My Cruise to Mexico

              Back in the spring of 2007 my family decided to go on one last family spring break vacation before my older brother, Brendan, went off to college.   My parents surprised us with a cruise.  At the end of march we were off to Huston, Texas to depart on the Norwegian Dream to Mexico.  Little did we know that this cruise would be anything but a dream. 

Things started off badly the second we got to O’Hare airport.  When we got there to check in and go through customs we found out that our flight had been canceled because of technical difficulties.  My mom got on the phone just a few seconds later and was arguing with a travel agent before we finally got a flight for four hours later that day.  Finally, after what seemed to be forever we boarded the plane to fly to Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Because of the last minute purchase of the tickets we were scattered throughout the plane I was so lucky to sit by a creepy guy who ate, slept, and snored the whole way but two of my brothers, Matt and Sean, were lucky enough to sit together next to a professional cartoon artist.

Once we got to Minneapolis we had another three hour wait until we could board our plane for Huston but it was not as bad as before.  Then we boarded our plane for Huston.  We arrived in the airport and then got a taxi for a hotel where we could eat and sleep until we boarded our cruise the next day. The next morning we grabbed a taxi to take us to our cruise ship.  Once there we checked in and walked up the long ramp onto the cruise ship to go to our rooms and unpack.  The first day was kind of boring other than dinner when they had a first night barbeque and it was so windy buns and chips were flying everywhere.  The second afternoon my dad was lying on the back pool deck and something fell into his eye and he went to the ship’s doctor to get it checked out.  The doctor told him he had to scrape an ash out and the doctor took a scalpel and scraped out the ash but he did more than that he scratched my father’s cornea. 

The next day we came to our first port in Progresso and my mom and dad took a taxi to a Mexican hospital where no one spoke English but my dad understood one word the doctor kept saying, “muy malo.”  While that was happening my brothers and I were in a little port city with venders begging us to buy stuff that we didn’t want. I can describe that city in one word: Scary.

Once done in Progresso we all met up on the cruise ship.   Dad was in an eye patch and was sunburned badly so we called him our tomato pirate.  With two days under our belt we had a long way to go but nothing bad happened.  We had a great time until we got back to Huston where we had a showdown for a taxi in the rain, a huge storm happened the morning before we got back which left our reserved hotel without power so we had to find another hotel, and of course more delayed flights.  Sure we had some terrible things happen on our vacation but it was the best one we have ever been on because it’s hilarious now and will be one we will never forget.