This is the original:
And this one is from this year:
Boarding the ship went very smoothly and when we walked on it appeared we'd walked into a busy mall! There were people everywhere, trying to get their bearings, taking photo's and wondering aloud where their room/ the bathroom/ or the Windjammer was.
In the following photo you can see the carousel and aqua theater on deck 6. The area is called The Boardwalk and features an arcade, Pets at Sea (think miniature version of Build-A-Bear) Johnny Rockets, The Boardwalk Dog House (hot dogs/sausages) and Boardwalk Donuts to name a few.
The next photo is looking down onto the eighth deck which features Central Park. There are chirping crickets, park benches, soft music and/or musicians and lots of live plants and trees making you feel like you're really outside walking in a park instead of on a ship in the middle of the ocean!
Before going to check out our room we all went to the Windjammer for some lunch.
When Harper was ready to get something for dessert he asked me how he would choose and I told him he didn't have to pick just one! His face lit up as I piled up a plate of stuff for him and I to sample. I love this shot of his big eyes looking at all the sweets he's about to taste!
Believe it or not every moment of our trip wasn't peachy. Tony wasn't able to sleep the night prior to this and was up very early in the morning. We had let the kids stay up super late and didn't need to be checked out of our room until 11 am so I was looking forward to sleeping in. So, when he was up and waking everyone in the room up before 7 am, I was not a happy camper. So, the first several hours of being on the ship we spent separately. He took the kids with him to the pool and to check out things to do on the ship while I walked the ship by myself for awhile before finding my parents in their room. When I got to their room we went out on the balcony to watch as we left the port.
So, here's photo's of what Tony was up to; hot tub, mini golf, snacks:
And photo's of my view leaving the port. Check out that house with the Flow Rider on the right side!
After setting sail we all had to go to our muster stations for the emergency drill. This was by far the best muster we've ever had! No longer do you have to stand outside in tight lines with life jackets on! This time our muster was inside Studio B where we all grabbed a seat to watch a video and short presentation. It was AWESOME! When it finished we went around the boat exploring until it was time to meet everyone for dinner.
Our dinner time was at 5:30 pm and about the only time we knew for sure we'd see one another. When you are on a boat the size of a small city with about 9000 people it can be daunting finding one another. The menu for the first night was great! I ordered the Sauteed Maryland Style Crab Cake for my starter, the Fish, Seafood Mash for my main course and the Warm Hazelnut Chocolate Cake for dessert. It was a great meal! Our waiters, Selbourne and Ashok ended up being amazing our entire trip and they dealt with our table of 15 with ease. They made us feel welcome each evening and knew each and every one of our names which just amazed me! One night there was a dessert on the menu that we all LOVED and when we jokingly told Selbourne that we'd like it again he said he'd be sure to get it for us again before we got off the ship. We'd pretty much forgotten about it but on the last night of the trip, once we'd finished our meals and the dessert we'd chosen for that evening, he turned up with several of that special dessert! We all really appreciated that he'd gone out of his way to get us that dessert again and despite having already had our meal and dessert for that evening, we ate the second dessert as well!
I know this isn't a great picture of Landon but I have to include it because he was so excited about eating Caesar salad. Before going on vacation we were talking about what we were looking forward to and he said he couldn't wait to get the Caesar salad! He was serious too because he ordered that salad every single night!!
I love this photo too because this is a trick that Landon and Zoe learned on the very first cruise they ever went on. Our waiter was an incredibly sweet woman with children of her own. She was very kind to the kids, chatting with them, making them laugh and she even shared with them the magic behind being able to balance a spoon on their nose. They've always remembered it, and her, and this cruise Landon passed the magic on to Harper!
Once dinner was over for the night we went back to the pool and then to our room to bathe the kids for the evening. Since it was still early though, we headed out to Central Park to see what it looked like in the evening. It really is like walking around outside when you're there! There was a gentle breeze and twinkling lights which really added to the atmosphere.
Next we went to the Promenade deck to look at the shops and then finally on to the Boardwalk to let the kids ride the carousel. While we were checking things out on the Promenade we noticed a bar that was moving, very slowly, between floors of the ship! It looked like some kind of weird space ship. They call it the Rising Tide Bar and it moves from the 5th to the 8th decks; we never did get a chance to ride it.
That pretty much sums up the first day/evening on the ship. We packed a lot into those hours and we were really tired and knew that we'd be up and off the boat early the next morning so we called it a night and headed to our room.
No comments:
Post a Comment