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JoceyBaby23


Gucci

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I am home safely! :) LONG..
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Never again will my husband or I step foot on a cruise ship!


I will re-cap for those of you who didn't catch my previous "pray for us" thread.


I won a cruise to the Bahamas through my work.. Just a Friday to Monday thing.. AND it happened to fall on my birthday weekend.. fantastic, right? Wrong.


We left Friday from Miami, went to Cococay Saturday, Nassau on Sunday.. had a great time.. beautiful weather.


Sunday (my bday) at dinner they made an annoucement that we would not be able to return back at Miami on Monday like originially planned, because Hurricane Wilma was scheduled to arrive in FL and the Port of Miami would be closed. Fine. One extra day of vaca, right? Wrong.


We were assured that we would stay far enough away from hurricane so we would not be in danger.. have calm seas etc. Well, Monday was terrible. There were 40 foot waves crashing against the ship, 50 mph winds knocking the boat from side to side.. Everyone was sick. They had to close ALL the outside decks. We couldn't even walk outside, let alone go the pool or any of the outside bars etc. There was NOTHING to do. Hubby and I popped some motion sickness pills and slept all day. Monday night, we were told that Wilma had hit Florida hard, noone had power, the Port of Miami had damages, and we wouldn't get home until Tuesday night now.


Tues- Again, horrible movement on the boat.. they had movies playing in the cinema that sat maybe 200 people, not nearly big as needed when there 2000 people that have nothing to do on this boat. We couldn't even sit at a bar and get drunk.. Drinks were $7-9 a pop, we couldn't afford it! All-inclusive my ass! They really raped us on the drink prices.


Cell Phones didn't work at all the entire time. There were 6 outside phone lines and 7 computers with internet access.. for 2000 people to use to call home, get flights switched, call jobs etc. I didn't get on a computer without a 2 hour wait.. and sometimes we waited in our room for 3 hours just to get an open phone line.


Hubby and I hated everyone on this trip too. We couldn't make friends to save our lives. Everyone had small children, was elderly, too snobby, too trashy.. Not another normal couple our age on the boat. There were so many people on the boat using the emergency computers to get on ebay and my space, while we waited hours just to check flights. Not to mention, the trashy lady that sat with us at dinner, that insisted on telling everyone that she had ran out of clean underwear 3 days ago.


Tuesday, we cruised to Ft Lauderdale hoping that there Port would open and we could dock there. Never happened. Cruised back to Miami, waiting for that Port to open.. never happened.. Oh wait, actually it did, but they wouldn't let us off the ship because of the curfew in effect for the hurricane effected areas!


Wednesday morning.. sit and wait.. sit and wait.. Finally we are able to get off in Miami.. It takes 4 hours to get the ship through customs. We wait some more for our luggage, only to take a $30 cab ride to the Miami airport (that doesn't have power). Great!


They start getting power back.. All of the ticket counters are operating.. except.. you guessed it.. US Airways (our airline). Not a single US Airways employee working in the whole airport. We called the 800 number to hear them say that their employees had damages to their homes and were having trouble getting to work. I definately have sympathy to that, but why did EVERY other airline have people scheduled who could come to work?!?! Sit and wait.. sit and wait.


Finally get checked in. and get on one of 2 Flights from Miami to Philly the whole day.. Sit and wait.. sit and wait.. We were VERY lucky that we aren't still camped at the airport, like everyone else.


Our flight is 2 hours delayed. Okay, finally moving..


Get to Philly, get our bags.. look for the car service my office was sending to pick us up.. Now what.. NO CAR! No one ever came to pick us up. So close to home but just couldn't quite get there. Ended up taking an $85 cab ride to my office to get my car.


Finally arrived home last night around 11pm.. played with my puppy and passed out! But we are home safe and I guess that's what really matters.


Thanks for your concern girls! You are the best. :)


 



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-jocey-
Tati


Chanel

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im so glad your finally back!


what a horrible experience


Happy late birthday!



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bumblebee


Coach

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that sounds awful--poor thing.  i am glad you guys are back safely. 

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luckylily


Gucci

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oh my god!  That is so awful.  What a nightmare.  Glad you made it home safely.

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manhattanmonkey


Kenneth Cole

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So just curious, is your company going to reimburse you for any of this (like the cab ride)??


Happy belated birthday and glad to hear your back!



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member


Hermes

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Oh my gosh - how horrible for you guys.  I'm so sorry you had to endure such hell


I'm glad you are both back home and safe!



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jj


Kate Spade

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That is an INSANE story! Every day I have been wondering if you got off the damn boat yet. So glad you are home!

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JoceyBaby23


Gucci

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manhattanmonkey wrote:

So just curious, is your company going to reimburse you for any of this (like the cab ride)?? Happy belated birthday and glad to hear your back!

Yes! Thank goodness they are re-embursing me for the cab ride.


Also, this is kind of nice.. Since this was a company sponsored trip, i didn't have to use any sick or vacation days to travel.. and ended up getting 2 extra freebie days (on top of the other two), because of all the delays. I just wish those days were spent laying by the pool or shopping and not stranded on a rocking cruise ship!



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-jocey-
Karina


Chanel

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OMG Jocey, what a horrible story!!! If I were you, I would write a complaint letter to the head of the cruise line!

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laken1


Hermes

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That is awful - I'm so glad you are safe. I wondered what your company would do - that's really great of them!

And I agree about the "all inclusive" thing being a rip off - sorry, for drinkers a cruise is a total rip off! I'll just fly to a resort where they give me free champagne & umbrella drinks, thank you very much!


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kenzie


Chanel

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Glad that you are home safely and I'm sorry that your vacation (and birthday) didn't turn out as planned. 

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NCshopper


Hermes

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How awful!!!  Glad you're home safe and sound now though!

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Sandy


Kate Spade

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I'm so sorry your cruise was so terrible... and your birthday, too. Glad you guys are home safely!



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small fry


Chanel

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iam so glad you are back, yikes i wanted to take a cruise for my dream vac. but now iam scared too- iam sorry you had a horrible cruise and everything went wrong, but sometime when it is meant for something to happen (like getting home) it always works out) even if you have to put up with S***- i know when i was getting ready for my trip to Pa , my son got sick, the day i was leaving town- we had a fire at  the fomosa plastic which is @ a mile from us- had to do a shelter in place- very scary- than my brother had to have surgery while i was there- but i made it so i guess it was meant for me to go. okay iam sorry i rambled on sorry

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