And How Was Your Thanksgiving Break?

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. It brings to mind the smell of roasting turkeys, rustling leaves, and the sound of family squabbling. But in our case, it brings to mind something entirely different. We opted to flee Oregon for the holidays and join a small group of 2,400 complete strangers (plus five good friends) for a seven-day cruise in the Caribbean.

Things were going great until my son mumbled "my stomach hurts" after one of our first dinners. I thought it was just from overeating, which seems to be the number one thing to do on cruise ships. Alas, I was wrong. We took him to the basement of the ship to see the doctor, and he was quickly diagnosed with the dreaded NOROVIRUS. You've probably heard of it. That's the virus that sickened over 2,600 people on the QE2 a few years ago. Ugh. It's basically an extremely intense version of the stomach flu. So the poor little guy was quarantined for 48 hours. In a room the size of a large shoe box. Luckily, with round-the-clock movies and room service, he pulled out of it pretty quickly. The scariest thing was when a ship employee showed up at the door dressed in a full hazmat suit in order to sanitize the room.

Then there were the late dinners. We weren't able to get the "early seating" for dinner, so we had the joy of eating a four-course meal from 8:30-10:00 every night. Here's a photo of one of our more lively dinners, as we were waiting for our food to be served.

And how was your Thanksgiving holiday? Please share your story - we'd love to hear from you!