jam19872016

Scary! Glad it worked out. I think that's how they all drive in Miami though 😆 Thank you for your kind words and following along! I binge read most of the reviews myself. At least let them get a few pages in before I read, I hate getting caught up 😅

Thanks! I hope not to need it anymore after using it twice on debarkation day. It didn't go good at all sadly. I had no luck with Uber and at least in Miami they have a ton of Taxis ready and waiting for a fare. That was not the case here. I've always used a parking/shuttle service in this port so this was my first time experiencing this side of the debark process and while the people were still great and things less hectic than Miami, it could still stand a lot of improvement.

Thank you for following along 🙂 Reruns? 😅

I prefer energy drinks for my daily caffeine fix, but I do love my Frappuccinos. Thanks for reading along especially since it did get quite long 🙂 I appreciate it!

I don't have cables on me (dummy) and the taxi driver offers to go knock on some doors to find some and see if he can give me a jump. Of yes, in case you forgot, I parked in a person's driveway that I found on a site called neighbor.com. It's like AirBnB for parking and storing items. It sounds sketchy but I'm happy to report it worked out fine as my issues had nothing to do with where I parked, but how long I parked. Anyway, he comes back with cables and we get hooked up and I try again. Still nothing. Double Oh Crap. I thank him for all his help and made sure that he was taken care of for his effort and we move on to calling the insurance company for roadside assistance. Supposedly my insurance company is like a good neighbor. I'd say like a neighbor that makes you work way too hard to talk to anybody and sends you through a lot of prompts at a time that a person is in a stressful situation. Anyway, finally we got a tow truck dispatched with an ETA of 45-75 minutes. Yikes. So now its me and my diabetic mother sitting outside in the Florida heat waiting upwards of an hour for a tow truck. An hour passes and my mom asks me to call the tow company to see how close they are. Based on their ETA they should be about 15 minutes away tops. I called and was told 30 minutes. Really. At the 80 minute mark, my good neighbor sends a robotext asking if they have arrived yet. I reply no and they robotext me that they will follow up. They called from the escalation department and said the ETA which was supposed to be less than 10 based on their second later ETA they gave when I called, was now another 20. Guess who still wasn't there after another 20 minutes? I called again. They said they would assign a new driver, who will be there in 15-20 minutes. Still nothing, we call StateFarm again. They said ANOTHER 15 and then they will reassign to a different company if they still have shown up. We've now been waiting for OVER two hours in addition to waiting over an hour for a taxi in the sun. I'm starting to get a little sick of it all and call back again. They reassign, and cannot give me an ETA, but the robotext does. We are now looking at a wait of 75-90 minutes. Are you freaking kidding me. I call the first company back to see if they are still coming in "15 minutes" as a hypothetical 15 is still better than a hypothetical 75-90. It goes straight to voicemail, a full voicemail. First company now not even responding. I call new company to plead with them to put me at the front of their line and please come help us as my mom is diabetic and elderly and cannot keep sitting outside in these conditions. They said not to worry a driver was already en route and that ETA was not acccurate. Ten-Twenty minutes. The driver followed up shortly after and assured me he was on his way. Soon, he did in fact finally show up. He said the problem could just be the battery was dead enough that it needed more juice than a jump could provide and he used his portable charger. I held my breath again and gave it a try. Success at last!! He said I needed a new battery as this would keep happening, but believed it would be fine to drive now. I signed his phone and assume that since no payment information was collected, my good neighbor is at least footing the bill and hopefully not raising my rate. We'll see. Finally, three hours later we made the two hour drive to my mom's house. We didn't run the AC or even play the radio as my mom was worried about the battery giving out. So it was a hot ride with no sound but the wind whipping beside me. Funny how much more calming the wind blown sound is on the Ocean. I bought a new battery today on top of the honey do list my mom had for me and it was such a rude welcome back to the world of responsibility and obligations 🙂

I ordered an Uber to pick us up and take us to where I had parked my car. I did not have a good feeling, all those waiting in the rideshare lot were telling the horror stories of how hard they were struggling and sure enough, once I finally got connected with a driver, he immediately canceled. It was $54 for a mere five minute ride and yet that was I guess not enough surge pricing to get anyone to take my request. Insane. I tried again, just kept circling and the cost was now $10 cheaper so I know I'm getting nobody. I made my way to the taxi stand. They want $35 and it will be about forty minutes. That's crazy that they don't have a steady stream of cabs like in Miami. But what am I going to do? I pay the man and cancel my Uber request. Or so I thought. Apparently hitting cancel and going through three different prompt screens to confirm was not enough and I did not cancel as I got distracted with the cab purchase and I now had a ride coming. I canceled for real this time and supposedly Uber is going to refund the charge, but I have not found Uber to be very customer friendly in these types of cases. Once had a driver cancel on me saying I was not at the pickup location and I got billed a cancel fee. I disputed it, as if Uber can't see that he never showed up. They refunded me the money, then took it back without ever telling me. I only realized it when I went to use the credit and it was gone. I'm honestly getting tired of their scummy business practices and if I lose this credit (which was actually just an actual refund of the hold instead of a credit) I guess I'm done with Uber. Cab finally shows up and the guy is super friendly. He was very helpful and patient with my mother who is struggling with what she has to carry after I've carried as much as I can possibly carry. All around great guy and he was not done going above and beyond. As I mentioned, my car had been sitting for 56 days at this point and I was worried that it would not crank. I pushed the button, and held my breath and....nothing. Car dead as a door nail 😟 This is where we press the Oh Crap button 😮

Hello everyone. What a busy and hectic day today was transitioning back into the real world. I spent my day helping my mom get her yard cleaned up as well as unpacking, and other things she needed done around her house. I also had something to take care of, but let me back up to what happened yesterday. I like to wait until last call before I make my way to the gangway, as I've said I hate lines. Last call never came, and I was sitting in Habana lounge away from the masses so did not notice the ship clearing out. I dinged off the ship just before they started paging names to please head to the gangway. I avoided being called, my mom behind me, did not. Ooops. Anyway, there were no lines and we got through CBP easy peasy. One of her suitcases had lost its tag and was sitting randomly in the terminal, but it was obviously very easy to spot at this point. Everything is going easy enough. And here is where things start going downhill.

Made it to my mom's house. What a hectic time getting here. Going to settle in and get caught up on today's misadventures tomorrow.

Still haven't heard last call but it's a ghost ship guess I will head out.

I was thinking about that too last night. Especially as rocky as the last few days have been 😆 Thank you! I will post a link and hopefully your Oh crap button request will be approved by then 😉

You'll never look at one the same again 😆 Very different experience but if you go in with that knowledge I think you will have a great time. Very nice cruise line!

Me too. It's hard to tell, but I think she enjoyed herself.

Thank you 😊

Final duck count was 38-52. She started with a large suitcase, carry in, and overnight bag. She ended with that, plus a large paper Cunard bag and two tote bags she found on clearance. She sent all but the small bag and Cunard paperbag out last night. I started with a large suitcase, and a beach bag. Had a backpack for a backup which I needed at a couple points but I did downsize back into my original bags. I still grossly overpacked. Part of it was because I needed an extra wardrobe on Cunard as u typically only pack t-shirts and shorts.

Thank you 😀 Love eggs

We're in the waiting area now. Up to luggage tag 14 and cooling our heels. I plan to wait until last call so that hopefully we can just walk right off but I may go ahead and go when they call tag 25 as my mom needs assistance today. Her back is bothering her badly today.

Pancakes and omelet

I was on Spirit around that time. Do you remember the exact date or itinerary? I don't have any fun times but I may have a a screen shot of the app saved somewhere I can check. I wouldn't know who is who but maybe if you see a name it will trigger something.

I think the issue is the huge increase in demand when a ship arrives. Hopefully this port would be set up for it, but you would think Miami would and it's a nightmare. I never knew how to drive, but the state of Florida signed off on it anyway 😆

Debark running very smooth so far. We do have to clear immigration in person, but Andy says plenty of agents and we are flying. A-F and tags 1-6. We took 25, the latest option.

Thanks. I know to pack my patience getting off the ship. I'm more concerned about my car that I've left parked for two months. Is it still there? Will it crank after two months? Hopefully an Uber will be easy to get, never tried here but Miami and Mobile are a hassle.

I'm not weighing today. Will get an official final count tomorrow.

Good morning from Por Canaveral. Checked in for one final breakfast with a 10-20 minute wait. Debarkation announcements started at 630. So far A-D have been called for self assist and 1-4 for Checked luggage. There were no priority groups.

After dinner it was back to the room where we tried to find something, anything on the TV but we've given up. I'm never one to drag our the last night trying to squeeze out every minute of the trip. I need my sleep too much to try and function after staying out all night. I'm going to lay down now and try and get some sleep. The anxiety tends to make it hard to sleep on the last night, but after my night last night I'm pretty tired so maybe I'll get lucky. Good night everyone.

Thanks you for following along. I will be sure to post a link to my next review in this one for anyone who wants to read it. No dancing tonight 😴