Celebration: Embarkation Day! Welcome to Miami!

It's cruise day! Cory would repeat this phrase at least 10 more times before even leaving for the Port of Miami. Our morning was a slow one at the hotel. Breakfast and getting ready before it was time to pack the car up and drive the twenty minutes to the port. Due to my travel anxiety I was able to talk Cory into leaving earlier than he wanted to. It ended up working out for both of us since the tunnel to the cruise port was closed and we had to take a few extra turns and roads we weren't expecting. Once we found the Celebration and the correct terminal, we were ready to go. So ready to go that we ended up parking in the wrong lot and giving ourselves a little extra walk before our boarding process. 

Walking up the boat, our luggage was taken immediately by the terminal’s porters and it truly was time to party. If you have been to a cruise port before, you know you can stand in some crazy lines until it is your time to board, which we were fully expecting. To our surprise, we showed our boarding passes and went right in to check in with our passports. This was a quick process and then we were sent right up to security. If you follow anything from Carnival you will know they have begun a new safety process and it includes drug sniffing dogs. So before going through the metal detectors it was time to line the wall and have the dogs sniff all of your belongings, it honestly felt like the line up for a  firing squad- but it was worth it for a safer cruise! The next part in our boarding was the longest process. We had to wait maybe 25 minutes for our zone to be called and then it was time! 

The gangway is our favorite part and the absolute best feeling. It is the feeling of knowing the best and most relaxing vacation is about to begin. Being the rule followers we are, the first thing we did on board was find our muster station, get checked in and watch the safety presentation on how to put on our life jackets in case of emergency. The muster station is where you meet in the event of an emergency. It allows for a smoother process of getting to a lifeboat in the case of an emergency. Isn’t it crazy our muster station was 8 floors below our stateroom?! But now that the serious stuff was out of the way, it was really time for vacation!

To begin our vacation, it was time for our first beverages. But man, those bars on board fill up fast! We have learned that the casino bar is usually quiet since the casino cannot open up until we are in open seas. Finding our quiet bar it was time for the hard (or not so hard decisions), I ordered a margarita with orange slices while Cory ordered a Moscow Mule. He wasn’t a huge fan due to the ginger beer used but nonetheless, it was a delicious first drink of vacation! 

To think that by now it was only 11:30 or 12:00 but we were starving! My favorite place to eat on the ship is always Guy’s Burger Joint. Since it was day 1 and no one could get to their stateroom yet, it was packed. There was little seating and a long and hot line was just standing between me and my lunch. Luckily, the line moved fast and we could order. I am a boring eater and always order a plain jane with a pig patty on top (just a clump of bacon). But Guy’s fries are my absolute favorite especially dipped in ranch dressing! Cory is a little more adventurous with his food options but got the pig patty burger this time around. 

With full bellies and another drink it was time to explore! We wandered the ship and noticed the changes that had been made from the Mardi Gras. Specifically the Golden Jubilee and Latitudes bar. (Maybe insert a picture of one of these places?) While exploring we took advantage of checking the Hub App to find out our dinner reservations. Unfortunately, we were not in the main dining room. We were in the smaller dining room on the Mardi Gras and did not have the best time so we were really hoping to experience the large dining room at the back of the ship. Luckily after talking to the maître d' we were able to get our table moved to the main dining room. 

Now that we got the app up and ready to go we were able to explore all the fun things going on for the next seven days. We always check out what shows are happening between the two stages, especially what game shows will be taking place. We absolutely love Family Feud Live and Love and Marriage. I am not one who would want to participate but Cory still wants to someday be contestants on Love and Marriage (there will be more on this in another blog post).  We did notice that this ship had fewer Center Stage shows compared to the Mardi Gras. We were excited to see there was a new show listed for several days and times so we could easily make the show based on other interests. Another thing we had to do while on the Hub was schedule our first ride on The Bolt. The on board roller coaster and one of our favorite activities we did on the ship.

After exploring the app it was time to go to our stateroom and get our key cards. Our luggage wasn’t at the room yet but it was nice to drop off our carry-on items and check out the layout of our room. We had a balcony room with a bed and couch, there was plenty of space for the two of us for a seven day vacation especially once we could unpack all of our items into the two closets and store our luggage under the bed for the week. 

Now that we had our room keys it was time to start relaxing and enjoy our vacation. Nothing screams relaxing like heading to the busy sports bar (Guy Fieri’s Pig & Anchor Brewhouse) to watch golf. If you know Cory, this is his dream come true. I brought my book and took advantage of some extra reading time while enjoying a cold drink! 

I won't continue to write about the relaxing and wandering we did because there will be plenty of ship details in the next few blog posts. But I will skip ahead to talk more about dinner and drinks and our evening activities before calling it a night.

We always sign up for early dining (5:30) so we can have the same servers and table every night. It makes our vacation fun to get to know new people and hear fun stories from our servers. Before our dinner we did stop at Latitudes for Cory to grab an Old Fashioned to enjoy with his dinner. If you love Old Fashioneds, this is the best one on ship per Cory (and he tried one from almost every bar). Dinner was great and even included a show! All of the Festivale dining room servers welcomed us with music and dancing! Some of the servers were even on tables! The little kids around us were so excited. Of course we ended our dinner with chocolate melting lava cake, a favorite dessert that we can only get on Carnival. 

After dinner it was time for our evening entertainment! My favorite part of most days is heading to a show. Being the first day on ship there was a welcoming show hosted by our Cruise Director Chris aka The Flying Scotsman. This show gave a preview of all the fun to be had on ship and gave an introduction to each singers and dancers of the Playlist Production team that we would see at each show. We had fun seeing entertainers from past cruises and learning where each member came from. Once the Playlist preview was complete, we headed to the Punchliner Comedy Club. This was an 18+ show so we knew it was important to sit in the back of the room. We had heard while waiting in line that this comedian was one to pick on the audience members… and boy, were they right! There were many jokes made about the people in the room and I was so thankful we sat in a far back (dark) corner! 

By the time the comedy show was done, we were exhausted from our busy day BUT it's vacation and I refuse to go to bed by 9:00. So we wandered across the hall to the Piano bar for the PG show (all ages are welcome). The piano player on this ship was talented and had a huge selection of songs to choose from! On the first night we decided we would spend most of our late nights with Tatsu and her GinGin. When asked what GinGin was, she informed us it was not something from another language, simply her way of saying cheers with her favorite drink, GinGin! 

We were lame on day one and headed to bed by 10:00 to rest up for the first day at sea. Before heading to bed, we did fill up our water bottles in an effort to hydrate more than we have on past cruises. To say we crashed hard would be an understatement. Be ready for our next post about our first day at sea and more details about the wonderful Carnival Celebration.