On June 1, we checked out of our fancy Universal Studios digs and headed south to Miami. We needed to meet back up with Lara who had left her pillow at the hotel after leaving a bit before us. This really worked out since Gabe had left his tablet in Lara's car. We ended up near a delightful French bakery for the hand-off.
[Update: In response to this post, Lara wrote: "I...have to just set the record straight that you literally only made it out of the hotel and to the nearest shopping parking lot to get the tablet. I drove the whole way to you!" She is correct. We took so long getting out of the hotel and locating her pillow after we realized about the tablet and pillow that she had driven a half an hour back before we made it much further than the hotel parking lot, despite our desire to meet in the middle. Thank you, Lara.]
After making the swap and saying goodbye to Lara for the second time, we all picked out some pastries for brunch and began our journey once again. Gabe claimed the back seat, which is usually where Michael rides.
The drive was pretty uneventful, and as we entered Miami, I blasted "Miami" by Will Smith. It had to be done. The kids acted like they thought we were weird, but I think they secretly thought it was an amazing song and appreciated being introduced to it in such a spectacular fashion. We thought we had navigated to our hotel, but somehow, we just navigated to just Miami. We ended in in a random spot downtown. It was fun to see disappointing because we were getting hungry and thought that we were almost done being in the car. Instead, we had an extra 15-20 minutes more of driving.
Somewhere along the way, we found Julia's water bottle in our car, so we tracked down food near a UPS store to hurry and send it to her before the UPS store closed. We got the bottle sent, finally got food at a chicken place that was unexpected, and we may have even made it to the pool--well some of us, meaning Rachel and Gabe.
After Gabe went to bed, we found Star Wars on TV, and Rachel, Michael, Brian and I watched it together.
The next morning, we hit up a nearby Sacrament Meeting, and I loved that the old building had this plaque with "Southern States Mission" on it. I felt an affinity to this little branch; if I had served my mission when this building was erected, I would have been in this same mission.
After sacrament meeting, we went back to the hotel because Brian couldn't find his wedding ring. Unfortunately, he couldn't find it there. Feeling anxious about the ring, Brian dropped Rachel, me, and our luggage off at the cruise port, and then he and the boys dropped our van off at the rental place. We did this to make getting an Uber back to the cruise port less complicated and less expensive as three can easily take any Uber but five with lots of luggage requires an Uber XL. Here are the boys in the Uber between the rental place and the cruise port.
And here's Rachel and I patiently waiting for them to return. Thankfully there was a bench and shade and books for us to read.
Finally, we were back together an it was time to embark! We made it through security and check-in, and then boarded the ship.
Since we booked a suite, we were able to go to our room right away and drop off our bags. We got some lunch, most likely from Guy's Burger Joint.
Ben and Jenny's family made it onboard an hour or two later, so we met up for games and ship explorations. We considered trying out for Family Feud, but the line was super long, so we gave up on that.
Soon, we were sailing away from Miami! Unfortunately, it rained during our Sail Away Party, so we headed to our room to watch the land go by from our very visible balcony. We were a bit disappointed by how exposed it was, but oh well. It was still lovely to be on it.
We had an assigned eating time with Ben and Jenny's family, and here we are at our first dinner together.
After dinner, we couldn't help checking out the view from the dining room.
Our ship was pretty new, and Ben and Jenny helped us be better about enjoying all the things where we might not otherwise have bothered. We all had a ton of fun cruising with them. We went to more shows, and Rachel actually went to the kids' club onboard because she could go with Tucker.
Monday, June 3 was a Sea Day, and we took advantage of the onboard roller coaster. We've never been o a roller coaster at sea, so we knew we had to give it at least one go. It wasn't too intense, but it was a little trippy zooming over the ocean!
I rode with Rachel,
Michael rode with Tyler,
Brian rode with Gabe,
Jenny rode with Tucker,
And Ben had to ride by himself. I felt like they should have let someone else ride with him, but they didn't.
After riding the roller coaster, we hit up the ropes course. Rachel did one section before bowing out, so I bowed out with her, but all the boys and Jenny did the whole thing.
Meanwhile, I found a chair in the shade (because it was crazy hot and humid), loaded up on sunscreen, and enjoyed my favorite cruising activity: reading a good book.
For dinner that night, Jenny brought flower leis for us to wear.
Here we all are at dinner together.
I loved watching these three at dinner. They had so much fun down on their end of the table. Gabe loved ordering his own food. This was his third cruise with Carnival, and by this point he knew EXACTLY what he wanted to eat each night.
When they were all finished eating, they would play games while the rest of us finished.
These two could go in and out of Camp Ocean whenever they wanted. They could chat together on the Carnival App to decide if they wanted to go to Camp Ocean or meet somewhere else on board. Cousin Cruise for the win! Rachel loved being able to get to know Tucker better. They are the closest in age out of all her cousins on the Saville side, and second closest overall.
We saw a comedy show after dinner, and Brian was able to find his ring in our luggage. Phew!
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