Day 2 - July 20

  Tampa, Florida, United States
Sunday, July 20, 2008

The next morning we couldn't get on a shuttle to go to the port until 1.  At first, I was kind of bummed, but it was nice to sleep in and enjoy a relaxing morning.  They let us stay in the room past the check out time since we weren't leaving until later.  We took advantage of the free breakfast to fill us up before we got to the port.  They had a pretty nice selection of breakfast items as well.  We checked out and sat in the lobby and worked on a crossword puzzle together.

Crossword

Finally, the shuttle came to take us to the port.  It was only Kevin and I on the shuttle.

We got to the port around 1:30 and checked in.  It was pretty easy.  The line was long, but it went pretty fast and I was too excited to notice we were waiting in line.  We had been upgraded from an inside guarantee to an obstructed view balcony.  Neither of us have had a balcony room before!
 
We were on the ship and in our room in less than an hour from when we arrived at the port.  The first thing we did was try to switch our dinner.  We really wanted anytime dining or a table for two.  We headed to Truffles to make a request and got behind some lady who felt she deserved to have whatever seating she wanted.  (From what I gathered, she wanted early dining because she had kids and late dining wasn't feasible.)  She was being very loud and rude to the assistant maitre'd .  Her reasoning for being able to get what she wanted?  "We paid top dollar for this cruise and everyone else here is a budget cruiser and since we spent so much money we should be able to get what we want.  It's only fair that we paid so much for this cruise and everyone else paid so little that we can't get our dining choice!"  And so on and so forth.  Kevin and I were trying really hard not to laugh at her.  If everyone else on the ship paid so little for their cruise, why are you the only person who paid "top dollar?" 
 
We actually felt bad for the maitre'd.  This lady was really throwing a fit over this.  We commented more than once that we kind of hoped she didn't get the time she wanted.  When we went and asked to be switched the maitre'd looked like she was expecting us to yell at her.  We told her nicely that we understood it was only a request and that if it didn't work out, it was really no big deal.  She seemed very relieved.  She said we'd find out tomorrow if we were switched or not.
 
We went back to our room briefly to check out the balcony.

Balcony

I really enjoyed having a balcony.   It was so nice to sit outside and be alone and in peace.  The sun wasn't unbearable and the wind wasn't overpowering.  We had a room that was partially in between two lifeboats, so we could see down onto the deck below us.  Even with the lifeboats there, you could see out perfectly fine.

Balcony1

You just couldn't look straight down.  I would get an obstructed view balcony again if it was a lot less than a regular balcony. 

Room1

 

After we went to explore the ship to get a feel for the layout and see what it had to offer.

Legend-Lido

We took some pictures and then we had to head back for the muster drill.  I'm glad we didn't get there very early.  We went pretty much right when they called us, but there were still a bunch of people there before us.

Muster Drill

They lined you up on the deck and put the first groups in the back and then lined others up in front of them.  I can imagine if I were in the back for that long I would have started to feel very claustrophobic back there. We only had one line in front of us and I was starting to feel too closed in.  It didn't take very long and we went back to exploring.

Elevator1

We did go up for sailing under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. 

Bridge1

It is very impressive and it really did look like we weren't going  make it under.  You only clear the bridge by 6 feet!  

Bridge2

They blew the horn afterwards and I thought I was going to go deaf because we were right underneath the horn. 

Horn

 
We got ready for dinner and went to the dining room.  We were seated with a very nice couple who we enjoyed very much, but we ended up switching tables the next day because we had already asked for a table for two.  (Our last cruise we had a very bad experience with tablemates, so we decided to request the switch first thing.  We regretted it a little bit.  Maybe next time, we'll wait and see what happens the first night.  It was nice sitting just the two of us though.  I hate making small talk!)
 
The food was delicious and stayed that way through the whole cruise.  We also tried our first warm chocolate melting cakes!  After dinner, we saw the Welcome Aboard show and met the cruise director, Shawn Bussey.  We both liked her and thought she was funny.  The Welcome Aboard show was cute.  

Sunset

After the show, we went up and changed and went and found a small late night snack and had some really good hot chocolate which we would never find again.  We found our first towel animal!  

Towel1

We looked over the capers and watched some Carnival TV and then went to bed. 

Tomorrow was a sea day...