10:40 A.M.
Saturday April 24, 2004
When I woke up this morning I got cleaned up and headed down to the lobby for a HUGE breakfast. I called mom and dad one last time and told them I was on my way to the ship.
I went up to the room and labeled my bags with my cabin number and met our group back in the lobby where we all jumped on a bus to the port. The bus ride to the port was long and unbearably hot. I had sweat dripping from every area of my body and my hair was soaking wet.
We finally arrived at the port 45 minutes later and the bus driver locked us on the bus for about an hour while the ship attendants removed our luggage from the lower bins on the sides of the bus. The guys on the bus were loud and obnoxious while trying to convince the driver to let us off of the bus.
After the luggage was all laid out on the sidewalk next to the bus we had to make sure that our luggage was present. We then passed through customs and joined a long line of people waiting to board the boat.
Once we boarded deck A, men in suits and white gloves escorted all of us one by one to our rooms. As the man opened the door I threw my bag on the bed and made myself comfortable. I laid there for a few minutes and then rushed out to take a quick tour of the ship with Jen and Linda.
Just as we were walking up to the hallway where our suites were at there was a loud siren sound. The captain was calling everyone to a practice lifeboat drill on the observation deck.
Jen, Linda, and I put our life jackets on and made our way up the stairs where the lifeboats were. There were already hundreds of people gathered up there standing at attention, looking so serious as the ship attendants were calling out cabin numbers. I passed through small groups of people looking for my large group. Every time I heard another number rattled off I replied, �BINGO!�
I don�t think the cabin steward�s liked that so much, because they shot me a few dirty looks and one guy actually shook his pointer finger in my face and said, �Don�t Do That!�
About 7 minutes later the drill was over and I followed our group up to the LIDO deck for a hot dog and some munchies. I was starving by this time and ate two of everything.
Lunch wasn�t spectacular, but it filled me up.
I followed Jen and Linda for a bit as they explored other areas of the boat and then walked back to my room to take a catnap before the cocktail reception.
We all had to wear Hawaiian shirts that had been provided by the company that sponsored the trip to the cocktail party.
I took lots of pictures again, and caught view of some guys sitting at a table. They didn�t appear to be agents and they were actually my age. It was the first time I had seen guys, other than Kaleb that were close to my age.
I walked over and introduced myself, and took their pictures.
Who knew that my introduction would lead to something so great!
After the party I met Edith for dinner in the Odyssey restaurant. It was normally 20 dollars a head, but there was a special for the first night and it was only 10. I had filet and some strange appetizers.
Dinner filled me up so much that I didn�t feel like doing much of anything afterwards.
I walked from the restaurant to my room, took a shower and went to the casino to let Jen and Linda know I wasn�t going to be staying out late.
I popped my head into the disco and the crappy music the dj was playing only reinforced my decision to go to bed early.
I passed the group of younger guys on my way back up to my room and didn�t say a word. I turned around as I was walking to see where they were going and the blond guy turned around and shot me a smile as he watched to see which room I stopped at to insert my key.
I turned on the television and fell asleep by 9:30.
I could swear someone kept knocking on my door, and I heard a telephone ring at least a dozen times, but the ring sound was low and I didn�t think it was coming from my phone.
