Sailing Away On The 2012 Cricut Cruise

Karen, Wendi and I arrived at the port around 1pm, when the letter we received told us to arrive. We waited in line to get checked in for 2.5 hours. The rest of the Cricut group  arrived earlier and told us they got on the boat without waiting in line like we did. We were told that it was immigration day, whatever that meant, and it took longer to get checked in. I did notice that every once in awhile one of the check in people would hold up a passport and it would say MEXICO on it and then they would have to call a another person over and it would take longer. The group that was with Provo Craft all got on the ship early and had been there having fun for hours before we even stepped foot on the gangway.

After finally making it on the ship we made a mad dash directly the Muster Drill so we could learn how to put on our life jackets in case the ship started to sink. When we made it to the room I had one of my bags but poor Karen and Wendi didn’t have any. It was time to go to dinner and it was casual, thank goodness because we sure didn’t have fancy clothes! The only saving grace about dinner in the dining room that night was the company! We were seated at a table with Treva, aka TP98, Sharon I2BZ2W8, and Richard from Provo Craft and his wife Brianna. The food was mediocre and the service was terribly slow. The waiters were not very friendly and I found myself wishing I had my service staff from the previous year's cruise. I spent part of the time going from table to table looking for Karen Silva aka flyswhistle and mingling with many of the other Cricut guests. I never did find Karen but found out later she was seated away from us since she had booked through another company.

After the dinner we went back to our room to check on our luggage an luckily it was in our room. Our wonderful steward was a lady named Ingrid, and was at our beckon call about anything we wanted or needed. She had a heck of a personality and a great sense of humor. She told us she was there to “spoil” us. We changed clothes and since we finally had our toiletries we put on some make up and headed to the Sail Away Cocktail Party.

I took time before leaving for the Cocktail Party to snap a picture of BFF Karen on the balcony. Karen and I have decided we will not cruise without a balcony again if we can help it. It was nice not to have to have to leave our rooms if we wanted to look outside and enjoy some fresh air. Most mornings we went out in our nightgowns to greet the morning and it was great for when we were in port to be able to see out before we got off the ship.

At the cocktail Party Dan Larsen from Provocraft made a few announcements, one being that the last Golden Cricut given away during the cruise. Dan also told us that each person included in the classes would receive a quarterly membership to the Cricut Circle, our first gift of the cruise! I quickly told BFF Karen “girl you will get a free cartridge for that!”. I did finally find Karen Silva during the party, or she found me, and we had a great time catching up. Dan had each person tell who they were, how long they have had been using a Cricut and where they were from. The guests mingled a little longer and then everyone went their separate ways, at least some of us did.

Danita, Jennifer, Leila, Shirley

After leaving the Cocktail Party a few of us found the lounge Bolero's and decided to partake in a "slushy drink", as my new Canadian friends called them. We shared quite a few laughs while getting to know each other a little more. Once we finished our drinks we went back to my room where we found BFF Karen, Wendi, Sandi and Sandy. 

 

Jennifer, Danita, Sandy, Leila

Being the good hostess's we were, we showed our guests the view from the balcony and told them they were welcome to come visit and share the balcony with us. A few did come and visit a few times during the cruise and it was nice to be able to sit outside and not be crowded in a room. 

I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures, this one showing a few of our guests on the balcony.

We all decided to go to the casino and hang out for a bit. Somehow we ran into the Pirate Parade. In my mottled memory I remember us trying to go up a staircase and being told we couldn't until after the parade and that is when I noticed some folks sitting around in their best pirate attire.  Since pirates are not something I tend to see I did get a few pictures and snapped one of Jennifer and a few pirates who must be from Yellow Beard's ship since they were all wearing yellow.  We finally made it to the deck that the casino and played some of the games for a little while. I think most of us were quite tired from all the traveling of the day. 

In my usually style of wandering around being nosy I had lost everyone else and decided to go back to the room. It took me what seemed like forever to find my dang room! I kept walking up and down the dang hall reading the numbers and then I would look up and down the hall and think "I know there are not 300 rooms in this hallway!" Come to find out I was on the wrong side of the ship. Luckily I remembered my room was close to the library and after crossing the library I was able to find the Barbie display and I knew I was close. BFF Karen and Wendi were already in bed but not asleep. We discussed the events for the next day but none of us remembering exactly what were were suppose to be doing and when. When I finally laid down to sleep I was hoping I would at least remember I was on a dang cruise ship and that I had something that I was suppose to be doing the next day!

 

To Be Continued…..

P.S. I will be cross posting my cruise posts between this blog and my own blog at okieladybug.com, however the posts at okieladybug.com will have more personal comments than made on this blog.