They had started boarding already when we arrived, and wern’t giving out boarding passes by the time we arrived. It was a quick easy check in. Our new passports never did arrive, luckily we had sent off for birth certificates just in case.
We walked right onto the ship with No line. Of course my husband wanted to say our name was Kadidlehopper, when they asked for our name. Luckily I was there to stop him.

We decided to go up to Topsiders Buffet for lunch. It was cloudy and slightly cool, so we opted to sit inside. After a nice lunch we walked around the top 2 decks taking pictures of the ship and ourselves before it got crowded.

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By then it was time to check out the room, which I already told you about.
I unpacked our carry on back, then we were off to wander the inside of the ship. Looking for any changes we could see around the ship after drydock.
Parrot cay was the biggeest inside change we noticed. Outside of course was the kiddie water area. This was great for the little ones , plus it gave the other Mickey hear for the other kids to play in,so it helped with the crowding problem of the Mickey pool.

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We loved the Jumbotron screen.

The new waterfalls at the adult pool were ok.

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Then at 3:00 in the Promenade lounge we had our dis board meet. For those who dont know I had posted for almost a year everyday and NEVER had one person join me for this cruise.
Some of the great people on these boards did stop by and say hello to help me stay bumped up and to keep me from being so lonely. Then a miracle happened just about a month before our cruise Kay posted and said she and her friend Linda and her DD were coming along. I almost fainted!!!
Then about one week before the cruise Tracie and her family joined my thread.

So we had a great meet. Kay, Tracie, Linda, Rusty(Tracie's DH) and Danny, (Tracie's DS) and us. It was fun and everyone was very nice. I think we visited for about 45 minutes because we had to zip back to the room and get ready for the safety drill.

Finally it was time for the sail away party. The sun was peaking out from the clouds. It was a bit windy, but nice. I have done many cruises with DCL but this one had to have the most lively crowd I have ever seen for the sail away party. Even the deck 10 crowd was waving the arms and yelling at the top of their lungs. It was a good party, but I really missed not having a live band.
Greg had the camera so I didnt get any pictures of this.

One thing I have never had them do before when I cruised was they gave away a few tote bags to kids during the party.
Then just before the characters were about to leave the party we did the big countdown from 10 to 1. Lots of yelling and streamers,but the ship didnt move?

Great Pics of you Kathy, and hubby too ...
I love the new buses....
Great Verandah....!!

I miss that ship....
Can't wait to hear more....

the ship didnt move ?

water falls looks great...

So as the music and dancing continued for a bit I walked towards the front to join my husband. I had my Mickey hands on all set to wave, but we just sat here. They had cast off the lines already but we didnt go. I never did hear why, but about 20 minutes late we finally were on our way. YEAH!!!!

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No Dolphins this time but lots of sea gulls were along the way. The shores had many people waving and cheering as we cruised down the channel. A few even had on Mickey hands just like me. I figured they were probably people who had cruised DCL before.

We stayed on deck until 5:45 but we had 6:00 dinner,s o had to go and change our clothes.
Our rotation was Parrot cay, Tritons and then Animators Palate.

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We met our housekeeper Kim as we went to our room to change. Then our 2nd surprize of the cruise happened. Greg had packed the wrong slacks, these were old ones that were too small. He only brought one pair because on a 3 day that is all he would need.
Of course the stores are not open yet to see if they had pants, but after I rubbed it in a bit, we decided to just have room service which was very good. They were fast and efficient. They even had a sugar free dessert we could order. They never use to have sugar free available on room service. That was a nice surprize for us. Greg is diabetic and likes the sugar free desserts.

Well we were done quickly with dinner, so took a stroll around the ship. By then the stores were open so we went to see what was new and I had promised a fellow diser to look for a limited edition pin she wanted. They still had it, so I bought it for her and found a cruise line sweatshrit for me..

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By now the early showing of Hercules had let out and the store was packed,so we left.
After returning our souvenirs to our room and checking out the towel animal it was time to get an early seat for the late showing of Hercules. We enjoyed seeing it again since it had been almost 2 years since wehad seen it. Last May when we cruised we didnt have the chance to see it.

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Our easter Bunny Towel animal

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After the show we went to the Promenade Lounge and enjoyed hearing a duo, Ben and Dana. They were very good, but they were having some trouble with their equipment so while they were working with that, DH went up to deck 9 and got some pizza and pop to snack on while we listened to some music.

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There was a few people dancing but one couple in their 30's really stood out. They were so good and so graceful. They had obviously had lessons and danced often. They both had the slender build of a dancer too, which made them all the more graceful looking.

Around 10:30 they have Match your Mate which is always funny. If you've never seen this one, be sure and catch it on your next cruise.
By now it was close to 11:00 P.M. and we were tired so we went to bed.

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The next few hours are censored

There was an 80's late night dance party but just too late for me.

Ben and Dana have been on that ship for a while now....

Friday--Nassau

We were up by 6:00 A.M. and it was pouring rain and cool.
We got dressed and went up to the buffet at 7:00 A.M. when it opened and had a good breakfast, biscuits and sausage and fruit.

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Well DH only had shorts to wear and he forgot to bring a jacket so we wernt to sure if we were going to walk into town or not. I on the other hand had long pants, long sleeve short and a hooded sweatshirt as well as a billed cap.
Women always seem to remember these things, right ladies??

We have an arrangement, he lays out his clothes and then I pack everything, so never pay attention to what he lays out, guess next time I'd better check a little closer for him. Ha Ha.
Well about 9:45 the rain let up and quit so we went to the straw market where we bought a very nice wooden eagle for our entryway shelf.

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We browsed through a few shops and bought 4 pirate mugs to replace some old mugs we had. Then back to the ship. Most of the stores were closed due to Good Friday. No pants ot light wieght jackets either, those stores were closed.

We went to Topsiders buffet for lunch about noon when it first opened because we had a 12:45 excursion to Ardastra gardens.

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It had started raining again, but it had watme dup to low 70's by then. We wondered about it because our excursion was mostly outside, but we reported anyway to the Cadillac Lounge. 5 minutes later they announced it had been cancelled, which was no surprize to us.

waiting for our excursion

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We wernt even disappointed because we have been to Nassau many times and will be back again in a few months. besides since they refunded out money that gave me more money to spend if I saw something I wanted to buy on board.

Of course 20 minutes later it had stopped raining for about 2 hours, but then it started sprinkling again. We decided to go out on deck 4 and relax a bit. By then a huge yacht had docked near the ship. It was called The Callisto.

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