Cruise Day Number 1

Monday, July 25, 2011: We board the Monarch of the Seas

You know how I told you last week that I was going on the Majesty of the Seas? Correction. We were on the Monarch of the Seas. Whoops!

Monday morning, I woke up nice and early for a little pool time. Did you know that I've gone this whole entire summer without touching a swimsuit?! Actually, that's probably a good thing because no one, I repeat, no one needs to see me in minimal clothing! For modesty purposes, of course.

So I woke up early eager to jump in the rooftop pool at the hotel we stayed at in Orlando. No one was there. It was beautiful. It was so warm outside and the pool was the perfect temperature. Look at how glorious this sight is:

Gorgeous, huh? I swam some laps, but really just enjoyed the quiet morning. It was pretty fabdabulous.

Look how happy I was:
Beaming that I was in a pool by myself, on cruise day!

We all got ready, had some breakfast in the food court of the airport and then waited for a cab to take us to Port Canaveral to board the ship. Once we got there, it was a surprisingly smooth process. We gave them our bags, told them our room number, got in line, filled out some health forms, and boarded the ship. It was unbelievably simple!

Apparently, you get your pictures taken a lot on cruises by the profession photography team and then they try to sell them for like $20 a pop! Daddy, I think I've found your retirement career:
Cruise ship photographer!

The ship:
Our view from the ship at the port:
I was truly astounded at the size of this massive ship! I mean, there are like 12 floors, a casino, cabins, pools, mountain climbing wall thing, basketball court, theater, bars galore and so much more! This thing was huge!

Once we got on the ship, we made a beeline for the buffet. We were pretty hungro at that point. Our room wasn't ready until 1:00, so we just sat, ate and people watched for a while.

Then we headed on our merry way to our rooms:
Not too shabby:
It had a TV and everything! The beds were soooo comfy and we even had a little sitting area. I loved the window, because it was nice to see where we were:
Jamie said that he has stayed in a room with no window before and that it's totally trippy not knowing if it's day time or night time. Glad we had a view :)

Once we got into our rooms, I got in my swimsuit, slathered on the SPF and went poolside:
I made a rule when we got on the ship. "No full body swimsuit pictures." Period. Kim broke that rule with me and took a full body shot, and guess what? That picture was deleted. Sorry, Kim. It would have scared both small and large children. It's just not a pretty sight.

We were pretty entertained by this one big group of people. It looked like a family with some extra friends. Ooooo buddy! I overheard one of them say that they've already spent over $250 on adult beverages in less than 2 hours. I'm sure they did their fair share of weeping when they got their bill Friday morning when we left the ship. But it was just nice to lie down in the sun, soaking up the vacation :)

The pool was jumpin' by the time everyone got on board:
Me and my BIL, Kirby:
I haven't seen the ocean since our honeymoon in Maui 2 years ago. It was good to see you again, Mr. Ocean:
Kim and Kirby:
We boarded the ship around 11:00 ish and we set sail around 4:30 in the afternoon. When we left, there was a big farewell party on the pool deck. There was dancing and singing and just a big party. It was fun to watch.

Our dinner time was at 5:45, so it was time to get ready.

The dinners were quite delicious! We each got to order an appetizer (or two or three) and then an entree (or two or three if we wanted). Then we got dessert. It was all delish!

Kim and I at dinner:
At the end of the meal we heard an announcement. "Showtime", someone said. Then out of no where, all of the waitstaff came out of the kitchen waving napkins, singing yelping and clapping. It was hilarious! They just introduced our waitstaff for the week and put on a little show for us. Camie and Kirby thought it was beyond hysterical:
There they go singing a song to us:
It lasted a while. More singing:
After dinner, we walked on the deck and just enjoyed the ocean and the sunset. Look how gorgeous this sunset was Monday night:
Absolutely stunning:
When the sun went down, we headed down to the Boleros Bar for some 70's trivia. Kim was pretty stoked about that! She was good at it too! Look at that look of concentration:
She was on fire writing down the titles to those songs!:
We met this lady at the trivia night. Her name we found out was Monique:
Girlfriend was into the music! She was dancing, singing, jamming along to the music. It was quite comical and we were very entertained. She was there with her hubster on their 25th anniversary. We ended up doing pretty well on the trivia, but didn't win. Bummer.

After the trivia, there was karaoke, and oh my word. Too stinkin' funny! There were very few decent ones, and almost all really bad and hilarious acts. One lady, probably in her 50's maybe?...sang the Grease song, "Hopelessly Devoted", and ooo buddy she was into it! She had the Maria Carey hand going up and down and was feelin' the classic Olivia Newton John ballad. She was my favorite that night.

After some entertainment, the girls were a little sleepy and went to bed. Kirby headed to the casino :)

That concludes day one. It was pretty fabulous, and I slept like a baby!

Hope you all have had a great Sunday. I'll talk to y'all later! Love love love!