Welcome to the Carnival Liberty

BOARDING

Waiting to get on the ship was kind of like waiting to get on an airplane. You get a boarding pass, you get a boarding zone, you sit and wait in airport-like chairs, and then you get on the ship when they call your number. 

Poor Anni had to take a final during our cruise so here she is diligently studying as we wait to board.

Lots of people waiting to get on the ship. I think the ship had 3000 people on board!

Walking across the water to the ship

Picture of the photo they took of us before we got on. We learned quickly that the staff love to take your picture in front of any (and every) possible background. We didn't buy any, but took this picture as a momento :)

THE SHIP
 Once we got on the ship, Jarren gave us a tour. It was HUGE! I was in awe!

Food 24 hours a day!

Basketball, volleyball, mini gofl

Super-size chess game

Looking over from the top

Venetian Palace (a show every night!)

Awesome waterslide.
 (Note: Experiments proved that speedos provide the least resistance and thus fastest ride)

Our cabin with a pull down bunk bed

LEAVING PORT

View of Miami Beach

Here we go!

Pre-Cruise Excursion: Fort Lauderdale

Since we didn't want to risk delayed flights causing us to miss our ship, we didn't want to fly red-eye, and we wanted to earn Southwest credit, we flew to Fort Lauderdale on Friday with plans to take a taxi to Miami  (~30 min away) in the morning.

We didn't have a red-eye but we did have to wake up at 4am!

We ventured into the city on a bus on Friday night and walked along the riverfront, ate at an Italian deli with an Israeli band, and enjoyed the weather. We returned on the last bus out of downtown (9pm) and got a real taste of the nightlife on the bus, including a guy who left his pants on the bus when he got off (I know! I mean he left the pants he was wearing when he got on the bus ON THE BUS when he walked off), a girl who tried to borrow people's phones to call her ex, a guy rolling a joint with such care you'd think his life depended on it (it very well could have), and a guy who looked us up and down and said, "You're not from here, are you? Welcome to Broward..."

Along the River Front. (That's a shark. And me. And Andrew.)

Our hotel gave us a great opportunity to view the wildlife of the city: cats, duckens*, and cockroaches. Much to Jarren's chagrin we didn't see any alligators, although it wasn't due to a lack of effort. The hotel was also an excellent venue for teaching Jarren how to play Dutch Blitz. Which Andrew promptly smoked us in. 

Jarren and Andrew chilling at the hotel

 *Ducks that look a lot like chickens.

Celebrate good times, come on! Duh-duh-duh-duh duh duh duh-duh!

Happy Graduation to me!

Ideally I would have pictures of my graduation to post, but since they are on Andrew's camera, this blog will be out of chronological order and I will post pictures from my graduation celebration before the pictures from my actual graduation. (Which will be mostly for my dear mom, who is such a good daughter and went with Gma to a writer's conference rather than sit through HOURS of a Marriott School graduation. Definitely know where I get my smarts from!)

To celebrate graduation, I went on a cruise to the Caribbean (Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman)  with some friends. 

It was an ABSOLUTE blast and I'll be posting about all of our adventures, but first I wanted to introduce you to my fellow travelers: 

ANDREW - the greatest, handsomest, funnest guy ever.

 JARREN - Andrew's friend from Saint George

 ANNIKA - One of my best friends and roommate from BYU

 AMANDA - Annika's good friend from grad school

Arman - our head waiter at dinner