Embarkation Day!

Sorry for the delay blog followers - I was managing a post-cruise cold.  But, I'm breathing happily now, and ready to tell you about our adventures with the family in the sunny Southern Caribbean!

Our gang - my hubby's parents, brother/sister-in-law and sister-in-law's parents - had gathered Monday in Fort Lauderdale pre-cruise, spending some time at the Days Inn Airport South, hitting the Target, Whole Foods and Denny's (where they were having a "baconalia").   By Wednesday AM we were pumped to get on the ship.  After some serious organizing, the plan for the single car transportation to the ship was in place, and a tetris-ed out with luggage rental vehicle headed to the port.  The young folks were next on the agenda, and we embarked pretty smoothly, and with seapasses in hand, we hit the Star Princess!

We shuffled on board, and went to check out our rooms - "coveted" Emerald deck Mini-Suites.  We chose these ones because our balcony would be covered (Ron and I are both sun-o-phobes).  Upon seeing our balcony, we noticed ours (the final one aft - 728) had another bonus - the balcony was double sized!!

Me demonstrating our party-sized balcony in the port of Fort Lauderdale

We hit the buffet for lunch (I think this was the busiest we ever saw the buffet) and all fueled up, we took on the $1000 treasure hunt, which gave us a good tour of the ship.  After collecting all our stamps, we did some more relaxing in our room, unpacked when our luggage arrived and settled into vacation mode.  At 4pm, we went up to the Treasure Hunt draw -  and Ron won a certificate for dinner in Sabatini's, one of the specialty restaurants on board - more on that, and pictures - later!

Of course, in the words of a smart lady I know, the best place to be for sailaway is on your own balcony :)  So we leaned out, chatted with bro and sis-in-law, put our new binoculars to work (thanks Ron's Mom!) and waved goodbye to Fort Lauderdale.  We were greeted with signs and flags from the shore and these awesome people with their big waving hands.

See the big Hamburger Helper Hands in the middle of the building? 

More relaxing, another trip to the buffet (no one felt like making the effort to get dressed for dinner with all the excitement of the day) and multi-media trivia rounded out a super first day!

The sun melting in the horizon on embarkation day.