Saturday Jan 26th

Here is the first installment of Stan and Amy's Ships & Dip blog. We had a great time and we hope that this will give you a little idea of what is was like for us. Please bear with us as sometimes we can ramble on over the littlest details. But we believe the best parts are in the details.

Well, anyway, settle in and away we go.....


The trip started Saturday morning when we were up by 7:30 and had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast at 8:00. We finished packing and got ready to leave for Philly and were out the door around 9:30. We got to the airport around noon and parked in the long-term economy parking lot. Within 10 minutes we're on a shuttle to the American Airways terminal for our 1:55 flight to Miami. When we got to the terminal we were worried that our big green suitcase would be overweight and we would have to pay extra to check the luggage. The limit for checked luggage is 50 lbs. We held our breath as they put the suitcase on the scale, it was 46 lbs! whew! With our luggage in American Airways’ hands we headed to the security checkpoint. This was another concern because our carry-ons contain all of our electronics; cameras, laptops, batteries, chargers, etc. We have to take our shoes off and put every thing in trays that have to go through an x-ray machine. We ended up using 5 trays and made it through fine. Since the x-ray machine can ruin undeveloped film, we requested to have our film hand inspected which took a couple minutes.

When we got through security we needed to get lunch. So we got sandwiches at a food place in the terminal, terminal A. Our flight is leaving out of gate A3, flight #749. After eating lunch and using the restroom we headed to the gate waiting area at about 1:10. Boarding was scheduled to start at 1:25 with the first class passengers first then with the back of the plane to the front. Of course we are close to the front of the plane so we had to wait an extra 15 minutes.

We finally got on the plane in seats 9E & 9F with me by the window in 9F. The plane ended up taking off at 2:10, a little late. The captain came on the PA and said the air was choppy so they were flying a little lower as to avoid the turbulence. It was pretty smooth until we got closer to Miami and it was a little rough. We had our laptop so we watched a movie, French Kiss. We landed in Miami around 4:50. First stop the restroom. Next stop baggage claim. One by one our 3 bags finally came out. Then we grabbed a cab to the hotel.

We checked in a 5:30, made a few phone calls home to our parents then settled in. Sixthman was having a pre-cruise party at the hotel and we could buy shuttle tickets to the pier tomorrow. It is $10/person and our shuttle is leaving at noon. We got the tickets then went to the party. It was just like last year where it is free to attend but you have to buy tickets to eat/drink. They had music playing of most of the bands on the ship. We were going to eat at the hotel but there is construction going on so we decided to eat at the party. It was $7/ea for a hamburger, veggie burger, or a chicken sandwich. $5 for a hot dog. Beer was $7 and soft drinks were $3. The party was outside and since we a close to the airport, there were planes taking off real low which was really cool!! We stayed at the party till 8 and then went back to the room to get some rest before our embarkation day at the port of Miami.