First Day Onboard
Today, we left port, and we are on our way to beautiful Alaska! This morning, we took our time getting up and finally got on our way over to the airport to meet our shuttle. When we arrived, this was a huge line for the Princess Cruises check-in. Wew! We eventually made it through the line, happily handed all of our luggage (thanks to my habit of over-packing) to the crew, and waited for the shuttle to arrive to take us to the port. The shuttle only took about 20 minutes. While riding it through the area, I almost felt like I was in an episode of the show 24. On that show, so many people got shot or almost killed in that kind of area!
When we arrived at the port, we were overwhelmed by the size of the Golden Princess. I had never seen a boat that large before! How in the world does it make it through all the little inlets and everything? There were more lines to go through. A line to get our key card; a line to get our cheesy this-is-your-last-picture-while-you-are-skinny-because-you-are-going-to-gain-so-much-weight-from-eating-all-the-amazing-Alaskan-food” picture taken. My favorite part of check-in was security. We were carrying the beautiful bouquet of flowers from the market, and we had a little baggy of water at the base of their stems firmly attached to the bouquet with rubber bands. I gently laid it on the running scanning belt and went through the security scanner for humans. On the other side, my flowers awaited, but they were laying in a pool of water. The water was fine if the flowers were right-side up, but I had laid them down. The security scanners had to stop the check-point to clean up the mess. Oops! We hurried out of there to…oh wait, stand in another line. Luckily, it moved quickly, and we were onboard!
We found our stateroom after a bit of confusion (apparently odd numbers are on one side of the boat, and even numbers are on the other side). It is so cute! We have a window to the outside, a queen bed, and amazing closet space. The only bad thing was that our bathroom smelled AWFUL! I don’t know what happened, but it smelled like someone took sewage and rubbed it all over the room. We gagged every time we went in.
We decided to go out and explore as our baggage wasn’t in our room yet, AND we were hungry! We made our way to the Horizon Buffet. It was pretty good and had the standard buffet items. I was happy that they had non-chocolate cookies! Go peanut butter cookies!
After the buffet, we explored the Lido Deck some more. There were so many swimming pools. They even have a current swimming pool that I think I want to check out sometime. We saw the Blue Angels fly overhead. The old people really seemed to like that!
After exploring for awhile, we headed back to our room. We met our room steward, Danny, who is from the Philippines. I was excited because I had read about him in some of the online reviews, and he is supposed to be good. I also read that he likes chocolate, so hopefully we can pick him up some at one of the ports. The poor guy – we had some many requests! I wanted an egg crate mattress for our bed, wanted a vase for our flowers, wanted the stupid bathroom to stop smelling, and more! He was kind and gracious though and complied with everything for which we asked.
Our suitcases finally arrived, so we unpacked. Just as we finished, it was time for the safety drill. When the alarms went off, we grabbed our lifejackets and made our way to the Muster area. Ours happens to be in the Princess Theater. That’s right; when our ship is sinking, THAT is just where I want to be…in a room full of people with very few doors. I have a better chance jumping overboard and hitching a ride to shore on a whale!
When that was done, it was time to set sail! We went to the top deck to see the boat leave the port. Very exciting! We could hardly feel it moving. We were ready to take in the view for awhile when we heard the entertainment crew calling for people to dance. You see, if we danced, we got raffle tickets. For competitive people like us, THAT is all you have to do to get us to participate. We danced and had fun together. It’s so fun being somewhere where no one knows you! After a couple dances, they asked for crazy people. I went forward. Why not? They told us that if we jumped in the pool FULLY CLOTHED, we got a prize! For once in my life, I didn’t even think. I knew that I would do it. They counted down, and I jumped in – clothes, pearls, and all! And for my efforts, I got a big bottle of champagne and the excitement of having just jumped in a pool!
We danced some more, but after awhile, we were ready to head back to our room. I told Tim how warm the water was, and he suggested that we go back up for a swim with proper swim clothes. We changed into our suits and headed back up. On the way up, Tim and I were being lovey dovey in the elevator, and a woman asked if we were newlyweds. Nope! But I love that we don’t look like an old, seasoned married couple yet.
The pool was great. We were probably the only adults in the pool, but we loved it. The water was incredibly warm. The only time I was cold was when the wind blew against my face. Brr!!
Soon it was time for dinner, so we grabbed showers, dressed up, and headed to the Bernini dining room. They asked us if we were okay to sit at a shared table. Sure? Why not? I wanted to make friends anyway. A family soon joined us with girls near our age. The girls, Meghan and Melissa, were talkative, and Meghan and I had so much in common from our love for chick flicks to being middle school English teachers. I really enjoyed talking with them. However, I also loved the food! There were so many great choices. I settled on the lobster appetizer and the New York Strip steak for dinner. Both were wonderful. Tim had the spring rolls for an appetizer and ham for dinner. For dessert, we had fun; we both ordered two desserts. Tim got the apple turnover and ice cream. I got the cheesecake with caramel ice cream. So much food! And so good!
After dinner we headed to the Princess Theater and enjoyed a show starring their comedian. He was a former member of the Beach Boys. He was a bit ADD but funny. The part that sticks in my head is his bit about “It’s a Small World.” Now that song is stuck in my head! Following the show, we went to a lounge and played “Majority Rules.” It was a cute little trivia game, and we enjoyed playing it. Although we did not win, we had a lot of fun.
Now, we are exhausted and ready to go to bed. Hopefully, I can fall asleep without the word of “It’s a Small World” running through my head too many times. Yes, it may be a small world, but this is one big ship!
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