Well, we made it back from the Caribbean safe and sound, happy to be back on dry land and with the crazy kiddos again…  Here’s a recap of the beginning of our trip mostly written on the boat…

Savannah and Day ONE & TWO…

We left Friday afternoon for Savannah as our stopping point for the night. I thought Savannah would also just be a fun place to see and have dinner and maybe do a little shopping.  I didn’t anticipate that everyone and their momma would be on the road with us.  The trip was looooooong and there were many stops and delays and TRAFFIC so after an hour plus was added to our time we were basically left with checking into our room and grabbing dinner.

So I can’t really say that we saw Savannah, but I am glad that we were able to break up the trip for this old preggo body

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Plus, if traffic would have been as horrific as we came down Saturday, we might have even been late getting to the boat!

Chris announced before we left that he had read online from a woman who cruised that said the biggest mistake she made was overpacking. Yes, he did.  This was all he let me bring.  ONE suitcase!

Boarding time for the ship was 12:30 to 2:30 with sail time at 4:00! We were happy to finally arrive at the port at almost 1:00…

…but were surprised to see tiny people already in the pool.  It actually took us about an HOUR to get from parking through check in ONTO the boat.  Had no idea it would take that long.

At the desk where we were checking in, the man was scanning our passports and info and did this weird double take back to me after he looked at his screen. He excused himself and went over to another lady while Chris and I were left to speculate the cause of his behavior.  It was humorous really, since I assumed that he saw that I was pregnant, but I didn’t know why he was acting so weirdly about it.  Seconds later, the woman came back, leaned in, and said, “It shows here that you have a medical condition??”  She just left it hanging like that and waited for confirmation from me of some dreadful disease I’m sure.  I replied with, “Well, I’m pregnant?”  Their faces showed their relief as they smiled and congratulated me, while asking for the precious form, of course.  All was well, thankfully, and no dramatic refusal to let me on board occurred.

Once we got on the ship we headed to our cute little room. 

It does have a nice window, but I think I was surprised how small the bathrooms were.  We even got a weird lecture that I was half listening to, that sounded like curling irons were prohibited because of risk of fire.  And would be confiscated if found in your room.

So I decided I would have to hide my flat iron every day after using it.

We headed back out to the main area in the center of the ship where mayhem was ensuing with all the scores of people getting on the ship and figuring out where everything was and where to go.   Thankfully, we were able to get away from the craziness and actually go on a tour of the ship!

We stopped, and I got a yummy Strawberry Smoothie.  Mmmm!

To me taking a tour of the ship is probably something only OCD or old people do, but we were pretty lost as to where everything was so I think it was worth it. 

I was surprised at how windy it was as it got later… and actually chilly.  It didn’t stop people from swimming though cuz people are just crazy.

The view was awesome though…

 
We mosied around and checked out Club 88 which had a total, over the top, PIANO theme.

Get it.  Club 88?  The tables were shaped like pianos, and the walls and ceilings were over sized piano keys. Cool, huh?

We ate a late dinner at 8:15 which consisted of sitting elbow to elbow with other guests.  Fun.  We had a party of four on either side.  We have decided that we must not be people-people since we’d much rather have room to BREATHE while we are eating! We only ate in the dining room one more time after that…lunch on Sunday when the waiter literally walked us through a mostly deserted room, and promptly seated us at a four top table with two guys already eating there.  I was so in shock that I just looked at the waiter like you’ve got to be kidding me, and asked if we could not sit at another table.  Hello, there are like 50 empty tables I can see! I felt bad that I was acting like we didn’t want to sit with these two guys, but I’m pretty sure they would’ve just as soon not sit with us either!  He ended up seating us RIGHT NEXT to the guys but at the adjoining table. 

From then on, we ate at the Coconut Grill, which was a buffet where you get your food and sit where you want.  We hit the sack after dinner and I must say I LOVED the towel creations left for us each night with our chocolates and agenda for the following day. 

I think this one is a Walrus.

Sunday we slept in before beginning our first full Day at Sea…

It was pretty crowded on the boat.  Supposedly there were 2500 passengers and because it was Easter Break, 1000 of those were KIDS.  Wow.

We got "dressed up" and went to our first show called, "Far From Over" which was 80’s themed… Perfect for Christopher, though I did know a few of the songs.  :)

Our towel creation that night was an Elephant!  Loved it!