Best Casinos Near Jacksonville, FL - Urcomped

Cruise Karen
Hello all! Got another story for you. This happened just recently as my family and I just returned from a cruise to celebrate my grandparents 50th anniversary. It was a 5 days cruise that ported out of Jacksonville, FL to the Bahamas. Out of my household, myself, my mom and my sister went, leaving my brother and dad behind. My mom’s sister and her husband brought along their 4 youngest kids and of course my grandparents, 11 of us in total. If you read my last post, this is the same family we were visiting during the Plane Karen incident.
This story will be recounting our unfortunate time with our deck neighbor Karen. At this point we should know the basic cast of characters, so I’ll only include; GP/M~ Grandpa/ ma, H ~ Karen’s “Husband” (he doesn’t really have much to add to this story) and KK ~ Karen’s Kids.
It all begins once we’re beginning to board and making our way to our room. My mom managed an extended balcony room to mine and my sister’s utter delight. Worth the extra coinage. Our door had been propped open as we were waiting for our bags to arrive, so meantime we were exploring the room. Directly across the hall, I spot a man (H) and two kids come out and briefly look into out room. Not totally weird in my book honestly. I tend to feel snoopish now and again as I walk the hall and see other doors open. He took the kids down the hall right as our luggage appeared. We unpacked and got settled, door still open a bit. I see H and kids come back with a small plate of food in hand (lunch was going on whilst people still boarded. This was around 2pm-ish). He made another glance into our room again before shutting his own door. And that was that until dinner around six, a couple of hours after we left the port into open water. I made my way to dinner first; I had to walk at a slower pace to better accommodate my foot which was not fairing well after surgery 9 months prior (read last post). As I stepped foot outside the threshold of my room, the door across from me flew open, a woman (tall, skinny, blonde blue eyes) looked my up and down and gave me one of those looks. Like something was amiss to her, before she muttered a “Hello” before walking down the hall. And it was at that time I noticed a couple plates of leftover food and utensils sitting by our door. We hadn’t eaten yet, so I knew this wasn’t ours. I brushed it off and left for the dining hall.
After dinner, all three of us came back down our hall to find the same women knocking on our door. My mom got her attention with an “Hello, can we help you?” The women jumped a bit then put on her biggest smile.
K: “Hello! We’re directly across from you and I was hoping to ask you for a favor?” By this time, we made it to our door, and I told my sister to go inside, and as she did so, giving the woman a look inside our room. she continued.
K: “It’s our first cruise and I am not to familiar with the boats. So, when we were booking, we didn’t know about the balcony rooms. And then I noticed you have a balcony and..” my mom cut her off.
M: “So, what’s your favor? You need tips on how to book a balcony for next time?” my mom was tired after dinner and it had been a long day. She didn’t want to deal with this. The women shook her head.
K: “Oh no, no, no. I was hoping you’d switch rooms with us, so I can give my kids a great experience on their first cruise. It shouldn’t be a problem. See, your cards are red, so you’ve cruised before and know what a balcony feels like. What do you say” I actually snort laughed at her “idea” to which my mom shooed me into the room, looked to Karen and said with the fakest of smiles, “No thank you. Have a goodnight and a lovely vacation.” and shut the door. I bust out laughing. She looked so sure and confident that this would work. Without going over the entire reasoning as to why this wouldn’t work, she totally didn’t think this whole thing through.
Later in the evening I had gotten hungry again and ordered room service. As my food arrived and I opened the door to let the attendant in, on cue, the woman and H came out of their rooms dressed all fancy, then she spotted me and narrowed her eyes at me, to which I snort chuckled, thanked the attendant and closed to door in her face. And that, my friends was just the beginning of Cruise Karen.
She began her tirade of petty nuisances the first sea day (Day 1), when after my family had gotten back to our rooms after breakfast, she’d come out of her room and just give us mean looks and “humphed” her tired ass down the hall with her family. The maybe after 15 or so minutes, they would return with so much food, 1 to 2 plates a person. We’d always open our door to a suspicious big pile of dirty dishes next to our door. We knew it was them and I think she thought that she could make us out to look like pigs/ slobs or something for always have a mass of dishes. Thankfully, our steward, made his rounds more frequently than others, and always picked them up in a timely manner. Later in the day, we received notice that someone was complaining about noise and the smell of cigarettes being smoked across the hall. If I'm honest, these room are nearly soundproof wall to wall. You seldom hear anything unless you actually walk outside your room, and barely anything there still. We knew. And nothing came of it.
I had gone to sunbathe on the Lido Deck towards the back of the boat. I had found a nice secluded spot near the back, in a corner. I had been there about 20-ish minutes when I felt the spritz of water fall on me. There was not a cloud in the sky and the waterslide was far away enough water couldn’t touch me. It was then I had noticed two familiar children running away from my direction and towards a chair with someone in it. It was her kids. And no later had I recognized them, with their huge water guns, had the Karen peeked around her chair, lifting her shades a bit to see me. She zipped back around the second we made eye contact. I stood my ground and continued to sunbathe, not willing to give up a prime spot for soaking in that Vitamin D. The sun has a way of relaxing you and making you sleepy. I had my shades on and pretty much laid lifeless for the most part. This led to Karen to probably believing I had fallen asleep and shooed her kids over towards me again, but before they could do anything, my mom had shown up and “yelled” at them the scram. They did and ran to Karen, whom shot us multiple glares, but never said anything and that was the end of that. My mom took the chair up beside me and we sat there for a little over two hours. At least twice more that day, we found more piles of dishes by our door and later that night, Karen tried to discreetly get me in trouble by telling the bouncer of the night club that I had snuck in and was underaged. Karen was still not too bright as our room cards have a barcode employee’s scan that display our names and ages as displayed on our passports. So of course, nothing came of this and I stayed. I even ordered a large alcoholic beverage and saluted Karen on the dance floor. She huffed and stomped away.
The next day (Day 2), we ported into Paradise Island. Bahamas. Myself, my mom and my sister made our way off the boat and onto the ferry that takes you from Nassau to Paradise Island. S/N: Our grandparents own two timeshare properties on PI, right next door to the Atlantis Resort, and they are granted full access passes every year to the Atlantis Waterpark and its' multiple aquariums, whenever they go. Our family has experienced the Bahamas three times and were familiar with the territory/ process. Our GP’s opted to tour the city, so we were allowed to use said passes. Upon getting there, we enter in through the casino to get through to the first part of the aquarium. When we get to the threshold (there’s always a guard checking for Atlantis passes at this point. No passes and/ or ticket, no entry. Simple.), there’s Karen and her family. She’s trying her best not to make a scene, but she looks angry. As we grew closer, we could hear their conversation. She wants entry into the water park but has no pass or ticket. None of them do. They assumed it came free with the cruise. The guard explains plainly, no ticket, no entry. Karen ranted some more, the guard ignored her at that point. We made our way to the guard and flashed our passes; the guard smiles at us and starts to move aside. Karen noticed this immediately and her face contorted in fury, then just as quickly scheming. Karen was not a creature of subtlety, as the guard moved to let us by, Karen tried to shove her kids into us.
K: “We’re actually with them. They know us from the cruise and can vouch for us. Hey. Hey! May we use those passes too? My kids deserve to experience this. Come on.” she pleaded, and it was rather pathetic, yet bold of her to try and pass this in front of the guard who obviously wasn’t buying it. My mom laughed and we kept walking. Karen kept screaming how this was unfair and that we somehow stole her passes, even though she just told the guard she thought it was free. Our day goes on and we have a great time. I have pictures/ videos if anyone would like to see. We had to be back on the boat by 4pm before the boat left by 5, so we start our way back at 3:30. We ported out of the Bahamas, and the rest of the evening was peaceful.
The next day (Day 3), we docked in The Princess Cays and took my little cousin with us. I spotted Karen a few times on the far side of the beach as we swam and sunbathed on the other, I don’t know if she saw us too, but nothing was had that day either. On the second sea day (Day 4), I decided to stay in the room most the day to recuperate from the swimming and sun from the days prior. I was exhausted. I was taking naps whenever during the day, having only left the room for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My mom had gone out with her sister for the evening and my sister was out at the deck party. My twin cousins stopped by to enjoy the balcony for a bit and just hang out. About 8 in the evening, there was a knock. I got up thinking it was my room service I had ordered (don’t shame me, room service is great and the food is damn good). Nope. Karen; all dolled up and fancy with her two kids. I muttered an, “Oh my god” before asking if I could help her. Karen, with one of those irked looks on her face braves a fake ass smile.
K: “Yes hi, I need someone to watch my kids so my husband and I can go out for our last night on this ship. I thought you wouldn’t mind since you’re not doing anything AND caused us that trouble in the Bahamas and embarrassed me in front of all those people. You owe us this much.” She started to push her kids slowly to the door, telling them that Mommy and Daddy would see them in a couple hours. I’m terrible at guessing kids ages, but they came up to barely must waist, and I’m 4’11’’. I blocked the door, and I could see she was getting furious.
M: “Okay, listen. This is getting so ridiculous. We don’t owe you or your privileged family anything. It’s really sad to see a grown woman act like a spoiled brat just because she lacked the knowledge to plan ahead and book the room she wanted, and NOW must try to sabotage my family’s vacation and my good time. I am not having it. You are not leaving your kids with me. A stranger, no less. What kind of parent are you? What normal person does this?” I whisper shouted at her. I was done with her bs. I was tired, sunburned and suffering a bit of heat exhaustion. Though I looked and felt like shiz, I sure as hell was not about to take this. Karen just stared, mouth agape trying to come up with some retort. At that moment, my cousins came in outside from the balcony, and it was at that Karen thought she had leverage.
K: “Well then, who are they!? Why do they get to spend time on the balcony and my kids can’t? This isn’t fair! You are going to watch my kids. You will! You will! Or I’m going to complain!” I rebutted,
M: “I owe you nothing. They are here for the simple fact that they're family and welcome in here. You are not welcome. Take your kids back to your own sad little room and I will be launching a complaint for your constant harassment.” I close the door. Karen placed a hard hit to our door before huffing out a long roar before storming off and her kids crying. I told my mom what happened, and we did make a complaint. I don’t know what happened to Karen and her family after that. We didn’t see nor hear of or from them for the rest of that night, or the next morning when we ported into Jacksonville. Aside from our adventures with her, this was a great vacation and one I got to take with the side of the family I rarely see. This story was told to my Aunt and Uncle, and they made a point to ask if my mom and I just have bad luck with such encounters with these people. We laughed about it; Mom: “Let’s hope to universe gives us a break. I really wanted to knock her ass out.” We all left and went our separate ways for now as our grandparents took us to the airport.
……. then on the way the to the airport, who should we see?
Not Karen, but a crazy cracked out lady in a white pickup that tried to cause damage to her own car and blame my grandpa for it. But that’s another story. 😊

Cruise Karen
Hello all! Got another story for you. This happened just recently as my family and I just returned from a cruise to celebrate my grandparents 50th anniversary. It was a 5 days cruise that ported out of Jacksonville, FL to the Bahamas. Out of my household, myself, my mom and my sister went, leaving my brother and dad behind. My mom’s sister and her husband brought along their 4 youngest kids and of course my grandparents, 11 of us in total. If you read my last post, this is the same family we were visiting during the Plane Karen incident.
This story will be recounting our unfortunate time with our deck neighbor Karen. At this point we should know the basic cast of characters, so I’ll only include; GP/M~ Grandpa/ ma, H ~ Karen’s “Husband” (he doesn’t really have much to add to this story) and KK ~ Karen’s Kids.
It all begins once we’re beginning to board and making our way to our room. My mom managed an extended balcony room to mine and my sister’s utter delight. Worth the extra coinage. Our door had been propped open as we were waiting for our bags to arrive, so meantime we were exploring the room. Directly across the hall, I spot a man (H) and two kids come out and briefly look into out room. Not totally weird in my book honestly. I tend to feel snoopish now and again as I walk the hall and see other doors open. He took the kids down the hall right as our luggage appeared. We unpacked and got settled, door still open a bit. I see H and kids come back with a small plate of food in hand (lunch was going on whilst people still boarded. This was around 2pm-ish). He made another glance into our room again before shutting his own door. And that was that until dinner around six, a couple of hours after we left the port into open water. I made my way to dinner first; I had to walk at a slower pace to better accommodate my foot which was not fairing well after surgery 9 months prior (read last post). As I stepped foot outside the threshold of my room, the door across from me flew open, a woman (tall, skinny, blonde blue eyes) looked my up and down and gave me one of those looks. Like something was amiss to her, before she muttered a “Hello” before walking down the hall. And it was at that time I noticed a couple plates of leftover food and utensils sitting by our door. We hadn’t eaten yet, so I knew this wasn’t ours. I brushed it off and left for the dining hall.
After dinner, all three of us came back down our hall to find the same women knocking on our door. My mom got her attention with an “Hello, can we help you?” The women jumped a bit then put on her biggest smile.
K: “Hello! We’re directly across from you and I was hoping to ask you for a favor?” By this time, we made it to our door, and I told my sister to go inside, and as she did so, giving the woman a look inside our room. she continued.
K: “It’s our first cruise and I am not to familiar with the boats. So, when we were booking, we didn’t know about the balcony rooms. And then I noticed you have a balcony and..” my mom cut her off. “So, what’s your favor? You need tips on how to book a balcony for next time?” my mom was tired after dinner and it had been a long day. She didn’t want to deal with this. The women shook her head, “Oh no, no, no. I was hoping you’d switch rooms with us, so I can give my kids a great experience on their first cruise. It shouldn’t be a problem. See, your cards are red, so you’ve cruised before and know what a balcony feels like. What do you say” I actually snort laughed at her “idea” to which my mom shooed me into the room, looked to Karen and said with the fakest of smiles, “No thank you. Have a goodnight and a lovely vacation.” and shut the door. I bust out laughing. She looked so sure and confident that this would work. Without going over the entire reasoning as to why this wouldn’t work, she totally didn’t think this whole thing through.
Later in the evening I had gotten hungry again and ordered room service. As my food arrived and I opened the door to let the attendant in, on cue, the woman and H came out of their rooms dressed all fancy, then she spotted me and narrowed her eyes at me, to which I snort chuckled, thanked the attendant and closed to door in her face. And that, my friends was just the beginning of Cruise Karen.
She began her tirade of petty nuisances the first sea day (Day 1), when after my family had gotten back to our rooms after breakfast, she’d come out of her room and just give us mean looks and “humphed” her tired ass down the hall with her family. The maybe after 15 or so minutes, would return with so much food. We’d always open our door to a suspicious big pile of dirty dishes next to our door. We knew it was them and I think she thought that she could make us out to look like pigs/ slobs or something for always have a mass of dishes. Thankfully, our steward, made his rounds more frequently than others, and always picked them up in a timely manner. Later in the day, we received notice that someone was complaining about noise and the smell of cigarettes being smoked across the hall. We knew. Nothing came of it. I had gone to sunbathe on the Lido Deck towards the back of the boat. I had found a nice secluded spot near the back, in a corner. I had been there about 20ish minutes when I felt the spritz of water fall on me. There was not a cloud in the sky and the waterslide was far away enough water couldn’t touch me. It was then I had noticed two familiar children running away from my direction and towards a chair with someone in it. It was her kids. And no later had I recognized them, with their huge water guns, had the Karen peeked around her chair, lifting her shades a bit to see me. She zipped back around the second we made eye contact. I stood my ground and continued to sunbathe, not willing to give up a prime spot for soaking in that Vitamin D. The sun has a way of relaxing you and making you sleepy. I had my shades on and pretty much laid lifeless for the most part. This led to Karen to probably believing I had fallen asleep and shooed her kids over towards me again, but before they could do anything, my mom had shown up and “yelled” at them the scram. They did and ran to Karen, whom shot us multiple glares, but never said anything and that was the end of that. My mom took the chair up beside me and we sat there for a little over two hours. At least twice more that day, we found more piles of dishes by our door and later that night, Karen tried to discreetly get me in trouble by telling the bouncer of the night club that I had snuck in and was underaged. Karen was still not too bright as our room cards have a barcode employee’s scan that display our names and ages as displayed on our passports. So of course, nothing came of this and I stayed. I even ordered a large alcoholic beverage and saluted Karen on the dance floor. She huffed and stomped away.
The next day, we ported into Paradise Island. Bahamas. Myself, my mom and my sister made our way off the boat and onto the ferry that takes you from Nassau to Paradise Island. S/N: Our grandparents own two timeshare properties on PI, right next door to the Atlantis Resort, and they are granted full access passes every years to the Atlantis Waterpark and multiple aquariums, whenever they go. Our family has experienced the Bahamas three times and were familiar with the territory/ process. Our GP’s opted to tour the city, so we were allowed said passes for free access into the waterpark and aquarium. Upon getting there, we enter in through the casino to get through to the first part of the aquarium. When we get to the threshold (there’s always a guard checking for Atlantis passes at this point. No passes and/ or ticket, no entry. Simple.), there’s Karen and her family. She’s trying her best not to make a scene, but she looks angry. As we grew closer, we could hear their conversation. She wants entry into the water park but has no pass or ticket. None of them do. They assumed it came free with the cruise. The guard explains plainly, no ticket, no entry. Karen ranted some more, the guard ignored her at that point. We made our way to the guard and flashed our passes. Karen noticed this immediately and her face contorted in fury, then just as quickly scheming. Karen was not a creature of subtlety, as the guard moved to let us by, Karen tried to shove her kids into us.
K: “We’re actually with them. They know us from the cruise and can vouch for us. Hey. Hey! May we use those passes too? My kids deserve to experience this. Come on.” she pleaded, and it was rather pathetic, yet bold of her to try and pass this in front of the guard who obviously wasn’t buying it. My mom laughed and we kept walking. Karen kept screaming how this was unfair and that we somehow stole her passes, even though she just told the guard she thought it was free. Our day goes on and we have a great time. I have pictures/ videos if anyone would like to see. We had to be back on the boat by 4pm before the boat left by 5, so we start our way back at 3:30. We ported out of the Bahamas, and the rest of the evening was peaceful. The next day, we docked in The Princess Cays and took my little cousin with us. I spotted Karen a few times on the far side of the beach as we swam and sunbathed on the other, I don’t know if she saw us too, but nothing was had that day either. On the second sea day (Day 4), I decided to stay in the room most the day to recuperate from the swimming and sun. I was exhausted. My twin cousins stopped by to enjoy the balcony for a bit and just hang out. About 8 in the evening, there was a knock. I got up thinking it was my room service I had ordered (don’t shame me, room service is great and the food is damn good). Nope. Karen; all dolled up and fancy with her two kids. I muttered an, “Oh my god” before asking if I could help her. Karen, with one of those irked looks on her face braves a fake ass smile.
K: “Excuse me, I need someone to watch my kids so my husband and I can go out for our last night on this ship. I thought you wouldn’t mind since you’re not doing anything AND caused us that trouble in the Bahamas and embarrassed me in front of all those people. You owe us this much.” She started to push her kids slowly to the door, telling them that Mommy and Daddy would see them in a couple hours. I’m terrible at guessing kids ages, but they came up to barely must waist, and I’m 4’11’’. I blocked the door, and I could see she was getting furious.
M: “Okay, listen. This is getting so ridiculous. We don’t owe you or your privileged family anything. It’s really sad to see a grown woman act like a spoiled brat just because she lacked the knowledge to plan ahead and book the room she wanted, and NOW must try to sabotage my family’s vacation and my good time. I am not having it. You are not leaving your kids with me. A stranger, no less. What kind of parent are you? What normal person does this?” I whisper shouted at her. I was done with her bs. I was tired, sunburned and suffering a bit of heat exhaustion. Though I looked and felt like shiz, I sure as hell was not about to take this. Karen just stared, mouth agape trying to come up with some retort. At that moment, my cousins came in outside from the balcony, and it was at that Karen thought she had leverage.
K: “Well then, who are they!? Why do they get to spend time on the balcony and my kids can’t? This isn’t fair! You are going to watch my kids. You will! You will! Or I’m going to complain!” I rebutted, “I owe you nothing. They are here for the simple fact that they're family and welcome in here. You are not welcome. Take your kids back to your own sad little room and I will be launching a complaint for your constant harassment.” I close the door. Karen placed a hard hit to our door before huffing out a long roar before storming off and her kids crying. I told my mom what happened, and we did make a complaint. I don’t know what happened to Karen and her family after that. We didn’t see nor hear of or from them for the rest of that night, or the next morning when we ported into Jacksonville. Aside from our adventures with her, this was a great vacation and one I got to take with the side of the family I rarely see. This story was told to my Aunt and Uncle, and they made a point to ask if my mom and I just have bad luck with such encounters with these people. We laughed about it; Mom: “Let’s hope to universe gives us a break. I really wanted to knock her ass out.” We all left and went our separate ways for now as our grandparents took us to the airport.
……. then on the way the to the airport, who should we see?
Not Karen, but a crazy cracked out lady in a white pickup that tried to cause damage to her own car and blame my grandpa for it. But that’s another story. 😊

Cruise Karen
Hello all! Got another story for you. This happened just recently as my family and I just returned from a cruise to celebrate my grandparents 50th anniversary. It was a 5 days cruise that ported out of Jacksonville, FL to the Bahamas. Out of my household, myself, my mom and my sister went, leaving my brother and dad behind. My mom’s sister and her husband brought along their 4 youngest kids and of course my grandparents, 11 of us in total. If you read my last post, this is the same family we were visiting during the Plane Karen incident.
This story will be recounting our unfortunate time with our deck neighbor Karen. At this point we should know the basic cast of characters, so I’ll only include; GP/M~ Grandpa/ ma, H ~ Karen’s “Husband” (he doesn’t really have much to add to this story) and KK ~ Karen’s Kids.
It all begins once we’re beginning to board and making our way to our room. My mom managed an extended balcony room to mine and my sister’s utter delight. Worth the extra coinage. Our door had been propped open as we were waiting for our bags to arrive, so meantime we were exploring the room. Directly across the hall, I spot a man (H) and two kids come out and briefly look into out room. Not totally weird in my book honestly. I tend to feel snoopish now and again as I walk the hall and see other doors open. He took the kids down the hall right as our luggage appeared. We unpacked and got settled, door still open a bit. I see H and kids come back with a small plate of food in hand (lunch was going on whilst people still boarded. This was around 2pm-ish). He made another glance into our room again before shutting his own door. And that was that until dinner around six, a couple of hours after we left the port into open water. I made my way to dinner first; I had to walk at a slower pace to better accommodate my foot which was not fairing well after surgery 9 months prior (read last post). As I stepped foot outside the threshold of my room, the door across from me flew open, a woman (tall, skinny, blonde blue eyes) looked my up and down and gave me one of those looks. Like something was amiss to her, before she muttered a “Hello” before walking down the hall. And it was at that time I noticed a couple plates of leftover food and utensils sitting by our door. We hadn’t eaten yet, so I knew this wasn’t ours. I brushed it off and left for the dining hall.
After dinner, all three of us came back down our hall to find the same women knocking on our door. My mom got her attention with an “Hello, can we help you?” The women jumped a bit then put on her biggest smile.
K: “Hello! We’re directly across from you and I was hoping to ask you for a favor?” By this time, we made it to our door, and I told my sister to go inside, and as she did so, giving the woman a look inside our room. she continued.
K: “It’s our first cruise and I am not to familiar with the boats. So, when we were booking, we didn’t know about the balcony rooms. And then I noticed you have a balcony and..” my mom cut her off.
M: “So, what’s your favor? You need tips on how to book a balcony for next time?” my mom was tired after dinner and it had been a long day. She didn’t want to deal with this. The women shook her head.
K: “Oh no, no, no. I was hoping you’d switch rooms with us, so I can give my kids a great experience on their first cruise. It shouldn’t be a problem. See, your cards are red, so you’ve cruised before and know what a balcony feels like. What do you say” I actually snort laughed at her “idea” to which my mom shooed me into the room, looked to Karen and said with the fakest of smiles, “No thank you. Have a goodnight and a lovely vacation.” and shut the door. I bust out laughing. She looked so sure and confident that this would work. Without going over the entire reasoning as to why this wouldn’t work, she totally didn’t think this whole thing through.
Later in the evening I had gotten hungry again and ordered room service. As my food arrived and I opened the door to let the attendant in, on cue, the woman and H came out of their rooms dressed all fancy, then she spotted me and narrowed her eyes at me, to which I snort chuckled, thanked the attendant and closed to door in her face. And that, my friends was just the beginning of Cruise Karen.
She began her tirade of petty nuisances the first sea day (Day 1), when after my family had gotten back to our rooms after breakfast, she’d come out of her room and just give us mean looks and “humphed” her tired ass down the hall with her family. The maybe after 15 or so minutes, they would return with so much food, 1 to 2 plates a person. We’d always open our door to a suspicious big pile of dirty dishes next to our door. We knew it was them and I think she thought that she could make us out to look like pigs/ slobs or something for always have a mass of dishes. Thankfully, our steward, made his rounds more frequently than others, and always picked them up in a timely manner. Later in the day, we received notice that someone was complaining about noise and the smell of cigarettes being smoked across the hall. If I'm honest, these room are nearly soundproof wall to wall. You seldom hear anything unless you actually walk outside your room, and barely anything there still. We knew. And nothing came of it.
I had gone to sunbathe on the Lido Deck towards the back of the boat. I had found a nice secluded spot near the back, in a corner. I had been there about 20-ish minutes when I felt the spritz of water fall on me. There was not a cloud in the sky and the waterslide was far away enough water couldn’t touch me. It was then I had noticed two familiar children running away from my direction and towards a chair with someone in it. It was her kids. And no later had I recognized them, with their huge water guns, had the Karen peeked around her chair, lifting her shades a bit to see me. She zipped back around the second we made eye contact. I stood my ground and continued to sunbathe, not willing to give up a prime spot for soaking in that Vitamin D. The sun has a way of relaxing you and making you sleepy. I had my shades on and pretty much laid lifeless for the most part. This led to Karen to probably believing I had fallen asleep and shooed her kids over towards me again, but before they could do anything, my mom had shown up and “yelled” at them the scram. They did and ran to Karen, whom shot us multiple glares, but never said anything and that was the end of that. My mom took the chair up beside me and we sat there for a little over two hours. At least twice more that day, we found more piles of dishes by our door and later that night, Karen tried to discreetly get me in trouble by telling the bouncer of the night club that I had snuck in and was underaged. Karen was still not too bright as our room cards have a barcode employee’s scan that display our names and ages as displayed on our passports. So of course, nothing came of this and I stayed. I even ordered a large alcoholic beverage and saluted Karen on the dance floor. She huffed and stomped away.
The next day (Day 2), we ported into Paradise Island. Bahamas. Myself, my mom and my sister made our way off the boat and onto the ferry that takes you from Nassau to Paradise Island. S/N: Our grandparents own two timeshare properties on PI, right next door to the Atlantis Resort, and they are granted full access passes every year to the Atlantis Waterpark and its' multiple aquariums, whenever they go. Our family has experienced the Bahamas three times and were familiar with the territory/ process. Our GP’s opted to tour the city, so we were allowed to use said passes. Upon getting there, we enter in through the casino to get through to the first part of the aquarium. When we get to the threshold (there’s always a guard checking for Atlantis passes at this point. No passes and/ or ticket, no entry. Simple.), there’s Karen and her family. She’s trying her best not to make a scene, but she looks angry. As we grew closer, we could hear their conversation. She wants entry into the water park but has no pass or ticket. None of them do. They assumed it came free with the cruise. The guard explains plainly, no ticket, no entry. Karen ranted some more, the guard ignored her at that point. We made our way to the guard and flashed our passes; the guard smiles at us and starts to move aside. Karen noticed this immediately and her face contorted in fury, then just as quickly scheming. Karen was not a creature of subtlety, as the guard moved to let us by, Karen tried to shove her kids into us.
K: “We’re actually with them. They know us from the cruise and can vouch for us. Hey. Hey! May we use those passes too? My kids deserve to experience this. Come on.” she pleaded, and it was rather pathetic, yet bold of her to try and pass this in front of the guard who obviously wasn’t buying it. My mom laughed and we kept walking. Karen kept screaming how this was unfair and that we somehow stole her passes, even though she just told the guard she thought it was free. Our day goes on and we have a great time. I have pictures/ videos if anyone would like to see. We had to be back on the boat by 4pm before the boat left by 5, so we start our way back at 3:30. We ported out of the Bahamas, and the rest of the evening was peaceful.
The next day (Day 3), we docked in The Princess Cays and took my little cousin with us. I spotted Karen a few times on the far side of the beach as we swam and sunbathed on the other, I don’t know if she saw us too, but nothing was had that day either. On the second sea day (Day 4), I decided to stay in the room most the day to recuperate from the swimming and sun from the days prior. I was exhausted. I was taking naps whenever during the day, having only left the room for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My mom had gone out with her sister for the evening and my sister was out at the deck party. My twin cousins stopped by to enjoy the balcony for a bit and just hang out. About 8 in the evening, there was a knock. I got up thinking it was my room service I had ordered (don’t shame me, room service is great and the food is damn good). Nope. Karen; all dolled up and fancy with her two kids. I muttered an, “Oh my god” before asking if I could help her. Karen, with one of those irked looks on her face braves a fake ass smile.
K: “Yes hi, I need someone to watch my kids so my husband and I can go out for our last night on this ship. I thought you wouldn’t mind since you’re not doing anything AND caused us that trouble in the Bahamas and embarrassed me in front of all those people. You owe us this much.” She started to push her kids slowly to the door, telling them that Mommy and Daddy would see them in a couple hours. I’m terrible at guessing kids ages, but they came up to barely must waist, and I’m 4’11’’. I blocked the door, and I could see she was getting furious.
M: “Okay, listen. This is getting so ridiculous. We don’t owe you or your privileged family anything. It’s really sad to see a grown woman act like a spoiled brat just because she lacked the knowledge to plan ahead and book the room she wanted, and NOW must try to sabotage my family’s vacation and my good time. I am not having it. You are not leaving your kids with me. A stranger, no less. What kind of parent are you? What normal person does this?” I whisper shouted at her. I was done with her bs. I was tired, sunburned and suffering a bit of heat exhaustion. Though I looked and felt like shiz, I sure as hell was not about to take this. Karen just stared, mouth agape trying to come up with some retort. At that moment, my cousins came in outside from the balcony, and it was at that Karen thought she had leverage.
K: “Well then, who are they!? Why do they get to spend time on the balcony and my kids can’t? This isn’t fair! You are going to watch my kids. You will! You will! Or I’m going to complain!” I rebutted,
M: “I owe you nothing. They are here for the simple fact that they're family and welcome in here. You are not welcome. Take your kids back to your own sad little room and I will be launching a complaint for your constant harassment.” I close the door. Karen placed a hard hit to our door before huffing out a long roar before storming off and her kids crying. I told my mom what happened, and we did make a complaint. I don’t know what happened to Karen and her family after that. We didn’t see nor hear of or from them for the rest of that night, or the next morning when we ported into Jacksonville. Aside from our adventures with her, this was a great vacation and one I got to take with the side of the family I rarely see. This story was told to my Aunt and Uncle, and they made a point to ask if my mom and I just have bad luck with such encounters with these people. We laughed about it; Mom: “Let’s hope to universe gives us a break. I really wanted to knock her ass out.” We all left and went our separate ways for now as our grandparents took us to the airport.
……. then on the way the to the airport, who should we see?
Not Karen, but a crazy cracked out lady in a white pickup that tried to cause damage to her own car and blame my grandpa for it. But that’s another story. 😊