It’s tired O’Clock

Sunday, February 19, 2023

My alarm went off at 3:05am and Keith said, “Your alarm is going off.” I said, “I know.” I didn’t know. I was out cold. We tried going to bed early, and Keith was sound asleep 1 minute after his head hit the pillow. I watched the clock for 90 minutes. Darn!

Anyway, I am pretty good at not sleeping, so I hopped up and showered and got ready. I even unloaded the dishwasher! Alexander disappeared with our car and we headed to the American Airlines area. So entirely foreign for us Delta-lovers. We were concerned we would get our carry-on luggage gate checked and just did not know how that was going to go. I have a giant Ziploc bag of medicines, a computer, a trumpet…you know, stuff that you really don’t want going under the plane – but if there is no room and they take your suitcase, what do you do? Just fill your arms and hold it all day? I have no idea. Luckily, they said everyone with boarding groups higher than 6 (we were 6!) would not get to take a carry-on and they gate checked everyone before we loaded the plane. Phew! The only reason we were 6 was Keith signed us up for American rewards, or something like that. Yay for signing up for free stuff!

Once in our seats, we were quite confused by this tiny (like 2″ or less) tray that flipped down from the top of the seat in front of us. The guy next to us had to explain it was for our phones, so we could watch movies on our phone. There are no screens! We hadn’t even noticed yet. Huh. We tried to sleep, but it didn’t happen. I ended up watching a show on flower arranging. We took off 40 minutes after our scheduled departure time, but landed 15 minutes early. Huh. We had enough time in Charlotte, NC, to get to our gate and wait in a mob to board the next flight. It was a bizarre gate with 25 seats for a plane with 36 rows. Again, boarding group 6 saved us.

We brought sandwiches because of the short connect and no food being offered on either flight. I knew I would NOT be pleasant without some real food and am so glad I sent Keith to Jimmy John’s yesterday. He ordered our sandwiches with mayo on the side, because I didn’t want them to be soggy. The girl said that they don’t do “on the side”, but offered to order them with no mayo and would give Keith packets of mayo. He said that would be great (because, of course, it was the same thing). And it was great. Except that two of the mayos didn’t have the tiny cut in the plastic at the tear here part and NOTHING we could do would get them to open. Luckily, we had a few extra. It was kinda hilarious at the time.

We watched Black Adam on our phones. It was meh.

Then we were in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We bused to the Viking Sea. We got a warm welcome – our cabin was about 97degrees and it was awful. We headed out to walk around the ship rather than die from hot. I took some pictures. It’s very pretty. We read the menu for the dining room and learned that everything on the menu (at least the stuff we were interested in) was all available at the buffet. Viking makes a big deal about not having “formal” dining, but requires collared shirts in the dining room. Rather than go back to change, we opted for the buffet. I was able to order a delicious steak with some kind of yummy sauce and have it delivered to my table. We started with shrimp, then had a baked potato and steak and roll, then lost control. I had an almond cookie and some pizza and then some fruit and then a totally weird Black Forest “cake” (too much gelatin in it to be actual cake) and on and on. Keith had totally different food from me – so many fishes and fishy stuff. And gelato.

We unpacked. Our room is lovely, but has very little storage. We usually have an inside cabin on a Princess cruise and have tons of room for putting everything away. I have all of our clothes double or triple on hangers, because there is nowhere else to put anything. We just have non-hanging stuff piled on the floor of the closet. I’m not very impressed. Our mini-fridge had half-drunk bottles of water. Our room steward hasn’t been back to pick up the plastic cover that goes on the bed to keep it clean while you unpack. I am surprised and a bit disappointed.

There is a mirror right in front of me as I type this and I just keep looking at myself, because I am so tired and can’t think, and because I am not wearing my glasses, so I look terrific. Not because I look better without glasses, but because I can’t see, so I am all softly blurry. I keep smiling at myself. I’m going to just add all the pictures that Keith uploaded, because I don’t know what they are and I am too tired.

Oh, Wait! Before you go, or I go, they gave me chocolate. At the website, it says that a certain level of room comes with a chocolate bar in the mini fridge (which is keeping things luke-warm, at best). When Keith was booking the cruise, I kept saying, “Get the room with a candy bar,” because all the regular shaped rooms were on sale for the same price. He assured me he did get the room with a candy bar.

There was no candy bar when we got here, but THERE WAS AFTER DINNER! It was so good. And it had a castle.