April 30th - Day at Sea

On our first full day at sea, we took it easy, slept in a bit. We ate at the Mermaid's Grill for a late breakfast. Afterwards, the kids wanted to do some exploring on their own. They were to meet up with us at the cabin at a certain time. Chad and I took that opportunity to explore, play cards and just laze around. I was a wee bit worried about the kids since it was still new to us, but at least they had their walkie talkies, right? Wrong! They were left in the cabin. Chad and I went back to the cabin to meet them at the allotted time and they weren't there. We waited and waited and finally split up. It took us over an hour of searching before they finally appeared, I was in tears. I finally had told Chad to take off and I would hang around near the cabin. WE had our walkie talkies to at least communicate with each other. The kids insisted they had come back to the cabin a bit earlier than they were supposed to, but instead of waiting they left to find us and then it became a hit and miss adventure. Ugh.

We then rushed off to the kids lounge to "Build a Bear". Micki chose a calico kitty she named Love Ball. She picked out a cute girl sailor outfit for the kitty. I was bummed because I had forgotten my camera so didn't get pics.

Later, we went to the matinee comedy show. It turns out that this was the same comedian who was on our cruise aboard the Ecstasy in 2002. He had a lot of the same jokes, same opening routine, etc.

After the show, we had to hurry back to the cabin so the kids could get dressed in their formal outfits. Micki's group had a "cocktail party" at 4:45 and then Derek had one at the disco lounge for his group. Micki had fun with her group, Derek not so much, just a couple of girls showed up and then later right before he left a few boys showed up to check it out. Chad and I had gotten dressed up and we went to the adult's cocktail party. It was pretty fun, we had cocktails and then later dancing up on stage. After we collected the kids, we headed towards the dining room. Derek and I had lobster for dinner, it was pretty good. It would have been nicer had it not been for the screeching kid next to us. After dinner we left and had a few family portraits taken.

The Main show that night was called Wonderful World. It featured music, songs and dances from around the world. Very fun, I think we enjoyed the show more this night than even the night before. At midnight Chad and I went to the Adult comedy show, same guy but R rated with language and content definitely not appropriate for kids. Probably not appropriate for me
either.




Here is the family portrait we chose from formal night.

















I love this one of the kids. It has been a long time since we've had a professional pic of the two of them.















Our head waiter is the one on the left and the waiter is on the right.












Just goofing around with the camera.

April 29th, embarkment day continued....

We made it to our ship and got settled in our cabin. It was an inside (we're cheap) but was fairly roomy for a cabin since it was a quad. We ate a late lunch at the Mermaid's Grill and then hurried to our cabin to get our life vests. We did the muster drill and then the ship started off, right on time at 4:30. Much of this first night was spent exploring the ship, visiting the shops, going to the Camp Carnival orientation and dinner. We had the late seating for dinner at 8:15 in the Normandie dining room. Our head waiter's name was Benny. The 10:00 show in the Taj Mahal was called the Welcome Aboard show. It was fun and lively. Our cruise director was Jeff Bronson, he was very funny and personable. He joked about how he was from Seattle and one of 5 American crew members.

This ship was a bit startling, especially for those with kids. It has a naked theme throughout the ship. At the top of the glass elevators in the middle of the atrium (I don't know what it's really called) is a huge statue of David naked of course. All the elevators had naked pictures on them, a lot of the walls had huge naked murals, even the Mermaids grill had naked mermaids above our heads, really the ENTIRE ship did. I guess it's supposed to be artsy fartsy. The kids were mortified, especially Micki. Eventually we did all get used to it.

Chad and the kids during our muster drill












I had to get a pic of me in there too. Derek looks kind of freaked out.














Here is Chad and the kids watching as the boat is pulling out of the harbor












Lies, lies, lies! It's all lies! Nope. The kids are NOT like this IRL. It was a pose they did strictly for the camera. Ha ha. We only WISH they could be this sweet and loving towards each other.








All right, here's one of me.














Me and the kids this time. It was really windy so I held my hair back while Chad took a pic.











Here's a pic Chad took of the side of the ship.

Sunday April 29th

Wow. So it is here. The day we set sail. We got up at our leisure as the shuttle wasn't picking us up until noon. They were a little late as they had two other couples they picked up first. The new cruise terminal is in the old Spruce Goose building right next to the Queen Mary, both of which we've been to in the past. It is a much better set up and area than last time we went. It was a bit confusing at first as to where the bags go and all that, but we hurried up and made it to the line so we could wait. That was our motto: "Let's hurry up and wait". :)














Here's Derek waiting at the hotel for our ride to pick us up.
























Again, waiting for our ride at the hotel.














And here I am adjusting the sunglasses I bought in the gift shop. My brand new ones broke.
























The cruise ship up close



























The Carnival Pride

The end to our day Saturday April 28th

We made it through the LAX airport and into the baggage claim area where we retrieved our bags. This is my first time flying into LAX and yuk! It is a very dirty and chaotic airport. We went outside and waited on the center island for our shuttle to come along and take us to the Westin hotel. It's a very busy area and the drivers are nuts! We had 5 bags, chad had 2 and the rest of us 1. The shuttle eventually came and we were the first ones on and then it wound up full. We were the only ones dropped off at our hotel and when it we started retrieving our bags, 1 was missing! We looked and looked, people were waiting to be shuttled on to their hotels, the driver was going through everyone's stuff, no luggage. It was one Chad had been in charge of. He said "I told you to look and see if we got everything". (insert eye roll here) He stayed in the van to be returned to the airport after everyone was dropped off. I went inside and checked in. I turned my cell on, called Chad to see if he made it, he hadn't yet but wanted me to call baggage claim and see if anyone turned the suitcase in. I was looking up the # in the phone book when I got a call, it was Alaskan Airline baggage claim. Someone HAD found and turned in my suitcase. Thank goodness I had my cell # on the label. Chad arrived just as she hung up from me. Whew!!!!! We were thinking it was NOT a good start to the trip. He did admit when he got back that it was his fault and no one else's. Let me tell you, we had hawk eyes on our belongings for the rest of the trip.

April 28th continued

We made it to L.A. earlier than scheduled, but had to wait about a half hour due to backed up plane traffic ahead of us, so we got to circle and circle around and around. Here's the beautiful Los Angeles, smog and all.

Here is a pic of the hills around L.A. area.















I don't know why, but when the landing gear came down I decided to snap pics of them until we reached the ground. Hey, it makes the ride less boring.

Saturday April 28th

Wa-hoo! Saturday came, the day we were leaving for L.A. Like always before vacation, I barely got any sleep the night before, kept finding more stuff to do. Saturday morning Chad took Derek to a double header game. He was already missing 2 games while we were gone and since our flight didn't leave until 5 pm he had time. In the meantime, Micki and I kept busy cleaning house and running last minute errands like take dog to kennel, stop by LL fields where Derek was playing, etc.

My girls had a softball game at 3:00 which we would miss since we had to be to the airport between 3 and 4, I left the team in my coach's capable hands and got some parents to agree to volunteer helping while I was gone. We had a bye week so I didn't have to worry about missing any more games while we were gone. At 9:00 AM I got a panicky phone call from the coach of the other team, she had thought the game was at 9:00 (we'd had a few schedule changes). I went through an hour of phone calls from her, Chad (who was at Derek's game there), the LL president (who is Derek's coach), etc. I could hear her parents yelling obscenities at her, come on people, we all make mistakes! Anyway, she got enough parents agree to come back for the game, I was so glad to miss all the fireworks, I guess there was plenty. Whew!

Chad and Derek got home from the game around 3:15 and all was packed and waiting by the door when they came in. My boss picked us up and took us to the airport around 3:45 (it's only about a mile away). There were no problems, our flight left on time, nice weather and they even served complimentary beer and wine to the adults - yippee!

Here is a picture of my neighborhood right after take-off.














I love this random pic I got of Derek watching the landscape outside the plane.













Here's my goofy girl. So much for trying to sneak a pic of her.
















I love this picture of the clouds. It was such a beautiful evening, we had a lot of good shots.















Here is one of the many neat pics we got of Mount Shasta. For those who don't know, Mt. Shasta is in Northern California.

Trip Report!

I just got back from my vacation and have decided to post a vacation blog. I'll give a trip report for each day and post some pics too. This will be a fun and easy way to share our fun with everyone and will be nice to have when it comes time for scrapping the pics!