We Are Cruisin!

This year Jeremy reached his sales goals with his company, so we got to go on a cruise! :) That was the sales incentive. We just got home yesterday and it was so much fun!! We took a 7 day cruise down the Mexican Riviera. I'll start from the beginning, so you don't miss a thing.

We dropped the kids off at various homes on Saturday night. They were all VERY excited to be going on mini-trips themselves. Nathan went to his friend, Alex's house. Athena and Samantha stayed with my parents, and Alexandra stayed with Lisa. Jeremy's sister watched Max. After all the rounds were done, we got home late, made one last trip to Walmart, and then came home and went to bed. After getting up super early on Sunday morning, driving to the airport, flying to LAX, and getting on a shuttle bus to the port terminal, we FINALLY made it to our cruise ship! The Mariner of the Seas. It's a Royal Caribbean ship.

Here is Jeremy getting ready to board the ship.

As always, we found our room and I just had to get a few pictures of our accommodations before we dirtied everything up with our stuff. Our cabin was very small, I think it was around 135 sq. ft.

I had to get several pictures of the bathroom because it was so tiny that I couldn't just stand back and get a big view of the whole thing. This is the vacuum toilet. WATCH OUT!

Sink and mirror.

Itsy bitsy shower. During our cruise, one of our friends told us that he dropped the soap in the shower and it was so tight in there that he had to get out of the shower, then bend over to get it, and get back in.

Our stateroom had a window that overlooked the promenade deck below. That was really nice because it made our room seem not so closed in. We also had a pretty good view for people watching.

That's the vanity.

So, all in all our room wasn't too bad. We didn't spend much time there anyway, so how much space do you really need? After putting our stuff away we took off to explore the ship. This is the emblem out on the activity deck.

This is looking across the upper deck where the jogging track was. Below are the swimming pools and hot tubs.

ME!

These are the pools.

We were on the ship for about 4 hours before it left the port. Jeremy and I spent a long time watching the cargo ships load and unload the containers. It's fun to imagine what is in all of those huge containers. Exactly what are they hauling? And will any of it end up in my house eventually?

This is inside the ship, looking down from one of the elevators. The elevators went all the way from Deck 1 to Deck 14. This ship is huge!

Before we left port, we had to do the whole safety check drill by the lifeboats.This is everyone at our meeting stations. We had to stand there FOREVER and wait for people who were late, until everyone was there. I think we stood here for about 1/2 hour just waiting. Then they did the drill. I think they should have the late people pay the rest of us who were actually there when we were supposed to be.

Finally, when that was all done it was time to leave. :) Well, we had to wait for this cargo ship to pass first . . . then we left.

I find it quite amazing how the captain can guide an enormous ship through such a small passage. Jeremy took a few really pretty pictures as we started to sail.

I took this one, because Jeremy couldn't balance the camera very well on the railing and I was just standing there doing nothing.

Then I gave the camera back and he took more pictures.

Once the excitement was past, it was time for us to get to dinner. Our dinner time each night was at 6:00pm in the dining room. We had great seats for dinner! We were right by the window, nestled in a little corner. I took this picture from the window of the dining room. The sun is setting behind Catalina Island.

This is the action inside the dining room. Art was explaining something to someone. I'm sure it was easier to understand once he added the hand gestures.

There were about 30 of us from Jeremy's work and we got to sit together each night. It made dinner quite entertaining. Definitely something to look forward to! Here are some more from our group.

Ah, here we are in our perfect seat. Nice dinner view, huh?

That's the end of Day one. It was very tiring and busy, but a good start to the week. :)