Day One: The Ship

On January 23, 2012 Jim and I loaded our bags and our friends, The Walkers, and their bags, into the truck and the early (crazy, dumb, dark early) hour of 4:15 a.m. and headed to the airport. There was a light blanket of icy snow on the ground (the only snow we've had in weeks) but the roads weren't too bad. I think there was a bit of a buzz in the air. The kind you get from starting an adventure so early in the morning. But I could be wrong. It might just have been the cold and ridiculously early hour. It was not time at all before we were boarding our next plane in Dallas...like seriously.....I think I must have slept right up to the point of walking on the second plane. Weird.
The flight from Texas to Miami was fun. I've never flown over water before. Cool. The emergency instructions were a little different...you know in case of a WATER LANDING....I don't think our craft was equipped for a water landing. I think at that point it is a crash. Just sayin'.
The popcorn clouds were cool and the coastline was awesome!! I could hardly wait to get to the ship!! I guess at this point I should tell you that we were headed to the Carnival cruise ship Destiny. How cool is that!
Jim and I are celebrating 20 years of marriage this year and decided that since we never took a honeymoon or really ever had a vacation without the kids....it was time. Our friends The Walkers have a lot of travel experience and graciously agreed to let us tag along with them. We planned and dreamed and schemed for months. When we were finally on our way it felt a bit surreal.
From past experience (Kevin and I went on a cruise [with his ballroom team] just before we moved to MN) I expected to get to the dock and have to wait around for a few hours before getting on the ship. Not so!! We walked in and up to the ticket counter to get our key cards and onto the ship. Wow!! We were really there.
Of course it all happened so fast that my camera stayed right there in my backpack. Oh well. I took a few pictures throughout the week (and a whole lot of us leaving the the harbor)....so I guess it all evens out. First thing we did was eat! It was like 1:00 and we were hungry! After some grub we checked out our rooms and then wandered around until it was time for the muster.
After we knew all about the safety of standing on the deck with the ships entire crew and passenger roster....(holy crowded mess batman!) it was time for some exploring. We rested a bit in there too.
Our dinning time was 8:15....not our plan....but hey, we went with it. After a brief chat with the dinning room maitre de he sat us in the early seating at a nice table with four women. Dinner was nice....at least for me. I went out of my comfort zone and got the chicken covered in green goop. Excellent. Loved every bite.
After dessert (because we had dessert at.every.dang.meal.) we went to the big theater for some Disco dance lessons.
Victor (from Russia...so you have to say it with an accent) and Disco Johnny taught us a short "dance" to get us started. It was funny. Good thing we can all laugh at ourselves pretty well. Then we sat in on a game of Gender Wars. Again....entertaining.
After that our lovely cruise director, Kevin Newnin came on stage and called some guests up and made fun of them introduced them and some pointed out some of their quirks.We all got a laugh and I think everyone had fun with that.
By then it was 11:15 and if you know anything about the schedule Jim and I keep....you know how late that is for us! We are in the early to bed, early to rise camp...But there was more to do and see so we fought through our drowsiness and headed to the dance club.
The music was really good so we went in. The Walkers headed to the dance floor and we headed to the bar stools surrounding it to watch. Jim and I have been known to cut quite a rug...you know, like Fox Trot and Waltz and even Swing....but he just wasn't up for any of the dancing going on on that dance floor.
After being entertained (watching inebriated people dance) for almost 45 minutes we left that club and went to the comedy club where they were doing Karaoke with a live band.
It was way cooler than just Karaoke. Some of the performers were really good. Some were not. But the band was always good! But by the end of it Jim and I were beat.....1:00 a.m. It's been a long time since we've been up that late!!
We said good-night and turned in. What a great way to start our vacation. Because I have a tendency to set my expectations pretty high (and then be disappointed when diamonds don't fall from the sky) I tried to be more realistic. I'm glad I did. This first day was better than I could have imagined. I slept better than I have in months. Being rocked to sleep by the ocean is the life for me!
This is the first of our towel animals.....a seal. Cute. With the itinerary for the next day all ready to go!! I say...BRING IT ON!!