We left on a Saturday. A friend of mine, Jodi came to drive us. The kids were sad to see us go. June wasn't even there. But I took the goodbye picture in case we never came back.
The airport was a zoo. There had been a DoTerra convention and the whole airport smelled like essential oils. They made an announcement that you couldn’t carry on more than 6 bottles of essential oil. Some people had dozens. We got our seats when we got to the gate and they bumped us up to Comfort+. It isn’t that much better, but we’ll take it.
We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale just fine. Lynn picked us up and took us to her place. It is very nice, with 2 guest bedrooms. We fit nicely with only the two couples. She was so fantastic to pick us up and house us. Really amazing and saving us so much money. It is probably the only time I've been happy they moved away. I would rather they live across the street, but the next best is having them house us in Florida. And since Curtis helped decorate, the place looks fantastic.
We woke up the next morning after a nice rest and Lynn had made us breakfast. She made breakfast coffee cake. It was tasty but I don’t really think of cake as breakfast food, but no complaints. I think I could get used to cake for breakfast.
We went to church with her. Her ward seemed terribly small. She said she could see 15 cruisers (including us) and that was practically half the people. But the talks were good and the people were kind. We left straight from church and went to the Miami port. We had a little better idea about what were were doing this time. You drop off your bags on the curb (with tags) and walk down to the check in area. You need your boarding pass and ID. The line went fairly quickly.
After security, we went through the large building. (Oh, it was very muggy. Florida is hot and very humid. You can definitely feel the difference when you walk outside. Very different from Utah’s dry heat.) In the big building, there was a long line for something, but we went left and missed it all. I’m not even sure what that line was for but it didn’t seem to matter. We got our obligatory pictures in front of the cruise ship backdrop. You know...the ones we will never buy. Look how long that line is that we didn't even go through. (Also, did I mention that we brought teenager Jonny with us? He shaved his beard and it was so weird. It only took a few hours to get used to Elder Hulse.)
It is awesome to walk through the building and see the boat outside. We are one bridge away from our cruise ship.
First order of business was lunch and Jonny already had it planned out. (It’s Jonny) We went to the Pig and Anchor. They had BBQ brisket and beans. It was tasty but not my favorite. But the boys loved it.
From there we explored a bit and headed down to find our staterooms. We were on the bottom floor. I actually think there is crew beneath us, but we were floor 1. We were down a long hallway and we had inside rooms so no windows again but that is okay. I think looking out might make me more queasy. I handle the boat fairly well but there are moments of unbalance and head pressure. Look, they are ready for us.
We did plenty of exploring and really you could spend hours finding stuff. As you search you keep stumbling across new stuff. There were a gazzilion bars. And many things are a mix of activity and bar. We found the library for game playing and ping pong areas, and lots of pools. There were these really cool screens in the shape of a cyclone in the lobbies. The pictures changed every day. I've never seen anything quite like them.
After lunch we found the marketplace where the buffet is. I had mango gelato but the boys found a burger place nearby and had a second lunch. Lunch was already too much for me. How could you eat two? Beth and I dipped our feet in the water while sitting on the benches. It was lovely.
We found this nice breezy spot on the back of the boat, but we had barely sat down and it was time for safety and muster stations. It was very different from Royal Carribean. There you were in lines outside. On Carnival, you moseyed around an area inside called your 'muster station.' Ours was b5 and it was in the main promenade area by the cyclone TV. Not a lot of room to sit, so we stood there and listened. The boat DJ, Cookie, was pretty funny. He kept things light with plenty of humor and an easy going attitude. He said when putting on life jackets, choose the child with the most potential and put their jacket on first. :) It was a bit of a long wait to basically show how to put on a life jacket but that’s okay. Federal Regulations and all that. Jonny and Beth were at a different station in a dining room. I’m just glad we didn’t muster in the casino. The smoke smell was so bad when we got on board. You could smell the smoke from the casino up and down two floors on the stairs. Once the boat set sail, it was better.
I got my book and went back to the breezy spot where I read and napped off and on. There were air intake vents back there so it is always windy; in some places VERY windy. Tyler explored and took some shots of our surroundings as we got underway.
When I was finally up from my nap, we went to the clubhouse. We played some poly-pong which is four player ping pong. We used a miniature golf ball since it was heavier and we didn’t want the ball to go flying away. It worked well but didn’t bounce as expected. We played King of the Court and just rotated as you messed up. Jonny was usually king. Then we went inside and played life size soccer pool. The pool balls were small soccer balls and you kicked them into the pockets. It was fun. There were 2 Hispanic boys who played with us. We did cutthroat. Tyler and I were 6-10 and we tried to keep our balls ON the table. We weren’t doing very well. Eventually 10 was our only ball still alive, but somehow we evened things up and everyone had 1 ball left. The boys were knocked out first and they left and finally the Hulse’s got us.
Then, although I'm not sure I was hungry, we headed to dinner. You could make a reservation online and they would text when your table was ready. Convenient. There was more than one restaurant, but we were assigned to the Meridian Restaurant. Our waiter was Walter and he was great. He was also helped by Ronald and Eka. The staff is always surprised when we don’t drink and Walter took away the extra wine glasses.
Cruise food is traditionally delicious but sometimes too much food. I had a quesadilla appetizer which was small (thank goodness) and the fried chicken and tomato which was supposed to be a flavor from our ports. (I’m thinking Jamaica?) It was very tasty but a little too much food although I still had dessert and tried the carnival melting cake which was like a lava cake and very delicious. Our goal was to get Walter every night. We like to find someone good and depend on their service. Then they can get to know us over the few days. Although I didn't use my real name, so I'm not sure how well he could get to know me. On a whim, I went with Kitty. And I was Kitty for the rest of the cruise.
Later, a magician came by and did a fun set of tricks. He had a ring that magically went on his finger. It is amazing how fast the tricks are. Then he did one with cards. The kind where Tyler signed a card and he later found it folded in his pocket. How do they do that??
Other interesting things about the day. We found this area called Serenity. No kids were allowed. You can see how that was a good name for it. There were these pod loungers that easily fit two people. We would end up spending a lot of time in this area.
Let's take a tour of the room for a minute. It is not very big, but just right for two people. There is a bathroom with shower. (Sorry Tyler...no tub.) The lights in the room are weird. You have to insert your key in order for the lights to stay on. Makes sense for energy conservation. When you leave the room, your lights go off automatically without your key card. But it is delayed. It takes about a minute. Bethany happened to be talking to our steward Hermes, when the lights went off. He started stuttering about how she must have taken her key card out. Very funny, but I’m sure awkward for both of them. :)
After dinner, everyone wanted to go hot tubbing but I’m not a hot tub girl. Plus I was enjoying my book so I decided to stay put and read. But I wasn’t reading long when Tyler came back to get me. He said the hot tub wasn’t too hot and there was a lightning storm off in the distance he thought I would like. The lightning storm was pretty good, more like flashes and not fork lightning. I dipped my feet since I didn’t change back into my suit. We hung out and chatted and then headed back to the staterooms. It is nice to have time with Tyler away from kids. I really liked the Havana area with the hot tubs. During the day it was off limits to people without a special pass but anyone was allowed in after 7. I don’t think everyone knew that because it was always a pretty secluded area. Often we were by ourselves. Tomorrow is day at sea. Stay tuned...
No comments:
Post a Comment