Well, here goes nothing! I'm not a very creative writer, so there probably won't be funny jokes or stories. I still think GrumpyDude gave the best trip report yet, so no way to beat it, but here it is....
Cast of characters:
Me (mom of 2 girls) DH was in Germany for business.
(hmmm.... Germany+October = Oktoberfest!!!!)
My girls: Sophia(5), Lena (3)
My parents who never cruised before:
Dad (Newly retired; think Archie Bunker, but with nothing to do all day)
Mom (who was grateful to get out the house with newly retired Archie)
We had two adjoining cat 9's.
Day one:
Got to the port around 10:30. I live about 35-40 minutes from the port so it was an easy drive.
I was shocked to get a number 5 boarding call. 5??? The port just opened 30 minutes ago!!!
Oh well... I quickly saw lots of Dis'ers. Very easy to spot since we were all wearing green braclets.
No upgrades available; supposedly the cruise was completely booked.
Got through checking within a few minutes, so we sat for almost 90 minutes waiting to board. Last time we cruised, we were able to get on board before 11:30, so I assumed it would be around the same time. But with a 5 boarding pass, it ended up being closer to noon.
Dad was bored so he got a head start embarrassing Sophia by introducing her to other kids.
( This would be an on-going thing... He would walk around going to kids saying "look, this is Sophia, she's 5, where are you from??" The mom's would grab their kids and walk away fast..)
(We also soon got the arsenal of "critiques" of everyone on the ship. Did I say my father reminded me of Archie Bunker?? No race, culture, or gender was omitted) Oh well, we all have a black sheep of the family, mine just happens to be my father.
After we got on board, we went straight to change our dining time. We had late seating but wanted early. We were able to get 5:45 and had PLAPLAP rotation. I couldn't imagine eating at 8:15pm.
After that we went to lunch at Parrot Cay. Pretty good lunch. Dad couldn't believe we didn't get a check. How would we know how much to tip???
Finished lunch and had to wait until our room was ready. We had rooms 2122 and 2124. Nice aft rooms. I loved the location and booked it again for a cruise in the future. Close to the elevators, easy to get to the restaurants, shutters, drink bar, topsiders and the pools.
Got the kids ready for the pool and took them swimming for about 2 hours. I had a DIS meet at 3pm, and finally got to see all the chat mates! We took a group photo and saw the infamous yellow speedo!
Boat drill was predictable and finally got sailing! Dad had the camera ready and it stayed glued to his face for the entire trip. I actually think he took all 7 days on tape...
Sail away was fun, girls danced (well Lena danced; Sophia pouted...)
Got back to the room, got dressed and went to dinner at Parrot Cay.
We had Sameer and Malwyn from India for our server/***'t server. The first night I wasn't too sure about them, but they really were great and hope they are on the Med. cruise. They supposedly both already signed contracts through the end of next summer.
Fitz was the head server and he came by twice every night. I'll tell you more about what he did later...
Great dinner, dad was still kinda confused about tipping but I think he finally got it around the 3rd night.
Took Sophia to the kid's club and we went to the 8:30 show. Can't remember their names but saw a musician and juggler. They were pretty good, but didn't care for the wierd breaks in between where the cruise director would speak about different topics.
Got Sophia from the club and went to unpack.
Couldn't sleep so I watched the Da Vinci Code on TV.
That's it for day one! Hopefully not to boring!!!
If anyone else from the cruise is reading this, please feel free to jump in!!
Jennifer
We were right down the hall from you - 2147...kept passing your door!!!!
)
