Cruise Day 1- Sunday November 1st, 2015

Cruise Day 1-Sunday November 1^st

I awoke at 2:30am, not too bad considering the time had changed and my body thought it was 3:30am. I knew I couldn’t sleep anymore as I was going through my mental check list to make sure I had gotten everything done I needed to as well as making sure everything was packed. Usually the night before we leave for a major vacation, I am scrambling to finish packing but I was actually done early evening and had time to just relax. I think we've traveled so much that this is old hat for us now!

*Note-all photos can be clicked on to enlarge.

Not bad for 8 of us for 13 days! The duffle bag is all our shoes. I limit us to 3 pairs each as they add up. We probably could've shaved down a bag if we didn't have to have medical equipment for Kevin & Susan to pack.

 Surprisingly, we had our van packed by 7:30am (again, in the past we are running around last minute finishing up things). We were just waiting on friends who were going with us and my one brother who was going along to drive our van back home. We were on the road about 8:15am.

 The drive went well and we arrived at the port entrance about 10:40am. We had to wait in the line of traffic to get dropped off. Around 11 we got dropped off. After a quick check in process, we sat for a little then boarded the ship around noon.

Waiting to board the ship!

 This was our first time on this ship (Liberty of the Seas) but it had a very similar layout to the last ship we were on (Explorer of the Seas) so it was easy enough to find our way around. The rooms don’t open until 1pm so we went and grabbed lunch first. I was SO anxious for the surprise I had waiting for them that I couldn’t wait until lunch was over. (If you didn't read my Pre-Cruise Report, I shared how we were given FREE upgraded rooms, from interior to extra large balcony rooms and I didn't tell Kevin or the kids!)

 Right before we had left this morning, I put the luggage tags on our suitcases and the kids noticed it said that our rooms were on deck 7 and they had known we were on deck 8. I sort of said tongue in cheek that I must’ve “goofed” on our room numbers. Little did they know what was coming!!

 Finally it was time to head to our rooms. We were walking and walking some more and the kids all were saying how they thought the location wasn’t right. I said don’t worry about it and just keep walking. I quietly had the video camera in my hand so I could record their reaction. We finally found the rooms numbers and Kevin was like wait, our rooms should be on the left. By now, they were suspicious. I said go ahead and open the door and when they did, they all shouted about the room having a balcony!! They just couldn’t believe it!

Surprisingly we already had some luggage waiting for us by the time we got to our room! The door handle in the lower left of the photo leads to the bathroom. The connecting door to our other room is just past the tv. This room had 200 sq ft plus the balcony whereas the interior rooms we usually stay in only have 150 sq ft! The extra space was SO handy!

I said it gets even better and led them out to the balcony for them to discover we had the first balcony on that deck which meant we had a glass panel that allowed us to look at the front of the ship as well. So not only could we look over the side of the balcony but we could also look to see where we were going.

This is referred to as the "bubble". There are only 8 rooms like this on the ship.

 I had shared with those on our roll call prior to the trip how we were given a surprise upgrade so anytime someone ran into us, they all asked how the kids & Kevin liked the surprise. In fact, one of the gals on the roll call had a room right by us and had brought bubbles for the kids for them to blow on the balcony.

The view of the Tear Drop Memorial from our balcony. This isn't a widely known memorial. It was created by an artist from Russia as a gift in memory of the 9/11 victims. Their names are also etched on it.

New York City skyline with the Statue of Liberty in the  middle of the photo.

 After our muster drill, we headed up on deck as the weather was finally decent for a sail-away. In the past, it was either super cold or raining. Today it was 60 and sunny. Ava fell asleep on Kevin, so he sat down to chill with her while I went around the corner to the sky bar for an informal get together with a bunch of people from our roll call. It was nice to finally put faces to usernames of people we had been chatting with before the cruise. I also got to see some people we had previously cruised with as well. While Olivia & I were talking to people, the girls were meeting up with their friends they met on our last cruise and had kept in touch with.

It's always amazing sailing under this bridge as there is only about 6 feet of clearance between the ship and bridge!!

 Once we sailed under the Verrazano bridge, we headed down to dinner. When we had first boarded, we noticed our reservations weren’t connected with our friends so we hadn’t been placed together at a table. The waiter had said they would just squeeze 2 chairs in at our table so we could all be together. It's a lot of fun having others to talk to during dinner time!

After dinner, we headed back to our room and all our luggage was there so I worked on unpacking. By the time I was about done with that, I was ready to just relax for the  night and stayed in our room reading while getting the little ones settled down for bed after a long day.

If you are looking for a travel consultant, don't hesitate to contact me!