[Nfbv-announce] NFB of Virginia Cruise Itinerary Featured in Washington Post Article

[Tracy Soforenko]

This article could not have been more timely.  It outlines the exact
itinerary for the NFB of Virginia cruise.While you have to wade through the
family dynamics of the author, the itinerary is explained along with the
ship and some of what the ship has to offer.
 
Please consider joining us for this great experience.
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/16/AR2010091606
278_pf.html
For Mother's Birthday, We Had a Floating Party of 22
By Aimee Talentino Sanders
Sunday, September 19, 2010; F1 




The cruise was my mother's brilliant idea. 

Mom doesn't turn 70 until Nov. 9, but she wanted to celebrate this milestone
with the whole family. So we had to do something before the grandkids went
back to school. The question was: Where could we go and what could we do
with 22 people? (That would be Mom, her four adult children and our spouses,
and 13 grandchildren ranging in age from 4 to 22.) You have to admit, that's
a lot of people. 

We weighed the options: We could rent a huge beach house, go to an expensive
resort or have a staycation here in the Washington area. But then Mom said:
"What if I took everyone on a cruise? We won't have to cook, clean or shop
for food. And there's plenty of entertainment on the ship." 

It seemed perfect, my brothers and I agreed. Plus, apart from Mom, none of
us had ever been on a cruise, so it would be a real adventure. 

To say the least. 

I have to admit that the idea of 22 people traveling together seemed a
little overwhelming. Try going anywhere with such a big crowd and keeping
everybody together and everything straight and nobody from getting hurt or
lost or otherwise misplaced. The logistics were daunting, right from the
start. 

A travel agent booked us on a seven-day Carnival cruise from Baltimore to
Port Canaveral, Fla., and Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas, and she needed
documentation and information for everything. She had to have everyone's
birth date and name as it appears on their passport or birth certificate
(and we had to make sure that everybody had a passport or birth certificate
to present when we embarked). A lot of hunting for paperwork ensued. 

We also had to work out our preferences for cabin assignments so that the
agent could figure out how many cabins to book. Talk about complicated. You
know how those family dynamics are. We ended up with seven cabins, all on
the same floor (whew!) and down the hall from one another. Three four-person
cabins, two three-person cabins and two two-person cabins. Got that? 

Five were balcony cabins, and two were inside cabins for some of the
grandkids. One was supposed to be for the girls and the other for the boys,
but of course it didn't work out quite that equally. There were more girls
than boys, so my daughter Regina ended up being assigned to the boys' cabin,
where, of course, she didn't want to sleep. So some nights, my husband and I
had to take the cushions from the couch in our cabin and put them on the
floor in the girls' cabin so that she could sleep there instead. Other
nights, one of our daughters would sleep on the couch in our cabin. 

The week of the cruise, two of my brothers and their families drove in from
Ohio, and my oldest daughter, Monique, flew into town from Kentucky. To be
sure that everyone got to the ship on time, we hired two stretch limos to
take us to the port with our luggage. This was one of our better ideas,
because some people in my family have a lot of trouble getting anywhere on
time. (I'm sure you have a few like that in your family, too.) No way,
though, were the kids going to miss out on the limo ride, so they'd make
sure that their parents were operating on schedule that day. 

I can't imagine what the other folks on the cruise thought when the limos
pulled up to the dock and disgorged 22 people and almost double that number
of bags. We must have looked like those circus cars where more and more
clowns keep climbing out even though it looks as though there couldn't
possibly be room for any more. 

But on the other hand, the Carnival Pride holds 2,124 passengers, so in that
context we were just a drop in the bucket. Just 1 percent of the passenger
list, in fact. And it wouldn't be hard to get lost among so many people,
especially when there were so many of us to keep track of. 

We'd thought of that, though. We made matching tie-dyed T-shirts so we could
always find each other easily. I designed an iron-on that read,
"Talentino-Sanders 1st Annual Cruise 2010. No Whining, No Crying." That's a
family code phrase, what my mother says to the grandkids whenever they start
begging for something or complaining because they're not getting their way.
I thought it would be a good motto for our trip. We also numbered the shirts
according to age: Mom was No. 1, and Genevieve, the youngest, was No. 22. 

I don't know whether it was the shirts or the sheer volume of us, but
somewhere along the cruise, we overheard some kids remarking, "Those
Talentino people are everywhere." 


			

Having never cruised before, none of us quite knew how things worked. Would
we have to do everything together? What if I wanted to go to the pool and
others wanted to go to the gym? Well, no worries. The cruise was really
liberating. Being on a big ship with activities everywhere, for all ages, we
could all go off in our own direction without worrying too much about
someone being left behind somewhere or being forced into something they
didn't want to do. 

We decided that the kids could go anywhere on the ship as long as they were
with one other family member. There were no rules, no bedtimes, no real
mealtimes. (The kids loved it!) 

The ship was loaded with activities, which was a great thing when you're
traveling with a bunch of high-energy young people. There was basketball,
dodge ball, table tennis, miniature golf, swimming and lots more. Early on,
our kids wanted to play basketball, but all the balls had been checked out
by other passengers. That was a bummer. So when we docked in Florida, my
husband and I headed to Walgreens to buy a ball. After that, the kids - and
the adults - could play whenever we wanted to, as long as we could find a
free court. Our kids became the envy of all the other kids onboard, which
they of course thought was really cool. 

I know I said there were no rules, but there was one. My mother requested
that we always meet in the dining room for dinner at 6 p.m. Our group had
five tables, and we'd rotate among the tables each night so that the same
people weren't always sitting with each other. It was a great way to spend
time with everyone and talk over what had happened during the day. 

To honor my mother while on the cruise, we came up with 70-plus things that
we love about her, and one evening after dinner, we gathered to present the
list to her. We told stories and laughed until we cried. Like the time my
mother asked my brother John to go to the store and pick up some Doo Dads
snack mix, and her angry reaction when she saw the box he'd brought back. 

"What is this stuff called Spap oop?" she yelled. 

"What are you talking about, Mom?" John said, laughing, as he turned the box
right side up. You can imagine the reaction in our family whenever anybody
says "Spap oop" now. 

We also talked about how generous Mom is with her time and money. She adores
her grandchildren and will travel miles and miles to see them participate in
sports, concerts or whatever they might be involved in. So we all made an
effort to do what we could to make her happy. 

One night, she wanted to have a group picture taken after dinner. We were
all to wear our T-shirts for the portrait. But as the dinner hour drew near,
three of my nephews didn't show up at their room. It was 6 o'clock and they
were nowhere to be found. Not that we even knew where to begin looking for
them on an 88,500-ton ship with 12 decks. We waited as long as we could,
then grabbed their T-shirts and headed to the dining room, hoping they'd
show up. They did, at the last minute, out of breath and apologetic. They'd
lost track of time while playing basketball, then stopped to get ice cream
cones to cool down after the game. When they realized how late it was,
they'd run all the way to the dining room, just in time to pop on their
shirts for the portrait. Crisis averted. 


			

In Port Canaveral, our first stop, Mom and three others stayed behind on the
ship while the rest of us ventured ashore with most of the other passengers.
My husband and I just wanted to get some items from the drugstore, while the
others wanted to hit Cocoa Beach. Fortunately, there was a town shuttle that
took passengers around to various stops for $5 for the entire day. You could
go to a mall, the beach or Wal-Mart, or all three, then hop back on for the
return trip to the ship. This was a fairly inexpensive way to travel with 18
people. We were really grateful for that. Slathered in sunscreen, everybody
enjoyed a day of sun and surf. 

Next stop was Nassau. Everyone but Mom went ashore this time, and we all
wanted to explore the beaches, but once again we ran into our numbers
problem. The taxi drivers we found wanted $15 per person for a ride to a
public beach. Dream on! Instead, we bartered with a transportation company
that approached us in the terminal and worked out a deal for $7 per person
to the beach and back. (We didn't have to pay till they brought us back to
port.) That price was really worth it. The kids were amazed at how clear and
blue the water was: We could see the fish swimming at our feet. My daughter
Monique negotiated a 15-minute jet-ski ride for $20 and took her cousin
Douglas along. They can scratch "jet ski in the Bahamas" off their bucket
list. 

Freeport was more industrial, but it gave us a taste of the island life. The
shops were overflowing with handmade purses, straw baskets, woodcarvings,
T-shirts, jewelry and gifts. A band was playing in the square, and my
brother John enjoyed their music so much that he bought a CD. 

As we said farewell to Freeport and headed back to Baltimore, a strange
sense of sadness overcame us. One reason was Carlos, our cabin steward. 

After dinner most nights we'd all head back to our rooms to find the cute
towel creatures that Carlos had created while we were dining. He'd turned
down our beds and laid out the next day's list of activities and chocolates.
He did anything we asked with a smile. He'd been working for Carnival for 13
years, but this cruise, he told us, would be his last. So we decided to give
him a little retirement party. On our last night, we made a card that
everybody signed, and we ordered a piece of cake. My mom put a $100 bill in
the card as a thank-you for the wonderful service Carlos had provided. 

But the main reason for our melancholy was that the cruise was drawing to an
end. Soon my brothers and their families would head back to Ohio, my
daughter back to Kentucky, my other brother and his family and my family
back to the daily grind. We'd had such a wonderful time being together,
something we rarely get to enjoy, except for a weekend here and there. But
during those visits it seems that someone always has something to do or
somewhere to go. On the cruise, we were all laid-back, with nowhere to go,
no schedule to follow, no carpooling, no video games. Just relaxing and
playing with one another. A priceless opportunity. 

So thanks, Mom. It really was a brilliant idea. 

Now, how about next year? We're all looking forward to the Second Annual
Talentino-Sanders Cruise.