pirate4me2

Its a sign from the universe....book another cruise!

That sounds amazing!

Right?! 7 hrs and 43 minutes until vaca starts. Then I shall do what I call "drinking chores"....for every chore I complete, I get a shot! Let's see, I have laundry to do, camper holding tanks to empty (altho I could leave those for DH....but hey, thats an easy shot of Fireball!), dishes, cat boxes to clean....yeah, this evening will be a fun pre-cruise party at the trailerhood!

Pre-Cruise Hotel: After debating if we wanted to drive down overnight Friday to save some PTO time, or start the shenanigans early and drive down a day before and book a hotel for the night, we all finally agreed to do the less-stress route and drive down and book a hotel. Whew, that is my preferred method….get up super early Friday morning (eeeek, B isn’t a morning person, and neither am I…poor mum!), make the trip to FL, stop at my favorite horse supply store in Jacksonville, and get to Cape Canaveral in time for a late lunch/early dinner at the port. Fishlips, here I come!! 🙂 I booked us at my new favorite Cape Canaveral pre-cruise hotel, Home2Suites. It is always super clean, has a nice pool, and is in a great location. The address is 9004 Astronaut Blvd, Cape Canaveral, and sometimes they have a Park & Cruise package available. Unfortunately for us, it was sold out by the time I made our booking. Oh well, that is what you get for procrastinating!

Meeeeee too! You know who isn’t ready tho? B….she ain’t even packed yet!! 😱 Same! I gotta get thru the workday tomorrow. 5:35 comes, I’ll be FREE!!!!!!

Bags are packed, let’s go!!!!

Welcome aboard!!

BAHAHAHAHAHA you'll know when I arrive in your town on Friday!! So jealous you live so close to my favorite cruise port!! Most of them are pretty darn good! Once in a while we gotta whip them back in shape. 😉

Yes! It really does help to have a good support system.

Thank you!

Please, please let your wishes for safe travels be heard by the big man upstairs! One thing is for certain: I am NOT driving this time! The purple are my favorites! LOL. I really like the tint they give in the sun too!!

If you followed my last review, you know that Mom and I had some, uh, hiccups, along the way. One of the big ones was getting news mid cruise that my Grandma had fallen and broken her hip and had to have hip replacement surgery. Luckily we had a really supportive family unit back home (my uncle, my husband, and my dad) who told us to continue on with our cruise (we had 2 days left) since there wasn’t really anything we could do. Grandma had her surgery while we were in Cozumel, and did really well, and has been doing phenomenal with her recovery. She’s stayed active into her older years (she’s 87) which has helped, watches her weight, and most importantly of all, is STUBBORN. That stubbornness has been a blessing and a curse with her recovery….she’s got the drive to do the physical therapy and get back home, but she also wants to do things HER way which puts her new hip in danger since she can’t bend/rotate like she wants to. Anyway, I say all this because her rehab facility informed us that because she is doing so well, her discharge date is the day we are heading down to FL….April 5. We had been banking on her being in the facility for a few more weeks than that. Obviously she cannot go back to her home alone, she will need someone there at least for a few weeks to make sure she is not doing things that could re-injure her hip, or fall. Mom had already agreed that she would be the Tuesday-Friday daytime caregiver as she works from home those days, and with this new discharge information, we have been left scrambling and wondering if Mom will even be able to go on this cruise. Danggit! After the last one, with all the sickness/worry/drama, she and I both need a re-do! GOOD NEWS Y’ALL….we had a family dinner with my 2 uncles, dad, mom, myself and Chris, and the boys stepped up yet again to save the day. Maybe it was the kick butt, delicious dinner we prepared (Philly cheesesteaks on the Blackstone & potato salad), maybe it was the free flowing beer (Shiner for Chris, Bud for Uncle #1, PBR for Uncle #2), or maybe it was the nice new bottle of Buffalo Trace I had been saving, hidden in the back corner of my cabinet (that stuff is hard to get here in NC) that is now ¾ empty, but they all agreed to take some days to watch over her while we are away. Hallelujah! The trip is saved!

Oh yeah….even mama and B are gonna be sporting these puppies next Saturday…at least for a photo. Amazon, baby!!

So, to give y’all an idea of what to expect, the last time we sailed with B (Aug 2019 I believe it was) we had some good shenanigans take place. It was B’s first (and so far only) cruise, so everything was fresh and new and exciting. She HAD to go to the towel animal folding demo. She loved the towel animals we got each day. We went, and she took her place to make the animals. She did ok with the “snake” (who can’t make a snake?) but when things got harder…well, she got frustrated. I didn’t know B doesn’t have much patience sometimes, I saw a new side of her at the demo. When it came time to make the “elephant” she was pretty, uhhh…peeved. Next thing I knew, she was POUNDING this poor towel into submission. She had gotten the bottom part folded with the legs and all like they’re supposed to be, and she “wanted to make sure it wouldn’t fall apart” so she was pounding on it with her fist to “make sure it was stable.” Kids were looking at her scared, wondering why she was abusing this poor innocent towel. Next up…our day in Nassau. After we went to Junkanoo beach and walked thru a few shops, we headed back onboard. We went and got some drinks from the Red Frog Pub, and sat on the balcony. When I say drinks, I probably should specify…we had pitchers of Rum Jumpers, Caribbean coladas, and I think B had some special fishbowl margarita poured into a to-go cup/pitcher. Anyway…we ended up on our aft balcony, drinking our drinks and chilling. Someone below us had some, um, how can I say this…aromatic herbal stuff. We drank our drinks, then it got close to sail away and mom began heckling pier runners. All of a sudden mom sat down, then face planted into a lounger. The people across from us on the Disney ship cheered “hey, she’s done for!” and B and I just shook our heads and hauled mom inside into a bed. I cannot believe we were THOSE PEOPLE that people on a neighboring ship shook their heads at.

Ol’ Stumpy is back!

Mom hates these so much. We were perusing the clearance sunglasses rack at a local store because she had a condition where she HAS to wear sunglasses in bright light, but she also misplaces them all the time. So, she buys the cheap 99 cent-$5 ones so she won’t cry when she looses them. Anyway, she saw these and goes “oh my gosh, who the heck would wear these HIDEOUS things? No wonder they’re 99 cents!” I snatched them and put them on, and she goes “seriously? They’re so ugly! They’ll blind people!” Well…as you can see, I not only bought them, but they’re now my go-to vacation sunglasses and this will be their 5th cruise, 3rd with her! Each cruise she’s like “please tell me you finally broke or scratched those awful glasses and have a new pair.” Hehe, no chance Mama!! Thank you!! They’re pretty fun haha. It’s an awesome one! I actually JUST booked it again for myself and DH next year. Thank you!! Welcome aboard!!

I will try to remember to ask! 🙂

I will try to remember to ask 🙂

@sunshower9 @JLewinFL @Cricket551 This is me! I think my crazy “vacation sunglasses” that embarrass my mom (B has yet to see them) so bad are pretty unique. 😂

Welcome aboard again! Any specific questions, just ask!!

Well heck!! I love St Kitts!! I would have loved a stop there. We did book a pretty good sounding catamaran tour in St Thomas (our only real shore excursion booked) but I think B may appreciate the St Thomas shopping, so I won’t complain. Welcome aboard!! Thank you!!

We started planning this adventure back in the summer 2023. Mom is spoiled and won’t sail any Carnival ships other than the Vista class now (WHY did I introduce her to the Havana area, and then MSC’s Yacht Club? Sheesh!) so that really limited our choices. No way were we flying to CA for the Panorama, and I despise Miami and won’t book out of there again, so that left us with the Vista from Port Canaveral. We looked at itineraries, and I wanted to do the Southern run to take Mom someplace new, but we thought B might really enjoy the beach day at Grand Turk and the forts and cool-ness of walking downtown in San Juan, so we booked the 8 day run going to those 2 ports as well as St. Maarten and St. Thomas. I am not really sure why we chose the date we did, I think it just happened to work with all of our schedules, and they had Havana cabins on deck 5 (our favorite! Yay!) available, sooooooo here we are!

Hey hey! Sounds like we are gonna have a Havana area party!!

I love the sign too, it’s so true. 🙂 Thanks for the well wishes!!

Thanks for tagging along!! 🙂