Live From The Carnival Freedom: Crossing the Atlantic for a New Whale Tail

[jam19872016]

13 hours ago, princess76021 said:

@jam19872016  I miss you!!  Having my coffee and your not here 😢😢

Hugs from Texas!!

I miss being there. This is way less fun than a cruise.

11 hours ago, techteach said:

@jam19872016 I’m in the same boat as @princess76021. (I’ve set someone up for a joke) I’m on my second cup of coffee and missing the pictures of the various bars/clubs and songs being played last night as you hopped across the ship. Maybe you could post the song you’re listening to while showering this morning?

I'm afraid I don't have music available to me in there 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

11 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Spoilsport.

 

11 hours ago, chryso said:

Requesting shower pics?  This took an unexpected turn.

 

 

 

Everybody keep their pineapples in an upright position 😆

[jam19872016]

10 hours ago, exlondoner said:

And where is our hero? Isn’t it time he was up? I do hope he hasn’t succumbed to some ghastly withdrawal symptoms.

 

10 hours ago, techteach said:

I bet it is actually worse than that @exlondoner. I bet he is at, dramatic music here, work!

Yuk!

 

Work starts tomorrow. Lots of unpaid labor today. Unless you count Popeyes as payment, which I really should not be eating 😄

[jam19872016]

10 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Work - so soon. That is cruel.

I agree! I need a money machine so I don't need to worry about such things.

 

10 hours ago, chryso said:

I fear he is most likely foraging for food.

The menu and service have really gone downhill so far!

[jam19872016]

9 hours ago, chryso said:

I do not have a next one booked yet.  We are looking at an Alaska cruise next summer but have not yet decided. I began my cruising experience several years ago on Carnival but we both fell in love with Cunard.  We will definitely be back at some point soon.

 

9 hours ago, NE John said:

I’m on QE in Alaska for the June 21, 2024 voyage. 10 nights. I don’t want to go all the way there for a seven nighter. 
Come aboard!

Alaska was one of my favorite cruises!

[jam19872016]

6 hours ago, Von & John said:

 

Total Epic Fail!!!

How do you eat eggs w/out salt & pepper?

 

6 hours ago, exlondoner said:

I don’t eat eggs at all - not an allergy, just extreme dislike - but my husband would never dream of eating them with salt or pepper. 

I don't salt and pepper anything. That includes eggs 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

4 hours ago, techteach said:

Sunday breakfast: Homemade Bloody Mary, homemade biscuits, home made pork breakfast sausage and my famous Omelette with Gruyère cheese. @jam19872016 please note that there is no sign of browning on the omelette and @Von & John putting salt into the eggs while whisking 99 times means they will fluff greater when they hit the hot butter! (I prefer white pepper in my eggs) I love eggs, I will eat them anywhere…

Looks delicious. Now I need some photos of cut up noodles and I will be all set. Oh, that and a refill on the Bloddy Mary please 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, techteach said:

@jam19872016 Ugh! What a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day. Mom said there’d be days like this…(See book by the same title). I’m so sorry your restful vacation has ended is this ordeal. Tomorrow will be a better day I’m sure. It’s good to hear from you.

Yes, not the way I would like things to have ended. But it is over now and hopefully things will indeed improve.

 

50 minutes ago, five. said:

Definitely get yourself a lithium jump box and keep in the car. Especially if you're gong to sit for that long with no way to trickle charge.

 

Thanks for the tip, I will mention it to Santa. Hopefully with a new battery it won't be an issue but it would be a good idea to have one as a backup.

[jam19872016]

Final weight gain, +36.6 lbs. That's really too bad as I have been working very hard to get it off. I am hoping by tomorrow to start seeing it come down again.

 

I've got a three hour drive home tomorrow and start back at work so I'm going to go ahead and call it. I will try to get this wrapped up quickly with what I haven't posted and will have a better idea once I know my schedule and get settled back home how long that will take.

 

Good night.

 

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, jam19872016 said:

 

I don't salt and pepper anything. That includes eggs 🙂

 

I don't either, but DH does; since they're his eggs, he went foraging for s&p.

[techteach]

@jam19872016 Start drinking water immediately. You’ll drop several pounds quickly. It usually takes me a week to drop the weight I gain from a cruise. Too many cocktails in the Commodore Club and a full breakfast every morning. Have a good day back at work. Think of all of the great stories you’ll share! You really should think about writing a comical book about your adventures. Good Night from Seattle.

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Thanks! I hope not to need it anymore after using it twice on debarkation day.

 

It didn't go good at all sadly. I had no luck with Uber and at least in Miami they have a ton of Taxis ready and waiting for a fare. That was not the case here.

 

I've always used a parking/shuttle service in this port so this was my first time experiencing this side of the debark process and while the people were still great and things less hectic than Miami, it could still stand a lot of improvement.

Perhaps the dearth of cabs was because you were practically last off the ship, and they had all been used up and then gone somewhere else. I know at the local station there are usually loads waiting to meet the trains from London, but sometimes, if you are last through the barrier, they have all gone.

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

They gave me that fancy rare sticker on my name 🙂

 

Last night was pizza and tonight was Popeyes. I'm not doing great getting back on track. But the first couple days are the hardest plus being around my mom triggers bad eating choices. Especially when she's buying 😅

Did your mother gain weight - or is she not telling?

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

 

Yuk!

 

Work starts tomorrow. Lots of unpaid labor today. Unless you count Popeyes as payment, which I really should not be eating 😄

Sympathies and commiseration.

And…what is a Popeye? When, I was young, there was a cartoon character called Popeye the Sailorman, which would be relevant, but is probably not what you are eating.

[pe4all]

8 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Final weight gain, +36.6 lbs. That's really too bad as I have been working very hard to get it off. I am hoping by tomorrow to start seeing it come down again.

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of that is probably from all the sodium from the cruise food.  No doubt you will see a drop in a few days. (well - maybe not if you are eating pizza and Popeyes - lol!).  Loved reading your review, and looking forward to your future adventures.

Edited November 8, 2023 by pe4all

[ColeThornton]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

Sympathies and commiseration.

And…what is a Popeye? When, I was young, there was a cartoon character called Popeye the Sailorman, which would be relevant, but is probably not what you are eating.

 

 

https://www.popeyes.com/menu

[exlondoner]

2 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

 

https://www.popeyes.com/menu

 

Thank you and eeeeeeeek.

[#55worktoplay]

Just now, exlondoner said:

 

Thank you and eeeeeeeek.

I was waiting for exactly this 😀

Edited November 8, 2023 by #55worktoplay

[NE John]

Good luck getting that weight off. It’s tough but you’ll do it. 
Enjoy that Popeye’s now as that’ll be the last visit for a while! I love Popeye’s!! 

Edited November 8, 2023 by NE John

[jam19872016]

Making the trip back home but to make up for no shower music I've got the car radio 

 

Borderline 🎶 

[jam19872016]

Oh yea, and I'm -1.0 today even with my poor choices yesterday. 

 

I'm feeling good about getting back on track today and my steps will come back up naturally from being on my feet all day.

[princess76021]

12 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Making the trip back home but to make up for no shower music I've got the car radio 

 

Borderline 🎶

Yay!! You're here for my coffee time!!!

have a safe trip home!! Going to miss our daily meeting!

hugs from Texas

[techteach]

@jam19872016 About to start coffee #2 after catching up with posts from last night. Thanks for the music update and have a good day at work. I will be listening to, catching up with, The Voice from last night.

[Petersonfcu]

17 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

I don't have cables on me (dummy) and the taxi driver offers to go knock on some doors to find some and see if he can give me a jump.

 

Of yes, in case you forgot, I parked in a person's driveway that I found on a site called neighbor.com. It's like AirBnB for parking and storing items. It sounds sketchy but I'm happy to report it worked out fine as my issues had nothing to do with where I parked, but how long I parked.

 

Anyway, he comes back with cables and we get hooked up and I try again.

 

Still nothing. Double Oh Crap.

 

I thank him for all his help and made sure that he was taken care of for his effort and we move on to calling the insurance company for roadside assistance. Supposedly my insurance company is like a good neighbor. I'd say like a neighbor that makes you work way too hard to talk to anybody and sends you through a lot of prompts at a time that a person is in a stressful situation. Anyway, finally we got a tow truck dispatched with an ETA of 45-75 minutes. Yikes.

 

So now its me and my diabetic mother sitting outside in the Florida heat waiting upwards of an hour for a tow truck. An hour passes and my mom asks me to call the tow company to see how close they are. Based on their ETA they should be about 15 minutes away tops. I called and was told 30 minutes. Really.

 

At the 80 minute mark, my good neighbor sends a robotext asking if they have arrived yet. I reply no and they robotext me that they will follow up. They called from the escalation department and said the ETA which was supposed to be less than 10 based on their second later ETA they gave when I called, was now another 20.

 

Guess who still wasn't there after another 20 minutes?

 

I called again. They said they would assign a new driver, who will be there in 15-20 minutes.

 

Still nothing, we call StateFarm again. They said ANOTHER 15 and then they will reassign to a different company if they still have shown up.

 

We've now been waiting for OVER two hours in addition to waiting over an hour for a taxi in the sun. I'm starting to get a little sick of it all and call back again. They reassign, and cannot give me an ETA, but the robotext does. We are now looking at a wait of 75-90 minutes. Are you freaking kidding me.

 

I call the first company back to see if they are still coming in "15 minutes" as a hypothetical 15 is still better than a hypothetical 75-90. It goes straight to voicemail, a full voicemail. First company now not even responding.

 

I call new company to plead with them to put me at the front of their line and please come help us as my mom is diabetic and elderly and cannot keep sitting outside in these conditions. They said not to worry a driver was already en route and that ETA was not acccurate. Ten-Twenty minutes. The driver followed up shortly after and assured me he was on his way. Soon, he did in fact finally show up.

 

He said the problem could just be the battery was dead enough that it needed more juice than a jump could provide and he used his portable charger. I held my breath again and gave it a try.

 

Success at last!! 

 

He said I needed a new battery as this would keep happening, but believed it would be fine to drive now. I signed his phone and assume that since no payment information was collected, my good neighbor is at least footing the bill and hopefully not raising my rate. We'll see.

 

Finally, three hours later we made the two hour drive to my mom's house. We didn't run the AC or even play the radio as my mom was worried about the battery giving out. So it was a hot ride with no sound but the wind whipping beside me. Funny how much more calming the wind blown sound is on the Ocean.

 

I bought a new battery today on top of the honey do list my mom had for me and it was such a rude welcome back to the world of responsibility and obligations 🙂 

Wow.  Total suck.  My wife and I have been AAA members for 40 years.  Our past experiences (and yours) will keep me paying that annual membership fee.

[Petersonfcu]

16 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

 

 

 

 

Everybody keep their pineapples in an upright position 😆

That's what she said.