Trip Report Part I

[Diva70]

OK, finally, here goes! I think this'll be a long report due to the Hurricane-Charley-extended vacation! LOL

August 6th - We worked all day (yuk, but oh well) and sent the kids on the way to grandma's in the afternoon. Got to the airport early and just hung out, practically peeing our pants we're so excited. Reason being, neither of us has been on a cruise, let alone to the other side of the country, and this was our very much belated "real" honeymoon (our 10th anniversary). For our honeymoon we went camping. Which was fun, but not very exciting. Anyway, I digress. We flew into Seattle and had an hour layover. HAD to go have a smoke and the exits are fairly close to where we needed to be. As we went out I noticed there were an awful lot of people in line at security, so I thought we should be quick. GOOD THING we were. We headed back in and starting going down to the C gates. Got there and were told nope, sorry, that entrance is closed, you have to go all the way back and go through D gates, hang a left, and run down to C. UH HUH. So, we stand in a huge line forever (meanwhile it's like 5 minutes to boarding) and when we get up to security the people there have no clue the C gate is closed. Hmm. They made Jason take his shoes off, which he did, and after I went through I headed up the ramp with the luggage while he grabbed his shoes. He sits down in the middle of the floor to shove them on and yells "THESE AREN'T MINE!!", gets up and runs back to security to swap with another guy who looks equally confused. LOL. We RAN to the gate - turns out it's late anyway. Whew!

The flight to Orlando from Seattle was LONG and I could NOT sleep no matter what, which was rotten since we were on the red eye. I tried Benadryl, I tried motion sickness pills, counting sheep, everything - no dice. I think I might have dozed for a few minutes of a time but not good sleep at all. Jason snored the whole way (grrrr). We got to Orlando and LORD IT'S HOT! LOL. We waited forever for our luggage - the last luggage out, of course. Had to go find the shuttle guy to tell him we had to wait, no problem. Finally got the luggage and took the shuttle to Cocoa Beach. Had a great driver who pointed all sorts of stuff out on the way. Got our first glimpse of the ships - WOW!! We got to our hotel fairly early and of course, the room is not ready. BTW, we stayed at Fawlty Towers, which I would definitely recommend. Better priced and just as close to the ocean as the other big name hotels. We changed and they locked up our luggage for us until our room was ready. Wandered around town, the beach, ooohed and ahhed at the ocean, and of course hit the Pier for a pina colada! :) Finally got into our room - nothing special, just a nice room, but they have a great pool there and a neat tiki bar right next to the pool. We just hung out at the ocean, went to Ron Jon's, etc. for the rest of the day. Hit a FABULOUS restaurant that night - Sunset - right on the water. Watched dolphins play right next to us. Too cool. But it's so DANG hot! LOL.

Next morning we packed our stuff back up and caught another shuttle to Cape Canaveral. I couldn't believe the Fantasy when I saw it - I mean I know it was big, but GEEZ it was big! :) The Disney Wonder and one of the Royal Carribbean ships were there too (I'm blocking which one right now...argh!). We got through check in pretty fast and waited oh, til about 11:45 or so when they let us on. Did the embarkation picture - with Jason saying why? what are we doing? huh? - just smile! LOL. Found our room quickly (Empress deck, just off to the right). I was pleased with the size, I had actually thought it would be smaller. Dumped our luggage and ran around the ship - too much fun. :) Got our first souvenir drinks, called the jealous relatives, got more pictures taken, took a look at the casino (but of course! LOL), etc. Had lunch, pretty good. Did the muster station deal (with Jason saying "this ship can't sink!"), and finally we took off. We started watching from the very back but as we turned around we moved to the front. Everybody on the ship was completely silent, just kind of in awe, I think. We were standing next to some people who were thinking the same thing we were - hey, where's the confetti?? The people yelling bon voyage! LOL what about the Love Boat?! :D We passed several waterside bars and other boats where the people all yelled and waved to us, so we did back. Jason, of course, being the clown he is, had to yell "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!!" Ah hem. Yeah. He's mine.

We then went back and unpacked, and spent the rest of the day just clowning around, going from one place to the next. I got one of those spray-on tattoos - which was gone by the day, grrr - Hit the shopping talk and the shore excursions talk. Our cruise director, Matt, was hysterical, and the shopping diva looked and sounded exactly like my neice. Odd. Went to the spa tour, tried to win things, etc. You know the drill. Our first dinner that night was great. Everyone at the table was very nice but quite a bit older than us. We did find things to talk about though. We hit Cleopatra's - fabulous fabulous piano bar - and the disco that night. And of course the casino! Can't miss the casino. On to day 2...Freeport!

~Holly