2010 Caribbean Cruise Recap ~ Part 1

Here we go. The much anticipated Caribbean Cruise Vacation Recap is finally underway!

Day 1

I had to work on Saturday morning, so The One and I packed up the car and headed out around 3:00 on Saturday, January 2. We made the long drive to Indy, where we would be flying out of the following morning.

The One's family had given us a gift certificate to The Cheesecake Factory for Christmas, so on our way to the hotel we decided to stop there for dinner. Their food is amazing, not to mention their cheesecake (Sorry for the dark crappy pic. I really wish the iPhone camera had a flash!) ...



If you've never been, you need to go!

After dinner, we headed to the hotel to get checked in. By then it was about 8:00 or so. The One and I both spent some time on our iPhones doing some last minute e-mailing, etc, before we lost touch with the online world the next day. We crashed pretty early since we had to catch a shuttle to the airport at 5:45 AM.

Day 2

We woke up bright and early and headed off to the airport. We didn't have the smoothest of travels, and ended up sprinting through the Atlanta airport to catch our connecting flight. But, luckily we eventually made it to Tampa safe and sound, with all of our luggage in tow. We caught a cab to the docks, and boarded the ship.

After checking out our room, we headed straight to the Lido deck for a late lunch. The amount of food we consumed while on vacation was insane, but it was all soo good! After eating we had to participate in the oh so fun safety drill. It was the first one I've ever been through where we didn't have to wear our life jackets, and they didn't keep the horns blaring the entire time. Compared to years past, it wasn't too bad and was over very quickly.

The ship set sail at 4:00, and the first thing we did was spend some time wandering around the ship checking it out. We were sailing on the Carnival Legend, and it was a gorgeous ship with a lot of very neat places on board, many of which I never got back to after that first day. One of the areas we were sure to check out on our tour was the chapel on board. We won't be getting married on the Legend, but I figured the chapel will be fairly similar on the ship we are getting married on. So, I wanted to see what it looked like. It was very pretty with gorgeous wooden pews and a lot of stained glass in it.

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for dinner. One of my favorite parts of cruising is getting all dressed up for dinner. I suppose maybe I fancy myself back in the time of the Titanic (without the ship sinking, of course!), when people used to dress for meals.

Here we are before dinner...



If you've ever been on a cruise before, you know that the cabin stewards are always making towel animals for the guests. We had one every day, and we took our pictures with each one of them. Here I am with our animal of the first night, which we both thought was a snail. Let me know if you think it's supposed to be something else! (There are some of them that we aren't exactly sure what they are supposed to be.)...





We spent the remainder of the night attending the evening show and checking out the dance/music clubs on board. When we had finally exhausted all the options and everything was dying down for the night, we decided to head to bed.

Day 3

The first full day we spent on the boat was a day at sea. I have to admit that I tend to find days at sea rather boring. I'm not a big gambler, so the casino doesn't hold a lot of appeal. I have a hard time swallowing the idea of spending two or three times what I would spend at home on spa services, so I'm not one to indulge in spa treatments. I'm also not a sun worshiper, considering that I've already had skin cancer, so I'm not one for spending the entire day laying by the pool soaking up the rays, either. I usually find myself a nice place in the shade on the deck and read. However, our weather really wasn't all that great and it was too cold and windy to be comfortable sitting out on the deck.

So, The One and I played a little bingo. (We didn't win!)...



Wandered around the ship a bit and took a few pictures...



We had a few drinks and sat and talked in one of the lounge areas for quite a while, and had a nice long nap before dinner.

Since it was a day at sea, it was our first "Elegant Night" (They used to call it Formal Night, but apparently changed the name since the last cruise I was on.) So, we got all glammed up in our finest, and headed off to the dining room.

Here is a picture of The One...



And me...



And both of us...



After dinner we took a few more pictures around the ship, while we were waiting for the show to start...





We also had several photographs taken by the ship photographers, and we ended up purchasing a few of them. I scanned them in so I could share them with you, but they look much better IRL! It's crazy how different the color of my dress looks, but it is the same red one from the above pictures...









And of course, the picture with the towel animal. We're thinking, rabbit. Anyone else have another idea?





That concludes Part 1 of my recap. Stay tuned for Part 2!