WOW!!
I go away for 3 days and I come back and see your son has arrived!!
That is fantastic!! Please keep us posted and when your up to it, how about posting a picture of this future cruiser??
Well we are back from a great trip.
we got off to a stressful start because of the brush fires burning near the coast. Our usual route was closed due to the smoke, so we started our alternate route and it had a closed road too. NO detour signs were posted, the radio station that is suppose to give road reports according to the signs along the highway at 1300 a.m. had nothing at all, so we were not getting any help. we just kept heading towards any town we knew was on the beach. After lots of confusion we saw a couple of cruise line buses and we saw people in them so we just followed the bus to cocoa beach area, then we were ok. we usually get to the port around 10, but this time we arrived around 2:15. Everyone was running late and the terminal was very busy. Luckily it didnt take too long. I ran to the room to dump the carryon bag and DH headed to the buffet which was suppose to be closing but people were lined up out the door. I headed for the promenade lounge for a cruise meet with fellow disers at 3 p.m.. It was a great meet with very nice people.
Lots of them had been having the same problems with the smoke as we had.
after the safety drill it was time for the sail away party.
High Frequency was playing and they did a great job. There was a good crowd, but not packed as it usually is, the ship was not a full ship this time.
It was never crowded accept the first day at the buffet for lunch because everyone was running late. so after several minutes of dancing, singing and screaming it was time to watch us pull out. We left about 15 minutes late, so it was easy to find a place to stand, a lot of people were leaving to dress for early dinner by then. We stayed on deck for a long time as we pulled out.
No dolphins this time, but lots of pelicans and one bald eagle swooped over the deck. I did wave at all of you on the two palms camera as we went by. Did you see me?
I was thinking of you
Anyway we had perfect weather the entire trip. We learned the Charles Marshall Band is no longer with
DCL, so any big fans out there, I'm sorry but he wont be back. Our ship made a few funny sounds as we traveled along. we found out later that one of the propellers had got damaged at a previous trip to CC. It had been checked out by divers, but cant be fixed, it must be replaced. So they couldnt fill some of the rooms on deck 2 as it was really loud and the crew quarters on deck one were terrible at the one end of the ship for noise. Dont know when it will be replaced. For us it was a quiet background noise, not bad at all.
They have a new smoking policy too. On the outer decks there is still No smoking by the kiddie pool, but all the rest of the open decks are non smoking on the starboard side and smoking on the port side. so any adults who want to be near the adult pool can sit on the starboard if they dont want the smoke. At the family pool you can sit with the kids on the starboard side and no smoke too. same on deck 4. The signs are small so it will take alittle time for people to notice this.
All the shows were awesome, as usual. Food was excellant.
Pirate party was done a little differently than the last 2 I had been to. But it was still fun and the fireworks were great.
The new Navigators are terrible. Tiny print, times were worng about half the time so we missed things,so did others. The spreadsheet layout just was confusing and we didnt likeit at all. Most we talked to didnt like it either.
Tiggerking, tell DW I did take pictures of the room which I will post later this week.
We spent a lot of time in the promenade lounge listening to Don and Tommie perform. They are friends of ours , so we always stop to enjoy their music when we connect on board. They are excellant performers and such nice people. The stores actully had a few new things this time too. I guess we go so often that it seems like it never changes, but it does.
This trip was the first time we ever got to meet Captain Henry. He came over to us in the promenade lounge one evening and introduced himself and visited for about 10 minutes before leaving. Of course this is the one time I dont have my camera with me!!
The night shows were good too. Lots of yummy late night snacks by the clubs .
In Nassau we just shopped around. The straw market had been redone since we were there last May. Someone said it had burned down a few months ago. It is still a big white tent, but it is taller and the center isle is large enough you can easily walk down it, even with a stroller, The next row in either side is wider than it use to be then the rest are tiny and cramped, like it use to be. They have several new things this time, I was pleasantly surprised and the quality of what I got this time. Then DH and I looked at t-shirts and hats. Bought a shirt for cruisemutt, then walked around to the pirate museum, but they were lined up to buy tickets to go in, so we skipped it since we had done it before.
We went back to the ship and relaxed to the island band playing by the family pool and saw some characters greeting the kids. I was constantly running into fellow dis board people and hearing all the fun they had been having. I really enjoyed that.
At CC it was HOT!! great weather to go swimming!! Beaches wernt crowded though, but the ship wasnt full, so I'm sure that had soemthing to do with it. They have a pirate scavenger hunt which we did. It did take about an hour and some of the answers were very obscure, but we managed to finish it and get our treasure afterwards. It was fun. Then we rented bikes and rode both the trails on the island. The new trail is 5000 feet long. It has 2 places to park your bikes, but no benches to sit and nothing to see. It is just for riding on. It was a very good smooth, wide path. It was so hot that after a late lunch at cookes BBQ we went back to the ship to cool off in the adult pool while most people were on shore. afterwards as we were heading back to the room a woman who had been swimming came up to us with DH's ID which he forgot was in his pocket and he had lost it in the bottom of the pool. That could of been a diaster to loose that!!
All in all it was a great trip. we mostly went with the idea to destress after moving and a job promotion, so we didnt do excursions or race to do everything on the ship. although I did watch the ice carving which was great. he did a dolphin this time which I hadnt seen before.
we did leave a few mickey bars for everyone.
Once we got off the ship the smoke was worse than when we left . So we just drove hwy 1 down to titusville and came inland. All the roads around were closed or cops were there closing them as we drove by. I hope people who are traveling to the port the next few weeks know about this because they dont have any signs up on which way to detour. If you just flew in and rented a car this could be a terrible problem for you.
well I am tired, if I think of something else I will post it soon.
hope everyone had a great weekend, I know we did.
Oh, almost forgot, we did book another 3 day or next april too.
mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy
!!!
Congrats on the new arrival...sleepless nights but always worth it.
on the new bundle of joy, post a picture when yuo can.
Yesterday we bought a new Saturn Vue, I kept explaing how great it would be when we drove down for the cruise to have all that extra room(course it just means I can now bring more)Plus its a benefit with hurricane season to have a SUV for evacuation Think kid and dog in a small!!!! car for 18 hours. Thats how long it took us to get to Atlanta last time we had to evacuate, normally a 8 hour drive fun fun
