1/17/09 DAY THREE – EMBARKATION

Today we got up early again and had our free breakfast, got ready as quick as we could and packed up our stuff to get on our 10 o’clock shuttle to the port. Which came at 11. *sigh* more waiting… got to the port, got all checked in in about 20 minutes (the lines move pretty fast through there) and got onto the ship! They mixed up our pictures on our key cards, so my card had Dan’s picture and visa versa! “Why Meredith aren’t you handsome” the lady said when we went to get it fixed.

Got our free champagne and began our adventure on the Norwegian Dawn. We wandered around a bit, got a drink at the topsider’s bar next to the pool where they have a calypso band playing, and then grabbed lunch at the sweet buffet. The thing takes up 3 rooms, each about 20 feet long, with every kind of food you could possibly want. I had a little bit each of salad, bowtie pasta with alfredo sauce, a slice of some cheese I can’t pronounce, fried rice with eggplant, pizza, fries, and pineapple! Hehe!

After 2, we were able to get into our stateroom. It’s small, but not cramped, and quite comfortable. There’s two twin beds shoved together to make a nearly-king sized one, and there’s a little pull down bed against the wall that says it will hold 330 lbs, however, I don’t think we’ll be letting any 330 lb people sleep in our room 2 feet above our heads! We’re on the very bottom floor—which means that the other, what, 10 floors below us that go under the water are all service and mechanical crap. We can’t hear anything much like engines or anything, so I’m pleased about that. We did notice that the ventilation in the room sounds a bit like someone snoring in the other room... but that doesn’t bug me.

Our porthole is cute, and we can see water crashing up onto the ship when there are big waves. After exploring our room and wondering when our luggage was going to arrive, it was more wandering, hanging at the embarkation party, picture taking, a round of poorly-played cage golf, and a game of gigantic chess (it was REAL wizard’s chess!) Suddenly, we noticed that the cruise ship parked behind us was definitely moving away from us! So we jotted over to the side and took some more pictures and a video of us saying goodbye to the US of A!

Travelling on a cruise ship is weird. When we first got on, it felt like we were just in any other building, no movement whatsoever, and I was prepared to go “psh, I don’t know why everyone talks about motion sickness!” But then, as we pulled out of port, I realized that it does feel very weird.

We went back to our stateroom to see if they had delivered our luggage because my motion-sickness meds were in there and I wanted to take some just to be safe. It feels like you are getting heavier, then lighter, back and forth, and then sometimes, depending on which way you are standing, you have to constantly shift your weight from foot to foot with the waves or else you’ll fall over! It took us a few hours to get used to it and “get our sea legs” as it were, and I feel like I am always drunk, stumbling around.

The Bromine (supposedly less drowsy and lasts longer than Dramamine) kicked in about an hour later, and I was stoned for the rest of the night (but I never felt seasick!) and we found that it was hard to focus on any particular thing. We’d decide where we wanted to go, get up and leave, get to the elevator and go “durrrrrrrrrrrr what were we going to do??” “I don’t know I’m just staring at the words, I can’t read anything right now.”

Then, after more wandering, we ended up in the casino before getting ready for dinner. Went to “Salsa” which was advertised as Tex-Mex and has a $10 cover, but when we went to make our reservation, there’s a sign that says dress code: no tank tops, shorts, or cut-offs, so we figured we’d better dress up a little! For our $10 a piece—which at first I stuck my nose up at (this cruise cost how much???) we got an appetizer, two soups, an entrée, and a dessert! Drinks cost extra but I’d say $10 is quite a deal for all that we got, and the service was great.

The extremely cute waitress kept calling me “my lady,” and put my napkin in my lap for me and opened my menu for me! Dessert was accompanied by an auction on the floor below us in the big atrium, which was mildly entertaining.

Then it was some duty-free shopping (yeah, it’s mostly crap) and back to the casino!! I put $10 in a 2cent slot machine, played for a while and when I starting running out of money it occurred to me that if I bet more, I’d win more, and why shouldn’t I try? And then I won $60. Woohoooo!!! That paid for dinner and for both of us gambling so that is pretty darn sweet.

Then we came back to the stateroom and called it a night. The shower here is pretty good, about as big as any normal stand-up shower, and it has free shampoo and shower gel in a neato dispenser thing. I spent $50 for 100 minutes of internet (sheesh) so you guys better leave me comments and stuff!!