Day 1 was just a day for getting everything situated. We got on the boat, and immediately had a lifeboat drill, so we know what to do in an emergency (I plan on screaming like a girl and running in circles, but to each his own.)

It started off interesting, before we even got on the boat. Mom's plane in Bloomington ended up sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half, supposedly because of electrical problems. Originally, Mom and I were both supposed to end up taking the same flight for the second leg of the journey, from Atlanta to Tampa. Thankfully, one of the other folks who was stuck on her plane with her let her use their cell phone and Mom got ahold of me while I was hanging around in Tampa figuring out what to do.

Then, her luggage was missing! Apparently, although they put her through on a Delta flight, her luggage was actually on the next AirTran flight, which got in a half hour after her plane. By this time, of course, we were getting nervous about making it onto the ship. We'd left plenty of time taking an early flight, and it's a good thing we did. We boarded the ship about 4:00 after all was said and done. 4:30 was the cutoff point, and they're usually pretty strict about such things.

Phew!

So at 4:15, they started preparing us for our lifeboat drill. You basically put on your life jacket and stand on the deck for a while... The outfits are very becoming, too.

We started working our way out of the dock about 5:00. They had a party on the Lido deck to get us started. The view leaving wasn't that great (it's mostly industrial stuff around the dock) but there were a few interesting things to get pictures of.

Here are some shots of the party. It was pretty nice, standing there with the sea breeze, listening to the band and looking out over the water.

The party started pretty much right after we got into our cabins, so we didn't have much chance to check things out. When we got back, I took these pictures of the room. They're suprisingly large for cruise cabins, there's even a little love seat for sitting and relaxing.

We relaxed a little bit and then went to wander around the ship. We found a nice little piano bar (complete with pianist) and sat and had an evening drink. I went totally crazy and had an Orange Crush. <grin>

After that, it was time for dinner. Since it was the first evening, it was casual, but there was one guy in the whole dining room with a t-shirt on, he stuck out like a sore thumb. I guess everyone came prepared.

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