From Icy Cold to Balmy Caribbean
Debbie and Ron aboard Emerald Princess.
April 3, 2012
by Debbie Parson
It began, innocently enough, as a light snow, transforming the landscape around our rural Kentucky home into a transcendent holiday card. Then came eight days of intermittent freezing rain, more snow and finally, a brutal pummeling of skin-searing, sub-zero, 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts hurling around more snow and freezing rain.
Central Kentucky relented to the pure force of nature. Ice as thick as three inches formed, power lines fell across the region. Tree limbs snapped. Power outages affected 750,000 homes. The governor swiftly signed a disaster declaration.
If my husband, Ron, didn’t work as a supervisor for the regional electric utility, we’d have been rubbing our hands in glee about our upcoming Caribbean cruise on Emerald Princess. But precisely because of his job, managing the crews that would fix those lines and restore civility, our longed-for vacation was in as much jeopardy as our roof was from a falling tree limb.
For the next two weeks, I barely saw Ron. There were nights he’d catch a few hours sleep on the couch at work. Others he’d come home around midnight and be out by 5 a.m., leaving a pile of clothes on the floor as evidence.
I kept the home front. We lost power for three days, but coming from a utility family, we were fore-armed with a generator and wood-burning stove. My parents lost power for nine days, so I’d look after them, check in on Ron’s parents, go to work at the library and check in with our son.
Ron would call when he could and we’d worry if the crisis would settle in time for us to go on our cruise. Truth be told, I started to freak out. I tried to force optimism by packing our bags anyway.
Meanwhile, Ron used the promise of the cruise to give him stamina to push through his exhaustion and complete the remaining workload. He dreamed about that golf outing I’d booked in St. Kitts, while I kept imagining the catamaran ride off Barbados.
Once the power lines were up and electricity fully restored we still weren’t in the clear – he was still responsible for reviewing the repair work and completing the paperwork that went along with that. We kept our (very cold) fingers crossed.
Then, a scant few days before our cruise, the decision was made. Ron was cleared to take his vacation. We were giddy on that flight to Fort Lauderdale and all but floated up Emerald Princess’ gangway gloriously bathed in 80-degree warmth.
Once we settled in, I pulled up a deck chair and Ron commenced with his own repair work. He literally spent two days catching up on his sleep and eating good meals. Few people could’ve deserved that vacation more than Ron, and our 10 days of Caribbean sunshine exceeded our expectations. We had never appreciated warmth and relaxation so much!
I’ve always been proud of my beloved soul mate but never more than when I saw the sacrifice and dedication he showed during the ice storm of 2009. Without a doubt, this cruise was even more special because of those icy, work-filled days and nights, when we wondered if we’d ever make it at all.
Debbie is from Campbellsville, Kentucky and she’s enjoyed five cruises with Princess. She’s looking forward to another cruise in November!
The ice storm!
26 Comments Post a Comment
Continuing the Discussion
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says... May 18, 2012 | 10:40am
[...] To Escape the Ice Storm [...]
Many thanks for sharing your story, Debbie! You both certainly deserved to enjoy the warm waters of the Caribbean after that ice storm! It’s clear Ron’s dedication and your optimism were the guiding force to get you on that cruise!
As one of your lucky cruise mates for Panama Canal 2010, I am so excited to read your blog here on Princess! You and your beloved create many cruise memories for all of us! Here’s to hoping I get on another cruise with you and your ohana!
Makes me cold just looking at it, but what an indcerible photo shoot. Lizzie looks beautiful (as always) and you are so talented!! I really love the colors, you captured winter beautifully!
Oh, I love this story and remember that horrible Winter!!
Being from Central Kentucky as well, I remember that storm. Thanks to your hubby for bringing us back on the grid after 8 days without electricity. I also had a cruise to dream about to keep me warm, but mine didnt come along until the following January.
Thank you for sharing your story with us Debbie. We live in Perth Western Australia where it’s beautiful one day and perfect the next. My wife and I have often thought of going to the snow for a holiday but after reading your story I think we will stick with the tropical cruises. Leaving in June for a 26 day Treasures of Asia cruise.
Ah yes, Peter, Perth is a lovely city but would it be so without the timely arrival of the “Freemantle Doctor”?
What an inspirational story from a beautiful couple! I think they deserve a free cruise!
Yes. Free cruise for them and their extended family!!
Great story I too come from the bitter cold to warm my bones in the carribbean. I was on the Grand Princess Jan.2012 and have reservations for Jan.20th 2013 on the Ruby Princess. I love Rock’N'Roll so I get to be warm and listen to my favorite original oldies icons like Paul Revere and The Raiders, Chubby Checker, Mitch Ryder, Gary Lewis and The Playboys! To go with the oldies group you need to call 866-3OLDIES..this cruise goes to my favorite ports! I just hope I don’t have to shovel snow when I get home just to get into the house!
HI Barbara
Would you tell me more about the “oldies group” as it sounds like we are in that age group, still liking rock n roll? We’ve taken 6 cruises; 4 with Princess and feel the same as you. We were in the Caribbean in January when the ice/snow storm hit Seattle and came home to downed tree branches and the like
Thanks
Geri Bush
This is an amazing story that a Princess Cruise is what gave him the strength to get the work done in sufficient time to take his very well deserved vacation. I give alot of credit to those who work for the power company. It is crazy how people get upset, here in California, when the power goes out and they are worried about everything in the fridge going bad, when it could be much much worse like the experience you had in KY. I thank him for his hard work and service to his community for the work he does. Thankfully, you were able to take your cruise.
We took that same cruise itinerary on the Emerald Princess but not in 2009. We enjoyed it in January 2012. So far, we’ve done about 19 cruises but, except for 2 river cruises, the past 11 have been with Princess, so you can see which cruise line is our favorite We have 2 cruises booked June and July this year on the Pacific Princess, and we’ve already booked a cruise for 2013 on board the new Royal Princess. Now, I never consider any cruises on any other line.
I also love Princess BUT Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are great, too! I travel with those three ONLY other than the one time I went with Regent Seven SEas….ALL INCLUSIVE and if I could afford it I would do it exclusively!!!!! You should look at price and itinerary with those I listed
because you can’t go wrong with any of them…they are all wonderful!!!!
I remember how helpful the crew was when my daughter and I got terribly “seasick”. A crew member said to go to the restaurant and the waiter would suggest something we could eat. He suggested alfredo
fettucine. (I thought OMG). It actually worked immediately. We enjoyed the whole trip
Having lived through the bad ice storm of Jan. 2007 here in Springfield, Mo, I can only admire Ron for all that work to get the power running again. I have always felt for those linemen that are out there day and night in the numbing, freezing cold.
Just living through those noisy tree shattering nights and worrying about my many trees and later the cost of the cleanup was high, but, the Princess April cruise from Sydney to LA for my 60th birthday kept me going.
Same in 2009, the Princess cruise Beijing to Bangkok was seeing me through 4 months of 8 chemo sessions. Six weeks after they ended we left for Beijing. So I know the worry Debbie and Ron went through, will they get to go on their cruise… I am sure glad they did.
Good luck Debbie and Ron!
Great story. Being from Western New York we know the feeling of lots of snow belt snow & wind chill and have experienced the same feeling when leaving WNY for Ft Lauderdale and several of the Princess Caribbean cruises. But after a week or two, reality returns and then we have to start thinking of returning north. But memories get us through until the next scheduled cruise for us. Thanx for sharing.
My wife and I will be taking a Caribbean cruise in November as well. We’ll be on the Emerald Princess sailing from Ft. Lauderdale on November 7. Although it isn’t to escape an ice storm like your trip, we love sailing with Princess, and the Caribbean is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go.
This is the cruise we will be on also! Have you checked in with the roll call on cruise critic?
No I haven’t. I’ll check it out. Thanks. Hope to see you on board.
Princess Cruises are so wonderful that they really do sometimes provide the strength to get through the tough times while looking forward to them. I saw it myself a couple of years ago when I’d booked an Alaska cruise vacation for my folks, my nephew, and I. After months of excitedly counting the days until departure, we were finally into the single digits when my mother sufferred a terrible injury from some obnoxious, rambunctious youths run amok at a local aquarium. With broken ribs and a busted jaw, Alaska was replaced with surgery and nearly two months of liquid diet squeezed between her lips. Of course, the Alaska vacation needed to be postponed for a year, but a year is just too long to wait. So in addition to replanning for the following summer, I decided to book a short Coastal Cruise in the fall that she could look forward to while she recovered. I’ll never forget the tears of joy that she cried when she returned home from the hospital and was surprised to find a sign saying B702, our assigned stateroom number for the Sapphire Princess 11 weeks later, taped to her bedroom door. She was so incredibly happy. It made getting through those awful weeks with the wired jaw and painful ribs doable and she still says today that it was knowing we were going on a cruise in September, a vacation where we would celebrate her recovery, that got her through.
If anybody really needed a vacation, it was your husband; and YOU, for taking care of everything else! I’m so glad that it worked out.
Thanks for the fine story Debbie. You both deserved the very welcome break from that storm. We took that same cruise in 2008 and, as I read, I relived the ports of call that you mentioned as well as the oithers. You couldn’t have bookied a better itinerary in the Southern Caribbean. Princess is the way to go! Enjoy the next one.
Me and my husband was also on a cruise during that blizzard of 2009, we were in the Western Caribbean on the Crown Princess. We live in Northern Virginia and our flight out was the last one on Friday before the blizzard hit this area really hard. We were supposed to fly out to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, but had to change the flight because the blizzard was starting to hit us on Friday afternoon. It was superbowl weekend so therefore it was hard finding a hotel, but we did, even though very expensive for that night. We were both thankful that our cruise worked out for us, we had been very worried the week before, thinking that it might not happen. We did make it there and had a great time. We left Dulles in a blizzard and then two hours later in Fort Lauderdale in 75 degree weather. We have now cruised on Princess 6 times and looking forward to the next one, hopefully in November.
Go for the 10 day on the Emerald Nov. 7th! That’s the one we have booked