5 Year Anniversary Cruise: Florida + Day 1 at Sea

We had been hoping to help with the hurricane cleanup April's ward was doing on Sunday morning. We would have just gone to sacrament meeting and then been shuttled up to help. We decided since we were standby that we better not risk it and leave a day early to make sure we made it to Florida in time for the cruise. It's a good thing we did because it took us three flights to get there! Jack made the first one, Tyson and I made the second one, and April came on the last one.

Killing some time in the airport in Florida waiting for April. It was so nice to finally be in warm weather though!

When we all made it to Florida we took a shuttle and had to go to a loooong and booooring timeshare presentation at the resort. Even though it was completely miserable to our sleep deprived and hungry bodies, it was worth it to get an inexpensive hotel and ride to the cruise terminal the next day. We didn't have any food with us so after checking into the hotel we walked down the street to Taco Bell for dinner. Then we headed back to the hotel and completely crashed! I'm pretty sure we slept a solid twelve hours without moving a muscle!!
The next morning we woke up and walked down to the beach. It was so so nice to be in shorts and t-shirts when a few hours earlier we had been freezing our buns off even with sweaters, coats, scarves, and beanies!

Tyson had something in his eye haha!

We were brave enough to put our feet in the water but only for a few seconds. It was still plenty cold!

A nice lady saw us trying to aim our self shots right and offered to take our picture. Then she talked to us for so long about how hard it is to aim right. It was funny...and kind awkward haha.

When it was finally time for us to leave we headed down to the lobby to wait for our shuttle. Once again we were like kids waiting for Christmas morning. We were SO close and SO excited!!

Checking our bags and catching the first glimpse of our huge ship (even though it was actually one of the smaller Carnival ones).

Everytime we felt like we were about to get on the ship there were more steps to go through. At least they had fun signs like this to keep us anxious and excited. After checking our bags we had to wait in line to show our passports and documents, then we had to wait in line to get our picture taken, then we had to wait in line to scan our cruise cards, the n we had to wait in line to go up the tunnel to the ship, THEN we made it on the ship! :)

More little peeks at the ship as we walked up the gangway tunnel.

Once we were on the ship we found our room and decided to explore while we waited for our luggage to arrive. We bumped into Jack and April a few times but mostly just wandered until we met up for lunch.

Inside the main lobby before starting our self guided tour.

I'm pretty sure this was last group picture we got all week. You'd think being on a ship in the middle of the ocean we'd have seen each other more often but we rarely did all week!

The fun little water park on the top deck of the ship. This was one of the reasons we picked the ship we did. Sadly, the day that was spent entirely at sea was too windy for this level to be open. We still found time on a different day to go down those chilly slides though! The black park on the far side of the slide hung out over the water. In the slide we couldn't see out, but it was fun to know that the black part was where we were kind of off the ship.

The lifeboats were HUGE! The picture really does not do them justice. I had no clue they were so gigantic!

The top deck looking down on the Lido deck where the pool, buffet, and activities were. We loved the fake palm trees everywhere. :)

Leaving Florida!

People were lined up on the dock to wave as the cruise ships took off. It made me laugh. I guess if you have nothing else to do on a Monday afternoon...

Of course we had to get a couple pictures of the famous whale tale on the ship.

The main dining room where we ate dinner every night. We could wait a little longer to sit at a table by ourselves or get in faster with a group of strangers. We sat by strangers on two of the nights which was fun but we mostly loved getting to have time to ourselves while we ate. Plus it was way faster service since we could eat and get served at our own pace.

The food was so fancy. Even just a simple fruit plate had decorations.

This cake was so to-die-for delicious! We definitely ate like pigs all week but also tried not to waste tons by just trying a bite of everything on the menu. We always got something different from each other so we could share and taste more things though.

Our first cute little towel animal. It was one of the highlights of each day to come back to our room to see what animal our steward had created for us.

Behind the snail is the "FUN TIMES" newsletter that was on our bed each night with mints. It always had a list of activities and a detachable schedule for the next day which was very helpful so we could plan which shows and activities to go to.