DanZone - My Life - Cruise to the Bahamas

Well, it was here. The day we had all been waiting for. The day we set sail on our cruise! We were all so excited. We woke up early again, and got dressed and packed. My dad bought donuts (Dunkin’ Donuts, of course) for us as we packed. We started bringing the luggage out to the car. As we brought the last of the luggage out, we checked the room one last time to make sure we didn’t forget anything we didn’t want to forget. After doing the quick check, we brought the rest of the luggage out to the car. We had fun trying to get the luggage in the car, because there was so much of it, and the trunk, while being pretty big, was not big enough. But, we got it all to fit, and we were soon on our way to the port of Miami!

Getting there was not easy. It was even worse than before when we were trying to get to our hotel. There were accidents all over the place, and all caused by senior citizens. One accident in particular had 4 cars involved, and it was caused by a senior citizen going the wrong way down the highway. There was like 4 other accidents as well. Before reaching the port though, we stopped at a shopping plaza to pick up a few items. After that, we were off to the port.

As we got closer, we hit more traffic, but there were no accidents. Just a lot of people going on the cruise like we were! But we finally made it to the port. We dropped off our luggage, and we went into the customs building. We had to go through security, and then show our passports as we checked in. We then went up to this waiting area, where we were given our cabin keys and our Cruise ID cards. We were then seated until it was time to board.

Not too long after though, we were allowed to board. As we went to the ship, we saw the Salmon’s behind us. Before we did board, we had a group picture taken. After that, we boarded, we were scanned into the ship’s system, and we had arrived!

Because our room wasn’t ready yet, the first thing we did was go to the buffet and eat. It was there, to our extreme happiness, they we cought up with the rest of the families going on the cruise with us- the Dixon’s and the Fusco’s. We were all so excited to see the Fusco’s, because they had the hardest time getting down there. But at least, everyone was accounted for, and we were ready to get our cruise underway!

Before, I go further, here’s a few pictures:

The pic on the left is of the restaraunt/buffet we had lunch at. The photo on the right was one that I snapped before we set sail. It’s the Miami skyline. Yes, it was cloudy, and very windy. Look at all of the skyscrapers going up. Supposingly, they’re all condos. This created a LOT of discussion, because Miami is so close to the coast and is very susceptable to hurricanes, and if a major one should come along, we were thinking the condos could be destroyed, so we were questioning whether or not it was worth it to build them. And these weren’t the only ones going up - they were going up all around us!

ANYWAY, we began planning what we were going to do while on the cruise. Then we once again checked to see if our rooms were ready. Ours was, but because they were checking people in right outside our room, we had to take a longer way to get to our rooms. My parents had one room, and me, my brother, and my cousin had the room next door. When we walked into our room, we noticed that there were only 2 beds, so we’d have to have a cott brought in (for me).

Anyone will tell you, one of the first things you do before setting sail on a cruise is a boat drill. This is a drill of what to do incase of an emergency. Should there be an emergency, a signal will be given. The signal is sounded over the ship’s horn, as well as speakers throughout the ship and sounders in each cabin. The signal is 7 short blasts followed by one long blast. Upon hearing this signal, you are required to stop whatever you’re doing immediately and head back to your cabin. Once in your cabin, you are to put on a life jacket, found in a closet in your cabin. You are then supposed to head to a “muster station” (a group meeting place). On the life jacket and in the hallway are letters that tell you your muster station, and the letters in the hallways have arrows attatched to them, signaling which way you are supposed to to get to your muster station. Well, our route was a tad different. The reason was because of the same reason we had to take a different route to our room - they were still checking people in. We were notified ahead of the drill that we couldn’t use that exit, and it was then we decided to go to our muster station (the signal had not gone off yet). Before we left, my dad met us back at our cabins, but I was wearing his lifejacket because I didn’t have one! We were told that once we got to our muster station, anyone who didn’t have a lifejacket would get one. The alarm went off once we got to our musterstation, but we weren’t the only ones that left early - just about everyone had left early! Once we were at our station, there was a guy giving instructions on what to do and bring with us should there be an actual emergency, and what the objects attatched to our lifejackets were (a light and a whistle). We remained there for about 5-10 minutes, when they gave the all-clear signal (one continuous blast over the horn and the speakers).

My cousin may or may not kill me for posting this, but the whole time, we kept laughing because of how she looked in her lifejacket. This was taken w/ my cell phone, which is why it isn’t as good quality as the rest of the pics you’ll see:

After we got done with the drill, me, my brother and my cousin went back to our cabin and changed into our bathing suits. We then went on the main deck. My cousin and my brother went in the hot tub along with all the other kids that went on the cruise with us:

Note, the woman in the red hair in the top-right was NOT with us. She was just in there when I happened to take the pic. The above pic had all of the kids in it, but the one below was my favorite pic:

I forget what we were all looking at in this one, but I like how everyone’s head is turned. Our parents were talking to us, but they were on a balcony behind me, so we are obviously staring at something else in this case.

Shortly after, they began to break out the dance music, so my cousin and her friend got out and began to dance. Here’s a pic of them doing the Cha-Cha Slide:

After this, I went back into the room until we set sail. Once we did, I came back out and observe, and even took a couple of vids of us leaving port.

Video 1

Video 2

The first vid is just a shot of us leaving. The second vid is us passing the ship you see in the first vid. People are shouting and waving to us, and we were all shouting and waving back.

After this, I went back to my cabin, but while I was there, I snapped a couple of pictures of us shipping out to sea, as well as a pic of the lobby of the ship:

I hung out in the cabin for a little bit and then got ready for dinner. All of the families were eating together in the Sensation Dining room. All of us kids sat at one table and the adults sat at the other.

Dinner was fun, particularly because the ship was going full speed, and the waves were rocking the ship, so we were all adjusting to the rocking, and often times, we’d see eachother swaying, and we’d all laugh.

After eating dinner and dessert, I went back to the cabin for a while. Not too long after I get there, my dad calls me from a phone on the ship (our cells had no service throughout this whole trip, which really sucked). He said they had an awsome dealer at the Blackjack tables, and he wanted me to come down (the gambling age was 18).

So, I hung out at the Blackjack tables for a while. I ended up on the plus side, so I decided to retire for the night before I lost it all. I went back to the room and got ready for bed. I went on my dad’s laptop until my cousin came back, and after that, we went to bed. We were egar to get to sleep because we knew that when we wake up the next morning, we’d be in the Bahamas!