Well, where to begin... Originally, I was scheduled to travel with my mom. We had purchased tickets to fly down to Tampa on Saturday and were planning to stay overnight at the Hyatt Downtown. Wednesday before sailing, my dad still wasn't out of the hospital, so she opted not to go. Thank heaven for travel insurance. On Friday morning, my DH calls me at work and tells me he is thinking about taking her place, but he won't know until 3:30 if he can get the time off - which he does get. A quick call to our TA and he is in. The change cost us $50. I have a RT ticket on NWA, but he is going to fly standby (as an employee). Wilma was in full force by now and we weren't even sure we would be able to fly into Tampa, let alone sail out. I knew that we would be going somewhere, just didn't know exactly where. We all decided that the lack of specific information just made for more anticipation, not stress. We dubbed it the Mystery Cruise.

The flight was smooth and we landed in Tampa and we were soon at the Hyatt Downtown. I had booked reservations through Priceline for $90 plus taxes and fees. Everything was in order and paid for, so we headed to our rooms to freshen up. We were going to go to Ybor City for drinks and dinner, but we had to find a way there, the Hyatt did not have any shuttle service at all. They did, however, have a "preferred" provider who was happy to take you anywhere for a fee that varied from driver to driver and could be negotiated in route. We went down to the Green Iguana and found out that nothing is allowed in Florida. You can't smoke in any building, so we opted to sit at one of the sidewalk tables. We were then told that we could sit there, but our chairs could not be outside of the line on the sidewalk, so we squished our group of 8 around three sides of two small tables. Later, our waitress came out and told us that we had to stand up because they had to take the tables and chairs off the sidewalk at 9:00! So there we were, standing on the sidewalk in front of a bar with our beer and cigarettes. We got a good laugh out of it, but it sure cut down on the amount of money we would have spent there.

We decided to ride with our friends (who were staying at the Marriott) in their free hotel shuttle back to the Marriott and walk the 6 blocks to the Hyatt. We sat in the lobby bar for a few hours and watched the White Sox win game one. I have to comment on the lobby bathrooms at the Hyatt. The toilets flush by themselves, the water comes out of the faucet automatically, soap dispenses all on its own, and the hand dryers turn on with a wave of your hand. Only one thing is missing......but I guess I prefer to do that by myself. Read more