Day 51

Miami, FL. Oh boy. Today was rough…mentally. Announcements started at 7:00am letting people know it was time to leave. Express is first and then groups of people organized by colored tags on their luggage. Normally we get up at 8:00, have breakfast, and we get out of customs by 9:00. Today we were up a little earlier (because of the announcements). I was 95% packed…Deanna was about 80% packed. We finished packing and left…hoping that our luggage would magically make it to our new room as promised.

Since we know the truth about the employee shuttles we went to get on one. And waited. And waited. No dice. With our status (passenger) we can get off the ship when we are ready to get in the fray with the other passengers. Crew leave via a window system. They let a certain amount of people off for a half hour every hour or something. As Deanna and I sat in the van I said “We always get out by 9:00 and start walking, and we always see someone by starbucks just getting off the shuttle.” But, we were cranky (a theme for the day). I said we’re going to get a cab. Deanna was out of cash…so regardless of us going shuttle or cab, I was paying for it. It ended up being twice the amount the shuttle would have been. Oh well. Sure enough, when we got to starbucks, there were the other people just getting off the shuttle.

Every little thing was getting on our nerves. We went in to get coffee and found Johnny, Candy, and moments later, Christopher. They were having debacles as well, but cheered us up. Side note, Christopher, Jon Paul & Johnny were telling us that they play DING in the dressing room before their shows. If you’ve seen ComedySportz you would know it as “New Choice”…we call it Take That Back. In an improv scene, when ever someone rings a bell (DING) the last thing you said doesn’t exist anymore and you replace it by saying something else. So, with them, someone will randomly say DING to a person talking. Side note justified. When Christopher got to starbucks he was third in line. Johnny had just finished telling us about some trouble he had getting through security. The end of it was him saying “I am from this country. I’ll drop my bag and walk right off this ship.” It was at this point that Candy…first in the line at starbucks…turns and said DING. Chris, without missing a beat, came up with a new sentence and then looked at Candy and said “Oh! It’s you! I was like ‘who the hell knew to DING me in Starbucks?’” That whole scenario cheered us up.

Deanna headed off to the wonders of the library with Andy. I headed off to the blunders of the hotel (no real blunders…just a fun little play on words (one brittle sleigh on turds)).

We found out that someone stole a starbucks gift card from our mailbox in Miami. How? It was supposed to be a Christmas gift for Andy…ordered on 12/8. Larrance and Jen checked with starbucks on it today and they said it had already been used. SCANDAL! So, if you sent/send me something, let me know you did. Someone else may be enjoying it.

I didn’t even have time to try and catch up on online TV. I headed back and Deanna and I met up to get keycards to our new room. It is…smaller. We either got screwed by the change or we were lucky to have the room we did. Andy looked at our new room and said it was the same size rooms they had on the Pearl. Our old rooms were kept within the SC circle for many contracts though. Regardless, we’ve gone from 6 drawers down to 3 narrower drawers, 1/3 less closet space, and no desk. The bathroom seems a little bigger though. Also, no window…this is a good thing. We shouldn’t hear the tender boats at all being in the center of the ship and up two decks. Let’s hope. It is just slightly shakier because we’re pretty much right over the engines. There is also one cool thing about this room that will only be a secret known to Deanna and I. Don’t bother asking, I will tell you an answer, but chances are it will be a clever fabrication.

Also, by the looks of our planned path on the ship info channel we’re doing a different order this week. I can’t be for sure just yet. More info on that as I collect clues.