Let the fun times begin

I think by the time I actually fell asleep, it had to be after 2am.  Oh well, I will be getting lots of rest when I get onboard.  Once we finally got moving, we headed downstairs to grab some breakfast.  Marie arranged transportation to the cruise port with Ace Luxury Transportation ($52 USD / person).  Besides Steve, Linda, Karen and myself, we were joined by four other ladies that had booked the cruise with Marie … Linda, Lorraine, Tracy and Mary Jean.  They had also stayed the night at the Best Western.  We met our driver John shortly before 10:00am and after getting all of the luggage situated in the van, we made the one hour drive to Port Canaveral.  John kept us entertained the entire trip and was even kind enough to stop at a liquor store and a Publix grocery store so that we could pick up provisions.

We arrived at the port around 11:30am and the porters quickly grabbed our bags. Each of us had different boarding times but as we approached the cruise terminal, the Carnival representatives said to just get inside and don’t worry about what time the boarding pass said.  I would have to say that the embarkation process was pretty painless and in about an hour we were on board the Carnival Magic ($1225.06 CAD / person).  While waiting to board, I heard someone say that there are 4055 guests onboard.  This will be different since we are used to ships with about half as many passengers.

Because of the different boarding times, we got separated.  Once Karen and I actually got on the ship, we decided to go to Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que smokehouse.  I was very surprised that there was no line because I had read online that this place can get really busy.  We grabbed our food (pulled pork, beef brisket, potatoe salad, macaroni & cheese) and found a nice picnic table near by.  I was impressed as to how good the food was.

Carnival has something called the Carnival HUB app which besides giving you a ton of information about the ship you are sailing on, they have a deal that for $5 for the duration of the cruise you can chat with others on your cruise.  It is texting on the high seas.  We contacted Marie to let her know where we were.  A little while later, Marie, Brodie (Marie’s son), Teresa (Marie’s sister), Jon (Teresa’s husband), Chris (Marie’s boss from Expedia CruiseShipCenters in Barrie), Maria (Chris’ wife), Donna (friend of Marie) and Bret (Donna’s husband) ended up meeting us at Guy’s.  It was so nice to finally meet up with them.  After finishing up our lunch, we all decided to go and check out our cabins.

We are in cabin 8201 which is the very first cabin on the right had side of the ship.  We actually have the door to the brigde across the hall from us.  I hope that at some point we will meet the captain.  When we entered the room, we were greeted with many gifts.  We received a Carnival tote bag and champagne and chocolate covered strawberries compliments of Expedia CruiseShipCenters Barrie and a fruit supreme with red wine from the Toronto rep for Carnival.  Thanks everyone for the gifts.  I think it pays to know your travel agent.  Afterwards, we went down to the first floor to check out Marie and Brodie’s and Teresa and Jon’s cabin.

At around 3:30pm, we had to head down to the Showtime Theatre for the muster drill.  This was the first cruise we have been on where they actually take attendance by scanning your room key.  This makes it very easy to find people who try and skip out on the drill.  It only took about fifteen minutes and then we were free to start the fun.  We stopped by the Lido  Deck to check out the Caribbean Sail Away Party and we did a bit of exploring of the ship.  It was back to the cabin to relax before dinner.

This is the first time on a cruise where we have a set dining time … 6pm in the Southern Lights Restaurant.  What was great about tonight’s dinner is that all sixteen of us were together.  There was lots of food, lots of laughs and planning for the next cruise.  Christmas Market River Cruise in 2020 .. Isn’t that right Chris?

We ended the night checking out more of ship before heading back to the room to unpack.  What a great start the cruise.

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