Have you ever been on a cruise? Did you know you should always plan to arrive in your embarkation city the day before you depart? Back in the day when I first started traveling, I did not, and boy did I learn that lesson quickly.
The Situation
Like most broke post grads, the years after college graduation can be tough. Trying to find a new routine, how to ask for PTO, the best way to use it since you have so little. One of the very first trips I took with my now husband was the winter after I graduated. We were travel newbies and booked ourselves a cruise to the Bahamas using the points he’d racked up traveling for work. Ohio winters can be dreadful and we needed a little vitamin D.
We planned to fly out of Columbus on the first flight out and arrive by noon, the earliest we could board our boat.
The Stumble
Unfortunately, 6 a.m. is pretty early for showing up to work after a night of drinking. As the minutes counted down closer to our boarding time, the desk agent announced that the flight crew hadn’t arrived yet so we would be delayed until their arrival. Not worried yet, we had a 90-minute layover in Chicago so we were good.
When the pilot and his crew finally arrived to our gate, he openly apologized to the gate agent for their tardiness because he “took the gang out drinking last night” and they were “pretty hungover.” What?! Did I just hear the pilot say he’s hungover and I’m supposed to climb in a giant metal death trap with him in the driver’s seat? It’ll be fine, I kept telling myself. It’ll be fine.
Luckily we got there in one piece, but it was a bad sign for what was to come. After dealing with the delays getting started and some weather in the air, we were now cutting it close to make our connection in Chicago. After grabbing our carry-on bags and running to the gate, we found that we did, in fact, miss our connection. So we spoke with the gate agent and she said that the only other flight from Chicago to Orlando was later that evening, well after our ship left Port Canaveral. She worked some magic and said that she could get us to Memphis and then to Orlando by about 2 p.m. (leaving us an hour to get from MCO to Port Canaveral, an hour before the boat leaves at 4 p.m.).
Feeling a little nervous at this point, I called the cruise company hoping to explain the situation and ask for any advice they might have. They were kind and said to keep them posted. She also explained that since this was just a four-night cruise and the first port was a private island with no airport, we would have to meet up with the ship at our own expense at the last port of call (and pay for lodging until then), missing almost the entire cruise.
Of course, we were delayed in Memphis, and then because we were booked last minute, we had whatever the last boarding zone is and were forced to check our bags at the gate. Even after pleading with the gate agent, she still sent our bags to baggage claim in Orlando.
We were now pushing a 3 p.m. arrival at MCO, and had to wait for our bags at baggage claim, and had now missed the shuttle we paid for in advance.
I called the cruise lady’s direct line she gave me when we landed and stayed on the phone with her indefinitely. She wanted to keep tabs on our location as the minutes ticked closer to the cruise ship leaving port.
Baggage claim felt like forever and then we ran to the taxi area to find a line 35 people long. It was now 3:15 p.m. The boat was leaving us in 45 minutes, but we were not giving up just yet. Desperate to make it before the ship left, we frantically explained our situation to the lovely folks waiting in line and they let us cut to the front, despite the taxi area manager’s dismay.
When we got in the next taxi, the driver sweetly asked where we were headed and explained that this was her second day driving a taxi and that she didn’t know the city well so be patient with her. Seriously? How did we get so unlucky.
My husband explained that we were heading to Port Canaveral and that he would pay her whatever she wanted to drive as fast as she was willing. So with the cruise ship lady giving us directions by phone and my husband on cop watch, this wonderful taxi driver drove 110 miles per hour the entire way. What usually takes an hour took about half that.
As we neared the port parking lot we could see the boat hadn’t left yet, just as the lady on the phone hoped for us. She instructed me to have our cab driver drive through the pay booths (which were opened for us), pass all the normal drop off areas and come directly to the door of the boat with all the queue lines.
She neared dock and of course her credit card machine wasn’t working so she had to find a pen and take down our credit card information so she could do it later. She hadn’t even pulled to a complete stop before a crew of four cruise crew members threw open the car doors and the trunk to grab us and our bags.
“RUN!” they screamed! “We’ll get your bags, just RUN!”
So with all the adrenaline building up all day, we sprinted. There were other crew members who had cleared the queue lines for us and were directing our race to the boat.
Someone must have been watching or radioing the captain because the very moment my foot landed on the red carpet of that ship, the horn sounded and the boat started moving. At 4:02 p.m.
We made it!
No one checked our IDs, passports, inspected our luggage or even asked our names. They just got us on the boat before it left.
The Save
The crew took our bags to our cabin and sent us to the bar to recover with a drink.
I was a cocktail of emotions that only a tiki cocktail would fix:
Grateful to the customer service woman who spent so much time and energy on the phone with me that day, and to the entire team who helped us get there
Stressed out beyond imagination
Exhausted from the physical and emotional adventure we just went on
And most of all relieved that we then got to relax for the next few days
After crying out all my feelings and downing a drink, we went to our cabin to freshen up for dinner. We were so embarrassed by the whole thing, we swore that we wouldn’t mention the trip to anyone else on the boat, but the first thing our new table mates asked after introductions at dinner that evening was: “Did you hear we left a little late because there was this couple who was delayed arriving?”
My husband and I couldn’t help but smirk at each other and own up to our shenanigans. We told the story in visceral detail since it was so fresh and laughed it off with our new friends. We weren’t about to let that stress haunt our first cruise. But let me tell you, I will always recommend arriving the day before you leave to avoid another one of those misadventures.