Saturday, September 20, 2008
It is a beautiful day in Port Canaveral, FL. We woke up this morning and we could actually see our ship from our hotel room. We are so excited. We are about to check out of our hotel and take the shuttle up the street to the ship. It is wonderful that the Sheraton has a free hotel shuttle to the ship check in.
We are sailing on Royal Caribbean and I have to say that everything was so organized and moved extremely smoothly as we checked in. The long was line, but it moved quickly and in an orderly fasion. I am a very organized person and I love organization. Check us out after we went through checking in and as we are about to step onto the ship for 7 days of non-stop fun. That’s me on the end with the stripped dress, I am the middle child.
Our first day on the ship, after safety training, we went straight to the pool area where there was the biggest pool party. There was music and line dancing. I participated. I got out there and did every popular line dancing with a group full of strangers. All anyone cared about was having a good time. I think I danced forever, non-stop. Our first day on the ship, we walked around and looked at everything. We also decided to walk on every floor on the ship–all 14 floors! There was everything from shopping stores, a gym, a day spa, restaurants, night clubs, you name it it was on the ship.
Our second day on the ship and we are still sailing away! Today, we relaxed by the pool side, took a few more pictures and took in some activities like TV Show Trivia. The host of all trivia on the ship, his name is Simeon. He is a site to see. He is hilarious, live, and animated. We loved him! Tonight was one of two formal dinners on the ship. We dressed up, went to a cocktail party before dinner to meet the Captain and then we hit the formal dinner where we feasted on Escargo (for the first time), Talpia, Steak, Bread, Dessert and outstanding service. After dinner, we hit the night club, Dragon’s Lair. That was the happening spot! The music was banging and everybody in the club was shaking what their mama gave them. We danced the night away.Today, we arrived in Labadee, Haiti, a private island that is owned by Royal Caribbean. We had planned on zip-lining today, but it rained and the winds were to strong for us to do so. We were pretty excited about our activities, but it was cancelled, so we had to make do with the time on the island. So, we decided to relax on the beach. My sisters, relaxed on the beach, I decided to enjoy the water.
I did however, get my sisters to get in the water…well a little bit….they didn’t want to get their hair wet.
<>>After a night of sailing, we woke up this morning in Ocho Rio, Jamaica! We did not stay on the ship, we decided to get off the ship and experience Jamaica. We experience Jamaica a little too much because we missed our shuttle bus to our activity. We read our instructions incorrectly and we were totally on a different time zone (in our minds) than they were in Jamaica. When we got off the ship, we decided to walk around the streets of Jamaica, which we were bombarded by the locals begging us to let them take us somewhere in their taxi. Apparently the taxi business is the number one source of income because they were really aggressive. But, we had a good time walking around, doing a little shopping, and experiencing some culture. After that, we checked our time and realized that it was time to go to the shuttle bus service and catch our bus to the beach. We purchased a beach package that included all water activities, all the food and drinks that you could take in. But when we got to the shuttle, the shuttle had left an hour ago. We read our information wrong and were devastated. But the locals worked with us, and after heavy negotiations, they decided to take us to the beach by cab for $50. I talked them down from $100. We got to our destination and we drank so much Rum Punch and ate so much Jerk Chicken that our mouths were on fire, that’s why we had to keep drinking the Rum Punch (smile). While in Jamaica, I kayaked, snorkeled, and went sailing. Again, my sisters chilled on the beach beause of their hair. Well, I did get my little sister on the sail boat. We enjoyed our day in Jamaica, we were on-time for the shuttle bus back to the ship and got back on the ship.