Cruise in Review part 1

So a month or so ago my parents talked to us about going on a cruise with them and Holdaways and Jacobs. 

Of course we were all in. 

It was a couple stressful weeks trying to get everything ready to go. Not the packing, but getting everything at school organized for a sub amidst my guilt for leaving when I should be working. But it all ended up working out and come Saturday, March 9 the house was clean and we were off. 

Our flight didn't leave Salt Lake until almost midnight. We rode down to Utah with my family and stopped at Red Lobster for dinner. Holy cow, it was good. It was the beginning meal for a vacation full of delicious food. 

We got to the airport, got to our terminal and there we sat. Forever. Our departure time came and went and there we sat not knowing what was going on because no announcements had been made. Finally, after over half an hour of waiting we were able to board the flight and take off on the worst flight ever. I'd never flown the red eye and it was terrible. There is no possible way to get comfortable on a plane. I was in the middle seat and no matter how I would position myself and lean on Kolton and Brevan I was just miserable. 

And then the baby started crying. 

I was trying really hard to be patient because I know the parents were doing everything they could to get the baby to calm down but nothing was working and it was really screaming and my patience was wearing thin. (Also, I turn into a real bear when I am tired. I need that beauty sleep!) 

We finally reached South Carolina and as we were unloading the flight attendant made a note that those of us trying to catch a connecting flight could have missed it. Sure enough, our plane was leaving in less than 10 minutes. 

We finally got off the airplane and Kolton and I booked it to the next terminal which was a very long ways away to try to stop the plane from leaving. I had my backpack on which was full of books and it was just thumping away on my back while I was running and running and looking like a retard. 

I was half dead when I told Kolton to go on without me. (I had to use the rest of the vacation to recover from that bout of exercise) I was able to catch up with him just as the person behind the desk told him that our flight was gone. Which was funny since there was an airplane sitting right behind him with that little hallway thing still connected to it. And it was also funny because there were 13 of us in our group that had missed the flight because of complications with our previous flight. 

And by funny, I mean not really funny at all. 

We are addicted to Friday Night Lights and had to watch it on Kolton's phone

So we had to walk back and tell the news to the rest of our crew. The mothers had to stand in line and try to figure out how to get us all to Florida before the ship left and with all of our luggage. It was kind of a stressful situation there on a Sunday morning in the Charlotte airport. 

We finally got it all figured out which included 3 different flights for all of our people to completely different airports than the one we were supposed to land in. Half of us went to Miami which was 30 mins. from Fort Lauderdale where the ship was and the other half went to West Palm Beach which was also 30 mins. from where we were supposed to be. And our luggage was still a big part of the mystery that no one was being real conclusive about. 

When we got things figured out we had a couple hours wait. And I remembered how much I hate airports. It's just a lot of people waiting in super uncomfortable chairs which overpriced food. A few of us just ended up stretching out on the floor and semi falling asleep. Which was equal parts absolutely disgusting and absolutely necessary. 

He slept just like this for forever. He was the first thing people would see as they got off their planes. Welcome to Charlotte! 

At one point in this waiting game I needed to go potty (Kolton hates it when I say that) and when I got to the restroom the custodian there was full of cheer and compliments. She complimented my hair and told me I looked like a model. After the night from h-e-double hockey sticks I had had, I so appreciated this lady and everything she had to say. I was walking on sunshine as I came out of the bathroom and bragged the story to my family. It was then that my mom chose to ask me if perhaps I had seen the tip jar on the bathroom counter that was for this particular custodian lady. I considered that for a moment before deciding that the custodian was definitely not out for tips but was instead telling me how beautiful I looked after a four hour drive, a night of no sleep, a flight planned by Satan, and an hour of sleeping on an airport floor. Obviously. 

This is how we feel toward US Airways. Also, notice how model-like I look here. 

Anyway. We were finally able to get on the plane which was the tiniest little thing ever. It had a column of seats with two per row and across the aisle was a column with one seat per row. I actually really loved having my own personal seat and row and it was a decent flight. 

When we got to Miami sure enough our bags were nowhere to be found. After a few phone calls it was determined that they were in Fort Lauderdale and had come in on the flight that couldn't wait five minutes for the PEOPLE to get on, but instead was stopped long enough to load all of our LUGGAGE. Which was kinda funny in way that's not really funny at all. 

We were able to get someone from the cruise ship to pick up our luggage and we headed straight for the pier and got on the ship without knowing whether all of our bags would be there or not. 

After the traveling fiasco, the rest of the trip was just lovely.

(P.S. our bags did make it on the ship luckily. It was more than a little stressful.)