I was prepared for chaos, as we headed toward the line of vacationers headed up to the Half Moon Cruise Center. After standing in line for maybe 5 minutes a gentleman in a red carnival polo instructed us to follow him and have our paperwork ready. Apparently we got bumped to VIP status with small children. I loved it, we felt like celebrities as we quickly passed the common folk. It didn't matter that they only took us ahead to avoid causing a scene with a toddler melt down, bringing the other passengers down from their cruise ship high.
We swiftly made it on board and went straight to check out our cabin. It reminded me of the interior of an RV. But there was plenty of room for all of my clothes and the kids. We hung out for a while and read through some of todays events on the flyer waiting in our room. After unpacking we heard an announcement from the intercom that the early dinner was being served in the main dining room. This would be one of many, many, meals to come. Dinner was great and went by so smoothly and quickly. Apparently we were being rushed out to do the mandatory emergency drill, with our life jackets. This sucked. All of the passengers were lined up on the outer deck like cattle with our restricting life jackets sweating and growing impatient as the employes instructed us to bring it in tight. This is were they gave us wrist bands for the children so they knew where to muster them in case of emergency. After we were dismissed in sections we headed back to the balcony room to watch our embarkment sunset. It was very peaceful and relaxing. You could hear the waves hitting the hull of the ship just like you were sitting on the beach. Sigh.
We received an invitation for a Camp Carnival Dance Party for the kids. It was like a welcome aboard party, mandatory fun. I say that because we "had" to dance. The girls loved it and Gary won the "ship on a stick" trophy for best Dad dancer. LOL. We explored the rest of the ship and helped ourselves to the 24 hour soft serve ice cream. This had been a great day.
We headed back to the room for a good nights rest. This is where I realized that amidst all of the packing that I did for every one (except Gary) somehow, I had neglected to pack myself any underwear. I tried not to panic. I brought several bikinis and I could manage.
We told the girls a story on the balcony wrapped up in the complimentary oversized robes, and Taylor fell asleep in my arms almost instantly. I could get used to this.
