The Periphery of the Mind

The Tulsa international airport is pretty nice, but very small. I think there's more parking space than airway space really, and they seemed to be feeling the crunch on the flight back a little. But the facility was clean and pretty decent. The Dallas Fort Worth international aiport facility is rather large, and pretty modern looking. The Miami International Airport, or MIA, in comparison is huge but dirty and feels somewhat old, like it was built in the 70's but they spend all their energy just upgrading it and never doing any repairs. For the flights themselves we took a pair of American Airlines' Boeing 737 jets going out and coming back, and I was rather pleased. Despite my fears of getting sick or panicing on the plain, I actually loved the flight. I can't compare the quality of American to anyone else, but I was pleased with what I got. The economy seats could have been more comfortable, and the interior of the planes showed their wear-and-tear from constant flights though.

Carnival had bus service from the airport to the boat, and everything went smoothly. I've heard you can save a bit of money if you take a cab, since they charge by mile rather than head, but since cabs are -really- expensive there, and it was just Maryanne and I, I feel the bus was probably just as good a choice. If you're travelling in a group of 4 or so though, one of the taxi-vans would make more sense then.

We got off the bus, dropped our luggage off on the dock, and made our way to the boat. Carnival workers would load the bags for us onto the boat and we'd get them later that night. And yes, it really worked out that way. But before we could even get on the boat we had to check through a giant "speedy" line, and slowly work our way through various registrations. Among them was getting our "sail and serve" cards, which served as ship-only credit cards, door keys, and ID for the rest of the cruise. We used our nifty keys to get to our cabin, 7369 on the Empress deck, on the Carnival Victory, and watched the city of Miami for a second.

But by this point Maryanne and I were starving and tired, and set out to find some food. There was more of course, but really at this point food and rest were more important than anything.