New England and Canada Cruise – Day 1, leaving Boston
October 7th, 2009I’ve also posted the photos from Day 1. Click on any photo in this post to see many more in the full album (from Day 1).
We started the day organizing our luggage and getting ready to board the ship. Bags needed tagging with the special cruiseline luggage tags, and we needed to sort out what we were going to hand carry onto the ship. It took us a while to get ready! We then headed with my mom to find some breakfast. We ended up having a tasty breakfast at a sort of grocery store. Maddie ate a big breakfast while sitting on Nana’s lap (our “high chair” since they had none).
By the time we were finished with breakfast, it was time to gather our belongings and head to the ship. Somehow, we accidentally cut in line during the boarding process (which was an honest mistake). Things seemed like they were going smoothly as we filled out our health forms and acquired our sea pass cards. And then we had to stand around FOREVER waiting to get onto the ship. They were doing some sort of annual Coast Guard inspection, so I believe this was an unusual circumstance. No matter what the case, it was the worst boarding experience that any of us had ever had.
Since we accidentally skipped in the line (oops), they gave us “group 7″ as our boarding time. We still have no idea what that would have meant since my mom arranged priority boarding for us due to the pregnant woman and fidgety toddler. Once the line was finally started, it took a while for it to get moving. The actual boarding was awful as we had a VERY steep climb up to the ship. The man in front of us was in a wheelchair, and it took 3 strong people to get him up the boarding ramp. It was a ridiculous situation. I was concerned about carrying Maddie up that ramp onto the ship.
Once we made it onto the ship, we explored a little and then went to lunch in the Windjammer. Gabe and I were impressed in the differences between our previous ships (Vision of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas) and the Jewel of the Seas. It makes a big difference to be on a much newer ship! The Jewel of the Seas is a little larger than our previous ships, too. We felt that the food in the Windjammer was much better than either of the other ships. We typically avoided the buffet in the past, but this time we were happy enough with it to have lunch and breakfast there almost every day. We did not notice any other kids while we were having lunch.
After lunch, we were excited to finally see our rooms and all of our awesome balconies. This was the first time that we have had a balcony, and we loved it! Maddie especially enjoyed it. Kristin and Chad and our family had hump rooms (8086 and 8088). The hump rooms have enormous balconies, compared to the other rooms. Maddie approved. My parents had an aft room which was also very neat and had a nice balcony.
We put Maddie in the stroller for her afternoon nap and explored the ship while she napped. Gabe and I were impressed by the Jewel of the Seas! It has a lot of nice things that our other ships didn’t have like extra restaurants, mini-golf, water slides, basketball courts, and self-leveling pool tables. Maddie’s nap was cut shorter than usual due to some dancing in the Safari Club. We headed back to our rooms where we found our baggage had been delivered, so we did a little unpacking before the muster drill.
Our meeting location for the muster drill was in the Schooner Bar, and we were not required to bring our life jackets to the drill. I guess we missed out on goofy photo opportunities this time! We did some more unpacking and headed to dinner after spending a little time on Mom and Dad’s balcony.
We were concerned about how dinner would go for Maddie since she had such a short nap, but she did great! She made it through the entire dinner. She was entertained by her new purse which contained some small books, new Little People figures, and her bracelets. The purse and contents were a hit and kept her entertained for part of the meal. The wait staff provided her with crayons each night, so that always entertained her a short while. She also enjoys wiping her tray with the wipes after her meal.
We walked around the ship some more after dinner with Kristin and Chad and ordered a special wine and cheese package for Mom and Dad. Somehow that was a much more complicated process than it should have been! I guess it’s much easier to order those types of packages before you set sail. Gabe and I couldn’t resist going to the casino on the first night. Mom and Chad wanted to go, too. Kristin volunteered to watch Maddie after she went to bed, and the four of us headed to the casino.
We looked for Texas Hold’em and didn’t see a game running, so we played blackjack, roulette, and video poker instead. We all took advantage of the once-per-cruise deal where you can buy $30 worth of chips for $20. Gabe and I did not have a successful first night in the casino!
We went back to the room, hung out a little with Kristin and Chad on our balcony, and went to bed. We didn’t have too much trouble sleeping in our stateroom, but we did notice that we can hear the music from the Centrum in our room. They seem to play pretty late (for us), so we were worried this might be a problem. Our room was the first one on the hall, right next to the elevators and the open 8-story Centrum area.
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