As I mentioned in the previous post, my family went cruising. For months we had planned our 7- day Caribbean cruise on Holland America. There was talk of inviting other friends or family members to join us, but we decided against it. The 6dooleys have not been on vacation alone since 2006 when we spent two nights on Tupper Lake. Therefore, this was our trip. When we were first making arrangements, rooming options were discussed. My dad had an idea to get only two rooms: a boys and a girls room. I vetoed that immediately. Then, my dad asked me if the four kids could share a room. We could potentially get a big discount by adding two extra people to the room. I thought about it, thought about discount equalling tiny, thought about Erin's outrageous bikini collection exploding in the room and thought about the boys who don't particularly put showers first on their list of priorities, and I vetoed that idea as well. And it was agreed, three rooms, one for the parents, one for the girls, and one for the boys.
The night before we left for our trip, Holland America called my dad. The cruise line had overbooked the ship, and wanted us to consolidate rooms. They offered to upgrade my parents to a suite, but they would have to have one of the other rooms share with them. My dad decided that the four kids would take the upgrade. And so it was decided, four kids in one room. Ruh roh.
Quickly getting last minute technological things figured out.
But in reading the fine print, looking more carefully at what our upgrade entailed, and watching the online tour of the suite, it didn't seem so terrible.
My dad has a lot of baggage.
When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale to board the ship Erin read a sign stating to identify yourself if you were in a Deluxe Verandah Suite. When she did, we were pulled out of line, brought to the front, and to a separate line to check in. Don't worry, we brought my mom along with us. When we got our key cards Chip, Erin, Garvey and I had gold cards. My mom and dad's cards were blue.
The line we skipped
On the ship nice and early, before the rooms were ready.
In our very spacious room, with a very large balcony, we found a laundry bag for complimentary dry cleaning. The four of us put dresses, pants, shirts and skirts into the bag to be pressed. Yes, we had our clothes pressed. And during the week we had clothes dry cleaned, washed and pressed many more times.
The balcony was so spacious, Garvey slept on it.
Our laundry delivery
We also each had our own stationary. Poor Mom and Dad had to share a few pieces of stationary, while we each got our own!
The four of us also had access to The Neptune Lounge. Apparently this is a big deal. Basically, it is a lounge, with a private "front desk" for only those in suites. The room has delicious food out all day long, an espresso maker and juices and coffee. And, as Garvey really liked, the room doesn't have sugar for coffee. Instead, they have rock candy. If that isn't high class, I don't know what is.
The first afternoon on the ship we decided to go check out The Neptune Lounge. We found board games and agreed to play a family favorite, Rummikub. And, no, The Neptune Lounge didn't have just any old Rummikub, they had the deluxe large numbers version. The game came in a case with a handle! High class.
Hours later, after playing three rounds, and my siblings losing terribly to me, we wandered back downstairs towards my parents' room, but not without taking a little detour to explore. Before we had rounded the corner we could hear my dad sniffing. The four of us came around the corner and he said, "where have you been?! I have been looking everywhere for you!"
"We were playing Rummikub in The Neptune Lounge. Ooooh, right. You can't go there."
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