Bahamas- Day 1!

We awoke early Thursday morning and excitedly began getting ready to board our ship, in our matching t-shirts, of course. While we were busy getting beautified, my dad noticed a ticker that ran across the bottom of the t.v., saying that the Carnival Fascination was having mechanical difficulties and its departure would be delayed today. We didn't let this get us down, and my dad called the Carnival hotline to get some dt's (details). The lady said not to worry, but we would not be able to board at our original time of 12 noon, but we would be delayed until 1:30 pm. While this did not make me super happy, I refused to let this hiccup put a damper on anyone's cruise experience. I rallied the troops and we went about our morning as usual, watching the Today Show, eating the continental breakfast, laughing our heads off, all in our matching 'High Seas Excursions' t-shirts.

We decided to head over to the port anyway, to get a better idea of what was going on. The security man at the front gate told us we were now not allowed to board until 2:30 pm, and that we should just go eat lunch somewhere and kill some time. Apparently, their had been a power outage on board the ship and it was touch-and-go whether or not we would set sail at all!

We did a little on-shore excursioning of our own, and went to Wal-Mart, where Mom, Rebekah and I bought matching 4th of July pjs that are oh so cute, and look like a j. crew design. And for only $5 each! (I'll post these pics later!) We also ate lunch (along with practically every other stranded cruiser) at Wendy's.

Rebekah got a Frosty that said, 'It's impossible to frown while eating a Frosty." 

Well folks, we can all see that this statement is  FALSE. 

We were still managing to stay positive about our trip, but we were all secretly a little afraid that we would not be able to set sail. But, we dared not say it. After being turned away from the port twice, and waiting in our car for over an hour, we were finally given clearance to board the ship!

Notice the sign above our heads says 'No Photography or Cell Phone Usage Permited." Guess we were too excited to notice!

We quickly made our way up to the spa for a free hot stone neck massage. FAB-U-LOUS!

It was at this point that we 'lost' the boys and searched the ship for amost 30 minutes to find them. They were waiting outside the spa on the deck. Go figure.

I then went back to my room to unpack. Let's just say I didn't run out of clothes on this trip! A girl's gotta be prepared, ya know! 

We got fancied up and headed to our first of many formal dinners.

And mom got to try out some new dance moves with the waitors.

Love the thumbs in this one! 

After dinner, we made our way to the Palace Theater for some Salsa lessons. Poor Rebekah didn't have a partner and was paired up with another lone girl. This meant that Rebekah had to learn the guys moves, and although she wasn't super happy about that, we still managed to have a great time! For the final reveal, my Dad stepped in and let Rebekah show him a thing or two.

We then stuck around for trivia. 

Later that night, in the Palace Theater, we gathered for our Welcome Show. We all sang and danced and laughed, laughed, laughed to the comedian of the night. 

The explored the ship until the wee hours of the night, and found our favorite little cruise band, Revolver. 

It was a super exciting day, filled with my three favorite 'f's,' family, food and FUN! 

And this was only the beginning!