Day 4 - The first day of the cruise

Loaded and ready to go to the ship

One again we slept late on this first day of this new year. We were packed and checked out of the hotel at 10:00am and on our way to the ship. We drove the car to the ship and dropped off the luggage. Barb stayed with our carry on luggage and Ed took the car to the rental car check-in.

The lines at the regular check-in were huge this early, but thanks to our Carnival Platinum card, we were able to check in fairly fast.

We were in our cabin by noon and then it was off to explore the ship. We were on this ship in its inaugural cruise in the Balkans several years ago, so the ship was familiar but there were a few changes that we noticed.

Our room

We ate lunch and then sat out in the sun and then our luggage had arrived so we unpacked everything. Then we watched the ship sail out of Port Lauderdale and it was off to the jacuzzi.

After the jacuzzi, we walked around the ship until time to change for dinner.

Before dinner, we went to the casino, introduced ourselves to the manager and our casino host and also set up our line of credit.

Then it was off to dinner.

Our table mates were a surprise – it is amazing how wrong you can sometimes be with a first impression. We had a fun time at dinner and will enjoy our new friends very much.

After dinner we went to the main show, then to the R-rated comedy midnight show.

Ft. Lauderdale Beach

That was enough fun for one day so we went back to the room to bed. It is amazing how tired you can get relaxing!! It has been a great start to our trip.

Tomorrow we are at sea so it will be a very relaxing day.