Wedding Blog

Although I got sick on the last day of the cruise, the trip itself was fantabulous. It was the first time going on a cruise for both of us, and Mr. Peony is already talking about taking a cruise every year! I’ll try to keep my posts short and sweet, but they will be picture-heavy….just a warning!

After checking in our heavy bags (the ship crew will deliver our luggage to our rooms later that day; however, they recommend a carry-on that will be able to sustain us for 24 hours just in case) we entered a large building that was similar to airport terminals, with security checkpoints, check-in lines, and waiting chairs. After handing over our tickets and passports, we were handed plastic cards that would act as our identification as well as debit/credit cards for the duration of our trip. We then took pictures that would stay in their computers to go along with our cards, and boarded shuttles that would take us to the ship.

A picture of our ship, taken by Mr. Peony’s phone camera while on the shuttle:

Taking the elevator up to our room, we noticed this on the floor:

The day of the week! For some reason we thought this was the coolest thing and decided to take a picture of the floor of the elevator every day.

Here is Mr. Peony, giddy in our room:

There was also a complimentary bottle of champagne, courtesy of the soon-to-be-wed couple:

We had decided to pay an extra $100 for a room with a window. It didn’t have an oceanview, but looked out into the promenade (the main interior of the ship), which wasn’t a bad view at all:

We then ventured outside to explore the ship. We passed by windows that looked into the navigation deck:

Many people had the same opinion about this: shouldn’t there be more buttons, knobs, and computer screens? It looked like such a small room for such a large ship…

We then went to the upper decks where they had all the fun things like a rock-climbing wall…

Basketball courts…

Mini golf…

And much, much more! Who knew there could be so many things on a ship? I certainly didn’t!

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. There are numerous restaurants and dining rooms on the ship, some for which you have to pay extra. We really didn’t expect too much from our dining hall because hey, it’s included! But our jaws dropped as we entered the room to this view:

This was better than most of the restaurants we go to on our date nights! Even the table setting was fancy-schmancy:

We were treated like royalty during all our dinners aboard the ship, with a main server, assistant server, a drink server, as well as a head server who made rounds frequently to make sure we were all happy.

After dinner we took a trip around the promenade, which looked more like a mall than the interior of a ship:

After some eye-shopping and a bit of gambling in the casino, we decided to retire early because I wasn’t feeling too well. I had never experienced motion sickness before, but being on a huge ship in the open ocean was a new experience. As soon as we started moving, I felt dizzy and nauseous - it’s a good thing we had brought meds just in case. I felt a lot better the next day, but continued to feel a little funny for the duration of the time we were traveling. Thus comes my lesson learnt from the first day of the cruise…

Day 1, Lesson 1: Being on a cruise feels a bit like being drunk: you’re giddy from the excitement, while the slight rocking and rolling of the ship keeps you just a tad unsteady on your feet.

Stay tuned for more!