travel

One thing I was looking forward to about this trip was that I didn't have to fly to Europe. Easy right? No time zone, short flights...

The trip started normally enough. My amazing, beautiful, wonderful girlfriend Sharon drove me to the airport at 5:30am. Flight to Atlanta was easy. We left Atlanta in rainy weather and not long after we heard the beverage offerings, the pilot came on the radio. "Unfotunately, the antifreeze system on the right wing has malfunctioned. We have a backup system that can get us back to Atlanta safely, but we can't continue to Freeport. So, we turned around.

Almost 2 hours later, we were on our way and had a very uneventful flight. ..Until after we landed. It was raining buckets and it was one of those airports in which you walk off the plane down stairs and eventually into the terminal. Walking through some rain. not a huge deal. Except for the massive, unavoidable puddle in between the plane and the gate. Shoes and socks, meet water. Soaked.

So, with 1 liter of genuine bahamas rain water in my socks, I went through customs. I'm happy to say that there weas a port agent out waiting for me as soon as I got through customs. The first time out of 3 that I didn't have to make multiple calls to be picked up at the airport.

Transportation to the ship. You know those movies set in Africa where a guy drives this hollowed out van through dirt roads? --Yeah. Except here the dirt roads were filled with giant puddles. i'd like to think differently, but I'm pretty sure with each puddle he drove through (read: waded) he thought "gee, I hope we make it through this one."

We made it fine. However, the ship is in "dry dock." When you're my dad and you have a ship not currently in the water, you put it in your backyard. When you're a cruise line, you put it in dry dock. However, the gangway (ramp to get up to the ship) for dry dock is nothing like a normal gangway. Remember "the eliminator" from the American Gladiators tv show? Like that, but with 2 rolling bags and a laptop bag. It's hard to describe the length and steep angle of the gangway without exagerating. But, let's say you had to see it to believe it.

I made it!