Lessons from Vacation Plans Gone Very Very Wrong

Let me begin by sharing that I do not travel often. I try to travel once a year. Some years, if I’m lucky, it’s twice. Other times, it’s once every two or more years. For the sake of this story, I’m not counting weekend road trips. Given this, to say I was looking forward to my travel plans would be an understatement. My partner and I booked a cruise to the Caribbean for our one year anniversary. Our ship looked amazing and the itinerary gave me joy just thinking about it! We were going to the cruise line’s private island in the Bahamas, then to Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and Mexico. There were icicles hanging off my awning when I left for the cruise and I was giddy with the anticipation of warm sun on my face, beautiful blue ocean waters, the sight of palm trees, and trading the harsh Winter cold for adventures in paradise with my better half.

Our trip began smoothly. We were running on time for our flight from Atlantic City to Orlando and were excitedly chatting with our friendly Uber driver, Rodney, on our way from the Orlando airport to the ship at Port Canaveral. It gave us pause when Rodney asked what terminal at Port Canaveral we needed, as our booking simply listed “Embarkation: Orlando beaches - Port Canaveral.” We called the cruise line and were told which specific terminal we needed. The weather in Orlando wasn’t optimal. Temperature was in the high 50s and it was raining. We were unfazed though, joking around and sharing some trip details with Rodney.?

When we reached the terminal, Rodney looked confused because it was empty. There were no cruise staffers there waiting to greet us and escort us through customs and on to the ship. We tried to call the cruise line again to see if they could get in touch with the ship and facilitate. We did not have much luck. Rodney suggested we try a different terminal, especially because it was hard to see the ship in the rain and we watched a ship sail away an hour early, uncertain whether it was ours or not. Driving to the other terminal didn’t yield positive results. My mood suddenly shifted from elation to sheer panic at the realization that not getting onto our cruise ship was a very real possibility. At that moment, when I had my head between my knees, my partner was cool and collected. He was able to help me calm down and reassured me that, one way or the other, we will figure this out. Rodney, our faithful Uber driver, didn’t abandon us in the empty, rainy terminal with all our luggage, having completed the drive. Instead, he drove to a nearby Subway and went to get something to eat while we figured things out. My partner called the cruise line again. This time we lucked out with a more sympathetic representative who said that it was not our ship we saw sail away, that our ship is still in the terminal. She said that one of the supervisors can try to call the ship and that the ship is waiting. With that information, I ran out of the car to get Rodney so we could drive back to the terminal, since there were about 40 minutes left until the ship was scheduled to depart. We rushed back to the terminal, hoping to keep the helpful rep on the phone, but we lost connection after a few minutes. This time, when we drove into the terminal, we saw two police officers in a car off to the right, so Rodney drove up to them and I got out to speak with them and ask for assistance or guidance. Unfortunately for us, the two officers weren’t too keen on getting out of their car and showing us where to go. Instead, they said we could go in on our own with our bags, we just need to drive around right past where they pointed and we can take our bags in ourselves. Well, drive around we did, but that did not provide any clarity on where we’re to go. Luckily, another police officer happened to get back to his car right then, who finally agreed to come with us and show us where to go to get to customs. We thanked Rodney for sticking around, gave him extra cash and went up, as Rodney said he will wait and see if we get on. Unfortunately, when we got up to the door, we heard the ship sail away, and with it, our last hope of getting on board.

As we made our way back down to the terminal parking lot, my mind shifted to what’s next while my partner went for a walk around the lot to calm himself. Luckily, Rodney, who we thought had driven off, drove back into the terminal and said he was nearby watching and didn’t want to leave us if we didn’t get on. My phone needed charging and there was no outlet in sight. While I figured out that I can charge my phone through my laptop long enough to book us a hotel for the night, I was also chatting with the officer who was helping us go up. He’d been at the terminal all day as part of the customs process, and suggested we catch up to the ship in Jamaica, as the first destination was the cruise line’s private island that can only be accessed by water.

If our outlook is positive, then we focus on solutions when challenges arise. If our outlook is positive, we are able to enjoy the present moment. If our outlook is positive, we can be supportive partners, parents, colleagues, friends, cab drivers, providing the calm, support, and reassurance someone may need.

We headed back to Orlando, booking a hotel near the airport while we weighed our options. My partner was having a rough time accepting our new reality, so I rallied and went into planning mode. You see, we had another complication now, on top of trying to catch up to our cruise ship. My partner was traveling with a birth certificate as proof of citizenship, as his passport had been misplaced and the cruise line assured him that a birth certificate is sufficient documentation. However, we now needed to fly to Jamaica and a passport was mandatory. So, late on Sunday night, while eating hotel dinner food and freezing because the air conditioning was on full blast, I found and booked an appointment at the only same day passport facility in the state of Florida - in Miami. Since Monday was President’s Day, the earliest available appointment was for Tuesday morning. That gave us all of Monday to rent a car, book our flight from Miami to Jamaica for early Wednesday morning and a hotel in Miami for two nights, as well as prepare all the documentation needed to get a new passport. We picked up our rental, a Chevy Blazer, which was surprisingly roomy and handled rather smoothly, checked out of our hotel in Orlando, and took the scenic route from Orlando to Miami, taking in the sights and finding a beach on the way.

We arrived at our hotel in Miami’s Brickell district late Monday night, and turned in to get some sleep before our early morning passport appointment the next day. Tuesday in Miami was warm and sunny. We had a late breakfast outdoors in a cute cafe on Biscayne Boulevard, delighting at little birds and iguanas right near us as we ate. In the afternoon, after a long three-hour wait, finally with passport in hand, we headed down to Ocean Drive. We parked our rental and walked along until we found a nice Italian restaurant, where we sat down outdoors, enjoying nostalgic tunes from Adriano Celentano and others from that era and taking in spectacular beachfront views. We were even able to surprise my friend Nico, who’d been in Miami for over a month with a pop-up shop from Italy. We knocked on his shop door as he was packing up and getting ready to head back to Milan.

Before the day was done, we made sure to call the cruise line and obtain the precise location where the ship will be in Jamaica, so we could have a smooth meetup when we flew in. Our flight was pleasant and comfortable, and we landed an hour early, getting us excited about a day in Jamaica. We got a taxi at the airport and when we shared where we needed to go, we learned it was about two hours away from the airport and was going to be an expensive cab ride. At that point, it was par for the course, so onward we went, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way. When we arrived at the port, our driver, Macdonald (who introduced himself and immediately made the “old Macdonald had a farm” joke), spoke to the security guard at the gate, who, you guessed it, told us our ship was not in this port, but in the one that was near the airport. I was ready to scream, but once again our driver saved the day. He contacted the office at the taxi company, explaining to us that the company drives for all the ports and knows which cruise line is where. The office informed him that our ship was indeed meant to dock in the port we drove to, but, due to the rough weather a few days before, the dock was damaged, so the ship was rerouted. Since this happened a few days prior, we were bewildered as to why the cruise line would give us this incorrect, outdated information, but our driver had the famous Jamaican positive outlook, singing “Don’t worry about a thing ‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright” from Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds. He assured us that we should have no doubts, that we WILL make it onto the ship. He also made a stop to get himself a cup of tea and had a bottle of water for us as well as a bottle of Jamaican Red Stripe beer. We agreed on a discounted price for the return trip and onward we went once more. Turns out that Macdonald was right. We made it on board the ship. We had time to swap stories of our adventures with other cruise members while on board the shuttle from port terminal to ship. We had time to purchase souvenirs from vendors strategically positioned within the terminal, while enjoying reggae dancers entertaining the tourists. While on the shuttle, we learned that the ship never docked at the Bahamas private island, due to rain. The passengers had been on the ship at sea until they reached Jamaica, so we were actually better off enjoying sunny Florida.

Once on board, we were shepherded through by a member of the guest services team. We finally checked into our room, settled in, changed, and went for an exploratory stroll around the ship, feeling extra grateful to finally be on board and able to take selfies wearing summer clothes with the sun and the ocean in the frame. We ate, we napped (much needed), we booked shore excursions for the next two days in port, and then we changed for dinner and ate at a lovely window seat table, with ocean views accompanying a delicious dinner.

The next two days were one better than the next. We sunbathed and swam in the pristine waters at the Seven Mile Beach in the Cayman Islands, we saw the Mayan ruins and swam in the Cenotes in Tulum - a dream-come-true for me, as I’ve been wanting to visit Tulum for the past couple of years.?

All in all, this turned out to be an unforgettable experience and I am overwhelmed with the feeling of gratitude. I am grateful to our kind drivers, both Rodney and Macdonald, who went above and beyond simply because they were decent humans. They got us through some of the most challenging moments of our trip and I’m thankful to them. I’m thankful to my partner, for being calm and cool when I needed him to be and for showing me that when things are challenging, I can rely on him. If we were different people, we could have easily turned on each other, focusing on placing blame, rather than working together for a constructive solution. I’m thankful that we are not like that and that this relationship litmus test of a vacation revealed good things about ours. I’m thankful to fate, that led us to sunny Florida on the first three days of a rainy cruise, where members could only be indoors. I’m thankful to my parents and my past life experiences, which taught me to be resourceful and gave me the ability to roll with the punches rather than falling apart when the unexpected happens.

The lessons are abundant here, as are the reasons for gratitude. The biggest overarching lesson though seems to be the one about our outlook. If our outlook is positive, then we focus on solutions when challenges arise. If our outlook is positive, we are able to enjoy the present moment. If our outlook is positive, we can be supportive partners, parents, colleagues, friends, cab drivers, providing the calm, support, and reassurance someone may need. As the famous saying by Charles R. Swindoll goes: “After all, life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.” We cannot always control what happens to us, but can always control how we respond. We can always control how we handle life’s challenges. I am thankful to be reminded of this important life lesson, which I will carry with me, as I navigate the current job market.