Back from vacation

So I came back from my cruise vacation yesterday, and it was brilliant. First, the knee stuff. Overall, it was pretty good. I wore the brace on the flight down to Orlando, and I had quite a bit of pain and swelling on the plane, I guess from the pressure changes. But I was able to sit in the bulkhead, which was nice cause it meant I had extra leg room. Once we got to the airport in Orlando, I had a wheelchair take me to baggage claim because it was a long walk over there. Got our bags, and found our shuttle to take us to our 7 days of rest and relaxation. The people at Carnival told me that I could get a wheelchair at embarkation, but being a platinum cruiser, I had VIP boarding anyway, and got to skip all the lines. Which was nice, because the lines were long by the time we got there. I did have to get a pat down at the cruise terminal, but they were much nicer about it at the cruise terminal than they were at the airport.

We got on board, and went straight to lunch. I kept the brace on mainly because I had nowhere to put it, since our rooms weren't ready until 1:30. During sailaway, I skipped out on the traditional dancing, I didn't think it would be smart for my already swollen knee. I bought a spa pass, which was great for me knee. $150 for a week pass, and it was the best $150 I ever spent. Our dinner table was in a great spot. Our ship has 2 dining rooms, one in the middle of the ship, and one in the back of the ship. Since I knew I would have to minimize my walking, I had requested a table for 2 in the middle dining room, since it was closest to my room, nad we got what I had requested, and also very close to the door, and no steps to walk up. I definitely appreciated that.

So like I said, overall, the knee was OK. When we got to the ports of call, we went to the beach, and walking over the sand was difficult, as was climbing into and out of the water with all that sand. I think I underestimated just how difficult it was going to be. On one of our stops, I was having a lot of pain, and it felt like my knee was almost subluxing, so I ended up wearing the brace as it was a long walk down the pier, but the beach was right off the pier. I think it did help somewhat, although trying to keep it free from sand was annoying. I did wear the brace around the ship every now and then when it started swelling a lot and making these cracking noises.

Whenever someone saw me with this big ole leg brace, people asked me of course what had happened. I think most of them thought it had happened on the ship. So after I told them I had surgery, they of course all had to show me their knee scars too. It's like it was some secret club. Everyone felt the need to show me their scars, and tell me their stories. Although going along with the slightly older clientele on this cruise, I think everyone I met had knee replacements. I also kept up with my rehab as much as I could. I went to the gym almost every day. I learned in the afternoon, it's much quieter, the only people at that time are the dancers and entertainment staff, and the older people. I didn't feel quite as bad riding the bike with a resistance of 3 when an 80 year old was next to me, as if some incredibly fit 20 something sat next to me thinking he was the next Lance Armstrong. And the dancers, well, they're so focused on themselves they don't care what anyone else is doing.

It was fun when I saw the staff in their though. There is this one guy that runs the comedy club on board, and he sat on the bike next to me, and had his script that he was reviewing for his warm up before the comedians come out. He was fun to talk to, and let me hear some jokes from his warm up that night. I also saw the cruise director there once. These people are like mini celebs on a cruise, so I got a kick out of seeing them there, almost like I was seeing someone famous. Usually, after the gym, I would hit the spa. They had this mineral pool, it was nice hot water, with jet streams and what not. In there, I would usually do some leg extensions, knee extensions, lifting my leg, and walking up and down the length of the pool. Stuff like that, that my PT told me to do. And then of course, I would just melt into the relaxation after that was done. From there, you hit the steam rooms and saunas. I can't tell you how incredibely relaxed I would feel after that. I made sure to make an ice pack after the spa though, because the first time I didn't, my leg got very puffy. But it was brilliant, that spa is the best invention ever. Besides the mineral pool, there are 2 different steam rooms, and 2 saunas with heated tile lounges. I could have spent the entire week there. And the showers in the spa were amazing. They had shower heads that came out from the sides, and misted, and all these other settings. Loved it.

Speaking of the mini celebs I saw in the gym, there were some real celebs on board. They were shooting "Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked" on my cruise. Jason Lee was on board, as was the guy who plays Ian Hawke, and of course the Chipmunks and Chipettes. We were asked to sign up as extras if we wanted, and on the last day, my boyfriend and I got called to be extras. It was fun, but I'm not sure if I would do it again. It was a very long day, it was cold, and we had to be in shorts and tee shirts. "My" scene is at a Chipettes concert, make sure you look for me :) I can't say the filming bothered me at all, they were really nice about answering questions for anybody even if you were just watching the filming, explaining what was going on, how things work, how they later do the animation, stuff like that. And they in no way took over the ship, they would close off only a small part at a time. Besides, with all them filming, there was less people competing for deck chairs. The only problem was that in the scene, we were supposed to be dancing. I kind of bounced around as my dancing, but after a while, my knee started getting really sore and swollen. After about 7 hours, I asked the background director if I could leave. We already did the parts where I was near the principals and he was moving us around to fill in the stage so they could shoot the concert from another angle. He was really great about it and said "You can leave anytime you want. This is your vacation and we're not paying you. We're thankful for whatever you give us". So for all that, all I got was a drink card, which was valued at $6. Still it was an experience, and maybe I'll see myself when the movie comes out.

I met the biggest celebrity on the ship: ALVIN!!!