Cruise Day 1: Tampa

The day starts out cloudy & chilly as rain blew through Tampa during the night. I wandered to the hotel continental breakfast to kill some time then waited for my shuttle to the Port. And waited. And waited. Seems they had more cruise passengers staying at the hotel then they realized AND more airport traffic than planned. Of course, only 1 shuttle. While the hotel was nothing to write about, it seems organization isn't their strong point.

Once finally at the Port of Tampa, it was hurry & wait mentality getting through the lines. All the security measures we run across at the airport are also at the Ports. There was a benefit of the shuttle running late as I was able to board the ship and head right to my stateroom. After snapping a few pics of the still clean room, I headed to the Lido deck to find Nichelle & members of the group and get food! The Carnival Inspiration had 2002 passengers and nearly 1000 more in crew. I never thought I'd find my way around the ship so easily let alone find Nichelle very quickly. I must admit it never felt overly crowded as everyone is so spread out at any one time.

So much food from which to choose! By that time I was hungry enough to get a salad rather than stand in line for anything else. Of course I balanced that out with ice cream :) After some food and getting our bags in the stateroom we began wandering the decks to get the layout. Just before pushing off everyone had to attend the mandatory lifeboat drill. The drill was a bit behind schedule so at the end when the captain blew the horn to signal the drill was over, he multi-tasked and it signaled we were leaving port. We watched Tampa fade away then headed to the sushi bar :)

Though dinner was "Cruise Casual" we decided to change just because we could. Really, how can I pass up an excuse to dress up to go out for the evening? While getting ready we were suddenly plunged inot darkness! The lights went out! Hmm...well, the ship was still moving forward, no new rocking sensations, the cabin stewards weren't in a panic, so we caarried on and went to dinner.

Ah...dinner. Delicious! We got a bottle of merlot as they will re-cork and save it for the next night. There were so many choices we ordered several starters, each got the steak and just so we could try something really new, we got the vegetarian entree to share too. It was some a pumpkin, squash, yam and something else pot pie and was pretty good!

If someone is bored on a cruise ship, it's his or her own fault. From the time we boarded until the last night at sea, there is always something happening. After dinner we hit the Welcome Aboard show to check out the singers/dancers (all very good by the way). Nichelle uncovered her love of Bingo then we head up to the clubs. The Singles Dance was in the Rock & Roll club (in which, ironically, I rarely heard rock & roll - that was next door in the Avante Gard club). To kick off the party Smithy, one of the cruise director team, asked for 5 single women and 4 single men. We had a rousing game of human musical chairs which I must brag I took first place. Nichelle ran a close second.

The DJ started up and we hung out people watching. We noticed two women out on the dance floor shakin' it up. We called them Grandma and Daughter and they were having a GREAT time. The positive energy rolling off them was awesome. I talked to them while they took a break - Linda and Sarah, two friends both over 60 and I'm telling you, they were going to last long into the night and well past me going to bed!

After a bit we called it a night, headed back to the cabin and set out our room service order. As I settled in bed, I could feel the vibrations of the ship. It made me think of the old massage beds in motels as a kid and how much we fought over the bed and hoped for a quarter. Sleep came quickly -- needed our rest for Day 2!