I'm alive.....really.

My apologies for pretty much dropping off the map.  It's been a fun and rough couple weeks at the same time.  The following is in chronological order, not by order of importance...

A week before our cruise, the washer (which we sorely needed to get clothes washed for said cruise) started making horrible noises.  Fortunately, we bought that extended warranty they always try to sell you.  So they send someone out and he basically confirms what I already knew and tells me he will put the parts on order and will come back to install them after the cruise.

So we fly down to Miami.  Had a horrible time with the hotel's airport shuttle.  Took over 40 minutes for them to pick us up and they're right around the corner.  We even watched them drive right past us.  Finally got picked up and the hotel upgraded our suite and even gave us an extra free drink card.  My parents came by to pick us up and dropped us off at the port.

Get to the port and got to watch Joy try to mentally add up all the things that were different this time versus the last time we checked in and boarded the ship. 

In the middle of check-in, the warranty company calls to tell us it will cost them more to fix the machine than what we paid for it, so they're just going to refund out original purchase price plus taxes.  That's nice, but we bought it during a Thanksgiving special and everything costs a whole lot more now.

Determined to enjoy my cruise, I put that aside until we got back and had to get Joy back into the cruising mindset as well.

So the entire time we're checking in and boarding, you can tell things just aren't adding up, but she can't quite place it.  She asked about a few things thinking that we got them due to repeat cruiser status and I just told her it was because we were special.  We finally made it to our stateroom and she says to me "So this is mini-suite?" and I responded to her "Eh....not exactly."  Then somewhat concerned she asks me "Then what is it?" to which I responded "Penthouse" in a somewhat sheepish tone of voice. In the course of about five minutes she went from being upset with me to thinking I was the sweetest person ever.

Due to our birthdays, the anniversary decorations, our anniversary, the concierge, the social media team....we had way more celebratory cakes than we even attempted to eat.  I brought most of the cards home with me as souvenirs.  The concierge even arranged a bridge tour for us.  Spent the whole week running into the Captain who was absolutely wonderful.  Hopefully we will run into him again soon on another cruise.

Friday was our actual anniversary.  We spent most of it stuck in the Charlotte airport with all flights to Norfolk and Newport News being canceled due to a freak snowstorm.  Keep in mind, we don't get snow here pretty much ever.  When we do, it doesn't stick.  The rare times it sticks, it usually melts right after.  This is the third time in about 20 years that we got something even close to what I consider to be a real snowfall.  Thanks to our recently awarded frequent flier status, we managed to get bumped up on the standby list for one of the first flights that did make it from Charlotte to Norfolk.  Unfortunately, our baggage didn't make it until 3pm the next day and went to our original arrival airport in Newport News (about a 20-30 minute difference).  In the middle of that, had to tell Joy about the hotel reservation I made.  While I was trying to get tickets rescheduled, she was on the phone trying to cancel our advance purchase/no refund reservation.  Fortunately, somebody at corporate took pity on us.  So we should be getting that money back.

Finally made it back to the house around 10pm Friday night.  Our 4pm Charlotte to Newport News flight ended up being an 8:41 Charlotte to Norfolk flight.  We came home, dropped everything, showered, move the cake top from the freezer to the fridge, and went to bed.

Saturday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for our delayed anniversary dinner which was actually lunch and grocery shopping.  The airport called and said our luggage was in, so we went to get it and then drove to my parent's house (who were still in Charlotte on their way back from Miami) to do laundry.  Left there and got home in time to put stuff away and go to bed.

Sunday was Joy's birthday.  Went to Carrabbas for lunch. Then to Starbucks and shopping.  Came home and watched a movie and just spent the evening together.

Today was work and a job interview.  Wish me luck.

In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out who came back from the Bahamas with me.  The Joy I took down there wanted nothing to do with booking anymore cruises.  Today she texted me telling me about a sale on the new ship NCL is coming out with.

Wow.  Sorry for the long post......