For day two we woke up at 7 to get our free breakfast, which we ate outside on their verandah by their lake. Our LaQuinta reminded me very much of Coronado Springs, just not as huge.
(I wish I remembered to take a picture.) We caught a shuttle my friends had booked to take us to the Cruise port in Miami, a 20 minute drive that blew by. The driver talked about the area and his sons in college were singing in musicals and they just finished their run of Aladdin.
We got to the terminal and checked our bags at the porter station. Luggage is delivered to your stateroom in the afternoon so there's no need to tote it around. You can't actually get into your room until 12:30 but you can enjoy the ship. As some of you may remember I had a hospital stay last year. I was finally diagnosed with spinal stenosis. 97% of my days are good, the other 3% are horrible.
My doctor recommended I take my walker just in case one of those 3% happened aboard ship. (Standing in lines for more than an hour kill me.) The lines at the cruise terminal were
crazy long being Spring Break and 3,500 people waiting to board. My friend grabbed one of the free wheelchairs just to sit in line. One of the porters came over said "I'll help you and you'll be helping me."
Ummm, okay? He was new and needed experience pushing people in wheelchairs around the terminal then onboard. I refused a few times because I didn't want special treatment until he whipped these out......
View attachment 89355and I couldn't say no. (I was the only wheelchair person there.) We were escorted down a long hallway (I swear we were heading to the janitor's area!
) but he said "Shortcut! Express lane." We actually rode on a maintenance elevator to the assisted boarding area where there was nobody waiting to be checked in. Awesome. He was so happy he did a great job he pushed me onto the ship and all the way to the Italian restaurant for lunch.
The restaurant was delicious and we were so famished I forgot to to a picture. For lunch they have a pasta bar.
They give you a paper menu and pencil then you check what you want. We all had bread and caesar salad. (The salad dressing is made fresh on the ship. At least the anchovies were diced really small so I didn't think about it. Not an anchovy fan.
) I picked farfalle (bowtie) and my daughter picked linguine (because of Ratatouille
) with Bolognese (meat sauce), grilled chicken, sauteed onions and green peppers.
View attachment 89357
After lunch we could get into our rooms.
Waited for our food to digest, we then hit the pool in the back of the ship to watch Miami sail away. Now I had mentioned I had a big phobia of boats and being where I can't swim to shore.
The adrenaline of the morning had kept me from thinking about it. Now I'm at the top level of the ship and
we're moving! I'm holding onto my deck chair white-knuckled when my friend orders me a beer.
Good way to forget about being scared. Honestly once we got going out to the ocean I was okay.
) Other movies playing were Spongebob, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Speed Racer The Movie, and Extreme Log Ride. (E.L.R. was very extreme. Basically you are a log that has been cut at the top of a mountain and you go down ramps, rivers and sail through the air to a platform to be shipped. This is the only movie that made me ill. 
Sooooo good! She was excited she didn't have to order off the kid's menu every night. This evening the two of us had caesar salads for apps, steak with roasted garlic, baked potato (for me), herbed fries (for her), and fresh apple pie ala mode for dessert.
, rain is a four-letter word and "Did you see who that was?" 
