Valeria Out Loud

Hey WordPressland!  

Happy Friday and Happy April Fool’s Day!!  

Unforch, I am working today…though working from home! 🙂  

Still can’t believe this trip is overz, but I am loving all that I am reliving through these diary posts.  Man, I miss everything about this trip, I am surprising myself.  

So, day 2, we woke up to sunny skies that quickly turned grey and rainy.  The weather was seriously cuckoo, it rained hard one minute then the sun was shining brighter than bright the next.  So in between the rain falling, and through a sea of people walking in a big AIDS walk, we ran to Starbucks on the strip for a coffee and a noche; looking at the waves of Fort Lauderdale’s beach. Ahh Beach life, man.  Why do I live in Boston again?

After we got our fill of the waves, we trotted back through the drops to our hotel to grab a taxi to the Everglades port to get on our cruise!  I was so nervous, excited, nervous, anxious, nervous..did I say nervous?  One of my worries, you see, is that I suffer from mild vertigo sometimes.  It’s not a big deal, but once every two years or so, I get the spins that last a few seconds.  My father has it too, and I am thinking it’s probably a genetic disorder that only the awesomest of the awesome get.  Ahem.  So, anyway, I already don’t go on super spinning rides at amusement parks because I fear aggravating it, so my thoughts were at a constant worry of ‘what if i get vertigo or worse from the cruise?’.  I researched a lot on this topic, and found so many drug options and people who have the same condition.  I bought them all before our cruise to be safe.  (Luckily, I needed nothing throughout and am just a worry wart!!) 

We had never been on a cruise ship before, and even with all the research, talking to friends and watching youtube videos, I still wasn’t entirely sure what I would feel or experience. So I was pushing my butterflies down through this whole morning.  

Pouting with nerves

View of ship from traffic

 

TILL I GOT ON THE BOAT. HOLY AWESOME!

We cruised on the Regal Princess, which is the Love Boat. This cruise was headed to the Western Caribbean for 7 days- Princess Cays, Grand Cayman, Mahahual and Cozumel, Mexico.
What a spectacular place; from the moment we walked onto the boat it was just beautiful and all my fears were squashed.

First there is the group photo at the entrance after you check in at the gate..here’s the one I snagged of me with my family.

As you enter, you are greeted by staff directing you where you need to go from the fourth floor elevator embankment.  It’s beautiful.  All shiny, with the nicest details..like a luxury hotel.  As we went up to our rooms, the glass elevators had the snappiest travel sayings that I loved reading every day. For example… 

 

We were in room M511 (Marina deck aka 15Fl; room 511).    It was way more spacious than I figured.  If you look in the first room photo, you will see that my daughter is sitting on the convertible couch, then above her is the drop down murphy bed, which when laid out at the same time, acts as a bunk bed.  Then there was a giant closet across from the bathroom.  The bathroom was small, but it worked out well for us.  

M511/ 15 511 Regal Princess Cruise Ship room

Had lots of storage!

Enjoying the deck

 

As soon as we settled in, we jetted off for a bite to eat on the 16th floor buffet since our luggage was not dropped to our room yet. There were so many people there…like our buddies!  The food choices were real good surprisingly.  They had everything and anything you could think of, switched out every twenty minutes or so. 

We enjoyed a quick lunch together, before going off to explore some of the boat and performing the mandatory Muster Station/emergency walk through.  Soon after that we sped up to our rooms to unpack. Then the cruise ship departed port and we watched the ocean as it made it through the channel. What a beautiful sight! We even saw some dolphins along the ship after a few minutes. IT WAS SO SURREAL!!!!

We then got dolled up for my friend’s big fortieth birthday dinner at Sabatini’s.  This restaurant was not part of the price of the cruise, it was an additional service price of $25 per adult and $15 per child.  The food and atmosphere were beautiful.  So tasty.  We started off dinner at 6:45PM and finished at 11PM!  We sat talking the whole time, enjoying the kids laughter and each other’s company.

It was a perfect way to kick off our first night on board!

This was day 2!  So far so good!  🙂

xoxoxoxo