April Part 1: Cruise Day 1-Embarkation Day

April 1, 2023 dawned with joy and anticipation in our Rancho Cucamonga hotel; it was finally embarkation day! When making our plans, we made a conscious effort to pick our check-in time so that it was after the first session of General Conference was finished so that we could listen to at least one session before setting sail without internet or data. After breakfast and packing up, we listened to a little bit of conference while we gathered the last few things, and then headed out to the van to complete the final leg of our journey--well, at least the final automobile leg. We took our time getting there so that we could listen to conference, and we realized that it is a lot easier to be a kind driver when you're not in a hurry. Brian let anyone who needed to in front of us, stuck to the outer lane, and drove right at the speed limit. We decided to fill the van up with gas beforehand so that after our cruise, we could just start heading home. With 15 minutes before the two hour session of conference ended, we pulled into the cruise terminal, and Gabe excitedly proclaimed, "We made it!" Traffic was a bit backed up, and we were okay with that. It took maybe ten more minutes to park, and we made everyone sit in the car to finish out the session, which was hard because we were so excited! Finally, we said "amen" after the prayer and started unloading the car to head to check-in. We were quite the train of luggage; a week is a long time!

We realized when we were packing up on Thursday that we were short a lanyard, so the first order of business was to get a new lanyard for Michael, and, bless him, he picked the least expensive one there. We were still early for check-in, but they were already lining up for our time slot, so we got in line, applied sunscreen, and took a picture. As Gabe said, we had made it!

Check in was fairly quick, and then we took a group photo in front of the picture of our ship, 

and then we waited. And waited. The boys discovered a few arcades tucked against a wall and entertained themselves for a bit. 

But mostly we waited, and wondered why we were in such a hurry to sit around and wait. I finally looked at my phone and noticed that they were delayed with debarkation, and I think that's why it took so long to get going. Last time we cruised with Carnival, we had booked a suite, which mean we had priority boarding, and we didn't remember waiting so long. 

Finally, though, they called us up and we started up the long ramp to the ship. 

Even though we were super excited, we stopped for a group selfie with the actual ship. 

They sent us directly to our muster station for self-mustering orientation. We entered the ship on deck 5, and there wasn't really an exciting party to greet us like last time, so we were a little disappointed in that, and we were a bit hangry, so when our mustering orientation seemed like it was never going to start, some of us started getting grumpy. Finally, though, they did the Orientation, and we were able to head to the lido deck to find food--after waiting and waiting for an elevator. The ship had they type of elevator that your just put what floor you want and it tells you what elevator to get on, but no one on ship realized that you're actually supposed to enter the deck number once per person, so every elevator it told us to get on was full. Finally, though, there was enough room on one to squeeze the six of us into. 

We stopped for another group picture with the towel mascot, and then Brian, Mom, and I stepped to the side to gather our wits and decide where to eat. We looked up and noticed that the kids were still posing with the towel mascot of their own free will, without us asking them too. We knew that we had to buy this picture! 

We all agreed that we we needed to eat at Guy's Burger Joint because those of us who had eaten there last year had been craving it ever since, and we'd talked it up to those who didn't have it enough that they were itching to try it. Nobody was disappointed! Michael, Brian, Mom, and I had Bottomless Bubbles, and so we also took advantage of getting our sodas and sipping it at our table. 

Though it was April in California, the breeze made it still a bit chilly, so we made our way to the loungers in the sun

and the kids made their way to the soft serve machines for the thing they loved most about cruising: unlimited ice cream! No snow, endless food, people serving us--we had made it! 

We got the kids all squared away for their clubs, and then we were finally able to check into our rooms, so we headed there to do so, listening to the second session of conference while we did it, but it was a little tricky to focus on it, and we had decided we'd only stay in the rooms as long as the kids had things to do. Did we mention that we had the girls in one room and the boys in another? And there were four or five staterooms in between? Michael was so excited to have an actual, non-roll-a-way bed this time. This was the kids second cruise, and first time staying in a balcony room instead of a suite. Rachel mentioned that she found the room bigger than expected. 

After we were finished unpacking, we headed back to the Lido deck where the kids went swimming and the the adults headed to the cabanas by the pool where we could put our feet in a little bit of water. 

Some partying started happening on deck, and I tried to be involved, but only from my seat. 

I did get up to dance with Michael, and Brian and Mom took advantage of the opportunity to take a selfie without me

Or did they?! 

Soon, we decided to go get ready for dinner, so we headed back to the rooms again, and Michael took advantage of his bed and the view. 

We checked in for dinner and tried to figure out where the restaurant was. We had never gone out and explored the ship, so it took us a few days to really get our bearings, but we found it, never fear. We didn't have a set dinner time because we had booked too late, so for the first time we tried out this flexible dining thing. They put us toward the back of the ship, and we loved having the beautiful view out the back windows as we went. Gabe couldn't help but wander over to get a better view. 

We encouraged the kids to try new things, so I decided to take my own advice and ordered Strawberry Bisque for my appetizer. We all laughed in confusion when they brought me this. 

I would have been upset if I had ordered this in a restaurant that wasn't all inclusive. Fancy food seems to be like this, right? Our server came back after giving everyone else their appetizers and grinning asked, "How do you like your bisque?" I had taken a tiny nibble, so I honestly replied, "It's good," at which point he laughingly produced a little pitcher and filled my bowl with pink liquid. It was a pretty good April Fools' Day joke. Not sure if that was what he was going for, but it was pretty funny. This cold soup tasted kind of like strawberry quick or a melted strawberry milkshake. 

The ship photographers game by for pictures. This is the only one we wanted to keep. Oh yeah, and back in the world, it was the NBA Finals. Michael remembered, maybe Brian, but most of us didn't care. 

Mom and I ventured out together to run to our rooms for something, and we were stunned that we got an elevator all to ourselves. We had to take a picture because we knew nobody would believe it. 

We were all delighted by the towel animals that housekeeping left for us. 

And Gabe and Rachel were excited to see our couches converted to their sleeping berths in time for bed. 

At dinner, I asked everyone for their best and worsts of the day and recorded them in Google Keep. We generally ask for Best and Worst and home during dinner because it usually gives us a pretty good idea of how the day went for each of them. Here's everyone's best and worst for Embarkation Day:

Best:

Gabe: going on the slides with Rachel

Rachel: swimming with Gabe and taking a really long shower after

Michael: Guys Burger joint or the bed in the room

Mom: when Gabe said “we made it!” When we pulled up to the terminal. And when we sailed out of port

Devri: dinner with everyone

Brian: Dance party at take off

Worst:

Gabe: when we’re had to wait for an hour and ten minutes

Rachel: every single moment before we started doing activities

Michael: waiting in the dome

Devri: muster drill—- confusing, not what I was expecting, hangry mom

Mom: all the waiting, onboarding how it was handled. 

Brian: the embarkation process