Fun at sea!!!

Last month, for my 25th birthday, my grandma surprised me with a very special gift... A cruise vacation!!

Me, Mom, Michelle, Aunt Carol &; Nanny would be cruising around the Caribbean together from February 11th-17th!!

It is very ironic that we were leaving on that date, because that is the EXACT day (2/11/06) that I became completely bedridden & I will never forget that date.

To be going on my first cruise ever, and my first vacation since the beginning of this whole ordeal, 7 years to the day later, I thought was a pretty  awesome way to change that day into something positive in my mind!!

So, Monday morning I woke up, turned on the TV and saw this news headline-
"Carnival cruise ship stranded, adrift off of Mexico after fire in engine room"

...Great! I really can't wait to go now! ..Ugh, how horrible for those people!

Faith over fear, we got into the car and proceeded to Port Everglades. With visions of Titanic and Poseidon playing in my head, I prayed our trip would be uneventful in every way possible!

I had never been on a cruise before, so when we arrived, I was totally blown away by the enormity of the ship!!

Here we are, excited and ready to disembark!!

The ship was immaculate. There was an ice skating rink, mountain climbing wall, two stage theaters, two movie theaters, three pools, a surfing simulator, arcade, many clubs, restaurants, activity rooms, etc.

...it was endless!!

On the 5th deck was a Royal Promenade with lots of shops and restaurants!

Our room was on deck 6, it was a disabled room for me, and I was so impressed with it! We rented an electric wheelchair for me to use, and it fit perfectly throughout the room and in the bathroom.

Royal Caribbean has really gone above & beyond to make everything 100% disabled friendly! Every door had a push button to automatically open & ramps to get into every place!

Our first night onboard there was a big 70's theme party, which was really fun!! I danced with all of the village people and finally can understand a little bit of why my mom is so crazy... Blame it on that decade! ;)

Our first port of call was Labadee Haiti.

This port is a private island owned and run by Royal Caribbean, and it was simply GORGEOUS.

My favorite thing about Monterrey has always been the huge, spectacular mountains.

Haiti has similar mountains, AND has a stunning beach too!

Beach+Mountains?! Can it get any more beautiful than this? I don't think so.

In Labadee my mom and Michelle went on a zip-line that is 3,600 ft long and goes across the entire island! They loved it!

View from the top! 500 ft in the air!!!

In Labadee they had a beach wheelchair, which was a huge advantage, so I was able to go all around the island, and even swim in the beach!

For lunch, there was a huge bbq on the beach and Haitian tribal dancers as entertainment!

The next day we were at sea, so we took advantage of the pool decks!

The pools were spectacular, but not heated. So I couldn't go in. I was a little sad, until an hour later they brought out a special lift!! With four men operating it, I was able to get into the hot tub safely!! It was great!

When the itinerary for the next day, in Jamaica was handed out, we soon realized there was literally nothing I was going to physically be able to do there (helicopter rides, horseback riding in the beach, parasailing, and a speed boat ride, were the options!) haha, not happening!

So, my mom went to talk with guest services to see if they had any ideas.

 Valentina, a young woman from Italy introduced herself as the guest service manager and started talking with my mom.

She asked to hear my story, so my mom told her the short(ish) version and she was very moved. She quickly got on the phone with another manager and told my mom "we would like to do something really special for your daughter, so give us an hour and we will call you in your room."

An hour later, Valentina called and said that she had somehow located and rented a wheelchair accessible van, so that I would be able to go on a tour of Jamaica, do some shopping, and eat in a nice local reataurant!

She also told us that that night, Royal Caribbean wanted to treat all 5 of us to dinner at Portofino's,  the fancy Italian restaurant on the ship! She told us to take whatever professional photos we wanted that night around the ship, for free!

AND... She told my mom she had shared my story with the ship's captain, and tomorrow morning at 8:30 he wanted to meet me and give me a tour of the ship's bridge!

We were blown away... We didn't expect, or need all of that!

But we soon found out why Valentina was so sympathetic... She is another miracle who by medical standards, should not be alive.

Several years ago she was in a horrible motorcycle accident and suffered extensive critical injuries, she needed to be kept in a coma to heal... For 9 months!!!

Her mom was told that if she ever woke up, she would be a vegetable.

They were obviously wrong! Her body is now held together by more hardware than you can buy in Home-depot, but she is alive, walking, fully functional & managing a cruise ship!!

All I can say is, How great is our God?!?

The next morning we got off the ship and went to tour Jamaica! Oral was our tour guide and he was so nice!

Jamaica is severely impoverished, and the streets are lined with people trying to sell you something. 

This man, wanted to sell me some maracas, I said no, and than he tried to sell me a basket. I said no, and he said he loved me and asked me to marry him... Ummm?!! mom, help!. Dr. Cantu had told me to try and find a husband on this cruise... hope he approves! :) haha

The desperate look in these people's eyes made me want to cry and give them whatever money I had.

The one thing I couldn't refuse to buy was this Jamaican monkey! He even talks!

We drove through Montego Bay, where there were many huge mansions, very unusual to see after the poverty we just drove through.

I asked Oral "what do the people do, who live in these mansions?"

"They're in the pharmaceutical business" he said.

"ohh like doctors, and pharmacists?" I asked.

"ummm...no... drug dealers."

Ok then!

We ate lunch at a pretty Pier and than did some shopping in the local market.

I came across a man who was selling things he made carved from wood. He had this beautiful cross, and when I said I wanted it, he engraved it for me!

I also brought some t-shirts for my favorite doctors that say " No problem '!" :)

The next morning, at 8:30 it was time to meet the Captain! We got dressed in our most nautical looking clothes, like the nerds that we are, and went up to deck 10.

A second officer, from Mexico, gave us a tour of the bridge:

I never imagined how technical and extreme of an operation it is to run a large cruiseship! So many levers, buttons, and things that could go wrong! Yikes!

It was VERY impressive!! But, not nearly as impressive as who I met while up in that bridge...

When we arrived up to deck 10 there were 8 other people also waiting up there who had been invited to meet the captain too.

Mom and I stood by ourselves, until a man came over and introduced himself. He told us that he was here with his wife, and this trip marked their 350th day at sea!! Wow!!

Soon after his wife came over to us, and said, " If you don't mind, what is wrong? Why can't you walk?"

"Well, it's a really long story" my mom began. "She has a rare neurologic disease, called RSD and..."

Before my mom could even finish her sentence, the woman was visibly shaken and looked like she might cry.

Through her tears she told us that 10 years ago, she was paralyzed on the left side of her body because of RSD that started in her left foot after an accident!

After years of pain, ketamine epidurals and a sympathectomy surgery put her into remission and because it was darkest time of her life, she hasn't talked about it since. ..I was the first person she had ever met with RSD!

After we hugged and I shared more of my story with her, another similarity emerged. The doctor who finally diagnosed and treated her RSD was Dr. Kirkpatrick, the same doctor who sent me to Dr. Cantu! Small world?!

I'm smiling as I write this because it really is just SO incredible that out of nearly 4,000 people on a cruise ship, the two people with a rare, unheard of condition, treated by the same doctor, somehow crossed paths up in the bridge of the ship waiting to meet the captain!

 I love it when God makes these connections for us!!

After hearing my story, the other 8 people waiting up there to meet the captain all came over to me, hugged me and said they would never complain about their aches and pains, ever again.

And here we are meeting the captain:

Everyone keeps asking me "what was the best part of your trip?" i really can't just pick any 1 thing! Honestly, the best part of this trip was truly just being ABLE to physically go & enjoy it! (ok, and the food... Because wow!! Take it from someone who didn't eat for three years... The buffets were heavenly!)

I very often get these moments where I just can't even wrap my mind around things I am now able to do. It's surreal to go from one extreme of being near death and now, vacationing and enjoying my life! I am so grateful and so in awe of God's amazing grace!

I could just watch this all day....

 I have already started researching other ports and cruise destinations in an effort to convince grandma that next we need to take a cruise to her homeland, Italy :) 

I would definitely want to cruise with Royal Caribbean again because the cruise was made so easy and enjoyable because of the their staff, who all went out of their way to cater to my every need! It was truly awesome to be so independent on the ship because it was so handicapped accessible and it was great not having my mom worry about me, because there was literally help all around the ship, should I need it!

I had the most fantastic time. Thank you Nanny for this great gift! I will cherish these memories forever and ever and February 11th will from now on be a happy day... the day I went on my first vacation! 

 can't wait to go on another cruise! Hopefully, we will soon!

Thanks for checking in! God bless!

xoxo Jessica

‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’ Mark 11:23