Cruise Log: Day One

Departure from Miami


Our uneventful flight landed in Miami around lunch-time on Sunday. We caught the Carnival bus from the airport to the port - $12 per person - each way!!! Just as we got to the port it started to downpour. There were people running in between the cabs and buses like crazy fools! And forklifts darting in between everyone. Once we got inside the terminal, check in was pretty simple. They shuffled us from one line to the next for what seemed like forever, took our picture and then finally we were on the ship!


First we went to our room (known on the ship as our "cabin"). The room was a little bigger than I had expected. We were on the 6th floor, in the back of the ship. One of our bags was already there so we unpacked. And we met our cabin steward, Archibold. Nice guy. Then it was time for the Mandatory Safety Drill. That didn't take very long at all then we were free to go up on the top floor ("deck") to watch the ship leave Miami.


The sun came out for a few minutes while we were out on the deck. It was real windy.


Bye Suckers!!!! Several cars honked their horns at us as we were leaving. I don’t know if that’s the cool thing to do if you live in Miami, or if they were tourists being stupid. I had fun waving to the people standing on the shore. It started raining again as soon as we got out of the port and into the open sea.


So we went inside for a tropical fruity drink. The drink special for Sunday was called the Fun Ship Special (how original.) Vodka, rum, apricot brandy, amaretto & a variety of sun-ripened fruit juices. Yummy. We also got some pizza from the 24 hour pizzeria (we hadn’t had lunch yet). Timmy got one with anchovies by mistake – and we both discovered it wasn’t bad. Kind of salty.


Me and Timmy at dinner in the Pacific Dining Room (as opposed to the Atlantic Dining Room). We were seated at a booth for 4, but our tablemates never showed up the entire week. So we had the table to ourselves! Our head waiter was Wilfer from Colombia and his assistant was Jorge from Peru. Jorge was in charge of the bread and beverages. Wilfer would tell us every night "the best thing on the menu tonight is..." After dinner we tried to find the Welcome Show, but the decks were so confusing and it seemed like you had to go through the casino to get anywhere. Finally we gave up and went to bed.