Monday, April 21, 2014

Bon Voyage

David drove Steve to the Orlando airport on Saturday, March 29th, to pick up our rental car. While we enjoyed nice weather the whole time in Florida, a large storm system was moving through and we were leaving in heavy rain. It was a bit challenging to get everything into the rental car without getting soaked but we were soon on the way. We took the Turnpike south all the way to Fort Lauderdale. We arrived at the hotel around dinner time.

Instead of going out to dinner, we went to Walmart and bought a few snacks. We spent the night in the hotel and after breakfast in the room, we drove to the airport to return the car. It was now Sunday, March 30. At the drop off, they told us where to find the shuttle to the port. We had perfect timing as a bus was just loading up. They dropped us off right in front of our ship. We checked in and had to wait for a little while at the port.

We boarded the ship in the early afternoon and were told that our room was not yet ready. We made our way to the Lido deck to have lunch. As we were finishing our meal, an announcement was made that all rooms were ready. We went down to the main deck (1) to our room 1058. It was an inside room in the middle of the ship. We were quite pleased with the size of the room. It had a queen size bed, a couch that folded out into a single bed and a bunk bed. Overall, it was very roomy for a basic cruise-ship cabin. The room had a small bathroom with a shower.

We had reserved early seating for dinner (at 5:45 PM) and still had plenty of time before that. We got our bathing suits on and went to the pool. As we were getting into the pool, a woman that was already swimming told us that she did not think kids were allowed in the pool. We confirmed the pool in the middle of the Lido deck was the family pool and went on swimming. I was a bit irritated by the incident but the woman apologized later. Someone told her that the middle pool was for adults only. The big difference between the two pools is that the one in the middle has a retractable roof and therefore is much warmer than the pool in the back of the ship.







Stevie playing air hockey at Club Hals



We ate a lot of meals at open dining because we slept in every day



The ship's monitor kept us up to date on position, weather, speed etc....
We traveled a total of 4853 miles to cross the Atlantic.



We don't dress like this in Tennessee unless someone has died or is getting married




The kids are totally embracing the concept of cruising and having fun on the high seas



Shuffle Board and ping pong became a popular activity



The girls getting ready for formal night


We got dozens of compliments on how beautiful and well mannered of children were.  There were only 14 kids on the Eurodam which had over 2,000 passengers


Our ship left the port shortly after 4 PM. I have to admit I was a little anxious. I was thinking we were crazy to take our kids all the way across the Atlantic. We had 6 days at sea ahead of us with our first stop being in the Azores on Sunday, April 6th.The sea was quite choppy. Most of the way, the waves were about 18 ft tall, reaching 21 ft on Friday, April 4th. But remarkably, this did not seem to affect the ship much. We could feel the ship roll every now and then but overall it was a very smooth ride.  More to come...

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