OK I was going to call this post "The Vacation That Almost Never Was", Shantel informed me though that no matter what happened, how many planes we missed or if we missed the ship, she was still getting a vacation and we were going to the beach, hence the new title and now for the story.
We left our house at 5am to make it to the Kansas City Airport so we would be on time for our 7 am flight. We had no issues getting our bags checked and making it through the long line at the security checkpoint prior to flight time. The plane pulled away from the jetway and was getting ready to take off when suddenly the engines shut down and the Captain announced a 50 minute ground delay due to bad weather in Atlanta, OK we had an hour between flights in Atlanta so this shouldn't be a big deal.
Well it became a big deal. Delta didn't hold our connecting flight for an hour, only about 20 minutes and we just missed it. The flight attendant had assured us that Delta would rebook us on the next flight, once again not quite true, we had to do that ourselves and since everyone else had missed the earlier flight too we had to go standby. I let the ticket counter clerk know that I had paid for three seats but we were willing to put Macen on our laps if it got us on the plane. That was the key to getting us on the plane as we were the last three passengers on the plane and there definitely wasn't a seat for Macen .
The whole time we were waiting though I was working Carnival's travel hot line letting them know what was going on and they told me that there were a lot of ship's passengers with that issue and that we just needed to hop in a cab and get to the pier as quickly as possible even if that meant leaving our luggage behind, because the ship was still going to sail at 4pm. I even searched the internet for resorts in Key West, Miami, and Orlando just to ensure that I knew what the driving distances were and what our options were so we would get our vacation. When our plane did leave Atlanta it was about 2:45pm. This is going to be close.
We landed in Miami at 3:50pm got right off the plane, left the luggage and ran for the taxi line and jumped in to the first taxi that would take us to the port. Luckily it was only about a 20 minute drive to the pier. Bottom line we made the ship but once again we were the last three on the ship as I walked on with the hotel director and the chief of security. We were going to get our cruise after all!! Yeah.
What about our luggage, you ask? We left it at the airport and started working with both Delta and Carnival who both went out of their way to make sure the luggage met us at Key West. Luckily for us we all brough swim suits with us in our carry on bags, which was great for bumming around on the ship until our luggage showed up in Key West.
Here are some random pictures from the week:
Macen was promised the pool every day while we were on vacation and he reminded us constantly, "Go to pool!!" was a favorite mantra of his right up with there with "Chocolate milk!!" and the varation on the pool theme "Go to beach!!"
As you can tell Macen isn't the only one who enjoyed the pool, I still like the water slides and this ship had a really cool twisty water slide and then a side by side racer slide in a splash park on the rear deck of the ship. We spent most of our time there. Macen even tried to go down the racer slide but he was too short. The kid was really angry about that, maybe next time buddy!
Boat drinks!!!!!!! Literally made to look like a Carnival smoke stack funnel and when you're done drinking, clean it out and use it as a piggy bank for the kids, marketing genius!! We might of had a few too many mojitos this day and gotten a little too much sun, but fun was had by all.
Macen posing with the towel animals that our cabin steward made him each night. He got a monkey, a puppy, a turtle, and I think the last one was a frog. Of course he promptly tore them up but he did think they were pretty cool.
Macen really enjoyed the cruise he was convinced that the water was a big lake and when you tried to tell him ocean, he would say no "Big lake!"
Here is Macen staying at Camp Carnival after we got back on the ship after Key West. He had no interest in joining us in the pool though, barely even acknowledging our presence. This was the only day he spent at Camp Carnival though.
Blowing bubbles in the pool - salt water nonetheless. Macen didn't seem to mind.
Macen spent hours at the splash park the last day. He doesn't like being in the water much when it is a deeper pool but he loves splash parks and kiddie pools that he can wade in.
This pic below was something they had dividing the pool (not sure why) but Macen liked walking on it over the water. He did slip a couple of times and one of those times sent him off and under the water. Of course, he fell on the opposite side to where James was so and thankfully there were some ladies watching Macen "walk the plank" and one of them scooped him up immediately. We didn't like him walking on it after that but the few times he crossed it again, he used his knees and stayed low.
Macen and I playing in the sand. I had thought we would build a sand castle, but more on that later.
Me posing with a parrot. We tried to get Macen to hold it but he just wanted to check it out and have Daddy hold it.
Here are the results of my sand castle. Every time I'd get one started Macen decided he wanted to destroy it. Thanks kid, I really appreciate that.
Macen showing off his muscles. We were trying to get him to eat and telling him he needed to eat to get big and strong, so he's flexing to show off how big his muscles are.
Macen burying Daddy's feet. He thought this was realy cool and would let us bury his feet as well.
Macen is collecting sea shells and rocks from the beach here and he did cart them all the way back to Kansas.
A close up family photo on the beach!!
The full length photo on the beach. 
Momma's turn!!! Macen is wanting Momma to look for sea shells with him.
I'm riding an alligator...Chomp Chomp Chomp!!!
This is the little island just off the western tip of Key West. Check out how blue the water is and the cotton candy clouds in the sky, sure beats the 40 degrees and overcast that we left behind in Kansas City the day before.
A picture of me at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville in Key West. Shantel and I both enjoyed a Cheeseburger in Paradise, yes they came with lettuce, tomato, Heinz 57, french fried potatoes and a big kosher pickle, we both skipped the cold draught beer, I had loaded landshark lager (if you don't know what that is I'll introduce you to it at our next island party) and Shantel had a big margarita, called of course "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere". I can already feel the cruise weight piling on.
The obligatory picture at the Hard Rock Cafe, where we enjoyed a beer in the souvenir pilsner glasses and soaked in the atmosphere, This is the last glass from the states I'll add to my collection for awhile, I can't wait to hit the European Hard Rock Cafe's.
Believe it or not that house used to be government housing for the old Navy base at Key West. Nowadays it goes for $6-8 million on the real estate market. You don't get government housing like that anymore, at least in the Army anyway, and I'm pretty sure the rest of the services don't either.
A picture of the ship that we cruised on, the Carnival Imagination, believe it or not it's one of the smaller ships in the Carnival fleet, small doesn't mean boring though, it had plenty of ammenities to keep us occupied for the 4 days we were on board.
Macen was promised the pool every day while we were on vacation and he reminded us constantly, "Go to pool!!" was a favorite mantra of his right up with there with "Chocolate milk!!" and the varation on the pool theme "Go to beach!!"
As you can tell Macen isn't the only one who enjoyed the pool, I still like the water slides and this ship had a really cool twisty water slide and then a side by side racer slide in a splash park on the rear deck of the ship. We spent most of our time there. Macen even tried to go down the racer slide but he was too short. The kid was really angry about that, maybe next time buddy!
Boat drinks!!!!!!! Literally made to look like a Carnival smoke stack funnel and when you're done drinking, clean it out and use it as a piggy bank for the kids, marketing genius!! We might of had a few too many mojitos this day and gotten a little too much sun, but fun was had by all.
Macen posing with the towel animals that our cabin steward made him each night. He got a monkey, a puppy, a turtle, and I think the last one was a frog. Of course he promptly tore them up but he did think they were pretty cool.
Macen really enjoyed the cruise he was convinced that the water was a big lake and when you tried to tell him ocean, he would say no "Big lake!"
Here is Macen staying at Camp Carnival after we got back on the ship after Key West. He had no interest in joining us in the pool though, barely even acknowledging our presence. This was the only day he spent at Camp Carnival though.
What I found really interesting was all of the Cowboys fans that were there. I know that the Chiefs haven't been that good lately but they do still almost always sell out. The game was close to a sell out but I would say it was about a 40/60 split Cowboys/Chiefs fans, there was definitely a lot of blue and you can see some of it in the above picture.
This is Macen and Grandpa Hugh playing Redneck Golf, no else played since we were busy cooking, eating, and drinking. It sure kept Macen occupied though.
Our tailgate set up, we had brats, smoked sausages, chili, grilled onions and peppers, beer and of course hot cocoa. Our new cold weather tailgate beverage of choice is hot cocoa with Dr McGillicuddies Menthomint schnapps, its kind of like drinking a york peppermint patty. MMMM Good!!!!
Macen loved the football game in fact he was a little upset that we had to tailgate first, he wanted to go straight to the stadium. He was shouting first down, Romo to Witten, and Defense all day long as well as trying to play hide n seek in our row.
Not a bad picture from the next to last row in the stadium. When I realized that I was going to have extra tickets, I offered them to my high school buddy Dale and his little brother Drew. Drew's comment about the tickets was that Dale and I, as Army Majors, make way too damn much money to be sitting that high up and he promptly bought lower level tickets for some outrageous amount of money. After getting to our seats, I'd have to admit that Drew was right, I'll have to hold out for lower seats next time at Arrowhead and save the wear and tear on the knees of climbing that high and the stop off for extra oxygen.
The obligatory family picture. It was really really cold.
Check out Macen and his Romo jersey. This is after the game, and even though he liked the game he was ready to go home, Shantel put him in the car so he could warm up and he promptly crawled into his seat and said "I'm Ready", to go that is, he'd had enough and was ready to go home even though we were eating the leftovers and waiting for the traffic to clear.
