We woke up super early Sunday morning. We had to leave the hotel by 5 am, so we woke up around 4 to get ready, make sure we had everything packed and get downstairs. The elevators were out this morning which made things even better.
Cameron and I doing "octopus" in the hotel while we waited for everyone.
Paris at 5 am:
Getting everything in the vans so we could head to the airport.
We drove by the Arc on the way to the airport.
We had some drama getting our bags checked, but finally got it all sorted out, made our way through security, got some breakfast and boarded our plane to Barcelona.
It was a short flight, but we still had enough time for a short nap.
We got to Barcelona and made our way to baggage claim. We got almost all of bags when the conveyor stopped moving. Great! We then heard an announcement that said if you are missing bags from ---- flight (our flight) go see lost luggage. Awesome! Mary and Gary were missing both of their bags, Taylor and Cameron were missing their bags and Stephen was missing a bag. We spent a lot of time getting things sorted out and in the end we were told that all of our bags were still in Paris and they would try and get them to us at one of the ports on our cruise. In the meantime we could buy what we needed in moderation and we would be reimbursed. This definitely put a damper on the beginning of our cruise, but we tried to make the best of it.
We got on buses to head to the cruise ship. Here is what we saw of Spain on the way to the cruise ship.
I had a breakdown on the bus getting to the cruise ship. I was exhausted and I missed my baby so much! We were so busy in Paris that while I thought about him all the time I had a lot of other things occupying my mind. Sitting on the airplane, dealing with the lost luggage, and then sitting on the bus driving to the cruise ship just put me over the edge. I was a crying mess! I pulled myself together when we got off the bus and then they made us take a group picture. This day was just getting better and better. Of course everyone looks great and I look horrible!
Once we got on the ship we went and had lunch and then our rooms opened up at 1. We headed straight to bed and fell right asleep. We were woken up at 4 to sirens and people banging on our room. We had to go to the emergency preparedness meeting. Great!
It was actually good that we woke up though and I was definitely feeling better after resting and my spirits were back up.
After the emergency meeting we all went to the pool to get a drink and watch the send off.
We quickly named this the "wienie bar". There were 3 pools on the boat, one for kids, one for anyone, and one for adults only. This bar was next to the adults only pool and it was quickly claimed by a group of 500 gay guys who were all traveling together. This was our meeting point and all week we would tell people we would meet at the "wienie bar" or the "wienie pool".
This was our view as the ship left the dock.
We then went to explore the boat some. This is the Royal Promenade where you can shop and there are some restaurants as well.
The casino where Stephen spent quite a bit of time.
We went to the Winjammer to get a snack since our dinner seating was at 9:30. This was the view from the Winjammer. Not bad!
They had sushi! We all had some!
We hadn't seen Steve and Nancy since we got on the ship, so we went to find them. They had a balcony in their room so we all watched the sunset.
Today was Cameron's 15th birthday and also Father's Day. Cameron was having a rough night and decided not to join us for dinner. We celebrated Father's Day with cards at dinner. I got choked up again. I was missing my baby and seeing his pictures on the cards I made Steve and Stephen made me cry.
The guys hit up the casino that night. Taylor could gamble and drink since he is 18 so he joined them at the blackjack table. They all came away winners that night and had a lot of fun together!
It was such a long day, but we were happy to finally be on the ship.
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