Hi everyone!! I did not take notes while on my cruise, I forgot to take some paper!! Anyhow, I wouldn't have had too much time to write!! This will be fairly brief and probably all in one post!
edited: i don't think it'll be all in one post 
Friday Jan 21, 2005
We left my house at 3pm to drive to my uncle's house in Indianapolis. Had a wonderful time visiting with them and I tried something new at dinner: meatloaf made from venison! YUM!!
We went to bed at 9:30pm to see if we could sleep because of excitement!!
Saturday Jan 22, 2005. Gran's 80th birthday!!
We both woke very early, about 4am(an hour before the alarm!!) Guess we were really excited!!
The weather was supposed to be really snowing after midnight, but it had only sleeted a bit. The car was covered with ice, but the roads were fine. We left his house at around 6:30am and made good time. We checked in at the airport, had a smoke then went to get breakfast. Both Grandma and I were so excited and she's just a wonderful person--very appreciative of everything.
Finally the plane arrives and we can start boarding(the plane was only a couple minutes late, but when you're excited, it seems like forever!).
The flight to Ft. Lauderdale was uneventful and we touched down a little after 1pm. It was so great to see palm trees and the weather was really nice. We just wanted to get to the hotel(Best Western Marina Inn and Yacht Harbor)so that we could get in contact with the family that lives in Hollywood.
I was so excited because I hadn't seen my cousin for 6 years!! I was even more excited when I heard that my other cousin had just arrived that morning and would be joining us too!!
So I got the best of both worlds there!!
My cousin's mother and step father took us(8 of us!)to dinner. We cannot remember the name of the restaurant, but the food was wonderful!! I tried conch fritters(yum), california roll(so-so), and alligator(no thank you). I was proud of myself that I would go on the rest of the week and keep trying new stuff!!
After a lovely dinner, we went back to their house so we could keep visiting. Finally arrived back at our hotel at 10pm. It had been a long day. And we were so excited about embarking on our cruise on Sunday!!! That's when the REAL fun begins!!
p.s. we saw the QM2 leave port!! She's a big ship!!
Sunday Jan.23, 2005
As soon as my feet hit the floor, I was outside ready to go! Okay, not quite that quickly, but well before our 11am check out time!! But I did go and get coffee and muffins.
Gran sure does like having her coffee as soon as her eyes are open. Little did I know that it would be expected of me to do that the rest of the week!
We checked out at 10am and went to the side of the hotel where the vans would be waiting to take us to the ship. Soon enough, right at 11am, our van was there to take us to the Jewel.
We finally got there(I'm laughing because the port was right 'next door', but you had to cross a bridge and sit thru traffic)about 15 minutes later and were just in awe of the size of the ship!
We leave our bags and head inside where we sit for about 45 minutes. OMG we were excited!! Finally time to get on board!! I know that my smile was really cheesy(for the photo for your pass). As we headed up the gangway(?)I turned on the camera. Immediately I could tell this would be a vacation of my lifetime. The first crew member I see onboard was a beautiful lady smiling and waving and welcoming us onboard!!
We boarded on deck 5. The ship has a lovely Centrum from deck 4 to deck 11.
Our first thing we wanted to do was head to the Windjammer buffet because our room wouldn't be ready until 1pm. So, up we went the glass elevator!!!
OMG I loved those elevators!! Up to the buffet we head and immediately saw the display of fruits, vegetables and ice!! WOW!! But I couldn't take my eyes off the windows!! Windows EVERYWHERE!! We sat on the side with the ocean, although all the window tables were taken. The buffet was very good and I had a cheeseburger, fries and some pasta salad. Didn't want to over do it on the food as we had the early seating for dinner(6pm).
After eating, we went outside and up a flight of stairs to the 12th deck and found the mini golf course, but we didn't look much there because we were gawking at the ocean and all the ships that were in port!! We decided to head to our stateroom.
Sidenote: Grandma cannot walk long periods and walks slow. Plus she gawks, so imagine me, trying to walk slow, talking to her only to turn around and she's not there because she stopped and was looking around!
We kept laughing about that all week!!
Finally into our room!!! But first we met our stateroom attendant, Hector!! Wonderful man!! You'll probably hear more about him later!!
So, the door is open and I allow grandma to go in first. Funny enough, she's looking straight towards the ocean!
Finally, she noticed that birthday decorations, cake and champagne!!! Happy Birthday I said!!!! There were a few tears at that time!!
We throw(okay, she placed, but I tossed)our carryon and purse down and headed to the balcony where we proceeded to gawk together!
After about an hour, I was ready to go exploring while she rested a bit. So, explore I did!! First purchase onboard was the soda package on deck 4 at the lobby bar(you'll be hearing about the lobby bar often
). OMG.......I fell in
with the bartender, Chico. He was the showman. Very polite, but more importantly, very good looking!!!!!
I was really glad that I purchased the soda package as it gave me a rather nice excuse to become a bar fly!!!
So, I head back to the stateroom to visit some more with the balcony. LOL. We had our drill and back to the room. The drill was easy enough and I think we all looked cute in our life jackets!
We were supposed to leave at 5pm but because of the storms in the midwest and northeast, they held the ship for a half hour. Didn't even know when we started moving because we were busy talking, but I finally noticed the skyline had changed!! Yay!! We're on our way!!!
It was time to get ready for dinner by then and find our way to the dining room. Goodness, it was a gorgeous place to be!! We were at a table for 10 and had wonderful table mates!! The couple next to us were from Indianapolis!! We have plans to meet up from now on!! Of course, I was the youngest at our table, but that didn't matter to the rest of them. We had excellent conversations all week!!
I cannot remember what we ate for the most part of the trip, but our servers were excellent!! Cosmin was our head waiter(the guy in the jacket), Alan was our waiter(loved how he pulled out the chair and placed the napkin!!) and Sara was our assistant. I especially loved how after the first night she knew that I drank iced tea with dinner and had a coffee afterward!!
Pleasantly full, we head back to the room where we sit on the balcony for a little while until time for the show. I loved our welcome aboard show. The Coral Theatre was a really beautiful place to be!!
When we returned, Hector had given us the turndown service, complete with chocolate mint on the pillows!!!
We knew we wanted to be rested up for our next day, so it was lights out shortly before 10pm. We slept with the balcony door open!!!
Next: Key West!
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