Cruise 2010 Day-by-Day Recap: Friday

Friday! Cruise day one! How great it was to wake up and already be in Miami. By the time I woke up at 9 a.m., my roomie Malina was already at the port and checked in. Andrea and I were much slower moving. I even went to the hotel gym (for a $15 fee, wth?) and we waited at the world's slowest Starbucks before heading to the port just before noon. And there we hit . . . the line.

Hey Carnival. You know when people are getting on your boats. Maybe you want to have enough staff such that every check-in desk is in use. Just an idea. We were in the check-in line for at least an hour and a half.

And then, suddenly, everything was made right. We were on the Lido deck for 30 full seconds when a nice man brought us drinks with fruit and mini umbrellas. (Note* that this was drink #1. This will come into play later.)

It was disgustingly hot, and luckily our luggage was delivered really quickly, so we were able to change into our swimsuits and take a dip in the pool before the muster drill.

From my Qik stream (sorry I was yelling, the music was quite loud):


Did ANYONE pay attention in the muster drill? I have no clue what they said. As soon as they dismissed us, everyone took off at a full sprint to the Lido Deck for the sail away party. We had a nice spot along the rail above the stage, but I guess we weren't paying enough attention or weren't vicious enough because next thing I knew there were three girls between me and the railing. So Elizabeth and I watched the sail away party sitting on the ground looking between a forest of legs.

Worth it.


Also at this point, another nice man brought us drink #2. I was really starting to like the cruise.

We put up our door decorations, and then off we went to dinner in the dining room. This cruise, thanks to no waiting in line for events, we ate in the dining room every night. After a stop in the merch room for our zip hoodies (and a failed attempt to buy shot glasses that *someone* may have found and opened), we went back to get ready for Casino Royale night. This was a fun theme, like dress to impress but (mostly) classier.

But first, the sort of game show! I say "sort of" game show because the game was "sort of Jeopardy," wherein there would be a question, but you would still have to answer in the form of a question. In other words, at no point were there answers. I freakin love the game show. It was my favorite part of the cruise last year. Can't tell you how nice it was to stroll in 15 minutes before the 10 p.m. show time and sit down in the second row. (And yet from the second row, there was still a pole directly in front of us.) Since it was classy night, I had a glass of champagne, i.e., drink #3.

The game show was a riot, due in no small part to Jon being at least medium drunk. He really stole the show with his comments about singing in bed with Tiffany and man pipes. Here he is calling "the pair of boobs to the stage."


Other highlights:

• Danny continually pulling the podium backwards to check his score.
• Jordan mimicking the air horn and using the small mic to make drive thru orders.
• Joe saying "You drunk bitches better hurry up and get these answers right if you want to see me in my f*cking tux."
• Donnie performing the first verse of Ice Ice Baby and then making up his own verse.

By the end, my face hurt from laughing. And that was only the beginning because it was time for open bar! Elizabeth and I, in our brilliance, decided we'd better drink really quickly because open bar was for one hour only, from 12-1 a.m.

Here we are at 12:05.

Then around 12:20.

12:45? Things started to go downhill.

Around 1:00 (I think?) the boys came out all looking like danger in their tuxes. It was great! I tried to tweet about it:

Boys ate tuxedo hot 1:23 AM May 15th via twidroid 

Translation: The boys are in tuxedos, looking hot.

My tweets that night also included gems like this:

Malina hads pbeen peeinbg a long tipme. I habbe eliabeyhad shors. 1:21 AM May 15th via twidroid 

Translation: It's been a while since Malina said she had to pee. Elizabeth left her shoes here and I'm keeping an eye on them.

I also have video that is unusable due to my narration. Example: "Hi Donnie. Hey, where are the New Kids? There's Donnie. I got the premium. What's that? You ain't gotta be nervous. Hey, there's Donnie." (frantic pointing at him from the side of the screen in case you missed him directly in the middle of the frame.)

Around 2:00 we ate pizza. I didn't go to bed till around 4:00. I don't remember what happened between pizza and bed, but my phone never worked right after that.

Those boys sure did look hot in their tuxes.

*Note: I think the final drink tally was somewhere between 6 and 8. Let's hope it was 6.