Day One: Embarkation

After flying in the night before, we started our day out right with Texas shaped waffles at our hotel continental breakfast. So far, it has been smooth sailing. We took some precautions before we left by printing off any and all documents we could get our hands on. We did NOT want someone to tell us we didn't pay yet or not let us get on the cruise. 

After breakfast we went back to the airport to catch the last cruise shuttle to The Port of Galveston. The whole bus got pretty excited upon laying sights on our ship.

 We were itching to get on and explore but first we had to be herded like cattle through all the security and checkin queues. Brad and I were worried about the whole "if you aren't over 21 then you have to be with someone older than 25 unless you are married and show proper documents" rule. So we had photocopied as many documents we could find that legalized our marriage. After all that the security people barely even glanced at it. 

The wait was fine, I got to hold my hubby's hand most of the time, except for the fact that the shrill Texan accents of the ladies behind us resonates everywhere and for the most part it was always to the tune of a complaint. There are so many people and the ship is so big that we never ran into the same people twice. 

After we unpacked our bags in our room and tried to make our little interior stateroom feel like home,

 we headed off to enjoy the amenities that come with a cruise. Our ship, Carnival Magic, is adorned with two waterslides, a basketball/volleyball court, a library and games room, an art gallery, two pools, seven hot tubs, and dining options galore. There are 12 levels and so many elevators but we got tired of waiting for them so mostly we used the stairs (and it makes us feel okay eating all that we did haha). We had our safety meeting and then the ship embarked as we waved goodbye to Galveston. 

The rest of the day's activities included winning $200 art credits and a free work of art (which we found out later that there were so many strings attached it wasn't worth it); Bradley getting a trophy and free champagne for being the worse dancer (we ended up giving the champagne away to a group who then wanted a picture with us); dinner and then an evening show in the theatre. 

Dinner was fantastic. We were assigned to a table with three other young couples. The hard part about dinner was everything on the menu was free AND THE MENU CHANGES EVERY DAY! How on earth are we suppose to choose what to eat?! So we ordered three different appetizers, two main dishes, and two desserts. For the rest of the week we will be served by the same waiters, and ours are amazing! The sang us a honeymoon song to the tune of happy birthday and we got an "already free" dessert. 

At the front of the ship there is a two level theatre where we finished the night off with some dancing and singing shows and the cruise director entertained us.