Sunday, July 5th: Spent Saturday night at Embassy Suites by the airport. It was great to stay there. Had a nightmare with Budget rental cars. Didn't have the right size car, took forever, etc. All 8 of us and our luggage were in a minivan and a small Chevy. We survived.  We drove on Sunday out to Port Canaveral.  Make sure to have receipt for gas when returning. Lady there screamed at us and shuttle driver was cranky. Loved the sign in the canal - Warning: Stay away from Alligator. That is an invitation for boys to go alligator hunting!

Embarkation was easy - maybe 20 minutes total at 1:00. Rooms were ready when we got on ship. We had to shift one room's  dining time. We had three balconies and an inside room that was booked later. We wandered around the ship, met Edna our steward. She was great. We had all our luggage by 6 pm and she opened up the partitions between our three balcony rooms.  Note: don't pack diet Cokes in a bag that gets thrown around. Had to dry clean some of my daughter's clothes. After touring ship, we dressed for dinner. We went to the Welcome Aboard show. There were a pair of amazing dance/acrobats and a funny comedian from Pasadena - Don Friesen. We want to go back and see him again. The cruise director Richard informed us of other stuff happening throughout the week. Went to 8:30 dinner. Had a beautiful table in a balcony overlooking restaurant. Alicia was our waitress and Juan her assistant. Both were delightful. Had prime rib and two desserts - one a meringue with strawberries! Then they brought me cake and sang to me for my birthday. Three of our party went to Portofino's for the Mystery dinner show. They said the food was awesome but the show was lame. We watched the Parade at 11 from the interior  window overlooking the promenade. That was fun. We then wandered around more, checking out night clubs. In bed around 12:30 am.

Monday, July 6th - At Sea Read more