I want to start out by saying that I get disappointed quickly w/things if they don't go almost perfect. I'm pretty OCD and have to have things "so-so" and want things to go in a very organized manner, everything to be clean, anyway you get the picture...

So let's start off w/day 1, my family of 4 sailed on FOS, out of Port Canaveral, FL. We stayed at Cocoa Beach at the Four Points hotel the night prior to sailing. Since we had driven down it was my intention to park at the port parking, at what I had been told was around $15 a day. While checking in at the Four Points in Cocoa Beach on that Saturday night I noticed that they offered transportation to and from the port and parking at $6 a day. So I thought hey what a bargain, so we did that in lieu of parking at the port. I'm so glad that we made that decision. The guys that transported us to the port were wonderful, we were dropped off right at the luggage area (so no carrying the heavy luggage far)and they were prompt and there exactly at the time they said they would be on the day of sailing (leaving from the hotel) and the day of departure from the ship!

So enough about getting to the port, let's talk about checking in and getting on the ship. It went great, RCI was very organized! We got there around 1pm. The initial line, showing our passports and going through the x-ray machines w/our luggage was very quick and smooth. All of the personnel was very friendly, even trying to make jokes w/our girls. Once we were in, then the registration began w/RCI to give us our room cards, take our pictures, etc. Again, this process ran very smoothly and I can't complain about any of it. We were in our room, I'm guessing here, but I'd say not later than 2pm and we arrived at the port at 1:00. So w/in an hour of arriving we checked in at the customs area, had our bags checked, then headed to RCI check in, made a few pictures on the ship, then got the armbands for our 10 year old (if you are younger than a teenager you wear an armband the entire time for your age group), then headed to see if our room was ready and it was! Our stateroom attendant was already there in the hallway, introducing herself, Georgianna (she was great!). Our bags were not there, so after we snapped a few pictures we headed up and started checking out the ship. We explored around for about 1.5 hours, checking things out, had some great eats in the Windjammer, took pictures and got drinks at the Olive and Twist. Headed back to our room and our bags were there. We set sail from Port Canaveral promptly at 4:30pm. It was very windy and chilly and I will say the 1st 2 nights the ship was really moving. I took Dramamine for the motion sickness. I wasn't the only one, my husband and our 10 year old were both feeling the effects of the motion as well. But all was good w/the OTC meds and we had a blast. In addition to that our head waiter (Imade, whom I also LOVED!) suggested that I eat a green apple for the sickness. Read more