Stranded at Sea-Our family nightmare cruise vacation turned to rescue operation! DAY 5 (11/11/10)

So we woke up Thursday morning to the cruise director announcing that we were almost to San Diego. We quickly looked out the window and it was such a great feeling to see land & buildings! We arrived at about 6:00 am but it took about 4 hours to get to the pier. Tug boats had to get behind the cruise ship and bang into the boat to get it to move. When I jumped out of bed, I didn't see Ava on the sofa bed. Sometime in the middle of the night she must have rolled off the bed. Had to take a picture because I couldn't believe she could still sleep on top of the luggage (see above picture).

This was our view from the top of the ship. All of the cars and people were news reporters trying to take footage of our arrival. We also had several news helicopters circling around us. Abbey was waiving like crazy trying to get her 10 seconds of fame (she is her mother's daughter, right?)

Here's a view from the top of the ship of the tug boat that tugged us from Tuesday to Thursday, the faithful "Chihuahua" from Mexico. We have a new appreciation for tug boats!

A view of the back of our cruise ship.

A view of the open decks and one of the swimming pools. Kids were very disappointed that we never went swimming.

A shot of the water slide. Also was closed the entire time. Another disappointment.

Here's one of the tug boats that pushed into us to get us to the pier.

More shots of the tugs.

And we had to capture a shot of some of the food that was offered to us at our final breakfast. We had no idea what was in the corn tortillas to the left (but lots of "crunchies"-meats (maybe Spam) and "veggies"). No thanks! To the right was a bagel with raw Salmon. Also, no thanks! Luckily every breakfast there was plenty of cold cereal.

During breakfast the president of Carnival apologized to us over the PA system and invited us to take a free cruise on them. He applauded the crew for the way they handled the "FIRE!" Very interesting since the word "fire" was never mentioned the entire cruise until then. We spoke with friends who talked to the coast guard on the ship and they said it truly was a miracle the ship didn't go down because of the intensity of the fire. We really were lucky to be alive! It also was a blessing to stay on the ship instead of needing to jump on the small tender boats.

A quick shot of the kids in our cabin. Notice all of the soda and water we kept, just in case!

Ashley & Ava during our final packing

We got off the ship at about 11:00 am. The one thing good about being on Deck #1 was we were the first deck off the ship! Yippee! Kids were excited to jump on this bus which took us on a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the Long Beach cruise terminal.

In San Diego, they had a veteran's day parade that we drove by. Quite fitting that we were rescued & arrived on Veteran's Day. Had to pause and reflect on the navy on the USS Ronald Reagan that protected us, my dad who fought in Vietnam and my grandpa who fought in World War II. I truly am proud to be an American and grateful for all of those that fight for our freedoms we enjoy!

As soon as we arrived in Long Beach, we were swarmed by news media. Our family was interviewed several times and we were shown on the CBS Los Angeles news. Jason shared his camcorder footage which they downloaded and also showed at home on Channel 2 news.

Abbey & Aliza hanging out on the luggage and waiting for Jason's interviews to end.

Aliza's cute little friend she met in Camp Carnival, Raquel. They became great friends.