ordered as the place started to get packed. I choose the grouper sandwich and a side of fries. Cynthia tried a salad that the waiter recommended. The food came out in a decent amount of time. We asked for some water to drink and some condiments. We waited, waited, waited and waited until I saw where they were behind the bar so, I went and grabbed what we needed. We asked for water and ranch dressing again and waited and waited. I kept nibbling at my food, thinking that water was coming soon, but I finished my meal before a manager came over to take my plate and we let him know what we were missing. He went and got what we needed and came back. I asked for the check as we were now in a hurry. For the price we paid the food was not that great, we won’t make that mistake again. We rushed back over to the convention center and was able to get seats one row behind where we were in the morning session. The conference ending was epic has expected. We headed back to the hotel and rested for a minute while we figured out what was for dinner. We checked our options and decided to head over to Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. I downloaded Uber, created an account for Cynthia, and then applied an $18 ride credit thanks to RetailMeNot. We got ready and waited downstairs for about 8 minutes for the Uber driver. He was very friendly. The GPS did not take us to the exact location so, with the help of Google on my phone we arrived. The place was packed and it was an hour wait for a table. We asked questions about the food that Cynthia wanted to order and then placed our order. Our soup and salad came out and I had no spoon for my soup. Our waiter came back to inform me that they were all out of spoons that some were being washed. He came back a minute later with a spoon that was larger than a soup spoon, maybe one you twirl pasta on. That worked for me and we started eating. Our food arrived and Cynthia’s dish was prepared incorrectly with vegetables that she was allergic. She did not touch it and we quickly sent it back to be prepared correctly. I tried to wait, but it was talking a bit so Cynthia told me to go ahead and eat. I had eaten all my food before her food came back out. It was prepared incorrectly again with vegetables that she did not like and the vegetables were not cooked well. She picked out what she did not want to eat and then ate her meal. As she was finishing her meal, I noticed that her neck and chest was getting red whelps. She took her medication immediately and I asked for the manager. It took forever for the manger to come over. I explained the situation with the food coming out incorrectly and directly showed the manager how the some of the vegetables were so hard that I could not stick my fork through them and he apologized but did not seem overly concerned. I expressed very nicely that the food Cynthia was served made her sick and breaking out and he informed us that all the vegetables were pre-mixed so all they did was remove them. We made sure that we had told them the vegetable that she was allergic. The manager apologized again and this time told us that our meal was on him. I’m still floored at the action of the kitchen. We left and I had already started working on our Uber ride. We waited a view minutes and a very nice gentleman came to take us back to the hotel. This ended the night for us as the medication makes Cynthia sleep.

 

105 Days until Sailing

Cynthia slept her medication off and was feeling much better this morning. We packed our things together and checked out of the hotel. Since we don’t have the awesomeness of Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market, and Whole Foods in our area we try to make a stop when we are around them. We were on the way to Trader Joe’s and decided that we wanted breakfast. We accidentally turned one road short and when the GPS corrected us, we pulled up next to an IHOP. The place was packed, but we were seated in a short time and the service was quick. An excellent IHOP experience. Cynthia was looking at her gluten free app and found that there was donuts shop down the road and wanted to try one. We found the place and it was packed. The line moved quickly and before we knew it we had our gluten free donuts. It was tasty we liked them, but something did not settle right with Cynthia. I think her system was a little off from last night still. We headed down to Trader Joe’s and let me tell you I fall in love with that place more and more each time we shop at one. We picked up our items and off we went over to Fresh Market. Score! Our favorite brand of pasta is on sale and they have the lasagna. We checked out and our time was up. We needed to start heading back home. We stopped once for gas and once for lunch. We love eating at McAllister’s Deli as we don’t have one at home. We made it home in enough time to unload the car and get ready for the Super Bowl.

 

If you know anything about my screen name then you must already know that I am a huge Peyton Manning fan. It was the icing on the cake when he came to Denver. I’ve been a Broncos fan since I was a kid. I wanted to be John Elway and I spent many of days in my backyard playing imagery football games. I was very excited to see them win!

 

104 Days until Sailing

It was nice not having to get up this morning and go to work. We slept in for a bit and then we went and ran some errands before Cynthia had to go to work. I worked on some things around the house and relaxed some.

One month until final payment is due. I’m not sweating it as the money has been saved for months. I will call and have a chat with my PVP in a week or two and get it all settled. It will go on the Carnival Card for the double points and then I will pay it off when the bill comes in the next month.

 

Cynthia and I went to Home Depot tonight as we are thinking about a DIY paint project in the living room. We had some professionals come in, but the labor is crazy high. We paid a fraction of the cost of the supplies and paint. We will see how this turns out. It can’t be any worse than the last person that painted it.

 

103 Days until Sailing

I got up early this morning and started working. After a few hours of work, I drove up to the hospital to meet Mom and Dad as Dad is having what we hope will be his last procedure for a while. The procedure was supposed to last only 30 minutes, it took about 2 hours. Everything went well and everything looks as good as it can for someone with his conditions. The doctor said that we can wait 6 months and then start evaluating when he will have the next procedure.

 

The weather is cold here and near Atlanta it’s snowing. I’m supposed to travel to Atlanta tomorrow for business, but luckily we moved the meeting to a web meeting.

 

99 Days until Sailing

Wooo Hooo! We are doing the double digit dance today. Also, we managed to paint our living room. It took us all day, but we completed it and it looks nice. We are very tired and sore, but we need to run some errands so, we cleaned up and off we went to the furniture store. We paid off our sofa couch and set a delivery date and time. Next, we went to pick up one of Cynthia Valentine’s Day gifts. I know the way to her heart is through good gluten free food so, I pre-ordered some red velvet gluten free cupcakes from SmallCakes. She was super excited! We were hungry so, we decided to eat dinner at our favorite local Mexican restaurant. We were supposed to go to the store, but we were just too tired. It did not take long and I was sound asleep.

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98 Days until Sailing

My Valentine’s Day started early at about 1:30 AM when I woke up and for some reason could not go back to sleep well enough. I tossed and turned until about 4 AM. I was sore and my allergies were really bothering me so, I decided to take my first soak in our garden tub. A little bubble bath and the hottest water that I could stand for about 30 minutes. My body relaxed some and my allergies drained so, finally I was able to get back to sleep. When I woke up, Cynthia was awake, but still just chilling in the bed so, I quickly went to the kitchen and made some cheese eggs and cheese grits and put them in the shape of a heart. She had breakfast in bed and then I gave her the last of her Valentine’s which was a stuffed animal. We got ready and headed to get groceries, got back home, put them up and now we were ready to tackle our next weekend project. The new TV Stand for the living room needs to be put together. We got about halfway done and we decided that Cynthia should fix some luper, you know lunch + supper) while I continued to work on the TV stand. The food was done right at 4 PM for sail away so, I grabbed my iPad Mini and we ate our food and watched sail away. Just 14 more weeks and we will be sailing away.

 

After we finished our luper, we finished the TV Stand and then went to pick Julie up to spend the night and for her and Cynthia to have some girl time tomorrow. She is out of school for a few days for holiday.

I did not think about it at the time I was watching the Conquest sail away today, but when I looked back on the pictures I found that the decks were almost empty. Where was everyone? I picked up on this CC forum thread:

 

Conquest Sailaway

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2315574

 

It seems that this might be coming a trend where either customs or the scanning system that lets you on the ship was messing up and needed to be reset. This is causing delays getting everyone on the ship and therefore pushing back the start of Muster Drill. I surely hope that they get this issue fixed soon and before we sail. I’ve never sailed out of Port Everglades and I want to be able to experience the sail away and take lots of pictures. If I could not, it would not ruin the cruise, but it would be a disappointment. I want Julie to have the best cruise experience and for me it all started with the sail away party.

 

It’s starting to get late and combined with the lack of sleep the previous night, it’s time for bed.

 

97 Days until Sailing

I woke up this morning still sore and just not feeling good, but I have a big meeting to present at work today so, I got to put my big boy pants on and start my day. The ladies are off to have some shopping time before work. After work was completed they came home and was excited as they found Julie two dresses for the cruise at a great deal. Score! We headed over to Wendy’s where Julie’s spicy chicken sandwich was really rubbery and not good. She and I started feeling sick. We dropped her off back with my MIL and we came home as quickly as possible. The wind was picking up and a huge storm was predicted to come though tonight.

 

95 Days until Sailing

It was an exciting night! My SIL and BIL are in town so, we get to meet baby Kyle for the first time. It’s hard to believe that he is almost a month old. We had a good dinner at Mellow Mushroom and an even better time with the whole family. Kyle was so good, he just slept and watched. I loved getting to hold him! Cynthia and I now have a touch of baby fever.

 

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90 Days until Sailing

It’s just three little months until we are sailing on the Conquest! Cruise Fish shows that our sailing is 27% booked. It looks like the suites and the interiors are going the quickest. The prices have come down quite a bit and some people that have booked later have gotten a bit a price break, but we are still a couple hundred dollars higher then when we purchased.

 

80 Days until Sailing

Work has been super busy with big projects underway so, I’ve been making sure that I remind myself that final payment is due in less than a week. I need to find the time to call my PVP and get our account settled. As I was relaxing tonight and watching American Idol, my phone rang and a 305 area code displayed on the screen. It was my PVP, Cassie! As always, a great experience, we quickly took care of everything and she sent me the information that I needed to make sure we have all the documentation for my SIL to board. I’m really impressed and glad that I started using a dedicated PVP.

 

69 Days until Sailing

We continue to be super busy and I cannot believe how fast the time is starting to pass. While I was on lunch today, a thought came into my head that I should check on our rate at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. I checked their website and BAM! There was a Hilton Honors special that brought the room from $189 to $152.10 for the night. I called the hotel up and the rate was changed for me. It was very quick and easy.

 

65 Days until Sailing

Happy Birthday to me! I’m another year older. :eek: It was a busy day at work, but I enjoyed a great dinner with family.

 

63 Days until Sailing

I’m standing in the checkout line at Publix and my phone rings. Mom is on the phone panicking that she cannot find our baby. Dixie is my 9 year old spoiled rotten Chihuahua. She loves my parents and is really good at letting us know at night when something is not right with Dad so, when they moved I felt it was best for her to move with them. I quickly purchased my items and off to their house I went. I looked under the beds and in all the places that Mom and Dad could not see and sure enough there was no sign of Dixie. Earlier in the afternoon, Mom had opened the back door to look at the door frame as she thought it might be rotting and our guess is that she slipped past Mom without her realizing that she had gotten out. By the time I arrived, it was starting to get dark so, I rode and walked around as much of the apartment complex as I could before I could not see any longer. The complex is gated, however they are doing a lot of fence repairs so there are places that she could slip out of the complex. We called off the search and my Mom was devastated and blaming herself for everything. As sad as I was for my baby, I really felt bad for my parents. I came home and started posting on all the social media pages and groups that I could think of and was just hopeful that someone in the complex found her and was waiting for the office to open in the morning. It was hard to fall asleep, I tried and tried and tried. Finally, around midnight I was just too tired.

 

62 Days until Sailing

Mom called me just a few minutes after 6 AM. She heard a bark at the back door and who was standing there…Dixie. She was fine and ran into the house and got in her bed. Even though we have been having spring temps as of late it was a cold night for Southwest GA, but she felt warm. I could not be more relieved.

 

61 Days until Sailing

Cynthia received a call tonight that her Grandma was being taken by EMS to the hospital and is not doing well. She has been telling me of late that she really wanted to go and visit with her, but our schedule has been too crazy. She lives about 2 ½ hours’ drive from our house. We decided to put all our weekend plans on hold to go up and make the visit.

 

60 Days until Sailing

Cynthia’s Grandma is still in ICU, but she is doing better. There is still an infection that the doctor cannot seem to track down.

 

57 Days until Sailing

We picked Julie up last night and we are off this morning to visit Grandma. She is doing much better and now in a regular room. When we were about halfway to the hospital we got a call saying to call when we got in the area as the doctor might let her go home today. We made it to the hospital and visited for about an hour when they released her to go home. We stopped for lunch and ran to a local grocery store that we don’t have at home to pick up a few items and then we headed over to Grandma’s house to visit further. We hated to leave, but we had to get back home as tomorrow is Easter and we had a big day planned. Grandma has to get better soon, she has a cruise planned shortly after our cruise returns.

 

56 Days until Sailing

Happy Easter!!! We headed out to early service and then came home to get the food going for our Easter feast. A good time was had by all.

 

54 Days until Sailing

I’m off from work a half day and then when Cynthia gets off work we are heading down to Port St. Joe, FL. We need a little break to get us by until the cruise arrives. We are driving down and our fishing boat captain e-mail me to say that he cannot fish in the morning as he has to go to the doctor expectantly. It’s a bummer, and it’s going to change our whole trip, but we are going to roll with the punches. We rescheduled for Thursday afternoon. We were super late arriving at the hotel so it was actually, 53 days until sailing when we headed to bed.

 

53 Days until Sailing

The original plan was to do some fishing this morning and then head over to Panama City Beach, FL (PCB) for the rest of our time. Since we cannot fish until Thursday and we cannot check in until 3 PM, I decided that after breakfast we would head over to Cape San Blas, FL. We had a beautiful morning on the beach and it was not crowded at all. We loaded up and headed over to PCB, just in time for lunch. We had to stop at one of our local favorites, Pineapple Willy’s. The weather was awesome, just a little windy. We really enjoyed sitting out on the deck and watching a packed beachfront. We made a Walmart and Pubilx run and then off to the hotel to check in. The hotel that we are staying at is very special to us as it’s where we had our wedding reception and where we stayed for our honeymoon. It’s the first time we have stayed there since the wedding. We were tired so we relaxed at the hotel. The hot tub was nice and we met a nice couple from Tennessee to chat with while we relaxed.

 

52 Days until Sailing

I made an early run to get some famous Thomas Donuts and to watch the sunrise. Cynthia decided that she wanted some hash browns so, I stopped at a Waffle House. After breakfast, we headed down to the beach for a little while before we had to leave for our fishing trip. The weather felt great, but it was so windy that laying in the sand was a challenge. We need to cover our faces so that sand would stay out of our eyes. We made it back to the hotel in time for a quick lunch and then off we went to Port St. Joe for the fishing trip. Mileage wise it’s about 45 miles, but it takes about 1 ½ hours in good traffic. We made good time and we headed out to the flats. The wind was up so, it was a bumpy ride getting to our first fishing spot. Mrs. I’m not going to fish ended up fishing and out fished me by a landslide. We were catching a lot of stuff some keeper and some not, but we came away with some beautiful trout and a blue fish. We made it back to PCB with the traffic not as bad as we had thought it would be. We were tired so, we ordered dinner to the room and called it a night.

 

51 Days until Sailing

I woke up feeling a little hot on my face. Yep, I forgot the suntan lotion and my face is well…baked. We got moving a little slowly, but we wanted to get some shopping at Pier Park done before the rain came in later in the day. Mission accomplished and just in time for lunch. While shopping we stopped at the Tervis store. Now, we all officially have our cruise cups. We ate at one of our local favorites, Captain Jack’s. The food and service was great as it always has been for each of our visits. We made it back to the hotel in time for the down pour to begin. We waited it out and then decided that we would not let it ruin our fun. We headed back to Pier Park and stopped by Dave and Busters. The place was packed, but we had a great time. We headed back to the hotel and since we were still full from lunch we just snacked and relaxed. Too bad tomorrow we have to go home.

 

50 Days until Sailing

We were in no rush to get home so, we checked out and headed out over to Pier Park. There was one more store that Cynthia wanted to hit while we were in the area. As I waited, I was checking facebook and saw a post from a friend of ours who lives in PCB, but is originally from our area. She posted a video show some of the roads on the route that we were taking were washed out and to use extreme caution. She mentioned that in another area a detour was already setup and to take the detour. This made me a little nervous. I was walking around the Pier Park and was approached by a young lady who wanted to give me a free 7 night vacation for $25, we just had to go listen to a spill that afternoon. That sounds like a deal to me. We went over to Margaritaville for lunch. We needed to get to the presentation but, we had a little bit of time. We as quickly as possible placed our order. It was a simple order that should not have taken long to prepare. We waited and waited and waited. While waiting we were disappointed to find out that the show was broken and would not be playing. We still waited and I started really paying attention to the clock. We had been there an hour and no food. I was started to get worried, then the food finally came. Of course, my order was wrong. I asked for sweet potato fries, but I received regular fries. The Manager came over and was so apologetic and let us know that the reason that it took so long was because the kitchen had cooked Cynthia’s food incorrectly. It was not gluten free and they had to recook our order. She was going to take it off our bill. I let her know about the fries issue and she took care of that with no issues. We ate rather quickly and we headed off to the presentation. We arrived to the free valet parking as we had little time to spare and no one was outside waiting an there was a line. After a few minutes, I went inside to track someone down and we were on our way. We made it! The presentation took way longer than we expected, but hey, we got a free vacation and a $50 gift card. We headed towards home and I set the GPS even though I knew the way home. I was not looking forward to the drive. The GPS wanted to send me a different route from the one that I normally take and since I saw the information on facebook, I decided to let’s take it. The road was dry, there were lots of deer, but none of the darted out for us. We made it home and into bed with 49 days until sailing.

 

49 Days until Sailing

I woke up this morning and after reading the news, I’m feeling so lucky to be alive. A mother and her 1 year old child died going through one of the flooded areas on the same route that we would have normally taken. It was dark and they never saw it coming. The car hydroplaned and flipped over into the flood. We rested most of the day and prepped for the next week. Tomorrow, the work grind starts again.

 

43 Days until Sailing

I just realized that it’s 6 weeks from today that we will board the Conquest.

 

29 Days until Sailing

Cynthia decided that she wanted a new hairstyle for the cruise. A Great Clips opened in our town so we decided to take advantage of their soft opening discount of $4.99 per haircut. Cynthia loves her new style. I went ahead and got my hair buzzed down. Hopefully, it will be the correct length for the cruise.

 

23 Days until Sailing

We picked Julie up for the weekend. Tomorrow, we are going to have a low key birthday celebration since the real celebration will be on the cruise.

 

22 Days until Sailing

Finally, a morning that I could sleep in. Did my body let me sleep? No, of course not. I let the ladies sleep in while I got some things done around the house and had breakfast. When they woke up we hung out for a bit and then made lunch. The ladies had pizza and I had salmon with broccoli. We hung out for a bit more and played some bowling on the Xbox 360. Julie decided that she wanted to do something different with her hair. Cynthia advised her that she wanted to have an easy to maintain style for the cruise. She did not want to have to waste a bunch of time getting ready. Back to Great Clips for us and she got about 3 inches cut off and some layers. She was going to take more inches off, but then decided against it once she got to Great Clips. Later that afternoon went to the movies and then came home for dinner.

 

21 Days until Sailing

We met up with my MIL so that Julie could get back home. She has a big week at school next week as they are starting to close out the school year.

 

20 Days until Sailing

Wow, where did all the time go? It seems like yesterday that we were coming getting back from our Spring Break Beach Trip. It just occurred to me this morning that we leave for Fort Lauderdale in 18 days. Our work and personal lives have been so busy that we have not done much of anything for the cruise. I feel very weird as the planner to not be planning our days in port. I’ve decided that the plan is that there is no plan. We are going to take things slow and relax.

 

We have not done too much for the cruise at this point. Currently, our main focus is making sure that Julie has all the required documentation. Hopefully, that will all be taken care of this week and it will be in my hand. Normally, Cynthia would start “packing” about a month out, but she has not started and we have to pack for an extra person. We have some catching up to do this weekend.

 

19 Days until Sailing

I logged into Carnival’s website this morning and received quite a scare. My booking was not showing up in my profile. I went to my e-mail and found my booking number and added it back and all was good. The reason that I was looking for my booking number is that I was attempting to redeem some of my Carnival FunPoints. When you redeem them for on-board items it has to be completed 15 days before sailing. Since I was already on their site paying my bill. I took the opportunity to go ahead and redeem the points. I thought about coming back later, but I know how things are right now and I did not want to forget. We scored a $100 On-Board Credit and $10 Photo Gift Card.

 

18 Days until Sailing

Today, is May the Force be with you, but it’s also Julie’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Julie!!! Cynthia texted me this late this afternoon that everyone was meeting at Zaxby’s for dinner to celebrate Julie’s birthday. Also, my BIL, decided to open up his pool to family a few of Julie’s friends to have a party on Saturday afternoon. It’s going to be a busy weekend!

 

17 Days until Sailing

We are trying to get our Meet & Greets in order. We are at a disadvantage on this cruise as the first sea day is not until the second full day. Therefore, we are having an informal meet & greet the first night and then a regular meet & greet on the first sea day over some mini golf. I’ve not had the chance to play mini golf on a ship as of yet so, I can check it off the list.

 

16 Days until Sailing

I’m getting a bit frustrated. We have been hounding my MIL for weeks to get the paperwork together and to take Julie and let her either get her learner’s permit or a state id as it’s required for the cruise. Finally, she got all the paperwork together and she asked us to meet her at the DMV. As we are on the way she calls and is sick and cannot make it today. I needed to get a new driver’s license so, we went on to the DVM and got mine replaced. One slight potential issue, they now give you an identical paper copy while your hard copy has to be mailed in 10-30 days. The lady at the DMV thinks that it will come before the cruise, if not she said that it’s a legal copy and should be honored. I don’t want to take the chance. We know Julie has to get her’s completed tomorrow to even have a chance of getting to her before the cruise. My MIL says that she is going to try to be at the DVM at 10 AM in the morning.

 

15 Days until Sailing

I spoke with my MIL at 9:00 AM and she says that they will be leaving in 20 minutes. She is to call us when she gets closer to town so, we will know what time to meet at the DMV. It’s after 10 AM and we have not heard from her. I called her at 10:18 AM and she did not answer. I called her again at 10:28 AM and they are finally leaving. She wants to meet somewhere since she does not remember exactly where the DMV is located. We go to a meeting place and she calls at 10:46 AM to say that she has stopped to use the restroom and she does not know how to get to the meeting location. She was close enough that I told her just to say there and we would meet them. We have just under 45 minutes to get Julie there before testing stops for the day. It takes us about 5 minutes to arrive and after a minute or two more they came to the car. They got in the car and off we went to the DMV. I was fairly confident that I could get us there in time, but of course just about every stop light stopped us. We made it with a little time to spare. The wait at the DMV was not that bad and quicker than what I expected. My MIL decided that Julie could try for her Learner’s License. Julie passed both tests so, not we need to look out as she can drive. :eek: We had a great time that afternoon and evening with family having a pool party for Julie.

 

14 Days until Sailing

I’m on the hunt for the final paperwork that we need to take Julie on the cruise. Since nether of her parents are going on the cruise we need to have a Consent to Travel and Consent to Treat forms filled out and notarized. Thanks to Cruise Critic, I found a form that does both in one form.

 

Here is the link:

http://www.freewebs.com/docdiva/Minor%20Travel%20Consent.pdf

 

We opened up mine and Julie’s new suitcase set to check it out and we started to make a list of a few things that we will need. We had to make a Walmart run for some other stuff so, while Julie was with us we went ahead and got her a watch and some polarized sunglasses. We got home just in time to see the Conquest leave on the Port Everglades Webcam.

 

http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com/

 

The Conquest sailing was delayed for an “issue” according to the Captain. Around 8:30 PM ET, the Conquest finally left port. We missed the sail away. According to Cruise Critic and fb, there are a number of theories for why the ship left late, but nothing concrete. I hope everything is good with the ship.

 

13 Days before Sailing

I started the very busy week with a busy Monday. I have a bunch of deadlines before the cruise. I had to work a bit late and when I was done, all I wanted to do was rest. I managed to get a few small projects done around the house after dinner, but I mostly rested. The rest of the week is going to be crazy.

 

I checked Cruise_Fishdotnet and it reports that our sailing is at 98% full. I could not find it on Carnival’s website or FareViewer. I believe we are sold out.

 

I been thinking long and hard about a decision that I have been trying to make. I wanted to ask on CC, but I never took the time to post. We are leaving our home around 4 PM on the Friday before the cruise on Sunday. We want to have a full day in Ft. Lauderdale. Google says that it’s about a 7 ½ hours drive from our home. With no stops (that will never happen), we would arrive around 11:30 PM. With stops, I could easily see us arriving after midnight or closer to 1 or 2 AM. Since we would only be at the hotel for a quick sleep, I did not want to pay a lot of money for a few hours. I know some hotels used to discount all their rates if you checked in after a certain time and did not have a reservation. Do I chance it or make a reservation somewhere? What if I get tired before we arrive and want to stop sooner? Well, we have a nice discount through Wyndham so, I decided to use it and book the Days Inn Fort Lauderdale-Oakland Airport North. It was under $70 with taxes for the night. The trip advisor ratings are not that great and I am not sure about the area, but I will report back on what I think.

 

12 Days before Sailing

It’s another busy day at work. This afternoon, I have a doctor’s appointment and then I will be on the road to Atlanta, GA. I was trying to hold any work travel until after the cruise, but this visit just could not wait. At least it’s only an overnight in Atlanta. I made it to Atlanta a little before 10 PM so, a facetime with my DW and then it was off to bed.

 

11 Days before Sailing

I did not sleep too well and then at 5:15 AM I could not sleep any longer. I got up and checked on something for work and then tried to lay back down for a little longer, but just could not rest. I was in the office by 8 AM for a full day of training sessions and meetings. I was lucky to leave around 3:45 PM and avoided some of the traffic. I made it home around 7:15 – 7:30 PM. A quick dinner and some relaxation was well deserved before I headed off to bed.

 

10 Days before Sailing

A few days ago, I had posted on the Need Carnival’s Assistance forum in Funville, asking about the temp id situation. I realized today that I had not seen an e-mail with a reply, so I checked the post and there was a reply. I sent in the additional information via e-mail and now I wait for a response. After work today, we headed to Julie’s school for her Spring Band Concert. She and the band did a great job!

 

When we got home, I had an e-mail response back from Carnival that the id that she has will be accepted. I’d rather have the hard copy one, but at least this will work and I can stop stressing. I’ve always had great response from the two ladies that run that forum. Too bad Carnival is closing down the forums.

 

9 Days before Sailing

A very productive Friday to end the work week. After work, we headed to Julie’s Band Banquet. We had a nice night celebrating all of the band’s activities and awards for the year. We arrived home about 9:30 PM. I wanted to start working on my cruise list, but I was just too tired.

 

8 Days before Sailing

I woke up at 2:45 AM and I just could not go back to sleep. I tried to look at fb for a bit and then roll back over, but no sleep for me. I realized that tomorrow is the day that I start posting this blog/review so, I needed to get a few things together. I tried to hit Carnival’s website and it was down. Cynthia has been asking me if our hotel will have a free breakfast on Saturday morning and I was not sure so, I checked and it looks like no free breakfast. They have an on-site restaurant. When we visited Margaritaville last, I mentioned to the gift shop cashier that we would be in Grand Turk on this cruise. She suggested that I sign up for the Fins Up Club. I would receive a coupon for a free appetizer. Back in early April, I signed up but I never saw the e-mail. I signed up again, but then I checked my Inbox and found the coupon. It has to be used within 60 days, excludes Volcano Nachos (boo) and says valid only at participating Margaritaville and LandShark Bar & Grill restaurants. I’ll report back on if it worked for that location or not.

Around 6:30 AM, I started going through our cruise bags to see what all needed to be replaced and made a list so that I could pick them up later. Cynthia woke up and we made a grocery list and then off I went to Sam’s Club. I needed to pick up a memory card for my Go Pro. I received an instant savings of $10. Now, to the dreaded place, Walmart. As a pulled up, I saw my parents walking into the store so, I caught their attention and then met them inside the store. We talked for a few minutes and then went our separate ways. I picked up just about everything on the list and the checkout lines were horrible so, I decided to hit the self-checkout. Now, back to the house, unpack the car, get Cynthia, and we were off to Kmart. I was looking for a certain kind of shirt for the cruise. Now, we headed over to Mom and Dad’s place as we need to use Mom’s truck to bring home a dining room table and chair set that we purchased earlier in the week. Of course, our luck, one of the legs falls off as we are moving the table to the truck. It’s easily fixable thank goodness. We headed back to our house to unload everything, then back to return the truck. I wanted some shoes that I could wear in the water, but not the cheap water shoes that tear up after one use or one trip. We headed to Shoe Station where I found a pair that looks like it will do the job. It’s after 1:00 PM and we are both famished. We have only eaten a half of banana all day. It’s time for breakfast at Waffle House. The food was served quickly and it was good. A quick stop to get the stuff to fix the table and we were back at the house. I fixed to table and to be certain, I used some glue. While it was drying, it was time to rest. I was exhausted! We watch some shows from our DVR and I tried to sleep, but I just could not rest. Suddenly, I realize that it’s 4:30 PM and I need to check on the Conquest sail away. I was happy to see that Oasis of the Seas was just starting to pull out. The Conquest was shortly after and the decks were full of people. After sail away, I got my second wind. I started getting our cruise stuff together. I like using gallon sized Ziploc bags to keep like items in the same bag. It’s real easy then to put them in the suitcase and then into a drawer on the ship. An example would be first aid/medication. The table was dry so, we put it into place. It’s our first table!

 

13245503_10209324878702045_4842879827135597788_n_zpsbstf16a7.jpg

 

I finished up the cruise project and started relaxing again. I really needed to get up and try on all the clothes that I bought for the cruise, but I was just did not want to get out of the recliner. It was around 9:30 PM when we headed to bed.

 

7 Days until Cruising

Guess What? Of course, I woke up at 4:00 AM and could not go back to sleep. I tossed for about 30 minutes and then I decided to get up and going. I’ve just about got everything ready to launch this review. Also, I worked on my travel project a little bit. After breakfast, I decided to go clean the car out before it got too hot outside. After arriving back home and working on a few other items it was lunch time. After lunch, we headed to Publix. We are on the hunt for some Powerade Zero Drops. Just our luck that when we need them they are out. We tried another local store and struck out so, we decided to come home. After a bit a research, some of the local Walmarts in the Ft. Lauderdale area has some in stock. We will check that out and if not then we will get another brand. After some time on fb and a nap, I decided to start getting clothes up to pack. Cynthia decided to start trying to decide what she will wear on formal nights so, that meant that I had to stop every few minutes to check out a new dress she was trying on. We finally finished up and I was able to finish getting my clothes together. I started my meal prep for next week and then cooked dinner. After cleaning up, I came to the computer and started this thread. It's close to 11 PM so, it's time for bed.

 

I'll be back each day in the evening time to catch you up on all the days activities.

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UTVolsFan4Life

UTVolsFan4Life

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Looking forward to reading your review! We are going on the Conquest July 2nd!

Thanks! If you have any questions or have anything that you would like for me to try and find out then please let me know.

 

Great start, following!

Thanks for following!

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Jehaams

Jehaams

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I'll be on this sailing for an annual girls trip. We are also staying at the hilton marina the night prior to the cruise. Here's hoping for an awesome trip! I'll look forward to reading your comments on the trip when we return.

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UTVolsFan4Life

UTVolsFan4Life

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I'll be on this sailing for an annual girls trip. We are also staying at the hilton marina the night prior to the cruise. Here's hoping for an awesome trip! I'll look forward to reading your comments on the trip when we return.

Thanks and nice to meet you. We have a roll call going if you have not joined yet. :)

Enjoying your posts and look forward to following your actual cruise.

 

Keith

Thanks for following along!

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UTVolsFan4Life

UTVolsFan4Life

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Thanks for doing this, I am enjoying it!

I am on this itinerary in August. I've been on the Conquest before.. As well as HMC and GT with HAL. It's always nice to see it through another's eyes.

You're welcome, I'm glad that you are enjoying it so far. Everyone's experience is different. I think it's one of the things that is so unique about cruising.

Enjoying your review. Looking forward to the rest!!

Thanks for following!

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kgb46

kgb46

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Love it! My family thinks I am a nut for all of the time I spend on cruise sites and all of the planning I put into it, but you might have me beat by a smidgen. I cruise with my best friend and her daughter who is disabled. We are just under a year out and already excited!

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UTVolsFan4Life

UTVolsFan4Life

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Love it! My family thinks I am a nut for all of the time I spend on cruise sites and all of the planning I put into it, but you might have me beat by a smidgen. I cruise with my best friend and her daughter who is disabled. We are just under a year out and already excited!

Yes! I love to plan cruises. The planning for this cruise was nothing compared to my other cruises. My wife likes to complain that I spend too much time on the computer and cruise sites, but she does not complain when we get on the ship and know all the tips and tricks that saves us either time or money. :D

 

Looking forward to your review, we'll be on the Conquest June 25th. Different ports, but I love to read about the ship.

Thanks for following along with me. I'm sure that I will have lots of pictures of the ship and I will tell you as much information as I can find out.

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UTVolsFan4Life

UTVolsFan4Life

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Looking forward to your review.

Thanks for following!

 

Hey Kenyon! Love the pre-review! I feel like I know you and your family already:D. I have been wanting to get a Go Pro so I will want to check it out, maybe our M&G or putt-putt?

Looking forward to embarkation:cool:!

Thanks! It's a fun way to keep up with things and what's happened since you booked the cruise. I love looking back at them when I remember the cruise. I'm excited about the GoPro! I have no clue how to work it so, that should be interesting. I've got some research on my to do list for this week. I'd be happy to let you check it out. Also, I bought a selfie stick with it. Not the GoPro branded one as it was $60. I found a knock off brand one for $20. :eek: We are so ready to get to Ft. Lauderdale that we could scream.

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Buckeyes22

Buckeyes22

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I am so excited for you three AND to read your review! You are so detailed and organized - it's super impressive. Also eager to see your GoPro pics; I opted for a $40 knock off camera that I found on Amazon. While it's definitely fun to take it under water, the quality is definitely a "get what you pay for" situation haha

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UTVolsFan4Life

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I am so excited for you three AND to read your review! You are so detailed and organized - it's super impressive. Also eager to see your GoPro pics; I opted for a $40 knock off camera that I found on Amazon. While it's definitely fun to take it under water, the quality is definitely a "get what you pay for" situation haha

Thank you so much! I hope I don't disappoint with the GoPro pics and videos. I've got to get some practice in this week.

 

HI all!

 

Kenyon ~ am enjoying your pre cruise & looking forward to hearing about your Conquest cruise as I am doing the same itinerary in Oct. 2017.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

Thanks for following. I think this is a great itinerary. I love Half Moon Cay!

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UTVolsFan4Life

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I’m so thankful that I slept until 7:00 AM this morning. I went into my workday routine with drinking a glass of water, treadmill time, and then breakfast. I spent some time on CC and fb and now it’s time to get to work. Here’s to being hopeful that these 4 workdays will go by quickly without being rushed to get work finished.

 

I have been very busy and this morning flew away. I was surprised when I looked down at the clock and it was 12:30 PM. I talked with Cynthia and she told me that she had spoken to Julie and that she was leaving school as she was sick. Julie had a medical issue shortly after our beach trip and it looks like it might not have completely cleared or might be coming back. My MIL was on the way to the school to pick her up and they are heading to the doctor. This is serious as it could keep her from going on the cruise. My attempt to have a drama free week has failed. I worked for a few more hours and took a late lunch after my meetings so, that I could go run some clothes I need for the cruise to the dry cleaners. It looks like my dry cleaners has changed hands. The service was friendly and I can still get a 20% discount when paying cash in advance. I can pick the clothes up tomorrow after 2:30 PM. On the way home I called Cynthia to see if she had an update on Julie. She had talked to Julie and the doctor did not think this was related to the other issue and everything will be fine. Then Julie tells Cynthia that she was told that the band was playing Graduation on Saturday and it was required if you wanted to be in Marching Band next year. Julie is going to talk with the teacher tomorrow to see if she can be excused as we will be in Ft. Lauderdale. Push comes to shove we will have to change our plans and leave as soon as Graduation is over Saturday morning.

 

Earlier this year, I stopped and purchased a SunPass for all the tolls on the Florida Turnpike. I tried to setup my account and activate it online, but I kept getting an error. I called the number on the back on the package and a gentlemen quickly answered the phone and was extremely helpful. He did an outstanding job! We got everything setup and it was painless. All I have to do now is apply the SunPass to my window. I quickly went and threw some clothes in the washer as there were a few in the pile that I needed for the cruise then it was back to work. The rest of the afternoon was busy and before I knew it Cynthia was home and I had worked 30 minutes over schedule. My boss needed something urgently.

 

I made us some eggplant for dinner and then did a little hanging out on CC and fb. I called Verizon to check on an international plan and to see if they could put a data block on our account. I spoke with a great customer service rep named Amber. She got our devices all setup just in case we need to make a call. She reports that Verizon does not do the data blocks any longer so, we will double and triple check all the settings to make sure it’s all off. Here is the e-mail that Verizon sent me. Check out these rates. :eek:

 

Verizon_zpsuqzp1yn4.png

 

I've got to go finish the clothes and work on posting this to my travel page so, I will call it a night. Tomorrow, I hope to actually get something in my suitcase. :D

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I woke up at 2:15 AM to use the bathroom and I was determined to go back to sleep. If I did not get more sleep then today would be miserable. Just about the time that I was about asleep again, my phone rings, it’s one of my employees and one of our tools is down. At 3:15 AM, I get up to see if I can fix the issue. Thankfully, I was able to resolve it very quickly and I headed back to bed. I tossed and turned for a few minutes and then back to sleep I went. The next thing I know my 6:30 AM alarm is going off so, I turned it off and slept another 30 minutes. It was now time to get up and into my workday routine. I grabbed some water, got my treadmill time in for the day, and then breakfast. I came into the office sat down at my desk and I had ants all over one portion of my desk. They are already bad this season. I got them all cleaned up and then I enjoyed a few minutes of CC and fb before it was time to start work for the day.

Work is extremely busy this week. My morning went by with what seemed like it was only an hour. I talked with Cynthia and she let me know that Julie could be excused from playing with the band at graduation if she had a note. After lunch, the time seemed to drag a bit even though I had a good bit of work to complete. It was harder to keep focused, but I got a good bit of work completed. A member on our roll call mentioned that Guy’s has a turkey burger so, I cannot wait to try that out as well as the hamburger. I finished up work just a few minutes after 5 PM. I type and printed a letter for the band director that all my MIL has to do is sign it. We will have to meet with Julie later this week so she can turn it in before Friday. Next, I went to the dry cleaners to pick up my items. I made sure that I paid close attention to everything. I’ll never forget our second cruise when I got on the ship and realized the dry cleaners gave me the wrong shirt. It was like fat guy in little shirt. It was our second anniversary and Cynthia had this nice dress that she was so excited to wear. It was a bummer. I wore my dress pants and polo shirt and she wore a sun dress. We got some looks in the main dining room, but I just did not care.

 

Our group started talking about an e-mail that Carnival had sent out about the cruise and a packing list. I don’t recall them sending a packing list before so, it’s kind of neat. I checked my phone and no e-mail. I was feeling a little left out, but when I check my e-mail online it was in my promotions folder. I made sure that did not happen again.

 

Carnival%205%20day%20email_zpscghxv6qa.png

 

Cynthia arrived home shortly after I did and we needed to relax for a bit so we watched one show on our DVR. It was time for dinner and then some household chores. It was about 8 PM and I was exhausted, but I was really determined to get something in the suit case tonight. I’m happy to report that I am about 90% packed now. I’ll have to add some last minute items and do a double check but I think it’s all there. Cynthia is still working to get her packing completed, but she is almost got it knocked out. It’s time to go to bed and be ready for another day of work tomorrow. Just 2 more business days left in my week!

Carnival Packing List.pdf

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UTVolsFan4Life

UTVolsFan4Life

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I went to bed later than I expected last night as Cynthia still had the light on while she packed a little longer. Just about the time I got to sleeping well, I get a call from work on a customer escalation. It was handled quickly and I drifted off to sleep.

 

I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning to use the bathroom and I could not go back to sleep. I tossed and turned until about 6:30 AM then got up and started my regular workday routine. I grabbed some water, got my treadmill time in for the day, and then breakfast. I went to the computer to check on and pay some bills that were due while we are on the cruise. The bills don’t wait while you’re in paradise. I like to save the stress and knock them out ahead of time. While I was reviewing our bills, a member of our group reported seeing a Faster to the Fun as being available. By the time she posted and I checked about 30 minutes later it was gone. This is the latest that I have ever seen one pop up. So, those of you that won’t for your cruise, don’t give up hope. Well, it’s that time again when I have to start work for the day. It’s going to be another busy day today between meetings and two training sessions. I just hope it goes by quickly.

 

The trend continued today where the morning time went by very quickly. The afternoon slowed up for a little bit and then picked back up during my training sessions and at the end of the work day. I ended up working about 30 minutes late, but I thought it was going to be longer. One of my projects that was due tomorrow is now being pushed until June so, I no longer have to rush to get the final documents prepared.

 

We tried to call my MIL several times as we were to meet her and Julie to give her the band note that she needs. Finally, after we eat dinner, relax for about 45 minutes, and then drive to Walmart we call and she answers. She did not hear the phone, but they were at a park that’s like a 20-30 drive and we could come there and meet her. It’s almost 8 PM, but off we go to meet them. We get there and then we had to talk and talk and talk until it was close to 9 PM. We made it back to Walmart, Cynthia went to look for her items and I went looking for mine. Typical Walmart had more customers than cashiers open, so we used the self-checkout and headed home. We made it home just after 10 PM. We were both tired and just went to bed.

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gannk

gannk

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I'm looking forward to the rest of your review and your go pro photos. We are thinking about picking one up for our upcoming cruises!

 

 

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