Rock a bye cruise ship

By Rae Hepburn, Delta College Student Submission

When I was told by my job that I was going to be gifted a seven-day cruise and I could bring a plus one, I was ecstatic. All I could think was, “Seven days of freedom!” Freedom from work, cleaning, and from my three awesome kids. I was starting to think they have monthly meetings on how to step up their game. If it was an actual paid job, where my sanity was the currency, those beautiful kids would be making bank! Of course, I would miss them dearly, but we all need a mental reset, and this was my moment.

When I landed in Miami, I met my plus-one near baggage claim; my best friend Erica. There we took a shuttle to the cruise port. When we arrived at the port, we boarded the ship and to our gorgeous stateroom. The sheets were pressed and clean, plus there was an elephant made out of towels on the bed. We had a balcony stateroom; with big smiles on our faces, we braced ourselves for the beautiful and bright view that was to come.

I pulled the curtain back and our smiles quickly faded. I swear we were looking at the sphincter of Miami. It was so ugly that the sun decided to be kind and not shine down on the area. The water was enticing, but there was construction or something going on; a major eye sore. We quickly closed the curtain, looked at each other and decided it was time for food and a cocktail.

After a while, we felt the ship start to move, but that could have been the cocktails. We waved goodbye to our “Mom Life” on land, and said, “What’s up GURL,” to Rae and Erica, two people we hardly get to encounter. We planned on dancing, using the most out of an extremely expensive drink package, getting off on every stop and eating until we were sick of food.

We went back up to our rooms to give the view a second chance, it was absolutely gorgeous. We opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony, with the sun starting to slowly set. The water did more than shimmer; it danced. It greeted me with such beauty I never wanted to look away. I took in the fresh sea air and felt the wind kiss my face so kindly. I smiled even brighter to match the sun, vacation…is… HAPPENING.

We made a stop in Grand Turk on day two and it was a sight to behold and a heat to be felt! I couldn’t get into the cool ocean fast enough. We aren’t the world’s best swimmers so when I was trying to stay afloat using my same weak moves, I started experimenting. I tried putting my feet on the ocean floor, and tried with everything I could to get them to touch the bottom and they refused.

I’m sure if you took a camera underneath the water, I would look like Peter Pan trying to do the Gangnam Style dance. I later learned that the ocean’s salinity was extremely high which made swimming more fun but odd as well. When I got out of the water to rinse off, my lips were on fire! It felt like I had used Salted Sunflower seeds for Chapstick, but hey, YOLO, right?

As an adult, there are things I miss from childhood. One of them is being rocked to sleep by my mother. Who knew that at 40 years old I would find out what it felt like to be rocked by my mother, MOTHER NATURE! Day five of the cruise was an awful day, the ship rocked side to side like crazy all day and night. Before I left for my vacation there were two storms doing the Tango, Imelda and Humberto.

I looked both of them in the eyes and told them not to cancel my cruise. They looked back at me with pettiness and agreed not to cancel but decided when my back was turned to ruin at least one day of the trip. I stumbled out onto our balcony to see what the water was up to.

I saw a man standing on a lower deck looking out to sea enjoying a smoke as if the ship wasn’t trying to reenact that one scene from, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End.” I looked at him and yelled, “YOU’RE INSANE!” Then I went back to my bed and suffered in two ways. The nausea from the rocking and from Bob’s Burgers being on the TV.

The next two days were smooth as silk, deservingly so. Making a stop at two different Caribbean Islands: Nassau and Celebration Key. We had the time of our lives.

On the last day of the cruise we went back to where it all began, Miami Airport. Our flight wasn’t until 10 hours later, so we had some time to kill. We definitely made the most of it. Riding the Skytrain all over the place and just exploring. Soon, it was time to say “goodbye” to my bestie.

I flew three hours back to Detroit where a happy husband was waiting for me. To this day I can still feel the not-so-subtle rocking of my mother, even though I am on dry land. But it was a small price to pay for such an amazing time.