{"id":953,"date":"2017-12-18T16:46:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/?p=953"},"modified":"2017-12-18T16:47:02","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:47:02","slug":"953-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/953-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Were are my socks? (from the male perspective)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Where are my Socks?<\/p>\n

When I married Penni almost 42 years ago I had no idea of what I was getting into, back then I kind of wanted to go to Hawaii one day, but never dreamed it could be a reality, now 42 years later I have been to Hawaii three times and Alaska four time, plus Ireland once and England once, and also a whole bunch of Caribbean Islands. Italy and Greece are on the horizon. Penni is a planner by nature and she puts together great vacations for us and for her clients also.<\/p>\n

There are perks to having an Expert Travel agent in the family. Certain cruise lines offer education courses for Travel Agents so they have full knowledge of what the lines offer. Some, not all of the lines offer a graduation cruise once the program is completed.<\/p>\n

This cruise was a graduation cruise\/seminar at sea. The free cruise comes with obligations, there are meeting that must be attended and other functions that are a part of the Seminar at Sea. Approximately eight hours of mandatory meetings on an eight-day cruise. Not a bad price to pay for a cruise, but there are of course those classes that had to be taken over about 2 years.<\/p>\n

Penni has always done all the packing, I never have asked her to do it, but she has always done it. I think because she wants the packing done a week or two before we go and I would wait till the day before we leave to pack. For the most part she has always done a spectacular job. There is the time she forgot swim suits and had to buy new ones in Florida, and the other time we left our swim suits in Arizona. But overall she is excellent.<\/p>\n

Imagine on this cruise, the first Elegant Night, I get dressed and begin to look for my socks and we can\u2019t find them anywhere. Oops, seems socks did not get in the suite case. Ok, so we will run down to the ships store and buy some, nope, they don\u2019t have any. None in Grand Turk, none in Saint Kitts, at least not in the resort areas, finally found some in Puerto Rico several days later.<\/p>\n

We also learned another lesson on this cruise, don\u2019t buy shampoo and toothpaste in the same type container, I don\u2019t know this from personal experience, but some one very close to me says; \u201cno they do not taste the same,\u201d and that\u2019s all I will say about that.<\/p>\n

The bathrooms on this ship are the best, shower was great, almost as big as mine at home. Even Dan could turn around in this shower. This is the most room we have ever had in a cabin since we were assigned to a Handicap Cabin. The only drawback was the toilet was mounted at an angle and you had to sit with one foot in the shower when using the toilet. The cabin was great, with a big window for a nice Ocean View and I think this is the largest cabin we have had since our first cruise when we were upgraded to a mini-suite. That has never happened again.<\/p>\n

We always chose the early dining option on a cruise, at home we usually go to dinner about 5:15pm and that\u2019s why we chose the 6:15pm option on a cruise. On this cruise, Penni and I were part of a group of about 50 travel agents, the majority of whom wanted the 8:15pm dining time, so they assigned the group to 8:15pm. Yuck, we requested a change and were told to show up at 6:30pm and we would see a permanent change on Tuesday. Wrong, we received a note saying the change could not be made and we had to stick with 8:15pm. Well, we will have to make the best of it.<\/p>\n

We were seated with all the other Travel Agents on the second night at late dining. I met some very nice people Penni had already met during the seminars she attended. The third night two different travel agents were seated at the table when we arrived, after a long discussion between the two they decided they did not want to sit with us and moved to a different table, they went back to the one they sat at the night before. In a few moments one of the ship staff approached me and wanted to check my key card to see if I was at the right table. I never did figure that one out unless those ladies said something.<\/p>\n

This reminded me of our first cruise when they, key word they, sat us at table 22 on the first night and the staff kept coming over and checking our key card, finally an assistant Ma\u00eetre D approached our table and began to scold us for sitting at the wrong table, I informed him politely that his staff had seated us at this table. I had to report this incident to the customer service department. When we finished the conversation, they said Penni and I could sit anywhere we wished. We did set at table 2 the next night. By the way we met a very nice couple at the wrong table, we hung around with them the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

This cruise started off quite eventful, Penni\u2019s aunt died on Thanksgiving Day and the funeral was Tuesday before we sailed on Thursday, in Tennessee. My cousin Philip\u2019s wife Judy died on Saturday and the funeral was on Wednesday before we were to leave on Thursday.<\/p>\n

By the way, Kelsi, our oldest granddaughter and her sister were in a wreck in her brand new, to her, car on Saturday, her boyfriend fell asleep at the wheel and they hit the median wall on I-75 and then spun across the road and hit the guard rail. Car totaled, kid have no serious injuries, praise the Lord.<\/p>\n

We drove to Tennessee Monday, attended the funeral Tuesday, drove home Tuesday night. I officiated the funeral for Judy on Wednesday and we headed to the airport on Thursday morning.\u00a0 Catch our breath. This is the reason socks got overlooked.<\/p>\n

Boarding this ship was a piece of cake, love Faster to the Fun. This ship\u2019s environmental office must like it cold, because this is the coldest I have ever been on a ship outside Glacier Bay AK. Penni heard some people asking for the temperature to be raised. It got better for a couple of days.<\/p>\n

The first two days were sea days then to Gran Turk, man was it great, I do not do sun, I try to avoid it. A few major sunburns in my youth taught me well. My wonderful wife rented us an Air-Conditioned Cabana at the Margaritaville Resort complete with room service. I did get in the ocean with her for a while and then we went to the cabana and I took a nap. The waitress came by and we ordered some lunch and she brought it back to us. We had a special little yellow button on the wall, we could press if we needed something and here she would come. Lunch was ok, then I took an afternoon nap.\u00a0 This was all within walking distance of the ship. In fact, it looked like you could swim right up and touch the ship.<\/p>\n

In St. Kitts we took a bus tour of the island which was OK, but the P.A. system on the bus was broken and it was hard to hear the drivers\u2019 descriptions. The temperature was not bad outside, but in the bus it was hot and the air-conditioning was almost non-existent. The exciting part was the drive up to the fort which was on top of a mountain and accessible by a one lane, very crooked road. Penni is afraid of heights, a fear she inherited that from her dad. On one occasion we had to make a 180\u00b0 turn through an arch. Another bus was coming the other way, it was supposed to use its horn to warn of its approach, but did not. Our driver had to back up to let him by and people on the buss began to panic. They scared Penni to death, with her eyes closed, she asked me \u201care we in real danger\u201d I told her not and everything worked out OK, we made it to the top and spent some time there, I would have loved to walk all the way to the upper part of the fort, but my knees vetoed that idea.<\/p>\n

We then traveled to the other side of the island to see were the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean see met. We saw this from the top of a different mountain, it was a beautiful site. The drive up was not as eventful as the one to the fort. Nor was either ride as eventful as the Jitney Bus in the Bahamas, that ride was like a roller coaster.<\/p>\n

We had a plan for Puerto Rico, but like many of the best laid plans of man they were not to be. We were going to ride the free Trolley, we walked to the Trolley stop, about a half mile and after waiting for about 15 minutes we checked the internet and found the Trolley has not started up since Maria, so we walked to Old San Juan, I am sure it was up hill both ways. Penni shopped for Christmas gifts and we made our way back to the ship for lunch.<\/p>\n

The next day began in the Dominican Republic. We were supposed to meet our tour at 7:00am, but we could not get off the ship until 7:15, which was the time the tour was supposed to begin and we were supposed to be there 15 minutes early, it was a Carnival sponsored tour so, no worries. We met the tour guide in the Amber Cove shopping area and walked to the truck for Outback Adventures. The back of the truck was set up with seats, covered top, open sides, sound system, boogie boards, cooler full of drinks and a tour guide, all included.<\/p>\n

We rode through the town of Puerto Plata and then out toward the rural areas, we stopped by a school where we visited a kindergarten class. The some of the travel agents brought school supplies for the students. Penni was the only agent to sign up for the tour so we transported the school supplies to school.<\/p>\n

Then we traveled into the rural area to a family farm where we toured the farm, much different than my papa\u2019s farm. There was no electricity in the homes, but they had a working restroom for the tourist. We sampled fresh pineapple, papaya, water melon. The tour ended with fresh brewed coffee, from farm grown beans and hot coco, from farm grown chocolate. Of course they were willing to sell us coffee, cocoa, and handmade bracelets.<\/p>\n

We traveled from the farm back toward town to the Outback headquarters for lunch, fried chicken, rice and red beans, salads, fruit etc.\u00a0 Lunch was included with the tour, they only served dark meat chicken which disappointed by wife. This was the place to do some shopping for native made jewelry and trinkets. Also, if you were interested they had different beverages from the Island, rum, pineapple wine and the like were available. This was also the changing station for those who wanted to swim in the ocean at the next stop.<\/p>\n

The ocean was too rough for boggy boarding so we went to a different beach were people could get in the ocean if they wished. Only one lady took advantage of the opportunity and she was in her street clothes. Penni and I laid down on beach chairs and I relaxed for an hour and \u00a0Penni took advantage of the free massage that was included with the tour.<\/p>\n

We loaded the truck and headed back to Amber Cove, a resort area developed by Carnival, about a 30-minute drive. It took about an hour because of road construction. I know you won\u2019t believe this but the road should have been completed before Amber Cove opened. Amber Cover is a nice place with all sorts of shopping, even a Diamonds International. We did buy me a new Sunday watch, mine has been missing since our new chair was delivered to the house, the watch was on the table by the old chair that we replaced. I honestly don\u2019t know if it was knocked into the trash can or if someone else wanted it bad enough to take it.<\/p>\n

Now back to the ship, The Carnival Conquest was in port at the same time we were, John Heald, brand ambassador for Carnival was on board, but we did not see him. He is a very rude and crude Brit that offends a lot of people with his humor. People seem to have lost the ability to laugh at themselves and they don\u2019t consider most things funny anymore. That\u2019s sad, we should laugh at ourselves and enjoy life.<\/p>\n

Ports are done and we are headed home, we had a cocktail party with the Travel Agent group, Penni had Sprite and I had Diet Coke. Ann Hall gave all the Travel Agents a copy of the group photo. Penni was front and center in the photo because I had ordered her a shirt from the Vice President of Sales for Carnival as a gift. \u201cTravel Agents Rock\u201d is the logo on the shirt and proceeds went to charity. The Carnival rep on the cruise Ann Hall had Penni and in her shirt front and center for the photo.<\/p>\n

The next day was a sea day without much activity, a whole lot of relaxing. We played Trivia games in the Ocean Plaza and found out how dumb we really are. I headed to Guy\u2019s burger stand and Penni headed to the Asian stand. We would then meet and eat together. I picked up my burgers, came back to the back of the ship, bought a diet coke and looked for Penni, could not find her, she is only 4\u201910\u201d so it is easy for her to hide. I found an empty table and I finished my burgers. I began to look for Penni and found her on the other side, the starboard side of the ship by a window she had been in line this whole time waiting on her food. We went back to the cabin and packed our bags, took a nap, went a show, went to dinner, said our good byes and headed to bed.<\/p>\n

We had a message from Delta, you know the airline, to check in for our flight. We knew there was supposed to be a dusting of snow at home. Penni tried to check in but could not. We heard that the dusting was turning into a snow storm, a rare thing for the south. Then we received a message from Delta, \u201cYOUR FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.\u201d You need to make other arrangements, click here for other available flights. \u201cclick\u201d no flights available.<\/p>\n

Text: Laura, my niece in Orlando, can you pick us up at the airport and carry us to a motel? Yes, we can and Uncle Dennis mom is here from Macon. God works in mysterious ways. My sister was in town for Christmas shopping with her daughter, my niece Laura. Ok we have a plan.<\/p>\n

We go to bed a little relaxed that we have a plan, still checking with Delta because our plan only gets us as far as Macon. No other options were available. One flight, Orlando to New York, couple of other stops and layovers then about 9 hours later Atlanta. Oh, did I mention it left Orlando at 8:00am Saturday, and our ship docked at about 7:45am and we debarked at 9:45am. So, Laura\u2019s it is.<\/p>\n

Saturday morning, we gather our carry-on luggage, head to breakfast and then to the theatre to wait to be called for de-boarding. We have number 2 on our luggage tags; this means as soon as the self-assist guest get off we can get off. The Carnival guy, calls Faster to the Fun to the gangway, hey, that us, here we go. We get to the gangway, we are stopped, \u201cdo you have all your bags with you\u201d he says, no but the guy called for Faster to the Fun, he calls the guy who called us. He had messed up he was supposed to call Faster to the Fun self-assist, \u201cyou will have to wait.\u201d Now we have lost our seats, so we find a spot to stand and wait.<\/p>\n

Finally, they call us and let us go, we go down the gangplank, down the long ramp to the terminal building, find our luggage quickly, go through customs and begin to look for our ride. We walk past every bus and cannot find anyone with a Cortrans sign. Penni says, \u201cyou stand here and hold all the luggage while I find them\u201d. She walks back by all the busses again and eventually waves to me to come there, but I could not carry all the bags so she comes to help me and we join with a group of people waiting. There is a man in the group with special needs and he his giving the Cortrans guy an ear full about something, not sure what. Eventually a bus arrived and we load our luggage, board the bus and head to Orlando. This bus has the least room between seats that I have ever seen and on top of that the seat in front of me was reclined back and would not move forward.<\/p>\n

Once we arrive at the airport we figure out where we need to meet Laura and Jackie. We went to baggage claim, which was upstairs and found gate #9 and called them to pick us up. We met Cliff and the rest of the family at Sonny\u2019s BBQ for lunch and then checked into our motel. Great price on a brand-new Hotel. Back to Laura\u2019s house, Army \u2013 Navy game is on, great time for a nap.<\/p>\n

Wake up uncle Dennis, it\u2019s time to go to Disney Springs for Christmas lights and dinner. We soon discovered we were not dressed for this cold wave that has hit Florida, (we are supposed to be on a warm plane or back at home by now) time to shop for some windbreakers. Man, this place is expensive, where is Walmart when you need them? We find a couple of jackets that fit the budget, Penni finds a Minnie windbreaker, and I find a Columbia windbreaker on sale. That feels better!<\/p>\n

We walk the trail of trees and we all determine that as soon as Abbie rides the train it is time to go, it is getting cold out here. We did have dinner at Earl of Sandwich before we went to the Trail of Trees. Back to the Hotel and a good night\u2019s sleep; up at 5:30am, breakfast in the hotel, bags packed and waiting on Jackie, and by 8:45am we are headed for Ga.<\/p>\n

We talked with Kelsi about picking us up in Macon in our car, but her mom said the roads were still pretty bad and she did not want Kelsi driving by herself. Lynne and Matt were still without power. Kris volunteered to come get us if that was the only way, but who wants to drive four hours to pick up two old people?<\/p>\n

Penni checked Orbitz and found that the Macon Airport had a deal on a rental car, $32 per day, wow you can\u2019t beat that, the only hitch was their hours were split for the day; 9am \u2013 12pm and 4pm \u2013 7pm. We would be passing by the airport exit at about 2:50pm, so we went to Jackie\u2019s and stayed an hour and then back to the airport, picked up the car and now on our way home. We arrive home around 8:00pm, with luggage and KFC in hand.<\/p>\n

We found 4\u201d of snow on our walkway into the house. We carefully carried the luggage in the house, ate dinner, and crashed. What a great week. Eight glorious days on a beautiful ship with the love of my life, I am ready to go do it again.<\/p>\n

Eight days on a beautiful ship, visiting Caribbean Islands, eating good food and spending time alone with my bride, what a wonderful week. Praise the Lord<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where are my Socks? When I married Penni almost 42 years ago I had no idea of what I was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-penni-and-dennis-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Techguy","author_link":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/author\/techguy\/"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"featured-slide":false,"featured-slide-thumb":false,"primer-featured":false,"primer-hero":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Techguy","author_link":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/author\/techguy\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Where are my Socks? When I married Penni almost 42 years ago I had no idea of what I was…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":957,"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions\/957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfamilytravel.com\/dp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}