Cruise Part 1

Finally! Here we go! :)

Mom and I have been talking about going on a cruise for about...6 ish years or so. I have been dying to go to Italy ever since I saw The Italian Job, so we've been aiming for a Mediterranean Cruise.

We left Saturday the 8th at 6 in the morning for the international airport. A couple days before leaving, I knew I wasn't going to take my cell phone so I decided I should probably get a watch -- mom, on the other hand, always wears a watch. As we are sitting in the airport wondering when they are going to start boarding everyone, my mom says, "Hm...shouldn't they be boarding us soon? Because it's...oh no...my watch died at 3 am!" Haha! I sarcastically said, "Ahhh! Well let me tell you what time it is!" So before we even left the airport, we had made our first purchase.

We flew to Atlanta, had a layover there were we went to Chili's for lunch/dinner. Now by the time we got to Atlanta it is only a little after twelve and we had to start thinking about what we wanted to eat for dinner because it was going to be another 9-10 hours before we got to Europe and could eat any sort of meal. (We didn't think we'd get fed on the plane.)

We got on the plane heading for Spain! Yahoo! I tried very very hard to sleep because everyone in Europe was sleeping and I didn't want to be dead tired when we got there because our bodies would be used to sleeping when Spain was just starting their day. Yeah...no go. I shut my eyes but that was about it. We watched some movies (with no extra charge because it was an international flight! yipee!) and they had some really good albums that you could listen to also.

Once we landed in the Barcelona airport we were a little confused as where to go...so we just kinda followed the crowd from the plane. We got our passports stamped then walked to the baggage claims. I was trying to read all the signs and understand what was being said...but my espanol is no bueno. Mom's was definitely better. I helped this little old lady pull her HUGE bag off the carousel and she said "Gracias" and proceeded to ask me a question....in spanish! Ah! she kept saying "salida?" I recognized the word but couldn't remember it. And she was speaking so soft that mom couldn't hear her at all. She then realized that we didn't speak spanish and she chuckled and said nevermind and thanked me again. Such a sweet lady.

We walked out and there were a bunch of different people holding up signs for cruise lines. We found ours. Gave them our bags and got on the bus. We drove through Barcelona to the ship. It was MASSIVE! We got our cards, signed up for our "My-Time-Dining" (more on that later) and got on board! We couldn't go to our rooms yet because the previous cruisers had just gotten off a couple hours before and they were still cleaning, so we just wandered around the ship and took pictures of interior. We moseyed (spelling?) our way up to The Windchimer Cafe to get some lunch (because it was noon on Sunday now) and it was all delicious!

(my first steps in Europe!! mom's feet reunited with Spanish soil :) )

We went up to our rooms, set our alarms to wake us up in time to get ready for dinner and just crashed. We heard a knock on the door and mom told me to answer it -- it was our stateroom attendant. Now, let me remind you that I had been awake for about 23-ish hours or so and just laid down to nap -- so what does that mean? Yeah...Andrea's is not all there haha!

After our naps, we went down to get our dinner. It was delicious. We sat with some people from England and Ireland. After dinner we went to one of the night shows and walked the promenade.

It was a lovely first day! :)

Our second day we were still at sea so...we were in no rush to wake up. We slept a lot -- ate a lot -- walked around a lot -- and went to a couple shows. We even got an afternoon nap in! After the nap, we got dressed for our fist formal night and headed down for dinner. After dinner, we walked along the Promenade (again) and soon the Captain's Social began. He introduced the crew and told some jokes. It was quite a party! But we didn't really care about the ship party -- we wanted to get our rest...for ITALY!!!

Oh...I decided as I was sitting at the window and watching the sun rise that I really want to walk across the wing of an airplane. :)