December 31st - New Years Eve

We were supposed to stop at Catalina Island, Dominican Republic but the seas were to rough for us to tender in so we just spent the day having fun on the ship.  Most people dressed up for dinner even though it was a cruise casual night.

We had fun at the table with stealing hats and leis that we ok that I wanted from other tables.

The horns that were on the table were being blown way too much.

We met up with Bud, Sandy, Judy and George to ring in the new year at the Atrium.  They had a DJ  playing music so there was lots of dancing going on.  Judy had fun taking pictures with her new I-phone.

Amanda had fun with her friends up on the Lido deck.

At midnight they had a balloon drop and they shot off confetti guns.

Amanda learned a lot about how she wants to be treated by the man in her life from Bud.  He is such a gentleman and you could see so much love and consideration coming from him to Sandy.  We wanted to adopt them.  What a wonderful way to ring in 2012.

December 30th - Grand Turk

We are ready for a great day at Grand Turk.  I had hoped to get out early and try to find some shells along the beach but it didn't happen.

One of the wonderful things about this port is that the ship is docked so close to shore and the port area is a wonderful place to spend the day.  There are shops that are owned or operated by the cruise lines but there are also some local vendors.  It is a very clean and safe area.

We walked through Margaritaville to show Amanda the great pool area that they have.  But we had heard such great things about  Jack's Shack we had decided to head down the beach from the port area.

But not before some fun photo ops.

 All of these pictures where of Margaritavilles pool area.  It really is as nice as it looks.

Well we got to Jack's Shack and it looked awfully dead to us, we couldn't get on the internet and their prices didn't look that much different than Margarittaville so we decided to head back to the port area.

 Bu.t first we did have to check out what everyone was looking at in the sand.  This dog must have wanted some clams or crab.  He had dug so far down you could not see him from the side.

Right after this picture my hat decided to go for a swim and was not the same afterwards.  It was such a beautiful day and the water was so clear and beautiful.

It was wonderful to get back to Margaritaville and jump in the pool and have a yummy tropical drink.

The best thing about this day though was that I think we met some life long friends.  George and Judy are a great couple from Arizona that we had met at our Cruise Critic meet and greet and the cabin crawl but we really got to know them more while in the pool.

Amanda got involved in a game that started out with 10 girls and she made it to the top three and then because she couldn't find someone with an I-phone quicker than the other two girls she was cut.  After she saw what they had to do she was glad that she didn't make it any further.

The girls had to do a solo dance and then

find a guy that they ended up having to lay on and have them do push ups with them on top of them.








 

But from that experience she also made some great friends.  We participated in a conga line.

we danced,

we had a shot,

we made friends.

 What a wonderful day in Grand Turk.

December 29th - Fun Day at Sea

A beautiful day at sea.  Finally we slept in a little bit and didn't wake up until 8:00.  We went and watched a cooking demonstration up in the Nick & Nora's steakhouse.

We were a little late so it was standing room only but we still got to sample most of the items that they made like the mushroom soup that had a very yummy piece of bread in it,  some chicken with maccaroni & cheese that was delicious & tiramisu that I, a person who hates coffee, liked also.








After that we headed to the aft pool area to meet our cruise critic friends for a cabin crawl.  We started out seeing a 9C cabin which is a mini suite with an extended balcony, then we saw a couple of inside cabins, one of those was the 4K which has the french doors which is nice if you wanted to get a little fresh air and some light but you pretty much have a view of a lifeboat.  Most of us had they same type of balcony cabins but we ended at a 7A which is the obstructed view balcony cabin with the extra long balcony which is nice if you want to see out but not so much down.  The fun thing was that we could see how others decorated their rooms.  Some were decorated for Christmas and others were decorated for New Years.

We enjoyed the balcony in the afternoon  before having to get ready for the first formal night, or should I say elegant night.

There were a few tuxes and formal dresses out tonight but not near as many as usual.  We went to the early comedy show before dinner and as usual Roger and Amanda were brought into the act.  The comedian asked anyone who uses algebra at work to raise their hand so of course Roger raised his hand and the comedian then figured that he was a math teacher so he didn't count.

After the comedy show we headed to dinner.

I had the pasta for my main.

Herb had the flat iron steak which he had most nights except when he started having the hamburger.

Roger also got the flat iron steak.  We were party poopers tonight and pretty much went to bed after dinner.

December 28th - Carnival Miracle

The day has finally arrived now we have to pack & clean out the fridge.  We had our leftovers from the Cuban restaurant for breakfast.

We had at least 100 crows flying around outside our hotel.

We dropped off the rental car at the Dollar Rental @ Port Everglades and caught their shuttle to the cruise terminal.  We were able to go to the VIP check in point but  I did lose my Limoncello going through security.  When we got to the VIP area they took our fun pass and told us to have a seat and as soon as they were ready to check us in they called us up to the counter and gave us our sail and sign cards.

We were then directed to the boarding line which we we just sat down when they started boarding us.  We had our boarding picture done and our sign and sail security picture done and we were on board the Carnival Miracle in record time.

We then proceeded to climb the seven flights of stairs to the Lido deck and grabbed a lounge chair at the aft pool area where we sat and enjoyed the champagne and sunshine.

Roger had to get his first ice-cream of the cruise.

We  met up with some of the cruise critic roll call members.  While Amanda stayed and talked to her new friends, Roger & I took our backpacks down to the cabin.  Of course it didn't take long for Roger to assume his position on the bed

while I decorated the cabin.

After the muster drill we headed back to deck 9 for our Cruise Critic meet & greet.  We decided to meet the next day at 12:45 for the cabin crawl.  We headed back down to our cabin to see if our luggage had arrived.  As we made the corner we could see that Amanda & Roger's little suitcases were in front of the door which made me a little nervous but just as we got to the door they came around the other corner with the other two suitcases, YEAH everything made it.  We got everything unpacked and the luggage stored under the bed.

Amanda & I left Roger in the cabin to head to the shops on board.

The nice thing about cruising at the very end of the year is the shops start clearencing out some of their old merchandise to make room for the new merchandise that they will be selling.  So we took advantage of that and purchased some ornaments and luggage tags.

We also checked out where are dinner table would be and found that we would be having three dinner companions, we were a little concerned about who they might be and later that night at dinner we found that we weren't the only ones they were worried also.  They were a very nice family from Mississippi, Paulette, Herb & Jeremy.







We went to the welcome aboard show after dinner which is always pretty much the same.  The two comics did a little teaser during the show which the first comic was not very good and could not get a laugh out of the crowd.  The second comic got a lot of laughs which I can only imagine didn't do much to help the other comics ego.