Carnival Triumph, July 30, 2005 - Canada New England 5 Night Cruise

Greetings All!

I hope you'll indulge my compulsion to send home updates while we're gone on a trip. I like writing them and I enjoy reading them later. Just hit delete until next Thursday if you simply can't bear it. :-)

Philip, the kids and I flew from DFW to LGA (New York LaGuardia) yesterday morning. Upon arrival in NYC, we needed to get to the terminal where Cile, Bama and Grandpop would be coming in an hour later. We learned more about LaGuardia than we ever had hoped to know, but we finally found them as well as our prearranged van driver.

We got to the Muse Hotel, where I've stayed before with Kimmy when I brought her here several years ago. The hotel is just as lovely and the same deli across the street is still just as great a deal.

Philip once again hit a homerun on getting theater tickets for us. He had secured tickets to "Wicked". It is a "prequal" (sp?) to the Wizard of Oz. We saw Ben Vereen and Rue McClanahan. It was a GREAT show. Cile bought the kids a CD of the music, which I'm sure will get worn out.

I woke up this morning and ran in Central Park. I could stay here for a month and just run every day there. It's so beautiful and there are so many cool trails and bodies of water to run around. There are horses and carnivals and boats. I was able to easily walk there from the hotel.

Next I went back to the hotel and got myself and the children ready to go. I drug them out in the middle of Time Square where they were subjected to the torture of having multiple pictures made with various backgrounds.

Now Philip is in the process of checking us all out of the hotel and we will take taxis to the cruise ship terminal shortly.

More from the boat!

"Let's DO THIS!"	The kids in Time Square

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Greetings!

Sorry I didn't send an update yesterday! Boarding went fine on Saturday. I had a massage on Saturday afternoon. The prices at the spa, of course, are out of site. The "in port" discount is still $30.00 higher than the price of a massage at home. The difference is that I don't have the time at home to actually go GET a massage. I'm also going to have one on Wednesday.

I also tried yoga for the first time yesterday. Today my stomach muscles are sore. I'm going to have to look into yoga classes when I get home! I'm assuming a ships horn doesn't go off every 5 minutes during a normal yoga class?

The ships horn kept sounding all morning yesterday because we were sailing through fog so thick we could hardly see the water from our balconies. About lunch time it burned off.

Both of the kids went to various "Camp Carnival" activities yesterday. Trey wasn't terribly thrilled when I picked him up the first time, but he later asked to go back and he wants to be there all the time ever since. Trey did fall apart yesterday afternoon at the pool, so I brought him back to the cabin and put him in bed with Philip who was already there napping. Two hours later he was a new little boy. He says that Camp Carnival is his favorite part of the ship so far.

Ruthie is enjoying some new freedom here on board. In her age group the kids have authority to sign in and out of Camp Carnival. She has free run of the ship and has a key to the cabin. She has some guidelines from us, and she checks in from time to time, but she chooses when to come and go. Apparently she sang Karaoke last night. Don't worry, she was accompanied by Daddy, Grandpop and Aunt Cile in the Karaoke Bar. She sang "Castle on a Cloud" and received a standing ovation. Tonight she is talking about singing "Dancing Queen."

We have been in Saint John, New Brunswick today. It is raining in Saint John today. Apparently Saint John was the first incorporated town in Canada. In other news, today is "New Brunswick Day." I have no idea what this day commemorates, but what it translates to for us was that many places were closed today. The closings included both places for free or inexpensive Internet access. Therefore, I am writing this email out in my cabin before going up to the Internet access point here in the ship. This way I will use less minutes.

Speaking of minutes...you may have heard Carnival say how cruises today are about the same price that they were 30 years ago. The reason they are able to do that is because they engage in so many more revenue generating opportunities onboard than ever before. Everywhere you turn there are opportunities to spend $$. Of course, the spa is a big money maker...but wherever you go there will be extra charges for the spa. One enhancement is that they now have a different price list based on if the ship is in port or at sea. That just makes good sense, because of course the demand is much higher when the ship is at sea. You know that yoga class I attended yesterday? There was a $10.00 charge for that. Of course the alcoholic beverages cost $$, but that doesn't affect me much. There are art auctions available here on board, there are tons of shops. There is a "Starbucks" type coffee shop where they charge extra for specialty coffees and special pastries. They also have extra after hours childcare that are available for $6.00 per hour for the first child, $4.00 per hour for each additional. One very annoying revenue producing opportunity is the in cabin movies. Previously, the cruise line ran a first run movie on a continuous loop all day long. Each day they did a different movie and throughout the day you could pick up different parts of the movie during the short parts of time you were in the cabin. Now, they only offer pay per view movies. The price is $9.00 per movie. Today I came back to the cabin to relax and watch a movie. Since I paid for the movie I had to struggle to stay awake because I was not going to pay another $9.00 to watch the ending later. How annoying! They do also have some free TV like Discovery Channel, TLC and some satellite channels from NYC.

Overall we're having a great time. The seas are very smooth and we haven't had motion issues at all..rain and fog, yes...motion, no. I seem to be developing some upper respiratory symptoms and am trying to rest and guzzle orange juice.

Philip is on his way to his massage and I'm going to get dressed and go transmit this email.

Talk with you soon!

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Trey and the Carnival Logo	Passing a lighthouse	Reading on the balcony

Greetings!

I am writing to you from the Mission to Seafarers in Halifax Nova Scotia. It is an interesting place. It is a Christian Mission to people who work on ships (not only cruise ships but all kinds of ships) around the world. Here you can eat, play pool, hang out, use the phone or the Internet.

It is within walking distance of where we are parked. Very interesting.

Not a whole lot has happened since last I sent an update. This is our last port day, then we have one more day at sea. After that the kids and I will fly home from NYC, Philip will go on to Chicago for a TAMS meeting. He'll be home Saturday.

I'm sure I'll have more later, but for now...Adios!

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Ruthie and Trey waiting for room service	Grandpop and the kids	Hanging with dad
There's just nothing like a sunset on the balcony	Our waitress, Sudy...she was GREAT!	Birds of a Feather

Greetings!

We are enjoying our final day at sea. Last night was rough. According to the ships captain, the winds were force "7" or "Near Gale" force. We had swells of 2.5 to 4 meters which is classified as "rough". None of us had a problem. Ruthie did for a short time, but I gave her some Dramamine and she was fine. I think she was more troubled at the possibility that she might get sick. Once we talked about how just because you feel motion doesn't automatically mean that you'll get sick, she seemed to do better.

Yesterday afternoon I fell asleep on the deck near the pool which "supervising" Ruthie who was busy going down the slide over and over again. It was a great nap and today half of my face is sunburned. It is an interesting look.

Today I had my final massage. I was scheduled to have another massage with the same therapist that I had before. I was very much looking forward to it. When I checked in, the therapist came back and it was a different girl. Evidently there was some mixup. The new girl wasn't strong at all and it felt like I paid $100.00 to have oil applied to my skin for an hour. Not exactly what I was wanting. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

I ran another 4 miles today. I've been running on the treadmill because when you're at sea it's almost impossible to run on the track. The track is on the very top deck of the ship and therefore is not protected from the wind at all. Not only is it over 11 laps to make a mile, but for half of each lap you are fighting a significant headwind, for the other half of each lap you are trying not to fly off the ship from the tailwind.

We absolutely love our balcony. We had the room steward open the divider between our balcony and Cile's balcony. This enables us and the kids to be able to go back and forth without having to worry about room keys or propping doors open. I'm wondering how it will be next week on the Alaska cruise without even a window. I find that it is wonderful to sit in our room with the balcony door open or out on the balcony itself. In fact, I'm sitting in the room composing this email before heading up to the Internet cafe.

Tonight we will begin the process of packing, setting our luggage outside and getting ready to make the transition back to Texas. The kids and I will fly home from JFK and Philip will from from LaGuardia to Chicago Ohare. I'll be at work on Friday and all of next week, then it's off to the Alaska cruise.

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Greetings!

Three fourths of the Banks clan have returned home. Philip went directly to Chicago to attend a meeting and he'll be home on Saturday.

It was quite an eventful day of travel. First of all, Trey woke up sick. He had that barky cough and was just wilted. I was making phone calls and arrangements to have him seen by a doctor prior to getting on the plane. As the disembarkation process continued, however, he seemed to be perking up and sounding better. I decided to forgo medical attention until arriving home.

The kids and I were booked from JFK, whereas Philip, Cile, Bama and G/pop were booked out of LaGuardia. Not a huge deal, really since we had to take three taxis to go anywhere anyway. We arrived at the airport extremely early. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 425pm and we arrived in line at the airport at 1130am. We couldnt' really go do any sightseeing due to the amount of luggage we had, not to mention the fact that it was $50.00 in cab fare to get from Manhattan to JFK. Once we were there, we were there.

I am amazed at how behind the times JFK airport is. Most airports these days are like shopping malls. There are things to look at and do. Not that I'm a fan of shopping malls, but if you have a few hours to kill at least it will keep you occupied. JFK offered very little in the way of amusement. We settled in, however, and tried to make the best of our four hour wait.

We staked out a corner at the gate where we were slated to depart. We stretched out and played cards, colored, did worksheets and what not. Other children came around from time to time and broke up the monotony for the kids. Trey still sounded rough, but he was acting just fine.

As the flight time got closer, we couldn't help but notice that there was no aircraft. Finally, they made the announcement that the aircraft had been diverted to Baltimore due to weather. Even though it was never anything but sunny and bright at JFK, apparently there was some weather in the area. Bama, G/pop and Cile's plane was delayed due to the same weather system.

I'm sure you've all been through airline delays, so I won't paint a picture of that here. Basically the appointed time would draw near...and pass...then there would be another announcement....then the time would draw near....and pass...and then there would be another announcement.

At one point we were told to change gates. We tromped down and staked out another corner to call our own. At this point Trey was pretty tired. Our travel pillow somehow broke on the way to New York, so it wouldn't hold air, but I at least laid the fleece cover on the ground for Trey to lay his head on. He passed out on the floor for the next few hours. I have pictures. In fact, total strangers took pictures of him because it was such sorry sight to see such a sweet baby passed out on the floor of such an awful airport.

At one point a mouse darted across the floor and across Ruthie's lap and under the wall behind her.

Trey woke up about 20 minutes before our boarding time. At this point we'd been at JFK for about 9 hours. He woke up and immediately started screaming. He sounded just awful and had that "wilted" quality to him again. I went over to the little magazine stand place and asked if they had any liquid Tylenol or Advil. All they had was infant Tylenol drops. I got Jan on the phone ASAP to help me figure out the proper dose.

As boarding started I was doubting if I should put us on the plane. I was thinking about when I was in Italy and his throat had closed up and he couldn't breath. I couldn't stand the possibility of that happening again.

I alerted the airline people and they said they could call for medical assistance. We agreed that I would wait until the last minute to make the call...I wanted to give the Tylenol a chance to work. I asked the airline people if they thought there might be a doctor or a nurse in the large crowd of people. They never made an announcement, but a wonderful lady came up a few minutes later and said she was an RN and how could she help me.

She and her traveling companion and given Ruthie a Rubic's Cube a few hours prior and they'd been the ones to tell us that that dark shadow that scurried across Ruthie's lap was indeed a mouse. Isn't it amazing that God sends us just what we need?

Anyway, I explained what was going on and we looked down his throat with a flashlight and she said she felt like he would be okay to make it to Dallas. He did seem to be perking up with the Tylenol...so we boarded the flight.

Thankfully the flight was uneventful. We retrieved our bags and arrived home around midnight. We were delayed over 4 hours all in all.

We've been to the doctor this morning who says that Trey has Bronchitis. His trachea and his larnyx are also inflammed.

I'm busy answering emails and voicemails, doing laundry and basically catching up. I just wanted you to know that we are home and safe.

Eight days from today...it's off to Alaska, so stay tuned!

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Trey passed out	Early in the airport ordeal
The Angry Mob	"Our Corner"
Sunrise over New York Skyline from our Balcony	Ruthie making the best of things