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January 15, 2006 - 11:59pm
"the cruise: day 1" or "welcome aboard"

Hey Journal!!

Wow... What a day! I got up at 4am and got myself ready to leave for the airport... and can you believe it....a week of abnormally warm weather, and the day we have to leave its SNOWING like a beast. Now, I'm all for leaving the crappy weather behind..but when it threatens your travel plans...that's just not cool.

Anyway, my mom and I got to the airport early, but Jessica's mother drove everyone else there.. and she was late. :P We had to wait on a long line to check our luggage, but we made it through..and dropped off our bags, and then raced to the terminal. We flew through security...so fast I was running to the terminal with my belt over my shoulder and one shoe half off. We made it to the terminal in plenty of time, but we made it to Group A by just 1 second. The people from the other groups were probably pissed, because we had A boarding passes, (since i checked in online the night before) and these people had B and C. They had been waiting in their groups for a while probably.. and then we just ran up and tailed on to the A group... and got on. :)

The plane took off 40 minutes late..but we made up the 40 minutes with no problem! We landed exactly on schedule. It was great. The flight was supposed to be 3 hours and 5 mins, but it was only 2 hours 23 minutes. :)

We got to the airport, and had some time to kill before the shuttle to the ship, so we got some food, and some weird lady kept talking to us, despite all of our best efforts to ignore her. Dan and I took pictures on the people mover, and then finally it was time to go. We got on a bus, and headed to the Port Everglades.

They took our luggage, and we then went through this warehouse type place, first through security, and then to a counter where they check your documents. Then we got ready to board the boat, and a security man examined my birth certificate and my ID and such. Then we had to wait in the Teatro Urbino until our cabins were ready. There was a woman there who kept saying, "the theater is the most comfortable place to be right now." About 40 mins later, at 1:30, they announced that the cabins and welcome buffet were ready. We went to our cabin first.. on Funte Uno / Deck 1.. The Giorgione Deck. Out cabin is really cool... it's relatively large, and there's lots of closet space. Most things in here are written in Italian and broken English. It's funny.

We then went to Dan's mom and dad's room, we looked at their little balcony...very cool. Then it was time to go to the buffet. We ate, and paid a ridiculous amount for sodas. Then we went to explore the ship a little. Dan and I took a little rest, because I was feeling very exhausted, then we went in the hot tub.

After that we met at the Teatro for a little informational session given by the Cruise Director, Max. He told us about the TODAY brochure thing. It was good stuff.

Then we went and got ready for dinner....and met again. Our cabin attendant, Mary Ann, came to open the mini-bar and explain the safe. She was very nice and really funny. (China) We love her. Went to a show in the Teatro again for a pre-dinner show which was this funny comedy act thing. Then off to eat at 8:30. It was yummy.

After dinner, Dan and I went to the Casino Sicilia and played some SLOTS. We each bought $10 in chips. Dan won $57. I lost all. Whoopie. LOL

Then Dan's mom and Dad came to the casino, but we went to bed. We were in bed by 11:00, and put the TV on to fall asleep. The news came on, and much to our surprise, they play WABC7 NY! How great is that.. so we watched our home news..all about the snow and stuff! lol

Anyway, that was our first day on the cruise!! Very Exciting! Tomorrow is Key West and a Bike Tour! Until then, Goodnight. :)