Cruise Days 1 & 2: the LONG version...

December 14:

Went to the temple terrace ward in Tampa this morning for sacrament meeting.  Took the bus from Ginny's (our Air B&B host) and walked from the bus stop. After sacrament meeting, we wanted to explore Lettuce Lake park.  Unfortunately, the entrance to the park was WAY farther away than we thought. I got too nervous about time to continue the pursuit after an hour, so we headed back to Ginny's (funny moment note: some guy getting on the bus accidentally tried to put a $100 bill in the fare counter.  He and the bus driver had a heck of a time trying to pull it out), packed up, and called for an Uber driver.  He arrived in less than 10 min and we had no trouble finding the port. 

Turns out we had plenty of time, even got to our room and settled in with 5 minutes to spare before the two hour boarding cutoff. Got our luggage checked, went through security, and got on the huge, beautiful 12 level Norwegian Sun! We explored the ship, ate a burger and fries, did the emergency drill where we were packed in like sardines underneath our would-be life boat.

Then ate at the poolside BBQ and ate ice cream, watched the ship go under the bridge (we watched from the Observation Lounge on the front of the ship and we were happy to get one last phone call from the bridge from our kids), and tried to go hot tubbing.  Unfortunately, it should have been called tepid tubbing because they were not at all hot! Freezing, we scampered back into our room after meeting a "19-year-old" third grader named "IDontKnow" and his hilarious mom...Then we ate more at the garden cafe (prime rib, green olives, great salads!) then watched the intro show. Production cast is awesome. Comedian not that funny... Now relaxing and reading in stateroom 9019. 

Note for future cruise: bring a lanyard to hang your key card on... I don't have pockets in most of the clothes I brought... 

December 15:
Slept well and woke to the gentle lapping of the cruise ship heading 23 land miles per hour through the Gulf of Mexico. I went to a Zumba class by the pool, then came back and Jon and I went running/jogging respectively around the deck 6 track. 3.5 laps around equals one mile. Jon ran about 4 miles, I ran one.

Then we took a picture or two... or a lot... around the ship at the request of Larry.  We got separated for a bit while trying to take pictures in the panoramic elevator. 

 Luckily, we ran into each other on level 11 and proceeded to the garden cafe for a small spot of breakfast...at 11am. Then we played shuffleboard with a cute little Russian family; two little boys and their dad. Then we went to one of the more formal dining rooms: Seven Seas, and had a sit down lunch. Then we wandered around more looking for the marketplace.  Didn't find it, but ended up sea watching and finding flying fish!! 

Schools of them jumping out of the water as the ship went past! At first, I thought they were birds, but upon further observation, realized they were not coming back out of the water after diving in... Plus we are way too far from land to have birds hanging around. Jon got a couple good pictures. 

We got a towel in the shape of a crab left on our bed. 

Sunbathed, took a dip in the pool, read, went in the hot tub that was actually hot this time--hooray-- had dinner at the Garden Cafe after finding the upstairs one closed for a private event... I finally found the marketplace and bought sunglasses. Caught the end of the newlywed show and watched the pure variety show. I give it 3.5/5. Played a game of ping pong (Jon won, just barely) and got some snacks and hot chocolate. While walking back to our room, we noticed the pools were being emptied.  Where does the water come from? Then we watched the presentation on Mayan people from earlier in the day. The TV in the room plays the stuff that happened on the boat all day...We are ready to explore Routan... and get off the boat!!!