Funny story – so Kali and Cole had been dating for only
about 3 months at the time of this trip. The morning after arriving at Uncle
Donny’s, my Dad comes out of the bathroom and approaches everyone sitting in
the living room and is holding his hand out very carefully. He goes on to tell
us that he has found a diamond and is anyone missing one? We all start closely
inspecting this “diamond” but quickly come to the realization that it is not a
diamond but in fact a rhinestone with glue on the back. Hmm…he goes on to tell
us he found it on the bathroom floor…after a few moments of silence, Kali
starts shifting uncomfortably and whispers in my ear something along the lines
of “oh my gosh my panties have rhinestones on them, it must have fallen off”.
Of course then I proceed to blurt out to everyone within ear shot while
laughing maniacally that it is from Kali’s underwear! HA HA HA! We all got a
really good belly laugh out of it and proceeded to embarrass the H-E-double
hockey sticks out of poor Kali. She took it like a trooper but no better way to
be initiated into the family than my Dad holding pieces of her panties. Still
makes me giggle! We haven’t let her live it down, and continue to remind her
because we’ve nicknamed her “Rhinestone”, adoringly.
After we collected ourselves and packed up the van, it was
time to head to the port! The weather was blah and slightly sprinkly but we did
not even care, we were here!! We got our first glance at the ship and we could
not wait to board! We had to wait until a certain time before starting the
embarkation process, it was torture!
Finally after much anticipation, pacing and foot tapping, it
was time! At this point we started to run into other people from our party.
Some were traveling down that morning, others got in late the night before, so
we hadn’t seen anybody up to this point. My Aunt Barbara traveled the longest
distance as she flew in from Virginia Beach. We hadn’t seen her in far too long
so that alone was such a nice treat! I’m still so glad she was able to make it!
Once we boarded the ship, we weren’t in a rush to get to our
rooms because luggage wasn’t delivered yet and wouldn’t be until sometime. We
just spent the afternoon exploring the ship, and slowly finding the rest of our
party.
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| The golden couple! |
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| Oh the food... |
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| Free fro-yo allll day errrday! |
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| Chilling in the port, waiting to head out! |
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| Our room for the week! |
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| Let's get this party started! |
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| Very serious game of gooney golf! |
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| Kali + Cole |
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| The Jameses |
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| We're finally here!!! |
When it was getting close to departure time, we gathered
together for a group picture at the back of the ship. Everyone made it into
this photo except for Robin…I have no clue where she was but getting 15 very
excited people together to take a photo is no small task, we couldn’t wait for
her any longer!
From left to right: Bob, Rhonda, Fred, Kenny (Dad), Karin
(Mom), Barbara, Sandra, Maranda, Peter, Sandy (GMa), Cole, Kali, Me, David.
We also had some very special people wish us bon voyage! My
Grammy and Grampy live in Rockledge, FL, not far from the port so they went and
ate lunch at the port restaurant and waved to us from the deck. So fun!
In this photo they’re
on the top left. Grammy in a green shirt and Grampy in his white button up.
We continued to explore the ship for the duration of the
afternoon before heading back to our rooms before unpacking and getting ready
for dinner. We had to of course check out the casino the first night and it did
not disappoint. I liked to play on the penny slots but David spent his fair
share of time (and money) in there doing some bigger gambling.
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| The Grays |
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| The Woods |
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| Go Mrs. Rhonda! |
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| Momma + Daughter |
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| What's shakin' pops? |
Oh, on the first day I decided to splurge on a drink
package. So the one that I got was around $150 but it was the N/A package. I
think the next level up which included alcoholic drinks was around $250 or so.
For me, I can only drink one and done so it wasn’t worth it. But the N/A
package was perfect! I’m talking unlimited soda, virgin daiquiris, and
STARBUCKS. Yes, there was a Starbucks shop on board and my drink package
included unlimited delicious coffee drinks. Frapps, macchiatos, the works. Oh
my! I miss it!
Day Two is up next!
OH MY GOSH!!!! RHINESTONE!??!?!?! I am going to be laughing/cringing for days at that. I can't believe you told everyone!!!! You totally should have taken the fall for that one yourself. I hope Kali pays you back someday. ;) Anyway, I am trying to calculate if I could drink $150+ worth of Starbucks in a week, and I think that...yes. Yes I could. Good call there!!
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