Part I: Cruise Drama

Despite the fact that we had a wonderful vacation, there were some bumps in the sea - some good and some bad. Fist off, our cruise was supposed to be a 5 day cruise from New Orleans to Cozumel and Progresso Mexico. Then, about a month ago the "Swine Flu" hit. Within days, we received word from Carnival that our cruise had been changed to a 7 day cruise to Key West and Nassau Bahamas! We were so excited!

We left one week ago today and boarded the ship around 3:00 PM. There was plenty of line-waiting trying to get on the ship, but once we were on board, all of that became a distant memory. That night, I won $250 playing BINGO - and won with my lucky number (B-4)! After a good night's sleep, we ate breakfast and headed to the first activity where we heard that the ship had to stop for a couple of hours the night before so that a passenger could be airlifted back to New Orleans for medical treatment. We did hear later that the passenger's condition had improved after being hospitalized.

No worries, though, because the captain planned to make up some time on our "fun day at sea" and we would only be 30 minutes late to Key West the next morning. Sunday evening during dinner, the boat came to a grinding halt and the captain came over the loudspeaker shouting, "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!" We had no idea what it meant, but from the look on our waiters faces--it was not good. We all immediately thought, "PIRATES!" However, we later learned that a teenager named Bruce jumped overboard. Please keep this poor family in your prayers!

After searching for 7 hours, the Coast Guard released our ship, and we headed to Key West. Unfortunately, the delay meant that we did not arrive in Key West until 1:00 PM. We had to cancel our kayak excursion, but did enjoy walking around Key West for a couple of hours. We went by Captain Tony's and Bob's picture is still hanging there.

The last dramatic incident involves a minor one, but still caused the captain to stop the boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for an hour or so. A boat had capsized, and one of the crew members noticed it as we were travelling back to New Orleans yesterday. Our boat stopped and some crew members were lowered in a lifeboat to see if there was anything the ship could do. Luckily, the Coast Guard released us and we were free to continue our journey home. More to come--great friends!