And finally....a cruise update!

Koshka did not want us to leave!  She was very interested in the packing process and made it hard for us to get excited to leave for our week away.  We managed to get everything packed and headed out bright and early to the airport on Sunday, August 2nd.  My parents dropped us off at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport and we had a nice direct flight on Continental.  The best part of the flight was not only the breakfast (Continental still serves meals at mealtime) but the individual tvs we had in the headrest of the seat in front of us.  They were touch screens that allowed us to listen to over 100 music albums, play games, or watch over 50 tv episodes or 50 movies, past and present.  

When we arrived at LAX, we got a Cinnabon and made our way to baggage claim where we were greeted by the Royal Caribbean shuttle.  We started seeing family right away and even rode with some on the shuttle to the pier.  There we were greeted with family everywhere we looked!  We checked in and waited to board the Mariner of the Seas.

 

One of the first things we had to do onboard was find our life vests and find out meeting stations to go to our life boats, in case anything were to happen.  The life vest was quite comfortable and we contemplated taking one for the plane ride home as it made a great neck support!  

     

We had a lot of fun on the cruise- eating great food and being by family almost everywhere we went.  It was so fun to have a vacation and a family reunion all at the same time!  We had a couple certain occasions where we gathered as family, but most of the time we were on our own.  We enjoyed many features of the ship including the ice rink, the rock wall, the track, the Dragon's Lair ballroom dance classes (we didn't participate, I was just curious to peek in and see what they were teaching!), the theatres, the pool and hot tubs, and definitely the Windjammer cafe!  

    

We a great time dressing up for the formal nights.  We also loved going back to our room each evening to see what Slyvino (our stateroom attendant) had folded our towels into!  I have included a few pictures of a couple of our favorites!

        

The sunset was beautiful each evening.  We tried to get up to see the sunset, but we slept in too late every morning!  It was some of the best sleep I had ever had; the rooms are so dark and there wasn't even a clock in there.  We loved sleeping each night!