"And you're only sixteen with a lot to say but they won't give you the time of day..woahh oh noo" - no doubt
"Is this line even moving?" whined Glen to nobody in particular.
"God Glen shut up! You've done nothing but complain this whole trip!" snapped a testy Spencer.
"Spencer do not use the Lord's name in vein!" said Paula sternly, instantly receiving eye rolls from her three kids.
The Carlins had been waiting in a line that seemed endless to get onboard the cruise ship that would be their home for the next eight days. The kids were out on Thanksgiving break and Arthur had booked the vacation as a way to get away from all of their stress and just relax in the Caribbean sun. The ship would travel to the Southern Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and then loop back around ending back up in Florida.
Glen and Clay couldn't wait to scope around for hot girls and party it up on the pool deck. Spencer however, was not too excited at the prospect of spending eight whole days wandering around a boat full of old people by herself, and on top of everything she was forced to share a room with her brothers.
Spencer looked around at the different buildings and thousands of people waiting to board. While looking into one of the windows in the second story of the building next to them she saw another line. For a few moments she couldn't figure out what those people were waiting for until realization finally struck. That is the same line we're in! You've got to be kidding me! The blonde sighed loudly, trying to accept the fact that she would be waiting for hours. What a great start..
Another hour and a half passed by and the Carlins were finally at the entrance of the two-story building, still not having moved very far. Spencer had never seen this many different types of people in once place, well except for on t.v. Although, coming from a small town in Ohio, she didn't see too much diversity.
Apparently Glen had noticed all of the different people too, since he suddenly spoke to Spencer in a quiet voice after having stared in astonishment for a few minutes, "Woah Spence did you see that guy..," he pointed discreetly at a tall teenage black boy, "he's wearing baby converse as a necklace! What a freakin weirdo!" Spencer glared at Glen and then glanced at the guy her brother was talking about.
He was standing with what seemed like his family and was wearing baggy jean shorts, and white and green basketball jersey with a green t-shirt underneath, and sure enough he ahd a pair of green high top converse made for toddlers hanging from his neck by the laces to match the pair he was wearing on his feet. Although it was different, Spencer didn't really think it was that weird, Glen was just a tad bit ignorant. So she shot a small glare back at her brother and then went back to people watching.
"Geeze someone is grumpy, is it that time of the month Spence?" taunted Glen, not appreciating Spencer's annoyance towards him.
"Glen! Do not talk to your sister that way! Especially in public!" scolded Arthur, lowering his voice at the last part.
"She started it!"
"Shut up Glen, what are you five?" shot Spencer.
"And what are you eighty? Gosh this is vacation Spencer, have fun instead of having such a chip on your shoulder,"
"Why don't you just leave me alone for once and quit being such an ass!"
"Stop it right now! Both of you! We will not tolerate you kids fighting with eachother this entire trip!" said Paula in an extremely irritated tone to finally stop the incessant arguing.
Once again the kids all rolled their eyes at their mother and went back to their own thoughts, moving forward a few steps in line. The Carlins had finally gotten inside of the building and saw how much further they had yet to go. They only had a ways to go before they they reached the stairs to the upper story, but they all had a feeling that the top of the stairs was not the end of the line.
Great only 5 more hours, thought Spencer, her bad mood worsening.
As they continued through the line Paula and Arthur talked about their plans for the shore excursions, Clay and Glen discussed plans for where they were gonna go first to look for girls, and Spencer thought of the best excuse to get away from her annoying family so she could be alone for once.
When they finally reached the top of the stairs they found that their suspicions were right, it was definately not the end of the line yet. Across the other side of the cramped room was was the metal detectors and x-rays for the bags. They reached the security check point 25 minutes later and when they were all through they wee quickly rounded up again by Paula.
"How much further is it?" Whined Glen.
"Well I think we should follow the rest of the people, but it's not a line anymore so we have to pretty close," explained Arthur in a soothing voice.
"Good cuz im sooo hungry!"
"When are you not hungry?" joked Clay.
The Carlin clan followed the groups of people across a walkway lined with large windows to the unknown destination in the seemingly endless maze of lines. They reached a large room filled with rows of seats like in an airport terminal and all of the walls were almost completely occupied by large floor length windows offering various views of the ship port.
Out of the window on the left side Spencer could see a glimpse of the back of the cruise ship. Her bad mood improved almost instantly at the sight of the ship. Even though she had been dreading the trip ever since her dad gave them the details, as soon as she actually saw the ship she couldn't help but feel a little excited. It finally sunk in that she would be on a ginormous boat in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, and you would have to be the most miserable person in the world to not be at least a little excited about something like that.
As they walked further into the room and attendant approached them smiling.
"Hi! Welcome to Carnival Cruises! You are going to want to go over to the desk to check in, so you will want to have your itinerary and ID's out." She said enthusiastically and pointing over to a large desk with about 10 different attendants checking in the passengers. There was a line that twisted around between a roped off area, and at the fron people waited for an attendant to call them over like at a bank.
Arthur thanked the woman that had given them directions and they headed over to the end of the line.
"Almost there guys, then we can relax," assured Arthur.
They reached the front of the line and the attendant on the far left called them over.
"Hi welcome to Carnival. Itinerary please," said a worn-out looking man, glancing us at the Carlins.
Arthur handed over their papers and the man typed some information into the computer.
"Alright can I see your guys' ID's please?"
Paula collected ID's from her husband and Glen, and Spencer and Clay handed their school ID's to their mother.
"Here you go Sir," said Paula handing them to the man.
He looked at each and then returned them to Paula. Then he typed some more information and handed them their tickets and a brochure of information on the trip.
"Ok, you guys are booked for two adjacent rooms on the 3rd deck in the back. That puts you in group Orange. Your group will be called for boarding the ship today and also exiting the ship on Sunday. So just go ahead and take a seat and wait for your section to be called. Once it's called you are going to walk down that hallway over there and get ready to board," he instructed, pointing at a hallway opening on the other side of the room.
"Thank you very much." said Arthur smiling genuinely at the attentdant.
"Thank you Mr. Carlin, enjoy your trip guys!"
The family walked over to a group of empty seats near one of the big windows.
"Ahh..finally we get to sit down! I thought my legs were gonna fall off!" commented Glen who had raced over and sat down as soon as they had spotted the empty seats.
"I'm glad you made it, cuz then we would've had to wheel you around in a wheel chair making you even more of a pain in the butt!" shot Spencer, receiving a glare from Glen and a hushed scolding from her mother.
Spencer gazed out the window at the street below her and the never-ending line they had been in for hours. She coudln't help but feel a little bad for the people down there, knowing how long they had yet to go.
"Section Blue, all passengers in Section Blue go over to the hallway at the back of the room. Section Blue!" a woman's voice said over the intercom.
In response to the announcement a huge group of people stood up and made their way over to the back of the room.
The process continued for another 30 minutes calling groups purple, green, red, yellow, black, and pink until orange was finally called. The Carlins stood up along with about a hundred others and walked over to the hallway in the back. Arthur, Paula, Glen, Clay, and Spencer followed the large group led by two attendants through the hallway out the double doors that opened to the outside. Once outside they rounded the corner of a building and the side of the massive cruise ship came into view.
From far away the ships didn't seem that big, but once they were right next to it the massiveness became much more apparent. There were about five ramps going from the port to the entrances on the ship. The Carlins chose the ramp closest to the back of the boat since that was where their cabins were.
"You kids getting excited yet?" asked Arthur in the enthusiastic tone he had been using the entire journey so far to try and help everyone be in a better mood.
"Are you kidding? Eight days soaking up the sun, hanging out with the honeys, and no strings attached? This is perfect!" Glen exclaimed, holding up his hand to Clay for a high five. Clay just laughed and shook his head, then lightly slapped his brother's hand.
Arthur laughed at his son's ridiculous comments, while Paula and Spencer just looked at each other with the He's such a typical guy look.
They reached the ramp and moved slowly in the line. At the entrance of the ship an attendant checked their tickets and pointed them in the direction of their cabins. As they started walking to their respective rooms, each of them couldn't help but take in the intricate beauty of the ship. The furniture, the walls made of wood with beautiful carvings, even the carpet was fancy.
Several sounds filled the air around them as well. Sounds of young children bantering back and forth excitedly, old couples admiring some of the artwork on display, and if they were not mistaken, the ringing sounds of a casino not far off. The atmosphere was so infectious that the Carlins couldn't help but become more eager to explore things further.
"Dude Clay, we have to sneak into that casino," said Glen just quietly enough for his parents not to overhear. Clay smirked and gave a small nod in response to Glen's plan.
After finally finding their rooms and bringing in their suitcases that had been waiting for them outside of the door, they all went inside of their respective rooms to look around.
Inside of the kids' rooms were two twin beds, a good-sized bathroom, a small couch which contained a pull-out bed, a t.v., a mini bar, and a sliding glass door that led to a balcony overlooking the water in the back of the ship.
Spencer claimed the bed on the right for herself while Clay and Glen did rock paper scissors for who had to sleep on the pull-out bed. Clay ended up winning and Glen begrudgingly moved his stuff over next to the coach.
Deciding to unpack later so she could get away from her increasingly annoying brothers, well brother, as quickly as possible, Spencer went over and knocked on her parents' door.
Paula opened the door and smiled at her daughter. "You need something honey?"
"No, I just wanted to come over and tell you that I'm gonna go up onto the pool deck to look around and check out the ship a little bit, okay?"
"Well alright, I don't really want you going by yourself, but I guess that's okay. Just be safe!"
"I will I will."
"Alright, well try and be back before dinner so we can all go together," requested Paula, but Spencer didn't hear her because as soon as her mother said yes she had started to walk quickly down the hall to where the elevators were.
Maybe this won't be so bad after all... she thought, pressing the UP button.