MITSUGIRLYS JOYful CRUISE
This was our first time on the Joy and we were excited to try a new ship. We had the Oasis on RC scheduled for our spring break when COVID hit and it was cancelled. I had waited over 10 years to sail that ship and was so excited. Blah!
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During COVID we did all land vacations and had a blast. You can find them all listed under my "Land Vacations" tab, located at the top of the page, from any page. I have to admit, I absolutely LOVED doing the land vacations we had. Once cruising resumed, I was hesitant to go back because of all the reports of people contracting COVID while on the ship and having to stay in their small rooms the entire cruise just didn't seem enticing enough for me to return. As a nurse, I continued to see and read about everyone that had been vaccinated and still managing to get the virus. So we all know that even when we're vaccinated, you can still get it. I would say that about 90% of all my patients that ended up getting COVID had been vaccinated. Of course the vaccination doesn't prevent you from getting the virus, only supposed to make the symptoms less. Even my husband came down with it last year and thank goodness his symptoms were not too bad. So, I waited to resume cruising. I didn't want to take any more chances than I had to for our family. Land vacations allowed us to be on our own most of the time and definitely not clustered in large groups of people.
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Now everyone that follows me is aware of my accident 3 1/2 years ago with my leg. It's been a grueling experience with chronic pain and swelling and I honestly believe most of this was due to my body rejecting the hardware. Walking has been a nightmare for me, as you all know, but I managed to push through it while on vacations. Hey, who doesn't feel better while on vacation right? Well my third surgery happened this January. We normally vacation 3 times a year, with the last one being around December. This would be the first time in a long time that we didn't have a vacation in December. I had planned on having my surgery in November, then it was pushed back to December as I got second and third opinions, so we didn't book anything. Then my surgery was rescheduled for January and it was too late to figure out a vacation for December. If you haven't heard about my accident or followed along with my recovery, there's also a tab at the top labeled "My Foot Journey" that starts from the beginning until now. I thought it would be good to document everything along the way for several reasons...first and foremost, I wanted a record of everything and something to look back on and second, so many people have asked me about it and continue to send me messages asking how things are going.
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So my January surgery was done and now it's time to put my foot to the ultimate test again. How is this going to work out?...You'll all see during the review.
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On our last land vacation, to Isla Mujeres Mexico, Sakari said she just really wanted to return to cruising. She has missed it so much. I mean it's been December 2019 since our last cruise. WOW! Over 3 years now! Time really flew by! So, being the awesome mother I am, I was determined to get her back to cruising again and promised the next vacation would be a cruise. There's one thing I've noticed...prices have REALLY went up! You pay more for an interior now than what we used to pay for a balcony. I just couldn't believe how much they've went up.
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I searched high and low on all of the cruise lines and decided I HAD to go with NCL for the simple fact that I have like 10 cruise certificates sitting on my account still. UGH! Why did I do that? I guess I'll be cruising with NCL for awhile now...as much as I wanted to go back to another line (eh hem...RC for one of their BIG ships on the Oasis class) I'm stuck now...at least for awhile.
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So let's talk about Spring Break cruising. I've never had a problem in the past with it, although others complain, I figured it would just be like any other cruise we've done. I was going to pick a ship we haven't sailed on (remember my motto...try to sail a new ship each time IF possible). So after searching, I came across the JOY and seen it had a race track on it. Who doesn't want a little competition right?
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The Joy came out in 2017 and was refurbished in 2020. Dang, why does it seem like it's really not that long ago when it came out? It's over 5 years old now. I guess when you don't cruise for over 3 years, time passes by quickly. The Joy has a capacity of 3,804 passengers. Yea, it's going to be crowded.
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The itinerary included Roatan Honduras, Harvest Kay Belize, Costa Maya Mexico, and Cozumel Mexico. All places we have been MANY times and even land vacationed in Cozumel. Not really the itinerary I was hoping for, but it would have to do. Finding new things to do in each port was quite the challenge and I actually waited until the week before the cruise to secure some of the excursions. Yikes! That's so not like me at all. I'm a planner and researcher! My family depends on me to provide them with an excellent experience. I hope I don't let them down! Although this time around I let Sakari help with most of the planning. Actually 3 ports were planned by her (or should I say the activities were picked by her). So if she doesn't have fun...I can blame her. ;) We are so use to just going to various beaches in port and snorkeling but then those teenage years struck during COVID and now it's all about actual ACTIVITIES! MUST HAVE FUN! MUST BE ACTIVE! How do you find activities that will keep a teen busy and adventurous? She's no longer the little kid who would sit on the beach in her mermaid tail, attracting attention from everyone, and was just happy with that. Although she did consider bringing a mermaid tail this time, for old times sake, then days before we left, she decided against it. She's about an inch shorter than me and growing into a beautiful young lady. She has ALWAYS been adventurous (remember she was jumping off 2 story decks into the Caribbean waters and zip lining in the rain forest at 3 years old). We've done it all....but need to do more in her opinion. #mykidisexpensivethesedays
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So, we had picked our ship and itinerary and booked for spring break. During this process I took a new (but second) job and fortunately they allowed me the time off for this trip.
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We booked our airline tickets with Southwest (who we usually always use) and booked our hotel to stay in Miami. Man the prices of hotels have also went up! This is going to be one expensive trip! Maybe we should have stuck to land vacations. We will see...
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So about our room we picked...well....we didn't. This will be a first for me as well. I've sailed in interiors, balconies and a balcony suite once. I've always picked out my room. This time would be different. I went with the cheapest possible and that meant a "sailaway inside" for us this time around. Would this be a mistake? We'll see. But I'm willing to chance it. I've always said, we really don't spend much time in the room and usually only use it to sleep and shower in, so I've only booked balconies in the past if the deal was just too good to pass up. I'm holding my breath now...
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About a month after booking (if that) I received an email from NCL
So what is this? I don't remember ever getting anything like this in the past. But I was definitely going to give it a shot! I mean it can't hurt anything. I put my bids in and I waited. Then I would later find out that the bid only involved paying for the first 2 people. Ok, I thought it I'd have to pay that price for 3 people if I won. That meant I could update my bid for a higher amount now. I'm such a newbie at this. But, I wasn't holding my breath and convinced myself I'd be perfectly fine with our choice to let NCL give us the smallest, worse room they had on the ship if it came to that. I mean we'd be cruising again and that's all that matters. Right? Please say I'm right. Give me a little bit of hope.
I was also assigned to my room fairly quickly as well. It was an interior that was located on a middle hallway. Hmmm, I don't know if that's good or bad. It was on the front of the ship, so that meant a little walking to get to an elevator to go anywhere. I'm wondering if my leg is going to survive.
I also decided to go ahead and pre-pay my daily service charges because if we waited until we got on the ship, the prices go up.
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Off subject, but not really. Hubby decided to go get his CDL's and we found out that while getting them, he would get the TSA pre-check with it they said for free. Well, that meant we were going to have to apply for it too! He's not getting away with hitting the fast lane without us! We applied for an appointment, which took a month, but we did it and got our results back with our Known Traveler Number and was able to input that into our flight plans and we were excited about this!
Next up was filling out our documents for the cruise to check-in. I did notice a few changes. Within the check-in, they now have you watch a video for the "mustard" drill. Each person checking in had to watch it. After that, you will receive an email asking you to watch it again. Then another, then another. Talking to others in our fb group, everyone seem to have the lucky number of 7 times that the emails were sent from NCL to have you view the video. Ok, we get it! Enough already. I was impatiently waiting for them to send us a test on it. Thank goodness they didn't because at that point my eyes were rolled in the back of my head as if I was sitting in front of a boring professor at school.
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The other thing that was new was they wanted you to upload a picture of yourself for verification. Well I was not proper enough for that when I was checking in, so I was on the search for a picture of myself (taken by Sakari when we went out to eat), a picture of Sakari from our Valentines day dinner (since she was in school) and the hubby took one on the spot.
Meanwhile...I joined the NCL Joy facebook group for my cruise and then somehow I found out about the "cruising ducks" phenomenon. I mean who doesn't like furry little yellow ducks? Only I would find out they were rubber and not only yellow but came in many multiple colors...including a fancy glitter option! The search was on! I needed to find ducks. I wanted to go duck hunting and hiding was going to be a ton of fun. Sakari and I did friendship rock painting once and hid them on a ship but man that was a lot of work! This had to be easier. My search showed that you can buy just about any type of duck you wanted. Sailor ducks, animal ducks, ducks for easter, valentines day...you name it, it can be found. Well, I knew I wanted some cute little sailor ducks.
I also knew I wanted some Easter ducks, since this was going to be an Easter cruise.
This was going to be fun! I even joined a few "Duck Cruising" facebook pages and I found someone post that there were glitter ducks at one of the local stores. Yep, I had to go duck hunting around home as well and found these...
I purchased tags to go on them and even put my website on it hoping that people would send pictures of the ducks they found and I created a tab for the cruising ducks. Oh what fun! That is until I had to physically fill them all out by hand. WHEW! Writers cramp to the max.
Well the fun only lasted so long and then tragedy struck. The hubby was driving one day and he said he seen a burst of specs and then the only way he could describe it was a "curtain" was pulled down on the upper half of his eye on one side. It was bothering him off and on and went to the eye doctor and we were delivered the bad news. His retina had detached. Oh my!
They told him he needed immediate surgery TONIGHT! Um say what??? Well they scheduled with a surgeon for an 8:45pm visit at the surgery center and we met him there. He confirmed that he would need emergency surgery...but it would be the next day.
He had 2 options for surgery. One was to place a gas bubble into the eye to push the retina back into place and then repairs the holes and tears. This is called a retinopexy. The issue with that was that you cannot have any altitude changes. That meant NO flying and NO scuba diving. Maaannnnnn! It also required you to lay face down to keep the bubble in the right spot for a week he said. Like how do you even do that?
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The second option was to have a Scleral Buckle surgery. In this procedure they place a band around the white part of your eye (the sclera) and it pushes on the sides of the eye and reshapes it. Most people that have an almond shaped eye are near sighted. This band is something that stays in your eye for the rest of your life! Once the eye reshapes, it pulls the retina back into place and starts to repair itself. He was also informed he had 2 holes that would need to be repaired and 3 tears as well. Then once healed, he would be nearsighted again and would need to wear a contact in that eye or glasses....or (as I inquired about) he could later do lasik again to correct the vision. Also, if he was able to do this surgery, he'd be able to fly and dive. We would not know the decision of the surgeon until they were actually in surgery.
We went home that night feeling defeated. We were leaving for vacation in approximately 2 weeks exactly. Hubby was saying he'd take the chance and fly and blah blah blah. NO! We were not taking any chances...especially with his eyesight! I was contemplating how we were going to go about this. If he had the gas bubble we were going to have to drive and that meant leaving 2 days before the cruise because driving is my least favorite thing to do. If we're going going 2 hours away from home, I'm checking flights...no lie. That's how much I hate it. But, we weren't missing this cruise. We would be on the beach just relaxing instead of activities. Whatever it takes. But we were planning...just in case.
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The next morning came and we were at the surgery center early. They had us wait for 5+ hours before they finally took him back (since he wasn't a scheduled surgery, they had to fit him in whenever they could). Finally they took him back and now it was in the hands of the surgeon while I anxiously waited in the waiting room.
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He was in there for a few hours before I finally received a text from him saying he was out and doing ok. They finally let me back to see him. He was still a bit groggy. We got the good news that they decided to do the band. That meant we were able to fly and dive.
He was to wear a patch for awhile and then it changed to overnight only. However, he said "I want to be a pirate!" So he went out and purchased a pirate patch. He would soon discover that this wouldn't be an "overnight" "thing". His eye was so sensitive to light that he wouldn't be able to stand ANY light for the next 2 weeks.
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His follow up appointment the next day said everything looked good.
His appointment a week later would show that the retina has started to pull back into the spot it should be in and heal and it was at 30%. That was good news. But man did he look like hell.
So since this occurred, you know I had to make the best of it and get these for the hubby...I didn't want him to feel left out.
Yep! They had pirate ducks!!!!! With the eye patch. See how caring I am? :)
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We also have had some changes in our life that were going to be a challenge while cruising. Stay tuned for more of that.
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We were going down to Miami one day before the cruise (playing it safe) and we would have a morning flight out so to bed fairly early. It would definitely be hard to sleep from the excitement.
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The journey begins tomorrow.