The picture shows the four of us, Me and Laura in the front, Sabra and Maria in the background, between two fake palm trees with the sign " Carnival Ecstasy Feb 7 1994" written on the wall behind us. It's hard to tell who has the biggest smile. Yes, it was 16 years ago, a bad winter, lots of snow when I heard of a special offer on the Carnival, 2 full fares, one half fare and one free, but this offer was only good for a short time. I called up the girls, Sabra had to check with her boss, Maria had to get Mary to take care of Jer and Rachael. I think Laura said yes right away, but it wasn't more than a few hours that I called the travel agent and we got the tickets to go on our cruise in less than a week's time.

It was to be a quick four day cruise, leaving Miami at 4pm, first day in Key West, next day in Cozumel, a day at sea, and then back to Miami. Kevin drove us to Stewart Airport. It was snowing lightly but our flight left on time. Maria was a little nervous about flying and when we landed in Miami the pilot did that wing tipping thing, first one wing, then the other as he landed. Maria said loudly, "Just land the f..... thing" which got a few laughs. Before leaving port we had to Muster, where everyone puts on lifejackets and goes to a central area as if there was some sort of crisis. This put everyone in a good mood, as the jackets were bulky and hard to walk in. Then we were off - the adventure had begun.

Key West was fun, with a tour of Hemingway's House and some souvenir buying. Cozumel was hot and dirty and the best day of the cruise was the day at sea. We all went to a show The Newlywed Game with the contestants being other cruisers. We sat around the pool, and fixated on a little red haired girl that looked a little like Rachael, even taking pictures of her. Two events that stick in my head are of the casino when Maria hit the slots, winning over $150. The machine was roaring, flashing, and the coins were pouring out, with Ria yelling Ma, Ma. I have a picture of her grasping the container holding all her coins, and she has the same look on her face as she did at age five with a bag of Holloween candy. The other memory is of her ordering tea at the supper table and the waiter came out with a wooden box, that he opened grandly for her to select the type of tea. "Look, it's in a box, a whole box of tea, like a treasure chest." The most fun of all though was joking with the crew that took care of our room.

As is customary, the ship's crew would fold towels into animal shapes and leave them on our beds at night. After the first time they did it, Maria made some little animal and left it for them. Then they got fancier and so did we. The last night we planned a special treat for the men who were so polite, always smiling, but very hard to understand with their poor English. Sitting at the pool we thought of making a whole person for them to find. And then we decided where to put the dummy - on the toilet. We stuffed clothes, pants and shirt. The head was a coconut face I had bought in Key West. A hat was put on his head, and we turned off the bathroom light and went to dinner. That was when the men always came into the room to tidy and turn down the beds. When we got back to the room, the men were waiting for us. In broken English they said how scared and surprised they were to find the body on the toilet. They used pantomine to show how surprised they were and then they shook our hands and said this was "the best trip ever". For them!

Leaving the ship we heard some people talking about a snowstorm in the north. Is it snowing in New York? we asked and the man nodded his head and said "it"s been snowing for four straight days there." There was some delay, but we finally got on our first flight. Changing to go to Stewart, the plane to take us there was waiting, with all the travelers angry for having to sit in the still plane for over an hour waiting for just four people. The stewardess rushed us, not even letting us use the restroom, hurry, hurry, hurry. The other riders glared at us and off we took. You could see the snow as we got closer to the airport. It was early evening and Maria looked out the plane window and said nervously, "They have ambulances waiting for us. They think we're going to crash". But what she saw was the snowplows with flashing lights, clearing the runway. No one was waiting to pick us up at the airport. Kevin and Tim had been told no flights were able to come in. So we had to wait for Kevin to get there.

Taking Laura home to Kingston, the snow was piled high along the roads. Not wanting to risk her steep and slippery hill, Kevin dropped her off at the top and our last sight of her was her struggling in the snow with her suitcases. They were right, it had been snowing the whole time we were away. But what a wonderful vacation, like the crewmen had said "the best ever".