Livin' the Dream

Whew! What a day. I'd barely put my head on the pillow last night when I realized I'd forgotten to pack my brown flip-flops. It may not seem like a matter of great importance to you, but I LOVE those flip-flops. I was trying to decide whether or not to get dressed and take a taxi to Ron Jon's when I remembered that Bib mentioned they would be taking A1A in the morning to get from Sarah's condo to the port. I sent her a text at 1:30am asking if she'd stop by in the morning to pick up a pair for me. Evidently, she wasn't sleeping either, because she texted back that she would. Crisis averted.

Bib (along with my new flip-flops) showed up at my hotel at 10:00am the next morning with her mom and sisters in tow. Bib was on her way to drop off their rental car, so she and the rest of the group (Sarah, Pam, Frankie) would meet us at Port Canaveral. We hopped on the shuttle at 10:45 am. By noon, we had our sign-and-sail cards, had boarded the ship as part of Zone 13, and were eating lunch on the Lido deck. **Note to future cruisers - try to minimize the amount of junk you carry onto the ship. You cannot get into your cabin until 1:30pm, so whatever you carry on, you have to lug around. It can make navigating the ship, and particularly the Lido deck, quite cumbersome. **

Our first view of the Dream.
Inside the port, waiting to board.


Our cabin happened to be on the Lido deck (Deck 10). Since breakfast and lunch are typically served on the Lido deck, I opted to go with an ocean view room that will (hopefully) be in a convenient location for Mom. The room is in the very front of the ship (our window faces front) on the starboard side. We're 10205 on the image below.



As you can see, our room was wider than the average room, so it felt really big inside. Here are a few pictures of the room before we moved in.

Bib, her mom, and sisters have two side-by-side balcony rooms on Deck 6 mid-ship. The divider between their balconies had been opened up so they could go between rooms without a key. Pam and Frankie had a balcony room almost right above them on Deck 7.

Here are a few stats about the Carnival Dream.

Length: 1004 feet (that's the length of 3.5 football fields)
Staterooms: 1,823
Guest capacity: 3,646 (double occupancy) although they told us we were sailing with about 4,200 new friends
Staff: 1,367

After we visited our room, Mom and I decided to go exploring. The spa is located on the 12, 14, and 15th decks (there's no deck 13), so we took a tour of the amenities. The spa is very posh and offers a lot of services, but it's too early to know how much time we will devote to pampering ourselves. What I do know is we will be doing a LOT of walking this week - even without leaving the ship. By this time, it was getting close to the Sail Away celebration (and raining), so we headed to the Promenade deck for the festivities. We ran into Bib and Sarah and took a few pictures of our Coast Guard escort out of the port basin. Since the space shuttle is scheduled to launch tomorrow, we were hoping to get a photo of the launch pad, but the weather wasn't cooperative.

By the time we hit the ocean, it was getting time for us to head to dinner. We had opted for early seating (6pm) in the Scarlett Dining room. We found ourselves seated at a large round table for 9 on the second floor of the dining room (technically, the 4th floor of the ship). The entrance to the dining room on that level splits to the left and right, and we were the first large table on the right. It turned out to be a great location because our table was easy to get to, and we could watch everyone coming and going each night. On the flip side, we also got a lot of attention, mainly because we were at a table of 8 women and Frankie.

Dinner was very good. I had shrimp cocktail, gazpacho, sweet and sour shrimp, and creme brulee. Mom had Caesar salad, sweet and sour shrimp, and black forest cake. Most of the others tried the warm chocolate melting cake for dessert, and it was an instant hit. There was a lot of excitement and laughter around our table, so I think we're in for a great week.

Before the cruise, Bib and Sarah had spent some time on the forums on carnival.com and had discovered that one of the bands featured on the ship was from West Virginia, so after dinner, we headed to the Ocean Plaza on the 5th deck (Promenade Deck) to hear them play. They were really good, and we enjoyed their music. We also went to see the Welcome Aboard show in the Encore lounge. The show was hosted by our cruise director, Butch Begovich. Butch hails from Minnesota (yah!) and, according to Bib, looks like a young version of Henry Mitchell (Dennis the Menace's dad).

Finally, we went to the Lido Laser show on the Lido deck at 11:30pm. Unfortunately, the lasers conked out and the show was a bust, but we didn't care. It was a great day, and we're ready for more tomorrow.

P.S. - We shared the ship today with these fine critters known as the Florida Love Bugs. Having gone to college in Florida, they weren't an unusual site to me, but I'd sort of forgotten about them until they were EVERYWHERE. This happens to be a pile of them on the deck.