Killing time at Fort Lauderdale airport. Home tomorrow. We have to stay over near the airport because we get back to Pennsylvania after dark tonight. I cannot drive and my husband cannot see to drive after dark. Extra expense but better safe than sorry. A concession we needed to make if we wanted to travel with vision loss.
The trip was good. I got fairly independent on the ship. There were some problems with reading signs but I learned my routes pretty easily. Deck 8 for the stateroom. Deck 15 for the buffet and the pool. Deck 16 for the gym and deck 7 for my daily ‘promenade’. That’s a walk around the ship for the uninitiated.
I saw a man walking with his white cane once. That meant there were at least two people on board with vision worse than mine. I thought about accosting him and asking about his experience but then decided that might be rude.
Food was plentiful and very good. We ate in ‘any time’ dining every meal. I put my nose pretty much on the signs to read what the offerings were. However, if I had to ask for or about something, the responses were immediate. I think I would have had no problems finding someone who would have walked me through the buffet line.
In fact, there were staff who wore vests with the official handicapped logo on them. They generally got the wheelchair bound cruisers off and on the ship. I think I could have probably utilized one of those people as a sighted guide now and again. I did not ask, but handicapped is handicapped; yes?
One of the big problems with anytime dining was my husband would sit down and I would have to spend five minutes or more trying to find him in the crowded dining room. We finally half solved that problem by always going to the same corner of the dining room. Getting the table first and leaving something there to claim it would have probably worked too.
My husband had many fewer problems finding me at the pool. I think the lesson there is let the sighted person be the hunter. You be the ‘huntee’.
Even though I was quite candid about my vision loss, I still had problems with people thinking I did not perhaps ‘care’ enough to recognize them. I developed a friendly relationship with a deck attendant from Serbia. Very sweet young man but he expected me to see him and respond cordially even when he was ‘out of place’. Never quite believed I am visually impaired. After all, I wasn’t running into things; was I?
I did wear my “blind chick with attitude” shirt to work out. I had one comment on it. A woman in Zumba thought it was cute. When I pointed out it was also accurate, she was totally embarrassed. She had looked at the graphics and not the wording. So much for advertising!
Ok. Gotta walk before I grow fast here. Plane coming soon….I hope.
Written November 10th, 2017