Tammy Trip Reports | Day 2 – Embarkation (Sound the Hallelujah Chorus)

08 Jul

Posted at 04:59h in Uncategorized by Tammy 2 Comments

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Day 2 – Embarkation (Sound the Hallelujah Chorus)

When I woke up, I couldn’t believe it. I was actually getting on a cruise ship today. I had been so afraid to get my hopes up, but it was happening!

Well, assuming we passed that pesky Covid test!

I really wasn’t too worried. The only part I dreaded was the actual test. I’ve had several Covid tests this past year for various travels. Most were fine, but the deep nose swab was not. I was pretty sure that’s what this would be.

I was trying not to dwell on it though! Focus! It was cruise day!

I’m not going to sugar coat this. There are going to be a LOT of exclamation marks in today’s report. And about 5000 pictures. You are warned.

We were checking in for our cruise at a hotel in Nassau! That was different. Our appointment wasn’t until 1:30, so we put on our swimsuits and went in search of breakfast.

Hello, casino! I felt like I was living in Vegas again!

This resort is really so pretty!

We ate at this adorable little café we had seen the night before.

I had my favorite kind of donut! And it was a big one!

We could see the waterpark that was under construction. It was scheduled to open just a few weeks after our visit.

I took several pictures, and then we chose our spots down by one of the many pools and relaxed.

Flamingos!

Here’s our spot!

At one point I got up to take a few more pictures, and followed a path we hadn’t taken yet. There’s the beach!

There were super cute food trucks!

And pretty pools!

I kept going and going. Found another pool!

And what? The entrance to the waterpark where they were letting people in?!!

I raced back to Debbie and we grabbed our stuff and went to the waterpark! We didn’t have much time! About 45 minutes before we needed to go shower. But I wanted to check this waterpark out!

When we walked over, we passed the exploration center. It had turtles and stingrays and sharks!

We wandered a little inside first.

Then we deposited our stuff on some chairs, and took a couple of laps around the lazy river!

There were sooo many lifeguards along the river, and every single one of them was exceedingly friendly.

Everyone wanted to know what we thought! We told them all we loved it.

Then we got out and walked back to the room.

We showered, checked out, and then we were on our way!

We caught a taxi to the Hilton, and checked in for our dreaded test. There were several nurses waiting for us, and when I told them how apprehensive I am about sticking things up my nose, she was very kind! She talked me through it all, and after I finished, I dried my tears and met up with Debbie for the long wait for results!

See how sad we are?

I was actually feeling much better, now that the actual test was done. Debbie, however, was super stressed! She was so so worried that she would fail.

I got my email first, about 45 minutes later. Hers came about two minutes after, and she released a sound of joy, before slumping in her chair in relief!

She was so so happy. Lol

We stood up and she literally started dancing. Everyone around us was happy for us too! We wished them luck, and were on our way!

I later heard that 6 people failed, and they, along with their travel party, were all tested again. So they had to wait about 4 hours for the results of the longer, more accurate test. They all passed! Some people didn’t get to board until 7:30 pm, but they made it!

We caught a quick shuttle to the ship and started walking over.

It’s such a beautiful sight!

There was a welcome party, with dancers and free beer!

We kept walking and were finally walking up to that glorious gangway! Look how enticing!

Every single crew member we passed was so happy. Look how excited they are!

Debbie took this. Look how excited I am too!!

As soon as we scanned in, someone welcomed us on, and let us know where to meet, where to get our keys, and let us know how the updated muster would work. No in person muster, just some videos to watch on the app, and then we would check in at the muster station at some point in the afternoon.

We went to the room, and Debbie stayed outside while I made a quick video!

Here it is:

My bag was there! I whipped out my computer and worked for a few minutes, before we headed out for an incredibly late lunch! Here’s the atrium!

Here’s the adult pool:

I told Debbie I didn’t see how we could eat dinner two hours after lunch, but Debbie loves the Main Dining Room on cruises. So she assured me we were up to the task!

Look at this beautiful welcome cake!

I only took a couple of buffet pictures. There was a buffet! You could get your own whenever they could do single portions:

The other food was served by the crew! Which worked just fine.

Look how much I held back!

Windjammers was empty! This was our first experience where we could tell our cruise was only at 30% occupancy.

This was about everyone who was in here.

I did go check out dessert!

I was excited to see whoopie pies!

Or was it woppy pies?

I sampled.

See? Empty!

After eating first dinner, we walked outside to take some pictures. Here’s the arcade!

We tried to take a selfie, but someone offered to take over to put us out of our misery!

We stopped to dance with the live music! Well, Debbie did. I took pictures!

Then we stopped at the internet desk to get our internet fixed.

We also checked in at our muster station. Apparently everyone did not, because we kept hearing reminders from the Captain!

This was the Imperial Lounge. We spent a lot of time in here over the next few evenings!

I love the wayfinding stations!

It’s Saturday, in case you forgot!

Afterwards, we unpacked, and then got ready! We met our stateroom host, who gave us his card:

We were so excited when we went to the dining room and saw our table! It’s like we were up on a stage in a special table. And we felt special!

Menu!

We had our own chandelier.

Dinner was wonderful, we loved our servers. I had fried chicken. Normally I get all steak, all the time on a cruise, but I think it’s unethical to not choose fried chicken when it’s on the menu.