(4/15/12) Sunday
Out of habit, I woke up around 6:45 a.m. on Sunday morning. I got up around 7 and talked with my Grandparents a little while before going up to our family’s room to get dressed and ready for breakfast.
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| This was the view outside our hotel window. Ft. Lauderdale has one of the largest ports in the world, and one could certainly tell that by the number of cruise ships docked that morning! Our ship is the one on the far right. |
We all met downstairs for breakfast around 9:00 a.m. The hotel had a HUGE buffet. If you want a large selection of food, stay at an Embassy Suites hotel. J We all sat together and enjoyed chatting over a leisurely breakfast.
After eating, we all met in our Grandparents room for a special ceremony. My Uncle started off by sharing a bit of how our Grandparents’ marriage had impacted him and our entire family. My Mom read from Psalm 1, and then they opened their gift. They were very pleased to receive a large book filled with questions and spaces to write about their 50 years of marriage together. It is a book that we will all cherish once they are finished writing it!
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| All of us kids with Abuelo and Abuela. |
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| Around 11:30 a.m., we met in the lobby to catch our shuttle to the dock. I got to sit next to my cousin J on the bus. He’s ready for some tropical fun! J |
The docks were enormous! I can’t believe the size of this operation. We had to go through security, and then we had to go through the lengthy check-in process. They had to assign us each a Seapass card that allows us to purchase things on the ship, get on and off the ship, and lots more. They had to take a picture of each of us to put on the card. After we finally finished that whole process (about 45 minutes), we went to board the ship!
The lobby is beautiful! It was like being in a big mall. We had to wait some more while Dad and Uncle J worked out some problems with our staterooms at Guest Services. After another 45 minutes, we were finally able to go up to our staterooms.
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| On the way up the elevator to the 14th floor, we viewed one of the 7 “neighborhoods” on the ship: Central Park! I look forward to walking around the park later on. |
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| At first, we were a little surprised by how small our staterooms were. But we probably wouldn’t be spending much time there anyway. We were so glad to have a balcony outside our room! This is the view of Ft. Lauderdale while in port. You can see the candy-stripe smoke stacks from the Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport where we flew in yesterday. |
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| After stopping by our rooms, it was on to the 16th deck to have lunch at the Windjammer Café. The Windjammer is a casual buffet style café where you can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They had about 7 different buffets that included every kind of food you could imagine! |
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| For lunch, I chose to have lamb curry with beef-fried rice. I also had some noodles (Chinese I think), a type of Indian flatbread that was really spicy, pineapple, and honeydew melon. It was good! |
After lunch, we all went to our separate rooms to unpack since our bags had been delivered. Although the rooms are small, they were designed to maximize storage space. The four ladies in our family shared one room and the boys shared an adjoining room. The other families had their own rooms down the hall from ours. We girls unpacked all of our clothes and were able to fit them in the closet. The closet had lots of cubby holes, and two racks to hang clothes on! The bathroom also had plenty of shelves and drawers for storage, and the space under the beds was tall enough that we could put our suitcases under there! We used the empty suitcases for dirty laundry later on in the week.
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| After all of that unpacking, we sat on the balcony to read, catch up on journaling, and check out the ship directory. |
At 4:30 p.m., we were called to a mandatory assembly at our muster station. We walked down to the Aqua Theater (a big, outdoor amphitheater) for our assembly. They discussed safety matters, and we heard a message from our Captain, a Norwegian named “Captain Johnny.”
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| After the assembly, we met up with the rest of the family and decided to go up to the top deck, since the ship was going to set sail soon. In the above photo, we are pushing off! |
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| You can see downtown Ft. Lauderdale in the distance to the right. |
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| All of us kids (plus half of J’s head) excited to be pulling out! |
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| We received an escort from the U.S. Coast Guard. |
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| Goodbye Florida, Hello open seas! |
The feeling of pulling out of port was exhilarating! The idea of leaving land and being alone on the open sea is scary in a way, and exciting in another!
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| The weather was perfect! The views from the top deck were beautiful! |
After watching the ship pull out, we all went down to the excursions desk. Dad and Uncle J had to book our excursions on the islands before they filled up. The rest of us just waited around and had fun listening to the live music on the Royal Promenade. This was the heart of the ship on deck 5. There are restaurants, live music, stores, and the Guest Services.
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| Roma on the Royal Promenade while we waited. |
After booking our excursion, we quickly headed off to dinner in the main dining room. Prior to the cruise, we had chosen a dining option called “My Time Dining.” Every day at 6 o’clock, we could come to the dining room on Deck 5 and they would have a table set for us already and we could sit and eat. It was basically a reservation, but you didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to. You know that you always have a spot during your selected dining time, but you weren’t obligated to come.
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| Everything was so fancy, elegant, and beautiful in the dining room. It was fancier than the fanciest restaurant I’ve ever been to! The waiters even put your napkin on your lap for you! We started off with drinks (I had milk and water) and bread. I had a delicious sourdough roll and a mini poppy seed roll with butter. |
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| For the first course I had a slice of Vidalia Onion tart. It reminded me a little bit of a quiche. It was really good! |
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| For my main course, I had pork medallions with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, bok choy with mushrooms, and broccoli. It was delicious and beautifully presented. |
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| Dessert was AMAZING! I had Strawberry Pavlova. It was a meringue that was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and topped with strawberry compote. It was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had, and the best thing I’ve eaten on the ship so far. |
Following dinner, we kids were told that we were going to a show! But first, Dad and Uncle J had to return to the excursions desk to finish up some plans. The rest of us went back to our rooms to freshen up before the show.
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| When we arrived the room was all ready for bed. The bed in the background converted to a couch during the day and a bed for two at night. We also found a newsletter called “The Cruise Compass” along with chocolates on our bed. The Compass gives you details on what is happening on the ship the next day. |
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| We walked down to the Aqua Theater for the show. This show was called “Ocean Aria” and involved divers, acrobats, dancers, and hand balancers. It was stunning! |
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| Here’s a better view of the stage. They had divers jumping from the very top of the ship into the pool onstage. It was incredible! The highest diving point was 17 m (about 55 feet) high! One of the comedians on the ship said they were diving from the moon into a soap dish! J |
We made it back to our room around 10:15 p.m. We all had to take turns in the shower. While I waited, I journaled a bit and went out on the balcony. It was so dark! You couldn’t see the horizon line; it’s just black. It sent chills up and down my spine, and I tried to remind myself that there was nothing there that could harm me. At home, I’m not fond of the outdoors after dark because there are all kinds of creatures out there. But here on the sea, there’s nothing. And yet there is still something about the darkness that is uninviting to me. It reminds me of the darkness we are in as sinners. It’s so scary! But how wonderful it is when God opens our eyes to the light of salvation! We don’t have to be in the dark!
I didn’t make it to bed until midnight. It’s been a long, wonderful, and exciting day! I can’t wait until tomorrow when we reach our first port-of-call: Nassau, Bahamas!
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