A Cruise on the Carnival Dream

The big day of our cruise departure had finally come! There was just a little preparation to do first. The night before the guy at the local liquor store convinced us that we needed to smuggle alcohol onto the ship because it's outrageously priced once aboard. Makes sense. The store very wisely sold just the solution: individual little packets of rum that don't set out the luggage detectors. I tossed around the idea of duct taping the whole thing to my body like a suicide bomber, but we went with the less dramatic method: just putting it in my suitcase. Worked like a charm.

This whole trip I kept having these moments where I would forget it was Christmas-time and then be reminded by some hideous decoration somewhere. Christmas and the winter cold are inexorably linked in my head. Christmas in Florida never felt quite right.

Port Canaveral was a little town whose sole purpose seemed to be catering to the cruise industry. It seemed like you could always see the giant floating buildings in the distance no matter where you were.

That first step onto the ship was really something. Sure, there were lots of people scurrying around trying to get to their rooms, but I was feeling exuberant. There was music pumping, and lot's of new sights to see. Even the elevator ride was noteworthy. Despite the fact we were on a boat, we had twelve floors to climb in a glass elevator before we arrived at our room. Even the inside of the ship was quite a view.

We were ballin' on the 12th floor spa level, so the room's balcony had a great view.

I thought the room itself was a little cheesy, but Lydia liked it more. The pastel Asian prints gave the place a strange Chinese restaurant feel. It was nice otherwise though.

We had some time to kill before the ship left the dock, so once we had our room settled we poked around a bit to see what we could find.

The library was pretty funky looking as well.

Delivered to the room daily was this little newspaper type document that listed where the ship was going that day and other useful information. It's primary purpose though, was to outline the day's fun. We were impressed how much cool sounding stuff there was available to do, although we would quickly become burnt out in the coming days.

There was a safety presentation given in this auditorium type area. I was impressed that the ship was large enough to accommodate rooms so large.

Twins? Twins.

I was also impressed by the technology present on the ship. Sure, calling home from the room phone cost $1.99 a minute, but I'd say it's well worth a $50 call to my mom if it is beamed out of something looking like this. Am I right?

I hadn't anticipated how much fun it would be when the ship left the dock. There was lots of giant horn honking, and the people on land waved to us. It really contributed to the feeling we were about to do something epic.

I waved back from the balcony of my highest room on the ship, but my waves were filled with contempt for the land ants I was leaving behind. Eat my wake landlubbers, eat my wake.

That night we dined in a room right out of a 1960's evil spaceship.