cruise Day 1 4-30
Mom and I left for Miami on Sunday 4-30. My sister Terry and my dad dropped us off at Port Columbus. Mom did very well for her first time flying and all the check points and such. We had a very quick flight from Columbus to Cincinnati, around 25 minutes. I'd never went through Cincy, so the airport was different for me. We managed of course. Just followed signs. Its pretty big. Its layed out different than most airports. From there we had a non-stop to Miami. Baggage was rough for me. I had 2 large bags and my carry-on. But, I managed. We got a taxi, and headed out to South Beach to find Stef, Dana and Sam. We stayed at the Continentel South Beach. It wasn't the greatest of hotels, but it sufficed for our basic need for 1 night. We came in and I got with Stef, and she came down to our room. I ended up re-packing and organizing my bags. We walked part way to a resturant name Barton G's. But both mom and I couldn't walk all the way. Yahoo maps for you. It was farther than it looked and portrayed. My shoes, sandals, had started hurting. I don't think Sam and Dana liked the fact that we ended up getting a taxi, but hey, it was a long walk and I wasn't expecting it to be that far away. It was worth the trip and hassle though. It was a beautiful place, and the food and presentation of the food was spectacular to say the least. Sam thought one of the waitors was cute, and Dana ended up getting a pic of them together. Dana's bold like that. lol. After dinner we too a cab back to the hotel. I was tired. I'd traveled all day and was bushed. I'd like to have gone out, but I was tired, and so was Mom. So we stayed at the hotel, cleaned up, made some calls and I texted Stef while she was out. Those girls can walk any place, anywhere, no matter then distance, and do it in flip flops. Not me. I have bad feet and a recently operated on knee. I know my limits, but I so badly wanted to do it. ho hum.
Moving on, next morning, we did some procrastinating. Mom and I wanted to just stop by McDonalds and eat. She needs to eat because of her diabetes. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on breakfast nor walk a mile or 3 like the night before. But, we ended up going to a nice place called "Penguin Motel". It was good food, it was outdoors and we could see the beach (pretty much) from where we sat. It was a nice walk and not to horribly far. I could elaborate on a couple things about how we ended up there, but I won't.
We had hoped to do the beach a bit before getting on the ship, but be cause we procrastinated and the place was a little walk away, we didn't have time to. So, from the resturant we went back to the hotel, got our baggage and headed out for the port. It takes about 10-15 mins to get over to the port from S.B.
We had minimal issues getting signed in. Sam hadn't printed her sea pass card pass thing out, and had to do another step. We finally got on board and it was a little different than last time. I felt overwhelmed a bit. I went to the excursions desk to confirm our free excursion at Key West. We wandered a little, but then pretty much went to our rooms. The gangway was on deck 5, I think. So we only had a couple flights to go up. Getting a elevator wasn't easy. We were all the way forward. I was in room 8000, and stef was in 8006 I believe. We got settled in. I tried to read up on the info and stuff. We met with the stateroom attendant.
The girls came down and checked our room out, and we checked theirs out. They had a bunk bed and a single bed. Mom and I stayed around close to the room. We scouted a little, but because I knew we'd have the muster drill, so there was no sense leaving and wandering around the ship. We got lost from the girls and just came back to the room and got our life jackets on and headed down to the 7th deck for the drill. They girls finally showed up. Not sure where they had been, but Sam finally saw me behind her. We caught up with them and went back to the rooms to take our jackets back. We did go up on deck to watch the ship leave port. It was WINDY WOW! We had a nice fruity drink on the pool deck and watched the port drift away.
After a while we headed back around to look around and scouted the ship some more. We had sometime to kill before dinner at 8. We went shopping on the promanade. Then went back to the room, mom and I at least and tried to unpack. I read up on some of the newsletters, looked through my coupon book. I got a coupon book as a returning passenger. We finally got ready for dinner. Dinner was fun. All of us instantly loved our Assistant Waiter. The head waitress was ok, but she was I don't know, she just wasn't as good as my head waitress on my first cruise. She was good, but made several mistakes this first night. Our table was shared with another family of four. It was a spanish family. They were very friendly and spoke little English. We had a window near our table, so that was a change for me. Last time I was right in the middle. Dinner was filling and great as usual. Afterwards we walked around the decks for a little while and looked around. We went to our rooms kinda earlier, so we could get good night's sleep. I took pics and unpacked/looked around some more. The tv's in the room were new and awesome. Flatscreen, and it had movie channels, TCM and the cartoon network. Day one Complete.
Moving on, next morning, we did some procrastinating. Mom and I wanted to just stop by McDonalds and eat. She needs to eat because of her diabetes. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on breakfast nor walk a mile or 3 like the night before. But, we ended up going to a nice place called "Penguin Motel". It was good food, it was outdoors and we could see the beach (pretty much) from where we sat. It was a nice walk and not to horribly far. I could elaborate on a couple things about how we ended up there, but I won't.
We had hoped to do the beach a bit before getting on the ship, but be cause we procrastinated and the place was a little walk away, we didn't have time to. So, from the resturant we went back to the hotel, got our baggage and headed out for the port. It takes about 10-15 mins to get over to the port from S.B.
We had minimal issues getting signed in. Sam hadn't printed her sea pass card pass thing out, and had to do another step. We finally got on board and it was a little different than last time. I felt overwhelmed a bit. I went to the excursions desk to confirm our free excursion at Key West. We wandered a little, but then pretty much went to our rooms. The gangway was on deck 5, I think. So we only had a couple flights to go up. Getting a elevator wasn't easy. We were all the way forward. I was in room 8000, and stef was in 8006 I believe. We got settled in. I tried to read up on the info and stuff. We met with the stateroom attendant.
The girls came down and checked our room out, and we checked theirs out. They had a bunk bed and a single bed. Mom and I stayed around close to the room. We scouted a little, but because I knew we'd have the muster drill, so there was no sense leaving and wandering around the ship. We got lost from the girls and just came back to the room and got our life jackets on and headed down to the 7th deck for the drill. They girls finally showed up. Not sure where they had been, but Sam finally saw me behind her. We caught up with them and went back to the rooms to take our jackets back. We did go up on deck to watch the ship leave port. It was WINDY WOW! We had a nice fruity drink on the pool deck and watched the port drift away.
After a while we headed back around to look around and scouted the ship some more. We had sometime to kill before dinner at 8. We went shopping on the promanade. Then went back to the room, mom and I at least and tried to unpack. I read up on some of the newsletters, looked through my coupon book. I got a coupon book as a returning passenger. We finally got ready for dinner. Dinner was fun. All of us instantly loved our Assistant Waiter. The head waitress was ok, but she was I don't know, she just wasn't as good as my head waitress on my first cruise. She was good, but made several mistakes this first night. Our table was shared with another family of four. It was a spanish family. They were very friendly and spoke little English. We had a window near our table, so that was a change for me. Last time I was right in the middle. Dinner was filling and great as usual. Afterwards we walked around the decks for a little while and looked around. We went to our rooms kinda earlier, so we could get good night's sleep. I took pics and unpacked/looked around some more. The tv's in the room were new and awesome. Flatscreen, and it had movie channels, TCM and the cartoon network. Day one Complete.