http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi This is the RSS feed for Drivemeinsane.com. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151580718.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151580718.xml Sun, 07 Jun 2015 07:18:00 CST I have already somewhat explained my impressions of flying First Class. This was mostly in contrast to the last time I flew economy. I always flew economy, but the last flight experience was sufficiently uncomfortable to make me consider cross-country driving as an acceptable alternative from that point on. It wasn't just the several hour wait in a hot and extremely crowded airport. It wasn't the seats that were an inch and a half narrower than the ones from the previous flights on that trip. Not the fact that we were assigned the last row on a 737, with an underseat storage area that was smaller than advertised and therefore wouldn't properly fit my briefcase. It wasn't the baby across the aisle that DID NOT STOP WAILING for the entire 2 hours of the flight. It wasn't really even the fact that I realized that from the time we left the hotel to the time I drove into my driveway, we could have driven the whole way faster than flying ultimately took, and even with gas prices as high as they were, and as much of a gas guzzler my truck was, and despite the Q coded class pricing of our three tickets, it would have still come out a couple hundred dollars cheaper. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151492359.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151492359.xml Fri, 29 May 2015 23:59:00 CST The last day of the vacation has arrived. We awaken about 5am, shower, get dressed, and finish up the packing. Looking out the window, we can see lights as we approach land. We work our way up to the top deck and pretty much the entire population of the ship is up there to witness the arrival. We pass under the Verrazano-Narrows bridge with about 11 ft to spare (by design) and take a slow jaunt around the bay, escorted by numerous news helicopters, fire barges, and other smaller boats. We do a full turn around so both sides of the ship are able to view the Statue of Liberty, and then slowly make our way toward the Cape Liberty Cruise port in New Jersey. After taking a sufficient quantity of pictures, we head inside to hit the Windjammer for breakfast before it gets too crowded, as we need to be ready to depart by 7:30am. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470151.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470151.xml Wed, 27 May 2015 01:51:00 CST Not a whole lot happened this day either. We did some more crafts and saw the last variety show that night. We spent a couple hours that evening getting all packed up since we had to get up really early the next day to witness our arrival in NYC. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470145.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470145.xml Wed, 27 May 2015 01:45:00 CST We wandered the ship some more, and then it was Gertie's opportunity to surf on the flowrider. To occupy ourselves that afternoon we participated in some crafts, then later that night saw another variety show that featured a juggling performance. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470142.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470142.xml Wed, 27 May 2015 01:42:00 CST Today was the day for Gertie to ride the ripcord, which involved her waiting for an hour and a half, and I got some more pictures of the boat and ocean while I waited to film the event. After that was done we snuck into one of the unoccupied elite areas and crawled into one of the lounge ... teardrops? to rest for a bit. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470136.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470136.xml Wed, 27 May 2015 01:36:00 CST The next morning we at breakfast at Silk as they were doing a Dreamworks Character Breakfast. Basically the same meals they always served but with a glorifed menu and characters in costume. Strangely more adults here than children, but there weren't that many kids on the ship to begin with. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470122.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470122.xml Wed, 27 May 2015 01:22:00 CST A couple of days prior to this point, one of the passengers developed a serious heart condition. The ship has a medical center on board, basically the equivalent of an Urgent Care, so they can handle minor medical issues, but more serious things require offboarding the patient to a land based hospital. Not a huge problem... except we're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. As it turns out, the most accessible option to get the patient to a hospital was to stop by the Azores. So dawn on the 4th day had us approching Ponta Delgada. We didn't dock at the island but stopped about a mile offshore and a smaller boat docked with us and ferried the patient to shore. The whole process took a few hours. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470052.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151470052.xml Wed, 27 May 2015 00:52:00 CST The weather was still pretty rough this day, so most of the activities weren't available. Gertie had an appointment to get her nails done, so I took the opportunity to wander the ship a bit. Later she had a rehersal for the flash mob but the rocking made that difficult as well. We ended up just lounging around for the day. Later that night we ate dinner at Chops Grill, met the captian there, and after that went to our first show to watch Earl Turner. We visited the dance hall for a bit after that, and then returned to our room to sleep. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151181003.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151181003.xml Tue, 28 Apr 2015 10:03:00 CST We woke up the next morning and the bed was moving back and forth. Well, actually the floor, room and entire ship was rocking back and forth as well. Once we hit the open seas, it got pretty rough. We were on deck 3 and the waves were high enough that they occasionally submerged our window. It wasn't too bad down on deck 3 where our room was, but up on deck 14 where we went to eat breakfast at the Windjammer, we were pretty much walking on walls. First one wall, then a few seconds later, the other. After eating breakfast, we continued exploring the ship a bit. All of the pools were closed, as were most of the other activities. They also canceled all of the shows as the rocking of the ship made performing them unsafe. http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151160802.xml http://drivemeinsane.com/cgi-bin/dispnews.cgi?name=daily151160802.xml Sun, 26 Apr 2015 08:02:00 CST The stateroom wasn't exactly roomy, but was certainly large enough to move around without having to climb over each other. It included a king sized bed, a sofa, a desk, a bathroom with shower, and lots of closet and dresser space. The suitcases fit nicely under the bed, so once everything was put away, we had a nice little home away from home away from land. Getting ahead of ourselves a bit though, since our luggage hadn't arrived yet (other than what we carried on with us). There were a few minor issues, namely our safe didn't work and the AC either didn't work or wouldn't let us set it (can't remmeber now). We were also having issues with scheduling and despite having made reservations for dinner and the shows each night months in advance, we had to reschedule much of it.