A Close Encounter with Hurricane Tomas

On Saturday, October 30, as we were preparing to go ashore at Martinique on our southern Caribbean cruise on the Sea Princess, our captain came over the intercom in the cabins. We knew it was serious as the cabin intercoms were never used unless there was an emergency or something vital that the passengers needed to know. He told us that the stop at Martinique had been canceled because a hurricane had developed and was already threatening the eastern side of the island. The captain explained that he did not want the ship to be stationery during a threat of a hurricane. Instead, he headed the ship north as fast as it would go to escape potential high winds, heavy rains, and rough seas. The photo on the left shows the wake left as the ship headed north and we could see by the water that the ship was really traveling fast.

From our balcony on the back of the ship (we were upgraded to a suite two days before we left home) we could see the threatening skies and rain clouds behind us. The captain indicated that we might be able to stop at the island of Dominica, north of Martinique, but the port was closed. He continued north past the island of Guadeloupe where it was safe. The water had been quite rough near Martinique and Dominica but got smoother as the ship sailed north. Bill and I sat on our balcony and watched the water and the clouds.

That night the captain again spoke to us through our room intercoms. He told us about the damage in St. Lucia and let us know that we would not make our scheduled stop there on Sunday, October 31st. Instead, he would try to make a stop at Dominica and even had the shore excursion office schedule tours for Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, as the ship approached Dominica, there was such a swell that the port was not letting the pilot boats guide the Sea Princess into the port. The harbormaster said that the ship could try to dock without a pilot boat at the northern pier, but the captain decided that with the swells, he did not want to take a chance of damaging either the ship or the pier. He had even asked about going ahead to Barbados and getting there early so we could spent an afternoon there, but both the Princess home office and the Barbados authorities didn't think that was a good idea, so we spent another day at sea.

Saturday morning , I had removed my seasickness patch because the heat and the sweat had irritated the skin. Unfortunately on Saturday night, I had a horrible case of seasickness and ended up going to the ship's store to get Dramamine. I decided that I would rather have irritated skin than seasickness. At one point Saturday evening, the water was so rough that the flowers fell off the table in the living room of the suite. Fortunately they landed right side up.

We spent most of Sunday circling from the north to the south of the sea near Dominica. We were not even sure at that point that we would be able to sail to Barbados where we would leave the ship and fly back to Miami. Finally around 1:00 p.m., we started south and were able to continue and docked at Barbados early on Monday, November 1st.

Upon arriving at the Barbados airport, we discovered that, because of the storm, the American Airlines computers were down. They finally came back up, but we stood in line for almost two hours before we could get checked in. Unfortunately, the ticket counters in the Barbados airport are not in an air-conditioned area but rather in a big, open-air, shed-type facility, and it was extremely hot. We did make our flight to Miami, but I'm not sure that all of the people in the very long line got checked in in time to make the flight. The van driver who took us to the airport said that there was roof damage and power outages in Barbados, but St. Lucia got the worst of the damage.

When we booked this cruise over a year ago, we did not even think about hurricanes happening the last week of October. Of course this has been a very crazy weather year. We do appreciate the captain's watching out for the safety of his passengers.

Problems with Rental Cars

We don't always take cruises or trips abroad when we travel. There are times when we want to see new parts of the U.S.A. When we do this, we usually fly to a destination and rent a car to go to the mountains, beaches, Disney World, or any other overcrowded tourist area that everyone else wants to go to as well.

We used to rent the smallest, cheapest car available with automatic transmission and air conditioning. This was before we made a round-trip drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and back in one day in a Mitsubishi Mirage with no cruise control. Now we rent a compact car and let AAA upgrade us to a larger car so we can be comfortable while riding along seeing our beautiful country.Rental cars are not without problems. We try to request a non-smoking car because who wants to drive for miles in a car that stinks inside. One time we rented an SUV at home to drive to Branson, Missouri, and had to vacuum dog hair off the seats before we could even sit down.

On our last trip to Yellowstone, we had two car problems. The first was that after we waited in line for a while to check in and even upgraded, we were told that there were no cars cleaned up and we would have to wait for one to be cleaned, probably about 20 minutes (which stretched into over a hour). The second problem was that when the tires got hot, a Check Tire Monitor light came on with an accompanying beep. We went to the closest Walmart and got the tires checked, but had to listen to the annoying warning sound every time the tires got hot. Fortunately we could turn it off.

Cars are supposed to be checked thoroughly and cleaned before they are rented out again. Then why was the windshield washer fluid container completely empty on one car that I rented? Why did I have to put air in the tires? And isn't a gas tank supposed to be full, not 3/4 full when you rent it?Unless I know that I am going to use a full tank of gas, I never let the rental company charge me for a full tank up front. It is hard to really empty a gasoline tank and I usually end up giving quite a bit to the rental company when I turn in the car. I can usually find a service station close to the airport to fill up myself and I usually try to put a little more in after the pump clicks off so the gauge reads full when I return it.

I don't like General Motors cars, which most of the rental companies use for their lowest rental rates. They have a huge steering wheel, are full of blind spots, and the back window is so slanted that all I have is a slit to look through when I want to see behind me. Why did Hertz get rid of the Taurus? I liked driving that model. And I must say that Hertz was very nice when I had steering problems with an sub-compact and was 70 miles away from the airport - they brought me a Taurus that distance and did not charge me. They also let me keep a Taurus an extra day at weekend rates when I had to stay in Louisiana an extra day because of a hurricane.

Although we have been told we don't have to do so, we do take the collision insurance, even though it is expensive. Who wants a vacation ruined if you have an accident and have problems with your own insurance company who may be over 1000 miles away. We had a windshield cracked one time before we even left the airport property and when we returned the car, they said that we had no obligation since we had taken their insurance. When you compare the cost of the insurance with your own deductible, there isn't much difference and you do have peace of mind when driving in a strange area. Some car rental companies go over the car with a fine-tooth comb to find all of the scratches and dents on it so they can charge you for new dings and scratches when you return it. I don't want to worry so much about the car that I don't enjoy my vacation.

And why do car rental companies lock both keys to the car on the same key ring? My husband and I would each like to carry a key for safety reasons. At one time, the customer was given one key and the office kept the other. That made more sense.Turning in a car is much easier than getting one. A staff member has a hand-held computer which computes everything that you agreed upon when you rented the car (and maybe some items that you didn't agree upon). Be sure to check your statement before leaving the area.

And don't let a kea in New Zealand destroy the rubber around the door. This is what happened to one of my Australian friends who opened his door while waiting to enter a one-way tunnel.