Day #1 - Bon Voyage

The first day of a cruise is always so exciting.  There is a lot of traveling to get to the pier, which is boring and no fun, long, long, LONG lines to stand in to get your room key, security to go through, luggage to check, and paperwork to fill out.  But, no one minds and most don't remember that.  You can see the ship from where you are standing and can't wait to get on!  After driving 4 hours (should have been 3, but NY traffic was no fun), I saw my first sign:


Then we rounded the corner and saw the ship!!  Isn't she pretty?


We went on the Explorer of the Seas.  It's a Royal Caribbean ship.  It holds 3600 passengers and about 1500 crew members.  It's HUGE and was very full.  Now you see why it takes so long to stand in line for security and check in.  It takes a while to get 3600 people on a ship!


It was raining, and almost chilly.  But, I was so excited to be on a ship again, I didn't care.  See how excited we look?  You can't even tell who feels sick, who is in pain, who is so tired, and who feels good.  We're all too excited!


(For those of you who are wondering, these are Steve and Maureen, our dear friends.  We play bridge with them every Sunday night and have gone on 4 cruises together.  They're my friend Lara's parents.)

I took this picture of the Statue of Liberty for little Hannah, who was so excited for me that I got to see it.  She said she was studying it in school and I told her I would take a picture of it just for her.  So, here's the picture of our view from the ship when we were docked.  I love you Hannah!


It was time to explore the ship after that.  I love this part.  I am familiar with the way things are usually laid out, and we get to see all the beautiful details around the ship.  It was magnificent - honestly the most beautiful of the 5 I've been on.  I'll post more pictures of the ship later, but I do have to share this.  The 11th deck had a peek-a-boo window.  We said, what's this?  Any guesses?


It's a view down into the bridge!  So cool!  We got to watch the captain and his crew pilot the ship.  So, so awesome.  While Michael's new bass boat is spectacular, it has no where near the instruments this ship had.  Michael explained them to us, which was fun.  Here they are doing what they do best:

 

As we waved goodbye to our car in the parking lot,


And saw pretty lighthouses in the water and sailed under bridges to leave the city,


We looked out ahead of us and were so excited to start cruise #5!  Thank you Lord for Your many blessings!

Comments

Anonymous said…
We're going on our second in March!!! Can't wait! And we're taking the kids this time!!!! You mentioned sea sickness....do you guys ever get the little patches that you wear behind your ear? They were awesome and we never got sick. Just change them every three days.
Elisabeth said…
I can't wait to show Hannah the statute of liberty picture! She will love it. And I didn't realize this couple was Lara's parents. I hear you talk about both often but didn't know they were connected! I'm officially convinced it is time for Brad and I to start saving for a cruise!!
jessicaday said…
Yes, Stephanie, I've done the patch thing. It actually has a bit too much medicine in them. (I overdosed on my first cruise - dialated pupils and nausea!) And usually only day #1 and #2 make me sick. By day #3, I have my sea legs. :-)
Elisabeth, you guys would love it!
Elisabeth said…
I showed Hannah the picture. She was so excited that you would take that picture and put it on here just for her! =) She said it's like you guys are best friends!
Kattrina said…
So glad you had a good time! One day I'd love to go on a cruise but it would take some convincing on Ivan's part because he hates boats. We'll see!