Vacation 2015, Day 2

We didn’t have to check out of the hotel until 11am so that left plenty of time for breakfast. Embassy Suites puts on a decent breakfast too, so that was nice.
Here’s the view from our room; can you find my family having breakfast down there?

Dakota decided the day was special enough that she needed to wear one of her “princess tiara’s”. She also had an extra one for Meme to wear.

I decided it was a special enough day that I needed a selfie with the hubs.

Once we all finished breakfast we went up to gather up our stuff. We were all back downstairs and ready to go just before 11am. The shuttle got us to the port right around 11:15 and we were all in awe at the size of the ship we were about to get on. The Independence of the Seas is a beast compared to the Grandeur!
After dropping off our bags we started to make our way inside when one of the workers pointed out an easier way for us to get in with the wheelchair…it was a sneaky way in that bypassed every single person in line, and there were hundreds of people in line waiting. We zipped in and got our cards made and then got in the next line to pass through security. Our first professional pictures of the trip were taken at this point:


Once we were on the ship we didn’t even know where to start. There was so much to see and so much going on! We walked around a bit and then made our way up to the Windjammer for lunch. Apparently everyone had the same idea because it was absolutely packed to the gills. We had our lunch and then went to see if our luggage had been delivered to our rooms…which it had. We then changed into our bathing suits and went to hang out at the pool.



While Tony stayed with the little kids, Landon and I did a little exploring.

Landon on the track:

Port at Fort Lauderdale:

The basketball court and rock wall: (there was also a Flo Rider and putt putt course up here; very cool teen area)

A view of the promenade from the elevator bank:

As we set sail I became obnoxiously tired (later figured out that it was the motion sickness pills I was taking) and decided to take a rest in our room. The kids needed a little downtime too and they were happy to sit and play with the iPads for a bit while I rested. Tony took a beer out onto the balcony and watched the water…

Our dinner time in the dining room was at 6pm each night. We were in the “Romeo and Juliet” dining room on deck 3. For some odd reason even though we booked our trip all together we were seated at two separate tables. They put my parents, Tony, Harper, Dakota and I at one table and everyone else at the other. We weren’t happy about it but we dealt with it.
They came around to each table that night taking pictures…













* I didn’t get pictures of everyone because of the way their portrait packages work. I bought the package deal which meant I got all the pictures they took of anyone in our party. So, if it was a family picture and one of the six of us was in it, we got the picture. But, if one of us wasn’t in the photo we didn’t get it. So, any pictures with just Jaron and LaTisha or my parents alone, or Kyle etc… I didn’t get copies of those. It’s a total bummer how they do the packages.
That evening we were all pretty worn out. There was a comedian that night but he wasn’t that great and my two littlest ones were too tired to care. Once the show was over for the night we headed back to our room for the rest of the evening.
This is how we divided up our rooms:

• Tony, myself and the two little kids had a balcony room on the 7th level. They shared a pull out couch which they thought was awesome!
• Zoe and Landon shared an interior state room on level 7, directly across the hall from our room.
• LaTisha and Jaron shared an interior state room on the 8th floor.
• Kyle had an interior state room on the 8th floor as well.
• Mema and Umpa had a balcony room identical to ours on the same floor as us.
• Meme and Papa had a junior suite on the 10th floor. They’ve always gotta outdo us peasants.