cruising into 2013

After Chicago I left 2 days later for a cruise with Sheri, Larry, Katie, and Derrick. I had never been on a cruise and I was so excited! I was also super excited to get out of the cold and wear my bathing suit for a week. (I know, you're already jealous reading this...unless you live in Texas and are currently wearing shorts like me.) Sheri and I drove from Houston to New Orleans where we met the rest of our group. Now I know these ships are huge, but I don't think I ever really realized how big they were! When we first stepped onto the ship a lady came up to Larry, Sheri and I, and she handed Larry a pamphlet and said "Here's more information about our Camp Carnival." She looked at Sheri and walked off. I about peed my pants I was laughing so hard. That lady thought Sheri was our kid! Amazing.

After that amazingness we started walking around to see what we could before Katie and Derrick got there. It's like an entire city inside that ship! There were bars, stages for different shows, a casino, candy store, shops, restaurants, pools, putt putt, you name it, it was there! We headed down for some food when Katie and Derrick showed up. It was perfect timing because people were walking around with trays of champagne for a bon voyage toast.

See ya New Orleans!

That night we had our first dinner in our dining room. We were stuck in the very back at a table with what turned out to be a very annoying group. Our service was terrible and slow. We got our first course when most people were already getting their dessert. The one good thing that came out of sitting there was there was a girl at our table that had food allergies and talked to the hostess about her allergies so I did the same thing. (I hadn't realized that was something I could do.) The hostess came by every night to show me the next nights menu so I could choose what I wanted, and the chefs would make it without gluten or dairy. Anyways, dinner was great, although slow.

After dinner we went and saw a Motown production in one of the theaters. It was corny as hell! The singers weren't that good either. I bet I could have done a better job. Needless to say, we didn't see any of the other musicals on the trip. 

The best part about going back to our room after dinner was seeing the towel animals Clemente would make us. Yes, I know the name of the guy who cleaned our room. It was crazy, that first night EVERYONE was introducing themselves, and after that night they called each of us by our name whenever they saw us. It was really crazy. 

The next two days were days at sea, so we got to check out a lot of stuff. We ate a lot and hit the top deck after breakfast where we stayed most of the day just laying out and relaxing. It was pretty incredible. I also tried running at one point and the track they had was redonk. You had to do 10 laps for a mile! I still tried, but I felt drunk running because I was running from side to side with the rocking of the boat. That day was New Years Eve day so after hanging out on the top deck all day, we napped and then met in our room for a champagne toast before getting ready for our first formal dinner night.

We played a lot of cards during our down time.

New Years Eve night in (mostly) pictures:

Sadly Katie got sick soon after this picture and missed the rest of the night with us. We even tried bringing her lobster and creme brulee to make her feel better. That didn't work.

 Super classy ice bucket.

I apologize for what you're about to see, but it still makes me laugh. After dinner we went to the top deck where there was a DJ and a party. It was a lot of fun, but we had trouble when we first got up there when we tried to open the champagne. I was crying I was laughing so hard!

Derrick got it!...Kind of...

You would think that being in the middle of the ocean they would shoot real fireworks off the end of the boat. Nope. We got a video on the giant tv of fireworks.

Word.

Let's stop there because what comes next is a little nuts. Let me leave you with this teaser, there is falling, passing out, and a trip to the scary bottom level to visit the infirmary.