What Not to Do If You Want to Enjoy a Relaxing Vacation

But you know that does not come alone. As you would expect, I have a lot of stories, anecdotes I should say, of things that did not go exactly as planned, or went just plain wrong.

From suffering a fraud to being delayed hours in an airport, having car trouble or getting a speeding ticket, not having a hotel to spend the night to sleeping in a roaches paradise, I have stories of all colors and flavors.

But perhaps the Florida incident is the most outrageous of all.

We were teenagers, my siblings and I, and my father came up with this dream vacation. We were to spend two weeks in the U.S. One in Orlando, Disney included for the first time in our lives, four days on a cruise on the Bahamas area, and three day in Miami.

We couldn't be happier. Of course, we didn't know the odyssey we were about to embark in...

After the first week went by, Disney and all, we were getting ready for our first cruise ever. We would sleep in Orlando and in the morning head for the cruise.

My dad had our documentation (passport, traveling vouchers, money, etc) and guarded them with his life. We wouldn't even let us touch them because even we imposed a threat.

He just told us we needed to wake up early the following morning, as we needed to drive all the way down from Orlando to Miami to catch our cruise.

We drove for five or six hours, and finally got to Miami right after noon. Went to the port and were excited to see the cruise waiting for us! Parked our van, checked our luggage and smile all the way to the cruise ship door. But only to the door.

The words "There's a problem. This is not your cruise" hit our heads. I think they did not make sense, and would have not make sense to us at that point had they been pronounced in Spanish.

Apparently, and evidently, our cruise was not departing from Miami, but it was departing from Cape Canaveral, less than an hour from Orlando... Oh-my-gosh! This ship was similar to ours, but not ours. We were so close, yet so far!

I'm not so sure how we got to an office were personnel from the cruise line confirmed not only it was not our cruise, but also that driving all the way up to Cape Canaveral, we wouldn't make it.

The solution was as expensive as it turned to be wild. We had to spend the night in Miami, in the only hotel we could find availability at, and fly the following day to Bahamas to board the cruise on its first stop.

I remember the hotel we stayed in that night. I felt like a fugitive. It was the-most-depressing room I have seen so far. The ceiling falling down on us.

The flight the following day, unforgettable. We got to the airport and waiting for our plane we kind of laugh on ten people getting on a small plane, we though 'poor guys, getting in that 20-passenger nutshell'... Ours was just worse! It was the pilot, one co-pilot/flight attendant bonus, the five of us, and a guy unknown to us who was just reading his paper. And there were many seats left empty!! We could see way too many other planes passing us by! It was like riding a pigeon.

We did survive the flight, got to Bahamas and into a taxi. Man... they drive on the left, but the wheel is also on the left. So imagine driving at seventy-five miles per hour and having to get your entire car in the opposite lane to see if some car is coming. Priceless.

Finally made it to the cruise. Now the crew could not understand who we were or what we were doing there, trying to board on this port. And thank god this was pre-911... we wouldn't be able to do that nowadays.

So we finally made it, and spent the next three days in the cruise. And one would think that was all the hectic travel. And one would be so wrong.

Sure enough, the cruise returned to Cape Canaveral. We rent a second car, and once again drove all the way down to Miami, which felt kind of a scene out of the movie "The Groundhog Day", only with a couple of police tickets more.

When in Miami, we needed to return our "new" car, and pick up our van in the airport parking lot. Left the car, got in the shuttle, and then I asked "Dad, did you bring the van's key?"... "Dough!"

We got a new key from the car rental company. Too bad it would open the door but not ignite the car... So we took a taxi (another one, but this in Miami) to the hotel.

The next morning was spent making it back to the airport to recover our van. That part was not so hard at least, just a waste of time.

With that, we concluded our adventure. That one at least.

And while we will never forget our trip to the Florida, it's amazing how times helps you forget the bad times and remember them with a smile. Although I didn't find it funny back then.

So my advice to you all would be: always check where your cruise ships from, avoid fighting on a nutshell, drive safely on the opposite side of where your wheel is, don't board a ship on the first stop, avoid renting multiple cars, keep your van key in your pocket, but among all things, just enjoy your vacation and relax... after all, in twenty years, you will remember them with a smile on your face.