Everything started off wonderful. We drove down to Richmond for a night with my in-laws, hopped on plane for a quick flight and no troubles, and then set up shop in a NY hotel. That night we went to Ninja New York and had a blast. I wouldn't want to pay that much (everything is more expensive in NY) for a meal except for some other great occasion, but the food was great, the ninjas were funny, the ambiance unique, and the magician hilarious. Inger and Pat were a lot of fun and the whole night was a good couples experience.
I have picked up a new quirk from the experience in the form of a mild fear of NY cab drivers. Wow. Affordable, quick, but if I drove like that I'd be in jail. Even when I used to speed around as a dumb teenager I never weaved that madly. Carrie was more afraid of the subways than she was of cabs, so that was the method of transportation we ended up using.
The next morning, we got to the dock early. There was no line. We checked in in around 15 minutes, Carrie pulled the pregger card, and we were on the ship within twenty minutes before most everyone else! We parked up in the buffet restaurant and watched everyone slowly mill about and load. The day proceeded well until Carrie dropped asleep at 8 PM.
While Carrie was asleep, I went for a walk around the ship. It was starting to rock a bit in the water. I went all the way up to the top deck, but it was roped off with high wind warning signs. Now, I had carried a composition notebook up with me I was taking notes on. The wind on the deck I was on was strong enough to start tearing the top pages out of the notebook as I held it. It was impressive.
I ended up back in the room around 10 PM and Carrie woke from the last sleep she'd get. The ship was rocking a bit now, but I hopped in bed and went to sleep next to my wife around 11. From here on out, the ship really started rocking. We had a drawer that liked to slide open and shut itself, and eventually the wind was bad enough it prevented the the balcony door from sealing. The annoying rush of wind through a small leak became ubiquitous. The rocking and the wind did not stop. It went from 11 PM Monday to 6 AM Wednesday or somewhere thereabouts.
Carrie was miserable. Before the trip, she had been complaining her growing belly was making it hard for her to balance. On the trip, she didn't feel safe moving about the cabin. I had to steady her anytime she left the bed. On top of that, she started getting sea sick and there wasn't a single medicine proven safe for pregnant women that could help (the doctors and nurses all said so each time we called). Room service was crappy (they couldn't put a milk carton in a microwave), the TV played the same three movies for over 24 hours, and my wife couldn't sleep.
Wednesday morning, we talked to the Doctor. She recommended that we get off the ship while we could. We took her advice. It was the best decision we could've made and I don't regret it in the least. Thankfully, Carrie had bought cruise insurance way back when and we're in the process of seeing what we can get refunded. The guest service desk was very helpful as well, and I'd like to say our room steward Iputu was very helpful throughout the whole ordeal (there just wasn't much he could do).
To get off the ship, we were required to schedule a flight. Basically, we had to prove we were willing to go back to the US instead of becoming illegal immigrants to Canada (not much chance of that with how cold the winters get). Delta was quoting $670 each for a flight back to Richmond. That sounded nasty to me (even though the cruise insurance was supposed to pay it) and I thought it would be nice to have at least a day to recover in Halifax, so we called our agent: my mother-in-law. Mrs. Cassano quickly found a flight on US Air for $580 for BOTH of us and booked us at a hotel for the night. I know that the insurance would've paid for the full cost of Delta, but hopefully they'll cover the hotel room since we saved them the better part of a thousand dollars in airline tickets.
Halifax is, in a word, awesome. It was a great city to walk around. The weather was great, good food was everywhere (as was lots of beer), and I got to run up to and walk around a star fortress. Carrie took a nap at that point and I ran up and down the battlements and generally marveled at the monstrosity. I have a strong urge to pick up another Sharpe book or boot up Empire Total War again after the experience.
Anyway, to bring a long post to the end, we hopped on a boat, got sick, hopped off, and then finally had a good time. We hopped on a plane with a pair of fresh lobsters, Bob and Marley, and flew back to Richmond to spend a couple of day decompressing with the Cassanos and cooking Bob and Marley. The names? Bob came from a T-Shirt Carrie's mom had tried to prank Carrie with that we happened to see in the lobster shop. Marley just kinda followed after. No talented musicians were harmed in the cooking process.
It wasn't the vacation we planned, but it ended up being a good story.
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