*Wednesday November 10, 2010 4:00pm
It has been a better day. They started serving food in 3 places instead of 1 so the lines have been better but the caliber of food still isn't great. The weather has been a bit warmer so we spent a lot of time today out on deck. We both finally bit the bullet and took freezing cold showers with the door open so we could get some light. We saw some dolphins this morning which was fun. We are making good time and they say we will be in San Diego by noon on Thursday but we will still have to disembark. We finally got cell service and I called Mom. I couldn't talk long, but she did ask if I was eating Pop Tarts. I thought it was really weird she would ask me that. I found out later that we have been all over the news. They are saying all we have is Spam and Pop Tarts- I would love a pop tart but I haven't seen any. We did have a very nice fellow passenger give us a can of Pringles. He had waited in line for an hour when they opened the gift shop but somehow ended up getting more then he needed. It was so nice.
We thought this was so funny- they were on every floor by the elevators and almost all of them spelled vomit with a 'd'
Me and our delicious can of Pringles- what a treat
The pop tarts appeared Thursday morning at breakfast. Breakfast really was the best meal- cereal and yogurt as opposed to weird sandwiches and lettuce.
By Wednesday we were really getting bored. We also were really struggling with the smells of the ship. You pretty much had 4 choices: inside it smelled like spoiled and rotting food, outside it smelled like diesel from the emergency generator, many floors smelled like human waste (sorry that's gross) and lots of the common rooms smelled like cigarette smoke. We chose the cigarette smoke- we would sit in the smokers lounge and play cards because that was the smell we could stand the most. Our clothes reeked when I unpacked our suit cases. The rotting food smell was the worst and it was so hard to wait in line for food for an hour and smell it. By Wednesday night, I couldn't eat dinner because I was so tired of the food and it all reeked so bad. So like I said, those Pop Tarts Thursday morning were awesome.
Lucky for us we pulled into San Diego Thursday morning around 8:00am. We had no power still so that meant no propulsion and no steering. So we were so close for so long, but the tugs had to pull and push us in real slow. Then they had to hook up all the gang planks manually. By some divine providence, we were in the first disembarkation group- there were 30 groups I think. So we were one of the very first people off the boat. They had a tent set up with agents to help us with our travel arrangements- they had booked us a very nice room at the Westin in Los Angeles. They also provided buses for everyone.
San Diego
Lucky for us, our good friends Scott and Meaghan Latimer were in San Diego, so they picked us up. However, in order to leave the dock and get to a place where we could meet up with them we had to/ got to walk through the media. There were vans and satellite trucks all over from all the major networks who wanted coverage on the story. Since we were some of the first people off both Spence and I were able to be interviews. Spence didn't love it but I thought it was a hoot. They were shoving cameras and microphones in my face and asking me all these questions. I got e-mails and text messages from people all over the place- Washington, Utah, Texas- who saw Spence and I on TV or read quotes from us in the paper. Here are a few links to our interviews:
On this one I am quoted in the written story and then if you watch the video we are at the 2 minute mark. We both kind of look like goons, but oh well.
So needless to say, we were glad it was over. We were tempted to fly home Friday night, but since the Latimer's were there and we had free hotel accommodations, we decided to stay until Sunday night and end our vacation on a high note with hot food, hot showers and Disneyland. Details to come!
Rain / 