So I was thinking today that I haven't really blogged about my trip. *yes another cruise post but that's all that's on my mind*
Day 1 - September 13th: Preparation
So at about 3 or 4 we had my dad and mom take us to the airport. Our flight was at 7 pm. We arrive extra early because I wasn't quite sure what we would have to go through since the last time I was in an airport there were a lot of lines. Apparently they have figured something out because the check0-in process seemed to go really quick. Well we get through the check-in process and begin making our way to go find our terminal. On the way Cassie wanted to get a pack of gum so we stop at a convient shop on the way and pick up a pack and a magazine. After the shop we head onto the moving floor, which is my favorite part :), which seemed to take forever. When we finally find out terminal I stop and get some Quiznos because I was hungry. By the time we get to the terminal we have about an hour to wait for our flight so I end up listening to music or playing my DS I'm not sure maybe both? We finally board the plane probably 15 minutes after 7 and find out seats next to an older lady. I don't mind seating next to older ladies because they seem to be nice. The flight attendent let the lady next to us know that it was an almost empy flight so she could go sit in an empty row giving us more room. Which is wonderful since I was getting kinda closterphobic and didn't realize how small the seats were. So now we are on a 3 hour flight which seemed to not take that long since I slept through most of it. We finally arrive in Orlando by midnight Eastern time. The original plan was to hang out in the airport until the 12 pm the next day to get on the transfer to the boat. The problem that we didn't think about is there wasn't anything open and we were hungry. Well mainly Cassie but I could eat. So we ended up getting a hotel room. This was probably the best hotel I have ever stayed at. We ended up ordering room service and I had a pretty burnt pizza and Cassie had an odd tasting chicken sandwhich. So we split our food and was pretty full. We fell asleep pretty quickly after that.
Day 2 - September 14th: Arrival to the Boat
I was awake around 6 the next morning and got ready for the day. We ended up checking out around 10 am and headed the other side of the airport to meet the shuttle. I thought that we would have to wait since they said the earliest shuttle left at noon. Turns out that we could board the shuttle a lot sooner so we checked in and waited for the bus to arrive. About a half hour later the bus finally arrive and we got pretty good seats on the bus. We sat behind an older mom and daughter and across from them a pretty trashy mom and her younger maybe 12 or 13 year old daughter. After waiting for everyone to board and driving the other side of the airport we finally make our one hour drive to the port. After listening to the moms and daughters discuss their diabetes I sleep for about a half n hour. Now the bus driver was extremly entertaining. Most bus drivers that I have had have always been crabby and quiet. This one was very talkative and kinda funny. He pointed out that we were going a comfortable 55 on the freeway and showed us our first view of the ocean. Let's just get one thing straight, I LOVE the ocean. I would give everything up right now to move and start a new life somewhere near the ocean. Well maybe not everything but I would think it would be neat to drop what I am doing and move my life down to Florida. Anyways off topic. So we start coming nearer to the port. We can finally see our boat! I forgot how big these ships are. It felt like I was looking at a giant. When we arrive at the port we had to wait awhile other boats empty and it seemed to take FOREVER. I just wanted off the bus and onto the boat. After exiting the boat we then have to wait again in a long line to get into the building to board the boat. After we finally get into the building the check-in at the port was surprisingly quick and painless. I guess it's best to link your sail and sign card to a credit card because everyone seemed to put cash on it. So there was empty lines to check-in. Once that was done we avoiding taking pictures and started heading onto the boat! After we get on the boat Cassie and I are in awe about the inside of the main atrium of the boat. Very purple as I had read countless times online. But I didn't mind it. I knew we couldn't enter our rooms for a few hours so we head to the Prominade deck where I knew we could get something to drink. I made a point that I was going to try the drink of the day atleast once a day. So I order the drink of the day. It was called "Cruise ship special". It was pretty good. I ended up drinking three not realizing it, I guess heat and alcohol and a waiter that speaks really fast and a hard to understand accent means I say yes a lot LOL. After sitting for awhile we go to the buffet and get our first plates of food. After eating a cold hot dog and some fries we watched an amusing game of trivia for a 24K Gold plated ship on a stick prize. I guess which is a pretty prized collectible for cruisers. I kinda wish I would of gotten one. :( After awhile I decided it was time to go head to our room. we take one of the many elivators down to our floor, the Rivera deck. We started heading down what we though was our hallway to our room. We get halfway down and realize this is odd numbers. Our room # was even (R160) so we turned around and realized we still had to wait a bit for our room to be ready. After sitting in the stair way and Cassie getting annoyed because I was drunk, not sure but after 3 drinks I got pretty drunk. After they let us through we get to our room and notice how nice our room is. For being such a small room the bed was nice even if it was two beds put together. We sit and rest for a bit watch a bit of tv take a quick nap and start heading out to our muster station to do the muster drill. The muster drill is where you gather with your life jacket and they show you how to wear it and then after that we go up to where our life boat is and they show us the exit. After the muster drill we had hoped they would have given us time to get back to our room and then to drop off our jackets before leaving but we were starting to leave during the drill! So we get a good spot on the rail and watch the boat leave. Waved goodbye to locals and saw a bunch of sting rays swim underneath us which was pretty cool. After we watch the boat leave we head to our room to watch from our room as we left our view from our window was perfect. We were basicaly right on the water so our view was perfect. I took a quick nap again. After the nap we decided to wonder the ship again. While we were wondering we passed the buffet and decided to get a quick bite to eat. We should of known we would have eaten a lot. We also went and looked for sunscreen. We bought probably the most expensive sunscreen we have seen. But we needed it and Cassie forgot to pack it. It might have been already too late we had already gotten a lot of sun without it. But we had hoped to try and slow down the burn process. We decided to head back to the room and get ready for dinner. We get ready and I debated on wearing a tie. I brought one ready to go but really didn't want to wear it. So I didn't We head down and wait for like 15 minutes before they let us in. After we get seated we soon find out that we are seated with 2 young married couples and a new wed couple. All very out going and talkative, especially one girl. They were very friendly took pictures of all of us an shared lots of stories. I guess two of the girls are local Floridians (?) and went to rivaling schools. So we had to sit and listen to their stories. They really didn't ask us much. They asked us about what we did and where we were from. They were shocked that we were from Minnesota. The dinner was amazing basically if you are really hungry you can ask for seconds or even thirds and the waiters will bring you it. No questions asked. Infact they will offer it. I had seconds on the cocktail shrimp which were amazing. After an amazing dessert, I had the melting chocolate cake which was great. We headed back to our room where we fell asleep pretty quickly.
I will continue this later...
