The 15 Year Vacation

Alicia and I just finished our cruise celebration of 15 years as husband and wife.  Our first vacation as a couple in several years.  The last 9 have included the kids for at least some duration with the focus on each other being secondary.  This year we planned our own so we could celebrate surviving the last 15 years of love, dedication, anger, pain and hard work.  Let’s just say it was quite the rousing success!  One of the best times I’ve ever had and it was just us for 5 straight days (and counting), with a few new friends introduced along the way.  We didn’t know if we could handle each other alone for that duration after all these years but we’re both adorable so we made it.

Our cruise was a 5 day out of Tampa to Grand Cayman and Cozumel.  It was also our 4th cruise with Carnival, if you count our senior cruises, which were separate and definitely not as fun for me.  At any rate, the trip to Tampa was fairly uneventful, which is how I prefer most road trips.  We made several stops and actually arrived at the terminal about an hour earlier than we had planned which is pretty unbelievable considering our track record.  We were able to get on board without much incident and found our cabin pretty quickly as it was on the same deck as the entry gangway, another first for us.  Of course, it wasn’t all that simple as we got to our room to find a couple of bunk beds and a rollaway.  A quick check of the paperwork on the desk of our cabin revealed that the room was intended for a family of 5.  A detour run over to guest services got it cleared up and we kept the room.  Not sure what happened to the family of 5 but I assume they were in a room with a king bed and needed additional amenities.  We quickly moved on from that hurdle as it didn’t take us long to find the icy drinks!  My choice for the week was the Hurricane Wave and Alicia’s was Miami Vice.

Our first full day at sea was action packed and rather restful at the same time.  We didn’t rise early enough for regular breakfast but thankfully, they had something perfect for us, appropriately named “Late Risers Breakfast”.  We had perhaps our most memorable “run-in” at this breakfast.  There was an omelette bar that ran into a buffet.  If you didn’t want an omelette, you just kind of meandered towards the middle of the line and got in somewhere along the buffet.  It was a little chaotic.  Well, it got even more chaotic when a lady decided she would meander to the buffet line but also grab her an omelette without going through the line….right in front of us.  Everyone knows that Alicia and I are yin and yang in the matter of public confrontation and where I may take a moment to consider all outcomes, Alicia tends to react with emotion.  As Alicia instructed this unfortunate woman how lines in normalville worked, she had the nerve to say “If you’ve got your omelette, you don’t worry about me.”  I calmly placed my plate down and began searching for the nearest lifeboat because I knew a hurricane was brewing.  Luckily, only minor position jockeying and territory marking ensued.  After some laughs at the insanity of the whole thing, we were able to continue on our day which included napping, eating and the occasional blackjack hand.  

The end of our day was the highlight as we attended one of the funniest comedy shows in history.  Manny Olivera is one of the funniest riffing comedians I’ve heard and I’ve heard a lot of them.  His standup lacked a bit but when he engaged the audience, he slaughtered them!  I don’t even know if it’s fair to say the standup was lacking because the audience engagement may have just been so good, it made the standup look that way.  Either way, he had a second show on the final day at sea and word had gotten around because the Punchliner was “standing room only” for his closer and it did not dissapoint.  Seriously, quite possibly the highlight of the cruise ship entertainment. We also met Kat, the English comedy club manager that saw us off the boat at our excursions and on the last day as well.  She did very well as the comedy booker.  Also, Lauren from Alabama, who reminded me of Holli from Albany (only in appearance though because Holli would have been able to withstand the comedy barbs), was also a highlight in the comedy club.  This was just an innocent 18 year old girl that came to enjoy a comedy show.  She sat in the front row and was swiftly introduced to the adult world in a way I don’t think she was prepared for.  Oh, Lauren from Alabama.

Our next day was our first port of call – Grand Cayman.  We didn’t have an excursion planned for this one but we knew we wanted to go to the beach.  We followed some advice from fellow shipmates and just flagged a taxi to 7 Mile Beach, which wound up costing us a total of $16 round trip versus the $75 per person the ship was going to charge.  Of course, there were some additional bells and whistles the cruise line offered but all we needed was sand, sun and water.  And we got it for around $20.  We also got an informative and comedic taxi ride of 12 people in a mini van.  The water was beautiful, clear and cool and the beaches were unbelievable.  We also did a bit of shopping for the kids and made it back to the ship in plenty of time for another nap and dinner.  Naps were a common theme of our vacation without the kids.  I miss quiet sleep.

The next day was our second port of call and our big excursion.  Prior to the cruise, Alicia had researched the things to do and we wanted something a little different.  We went with the Amazing Secret River and it was worth every penny!  The taxi over to the mainland and the wait for a missing family (not really missing) placed a little damper on the day as a whole but the excursion was unreal.  The visit to Playa Del Carmen was a nice surprise and it was a good bit different from Cozumel, which we had been to before.  We traveled through the city and into the jungle to explore a 22 mile cave system that had a river running through it.  Cold, blue spring water under ground in the dark and surrounded by bats, silence and 8 new friends made this one unforgettable.  The pictures for this one will follow later as we were not allowed to take our own cameras.  We have a couple of photos on a cd that highlight the beauty of this underground wonder.  We also met Veronica, a recent grad from a university in Mexico, who was starting her career in a field that she had a tremendous amount of passion for.  I saw a lot of guides for this excursion but we couldn’t have had a better one than Vero.  She glowed all day and obviously cared about what she was doing.  It was refreshing to see.  Needless to say, we were worn down by the end of this day and dinner was swiftly followed by sleep.  And game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.  Yeah!

Our last day at sea!  Always bittersweet.  Tired but sad that it’s ending.  There was so much we were able to do but so much more to see and take part in.  We missed the game shows and the hairy chest contest and the lido deck fiesta!  We didn’t miss each other though.  We spent each moment together, awake and asleep, and it was like turning back the clock. it was something we both needed.  We do like being around each other for extended periods after these many years.  We also made some new friends.  

Dinner is always a special time on a cruise because you get placed at a table with 8 other strangers and you have no choice but to get to know them over the week….or skip supper.  We didn’t miss a single night and had a blast with our table.  Mark, Jeanna, Chris, Krystal, Robert and Nesi were all Georgian’s so we hit it off great!  And Wilson and Norma were both from Tampa but originally from Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, respectively.  We saw them on a couple of trips off the boat and thoroughly enjoyed hanging with them as well.  We all gelled and shared stories and food and drinks over several nights in the Elation dining room.  One day we’ll have to plan a reunion and invite Ben and Sara, who we met on our last cruise.  That would be a good time!

Our vacation isn’t quite over as we are slowly making our way back home while fitting in some kayaking and swimming in springs in Florida but we’ll soon be back to reality and will be lost in the day to day grind that is life.  We’ll both be pulled in different directions as we take care of the kids, the bills and Alicia allows me to play softball.  We’ll have some days where we do little more than pass each other in the hall like a couple of cabin stewards trying to keep the ship sailing smoothly.  But we’ll have each other and these memories.  We can look forward to another 15 years that will be similar in ways but likely much different than the last 15.  I guess that is a part of the big story though.  We have to take advantage of the times we have together, just us.  We started this journey a long time ago and we have half our lives ahead of us, God willing.  Here’s to the next 15 Alicia.  I love you!

J-Dub