Today we drove from Melbourne, Florida to the port of Miami. Yesterday we drove from home to pick up my father & his wife Mimi in SC, then on to the hotel in Melbourne (with an obligatory stop at Buc-ee’s of course). Melbourne to Miami should have taken 2.5 hours. It took 4 hours due to wrecks and horrific traffic on I95. We got to the port, parked, and went through the boarding process. At one point they had a group of us line up against a wall while a drug sniffing dog went down the row of us, sniffing us out to see if we were packing! I’ve never experienced that! The boarding process was smooth and efficient and in no time we were onboard the Carnival Horizon!
Once we got on board, CSP & I went to our room to drop off our carryon bags. We met Gede our room steward. SO nice!!! CSP immediately began the search for electrical outlets next to the bed for our CPAP machines. There were none. A quick tour of our room.
So we went up to the Lido deck (deck 10) for lunch. We met up with my father and Mimi for a bit and ate from the buffet. It was super crowded and there were already people in their swimsuits walking around. And thongs! So many thongs! With no coverups! Nothing like lunch with a side of tushy.
Next we went to our muster station for a very quick muster drill. Then we headed down to Guest Services to stand in line for extension cords for our CPAP machines. There are 2 regular 120 volt outlets in our room and they are under the vanity light. It took 45 minutes in line because Diamond and Platinum cruisers are allowed to cut in line. Hmmm.
In front of Guest Services there’s a bar and lounge area with this cool funnel thing that has a video screen that wraps all around and changes designs based on what’s going on at the moment! Very cool!
Once we were finished at Guest Services we called home from the lounge there as we had no cell service in our room and up on deck was too loud. We checked in on our pups and family then went back to our room for a quick nap and to freshen up for dinner. That’s when we noticed my large suitcase was damaged (by the porters maybe? or maybe something caught on it? who knows?!?). I tried calling Guest Services but they were so busy I kept getting disconnected. So we took pictures of the damage to show them later.
Because of where the rip is and how the suitcase is made, when we opened it up it about split right in two!
Dinner tonight was in the Meridian restaurant. We met up with Mimi & my father at 7. You have to check in on your Carnival HUB app for dinner. Well, you and the rest of humanity who was all congregated at the entrance of the restaurant! And the entrance was right in front of the elevators. And there was nowhere to sit. Anyway, I checked us all in and the app said there was less than a 10 minute wait at 7 pm. Then every 10 minutes I would get a notification that there was still less than a 10 minute wait. It was odd. What if you don’t have a smartphone I wonder? Anyway, after over 30 minutes of waiting, my father bugged the host staff enough that they sat us and we had a great dinner. CSP had a steak and I had chicken parm. We were seated near the kitchen doors that would swing open and give us a peek of their escalator! The restaurant is on 2 decks/levels so the escalator makes it easier for waitstaff to go between levels. So smart!
We were exhausted after dinner (I drove all the way from NC to Miami, btw) so we went back to our room and crashed! Tomorrow is a Sea Day!
Bless Your Heart 