April 26, 2008 - Day 2: If I Were Not Upon the Sea......

I’d be home, where the weather sucks! But I’m here and enjoying the wonderful sunshine. I don’t know how warm it was today but sufficient to say, it was hot enough for me!

Gary and I started our day by hiking down several blocks to the nearest convenience store to pick up some soda and water. Already, at 8:30 am it was terribly warm but I’m not complaining. We packed everything up and grabbed our ride to the port with our fellow Canadians, Charlene & Julia. There were 4 ships in port today, 3 Carnivals and the Liberty of the Seas, a massive ship. Ours is pretty big though, enough to get lost and not know where we’re going.

We got on board fairly early, about 11:40 am and headed directly to the Lido Deck to the South Beach Cafe for some nourishment as all I’d had this morning was coffee. The decor on a Carnival ship is not what we’re accustomed to but it’s not displeasing to the eye. Both Gary and I agree it reminds us somewhat of Las Vegas. We had a fairly decent lunch including some salads, snapper, chicken and the most awesome dessert selection on a buffet I’ve ever come to know. Key lime pie awesome. We all had something different and tried bites of each.

After filling our tummies we explored the ship but still haven’t seen everything. Checked out most of the lounges, bars, casino, shops but haven’t been much on top yet although we did head up top after the lifeboat drill (which was at least ½ hour late) expecting sailaway only to find out it was delayed due to “traffic” waiting for other ships to pass. We did, however, enjoy a sailaway beverage and listened to the live music. Watched the Liberty pass us by and one of the Carnival ships then we had to hurry down to change for dinner. Our dining time was earlier than we expected, 5:45 pm, but we decided to keep it. We managed to rush and get there for 5:50 pm but it seems lots didn’t show up tonight, probably all enjoying the voyage out of Miami.

We have only 5 other diners with us but 2 empty seats as well, maybe they’ll show tomorrow. One family of 3 with a teenage daughter, maybe 13 or 14, the other two ladies are friends who abandoned their families for a girls’ only cruise. We’re all Canadians! Weird how we were seated together. They all seem very nice. Food was pretty decent. I had salmon to start, then caesar salad followed by a NY sirloin steak. The dessert was to die for, Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. It was soooooo good and served with some vanilla ice cream. Apparently it’s on the menu every night! So if I can’t find something else worthy, I know that will do.

After dinner we strolled around the shops and then did some trivia games which were fun and fairly laid back. Then the Welcome Aboard show was on at 10:30. It was pretty fun, kinda Carnival cheesy, but hey, I liked that about it! Singers, dancers and comedy. Tomorrow is a hypnotist, should be a hoot.

We headed back to the cabin at 11:45 pm and it’s now 12:30 pm and I’m off to bed. We’re at Half Moon Cay tomorrow, a beach day, yay!