The last time I went on a cruise was in August of 2009. When we first booked this trip many months ago, I was SO excited to go again and to bring Peter and his parents as first-time cruisers. Cruising is such a different kind of vacation and I love how easy it is. Food and drinks are constantly available at no extra charge and there’s always some sort of entertainment going on until the wee hours of the night. No cooking, no cleaning.. nothing but eating, drinking, and relaxing.

Embarkation wasn’t until after 1PM so I spent the first half of Wednesday at work and getting a mani/pedi. After leaving my poor fur babies at home by themselves, my brother took us all to the Port of Long Beach. Embarkation was a breeze and, before we knew it, we were crossing the bridge onto the ship. Yay!! Vacation begins!

Before heading to our room, we went straight for the lunch buffet. ..Of course.. Then, we checked out our room, roamed around the ship, and stood around for forever at the muster drill before heading to dinner.

By dinner, the ship had already started to leave the port and it made dinner an interesting ride. We hadn’t gotten our sea legs yet so we weren’t prepared for the rocking. Regardless, we ate too much for dinner and wobbled back to the deck to enjoy a little welcome celebration dancing and hot chocolate.

We all had an early start to the day so we ended the night early and let the rocking of the ship rock us all to sleep.