The life of a rooster

Embark, Muster, and Pass Out

Woke up this morning feeling fine, and going to the mall across the street was on our minds. Since we were informed by Carnival that they do not start boarding until 1:30pm, we figured we would leave the hotel at noon to get to the port an hour early, figuring that they would be boarding. This meant a long morning with keeping Alyssa from going bonkers. As it were, she was already hopping with excitement and asked us just about every 5 minutes if we were going on the boat today or when??!! So we called to the front desk and they assured us that the mall across the street opened at 10am. We promptly headed over there at 10 just to find a lot of locked entrances. Turns out the mall opens at noon on Sundays, but no one seemed to know this since we were just three of many waiting for the mall to open at 10. Oh well, that sucked. Back to the hotel it was.
We hopped on our taxi at noon and shortly thereafter arrived at the port (maybe 15 min. drive and $20 fair). Then the mayhem began. Nearly the entire ship arrived around noon to board, with many already on. Boarding took awhile, but the most annoying thing was that every 10 feet the Carnival folks were demanding ID or cruise docs and then handing you a piece of paper. Such important papers told us that the lunch room was ready, but not our cabins. The next paper informed us of a Camp Carnival meeting at 7:30pm (nevermind we were still a ways from even boarding). Soon another paper listed several FAQs that were covered in our trip docs, brochures, online, etc. Don’t get me wrong, the information is nice, but the problem is just as soon as they smile at you, hand you a piece of paper with little information on it, and say “how are you?” – then they immediately turn mean and say “ID and Cruise Docs need to be HANDY!” Well, okay, but everytime you hand us a piece of garbage, we have to do something with it and that interferes with Carnival Doctrine 41h which reads you SHALL have ID and Cruise Docs handy at all times. Isn’t this the fun ship??
We are having fun. But let me gripe some more just for fun. We board and find a chair to store our new found library of information while keeping cruise docs and IDs handy….and now with the added bonus of keeping our FUN PASS room and charge card handy. First order of business, food…but wait, is that a bar?? Mmmm…we are thirsty and buying your soda card early is key on a cruise so you can maximize it’s use. So we strolled up to the bar and asked one of the many bar keeps to hook us up. Oh wait, is that a handy Carnival travel cup to go along with my fun soda package?? Well, I will be… get us two of those too. This should be easy…charge me $30 for unlimited beverages and another $5 for the handy travel cup thing and on my way. Coke and a smile….except a 10 minute wait. Nevermind the swarms of people asking for exactly the same thing as us and coming and going within 2 minutes, our bar tender took her time…10 minutes to be exact. Then she brings us two empty cups and says “Would you like me to fill these too?” – Nevermind.. Food!
Everyone boarded at noon, everyone headed straight to the café for food. This entire ship is so much different then the two Royal Carrib. Ships that we have been on. RC’s tend to have large open atriums. This felt a lot more cramped in areas, but overall it adds more dimension to the ship – more places to go and see and get lost. The café, likewise was seemingly crowded since everyone had nothing else to do, and finding all the food possibilities will take a few meals, but needless to say, we were already impressed…except Alyssa who at this point was reaching her bottled up energy max and starting to initiate the launch sequence. Jump jump, wiggle wiggle, bounce bounce bounce…
I got food for her and Jule first and then found my way around for my own plate. We sampled a variety from sandwiches (you know me) to yummy Asian food, to fruit, pickles, salads, cookies, and some neat olives. Jule had to take the bouncing bundle of energy for a few laps around the aft of the ship (if she saw the swimming pool to the bow, we’d be in trouble). Once Bouncy and Jule returned, we went to our now-ready rooms.
Room 6115 is the furthest forward balcony on the Empress (6th) deck. Our adjoining room, 6109 is an inside cabin room tucked into the bow of the ship, and therefore no room for a balcony. This being so far forward on the ship, the balcony in 6115 is nearly twice the length of a normal balcony – meaning we got the standard two deck chairs and table PLUS a sun lounger. Our position on the ship puts us 3 cabins from the forward stair case and thus 3 cabins from the laundry room (mom, I know this is making you jealous – only 3 cabins away!!). We are also one floor away from Noah’s Ark – aka Alyssa’s daycare for the next 7 days.
We’ve been settled in the rooms now for about 4 hours and the bulk of our luggage arrived about an hour ago. I took a few laps around the ship while Jule rested and Alyssa watched Diego. From our ship, we overlooked the Tampa Aquarium and water park – loads of kiddies having a wet and wild time. We were parked in front of the American Victory, a WWII Freedom Ship troop transport. We were about 2 blocks from the arena where the TB Lightning play. Upon returning to our room –it was time for the MUSTER drill – or for those who haven’t cruised, the life boat, life preserver drill. We talked the 3 flights down to our Muster Station A and were parked against the wall. Rows and rows and rows of people filed out behind us and were parked in front of us…so much so that poor Alyssa at knee height (we couldn’t pick her up because we all had big bulky life preservers on) began to quickly overheat due to lack of air circulation. She was getting gripey and we just figured she was tired. Then Jule leaned down and noticed how amazingly hot it was down there and immediately pulled Alyssa up. The poor kid passed out from exhaustion, but we cooled her down from fanning (and taking off her life preserver) that she was okay, just tired. She slept during the entire drill, and now we were herded like cattle back into the cool areas of the ship taking turns carrying Alyssa and life preservers. To avoid the crowds, we snuck up the stairwell we came down, but these stairs were a lot steeper than the others, so 3 flights of alternating dead weight and we both felt like sherpas on Everest.
So we are back in the room – the ship departed promptly at 4pm as we pulled away from the dock and out into Tampa Bay. It is time to head over to the dining hall for our first dinner there (more food). I’m going to try to get into a $25 Hold ‘Em tournament at 7:30 while Jule and Alyssa attend the Camp Carnival orientation (one of our many pieces of paper we got upon boarding). Weather is great – lows 80s, not super humid just yet, light breeze and lots of sunshine.
As advertised, we are having FUN – and I am amazed at how different an experience Carnival already has been than Royal C. - some good, some not so – but our rooms are great, lots of room to move about and very cozy. Time to go meet the waiter and our table mates.
Ahoy.