02 Oct

Day 3 – Boarding Day in Matching T-Shirts!

 

I woke up early to the sound of the ocean in our backyard. That’s my favorite way to wake up! I got up and went into the living room and Chase was there! When did my college son start waking up at 7 am when he didn’t need to?

But it was raining a little outside so he decided to go back to bed!

I ate my breakfast cookies and it had stopped, so I went outside!

It cleared up before too long, so I went out.

Surfers were out!

Ally was awake!

Here’s our shirts for the day!

We all got ready and headed towards the port. We should have left earlier than we did because everyone beat us! I don’t know what I was thinking!

My sister told me that my mom was so surprised. She saw the limo and said jokingly, “Oh look! There’s our ride!” Haha

Then Bonnie said, “No it is your ride!”

And mom said, “Whaaaaatttt?”

And there was much excitement! Also for Bonnie’s kids who got to hitch a ride!

We went to Alamo, dropped off our cars and waited for the shuttle. We didn’t all fit on the first one, so Chase and Stephen waited for the next one.

My sister was tormenting me that she was already there. Rude.

We made it!

Stephen and Chase made it before too long.

We checked in which took forever because we were all spread out in different rooms to get the onboard booking discounts. One of the ladies checking us in just could not understand it. But finally, we were done!

Boarding picture!

We got on and everyone went to Enchanted Garden. Well Stephen and I dropped by Royal Court to change a couple of Palo related things, and then we went and met everyone at lunch.

We all exchanged chat numbers during lunch and enjoyed our first meal! I don’t know where my pictures are from lunch!!! What is happening?!

Then we toured the ship, even though everyone but Olivia had been on it before. I should say the 6 of “adults” toured, and the kids went on their own tour.

At 1:30, it was finally time to see our room! We had booked 3 verandah rooms next to each other when we booked the cruise a few months ago. At Thanksgiving, Olivia’s plans changed, and Chase realized she could go with us. We called to add another room, and an inside room was a gazillion times cheaper. So we decided Stephen, Chase and I could do the inside room, and we would put the girls in the third verandah room. I was actually a little excited, because in all my cruises, I’ve never stayed in an inside room! I’ve been in one a few times, but I still wanted to stay in one.

There were a lot of jokes about us going to our room in “steerage” when we split up.

We had booked an IGT that had just been assigned a few days before the cruise and I didn’t pay much attention to it, other than noting that it was a category 11, which meant no split bath. Oh. That wasn’t ideal, but it was still okay!

Until we got to the room. Oh my heck, this was the smallest room I’ve ever been in. Our toes were going to be in Chase’s face! Haha!

It’s okay! We were on the Fantasy for a week. All was still good.

Until I went in the bathroom. Which was quite large! BUT THERE WAS NO BATHTUB!!!!!!!

Oh my word, we were in an accessible room.

I started to hyperventilate a little.

All of my good attitude went out the window.

If you have traveled with me, you know that I take a bath every night before bed. It relaxes me, gives me some quiet reading time, and warms me up. I do not go to bed without taking one! So a week without one, is not a vacation to me.

I was sooo sad. I tried to get it together, and decided I couldn’t. So I went right to guest services. I explained that I knew we had booked an IGT room, but we ended up in an accessible room, and I neeeeeeeded a bathtub. I would take anything with a bathtub.

They said they would know what inventory they had as soon as we sailed, and they would call me and let me know. They told me they would call around 5 when we sailed away!

Okay. I could do this. I had a few hours to work on my attitude and prepare myself for a week without a bathtub.

Breathe.

We went to check on everyone else and stopped by their rooms. They were unpacking and relaxing. We walked up to sit by Cove Café since we didn’t want to unpack yet.

Just in case!

Bonnie and Brian joined us until time for the muster!

We mustered on deck 4 in the sun. Sooooooo hot.

Then it was sail away time! We went up top.

Hey, lookie there! NASA!

We took a shirt picture!

Then some of us watched the party!

And we didn’t sail away!

I went to guest services to see if they knew yet. They said we were still waiting on a couple of guests, so we hadn’t sailed and wouldn’t know for a couple more hours.

Okay! Still breathing.

I went and got ready for dinner. Then I went to hang our anniversary magnets on my parent’s door! I ordered these several months ago after Angie told me about a great sale!

Aren’t they cute?

Then we went to dinner in Animators!

My favorite!

Chase’s standard appetizer –

I had pasta.

Stephen had a pork chop.

Brian had something awful looking! Haha!

My beautiful sister.

Crush came by for a visit at some point! He asked what we liked to eat, and I believe it was Chase who had the smart alec reply – Turtle soup!

Crush’s exact reply was – “Not cool, dude.”

Dessert!

At some point, someone from guest services tapped me on the shoulder and said to come see him right after we ate. Then he rushed off!

I was like, “Where did he come from?” And “how did he know who I was?”

But this was a good sign! Okay!

Our servers apologized for all of our food coming out at different times, but said they were having problems in the kitchen.

We told them it was no problem and we said goodbye!

Stephen and I went to guest services and he said he thought he found us something! He took us down to deck 2 and opened the door to an oceanview room! Yay! I immediately said it was perfect.

He said, “You haven’t even seen it!” He was worried we would think it was small because the accessible rooms can be so big.

Um. Not that one! Lol

So we told him we it was perfect and we thanked him profusely.

They said they would move all of our stuff, so we went to check to make sure we hadn’t left anything out when we got ready for dinner. When we were leaving, I said, “Goodbye, inside room!” and the hostess heard me and cracked up. We told her goodbye too and we were off!

I think we shopped for a little while and then went to the opening show.

After the show we unpacked in our new room WITH A BATHTUB, and then went up to the pool with the kids. The pool was like a wave machine! We left late, so we were booking it!

We ended the night in the hot tub, and then went back to the room.

I took a bath (of course!!!) and then read. We finally turned off the light around 11:30.

Ah. The waves of the ocean rocking me to sleep. Heaven.

7-Night Eastern Caribbean Anniversary Cruise – A Celebration of all Couples – But Mostly the Pneumonias December 17-24, 2017
Day 1 – Travel Day and Candlelight Processional at Epcot
Day 2 – Kennedy Space Center
Day 3 – Boarding Day in Matching T-shirts!
Day 4 – It’s a Big Day! HUGE!
Day 5 – Sea Day with an Anniversary Celebration!
Day 6 – Beaching in Tortola 
Day 7 – SkyRide in St. Thomas
Day 8 – Sea Day – Ginger Bread Houses and Palo Brunch
Day 9 – Jet Skis in Castaway Cay