So last Monday morning, me and Em and Katie got up and headed to MIAMI!!! It was a rather long drive. Once we got there, we had to find cruise parking. We had about 45 minutes to find parking and get to the ship by the time they say you have to check in by. Plenty of time we thought... well we were wrong. We drove around and I almost ran out of gas. We tried to find a park and ride so we could park for free but those were nowhere to be found! SO ridiculous! We finally found a garage that said "cruise parking" next to it. Then our next concern was how in the world are we going to get to the port in 20 minutes?! We were going to have to call a cab or something, but when we pulled into the garage we found out that they have transportation. We got parking and transportation to and from the port for 5 days for $45. A steal compared to the $100 we were going to have to pay to park right at the pier! We were stoked! So on the way over to the port I was a nervous wreck. I know how strict the government is and since the boarding and check in is all required to be completed by a certain time by the gov't I was nervous they wouldn't let us on the ship. We were late, but there was tons of ppl who were late. Long story short, they let us on and it was all good!
The cruise was UH-MAZING!!! Our little room was adorable and like a sleepover every night! Our first day was a little rough. We were getting used to the movement of the boat and figuring out the ins and outs of the ship. After that, we were good to go! We went to salsa dancing lessons after dinner the first night! We even found a fun dance partner who was willing to teach the 3 of us some fun moves! The first stop on our cruise was in Nassau, Bahamas!
It was beautiful! That day we just went to the beach at the port and laid out. We went to a little flea market and did some shopping before heading back to the ship. Over the course of the week, we were able to go to a few shows put on by the entertainment staff on the ship. Some of them were good and others were lame, but fun nonetheless. Formal dinner night was the second night.
It was fun. We got all dressed up and enjoyed a fun dinner by ourselves at our table. The night before we'd met the rest of our dinner table. They weren't the nicest ppl and weren't very talkative so it was nice to have a dinner with just us 3 girls. Day 3 of our cruise was in Coco Cay which is Royal Caribbean's private island!
It was nice and I wish we'd gotten to spend the whole day there. It was our shortest day at a port. We had a bar-b-que there and just laid in hammocks. It was so peaceful! Katie and I worked out a couple of times during the week too. I was surprised with that, but as much food as we ate, we needed to! We were able to get food whenever we wanted. Pizza, ice cream, fruit... it was AWESOME! We also saw the sunset 2 nights. It was beautiful! The last full day was in Key West.
The day before we had attended some jewelry shopping show on the ship and were given a voucher for free pearl earrings in Key West so we decided to see if it was legit. We just walked around and did shopping in Key West. It was BEAUTIFUL! (We did get the free earrings by the way...) By far, Key West was my favorite of the places we went. That night we had dinner at a different time to avoid eating with our awkward rich friends. We did get to take a picture with our amazing waiters though. We had the same guys every night and they were great! They were fun and took care of us! Leonardo and Prinson. Love those guys!
After dinner, we went to karaoke. Emily sang and did amazing! Too bad she didn't enter the contest because she could have won HANDS DOWN! After karaoke we changed clothes and went to this scavenger hunt game thing. It was a BLAST!! We met these 2 guys there that we grabbed to be on our team.
They were super fun and we hung out with them after the game. We all went and got pizza before heading to a comedy show and then a dance party. We made our last night the best for sure! They guys even got up and had breakfast with us the next morning. We all headed out. I was sad it was over, but it was ok because me and Katie got to have a fun day in Miami! Sadly, Em had to head home. Me and Katie found a beach that was the most beautiful secluded beach I've ever seen in my life!
No one was on it and we had it all to ourselves. It was down from the Trump towers and called Haulover Beach. The water was crystal clear and we just stayed there all afternoon! That night we went to a Marlins game so I could cross that stadium off my list!
It was fun and then we had a long drive back home that night! Back home, we showered and went to bed.
The next day we got up and said our goodbyes to Em. Her and her mom were driving home to Illinois. The first of the goodbyes was not fun. So then me and Katie got ready and headed to Hollywood Studios to get her friend to let us into the park. When we got there, we found out that they were blocked out for the day. In Disney language, that means no friend and family passes could be used that day because of a special event or just peak season. We were bummed, but headed to Animal Kingdom in hopes of one of her other friends being able to let us in. Her friend Tyler tried, but was out of passes. Fail number 2 for us. Then her other friend was finally able to let us in with her passes. We decided to head to the house at the point and finish packing before going to Magic Kingdom. We only wanted the passes to go to MK and Hollywood, but since Hollywood was out of the picture, we decided to get more done on the packing. It was stressful. We had decided that Katie would just ride with me to the airport before I drove home. That way she didn't have to get a cab. Therefore, I had to find room in my car for her stuff AND mine. It was interesting, but we were able to get a good start on it. We headed to MK that afternoon after one final Twistee Treat run! When we got there, we slid our passes and found out that despite what Katie's friend had said, MK was ALSO blocked out. We were left standing outside the gate of MK on our last Disney day wondering what had just happened. Fail number 3. We later decided to go to a movie. If disney wouldn't let us have our fun, we'd go to a movie. All the movies were sold out except one we'd never heard of, but we decided to try it anyways. Once in the theater, Katie went to the bathroom and this creepy guy came and sat 2 seats down from me by himself. When Katie came back we were there for less then 2 minutes and creepy guy number 2 comes and sits on the other side of Katie. We were creeped out. So I decided to go pee and Katie came with me. As we were walking out, the first guy asked if we were leaving! What in the world?! Who is this guy and why does he care?! We were officially freaked out. We decided to go get a refund. So no movie. Fail number 4. No Hollywood, no MK, no movie, what a night. So we decided to go rent a movie and pop popcorn at home. That was a success. Later, we went to see Wishes one more time from on top of the contemporary resort. I'd never seen it from there and it was amazing! We went home, finished our movie, and finished packing. By that time, it was 2am. We took a nap and left at 3:15am. My car was CRAM packed... SO ridiculous. I took Katie to the airport. It was really sad. She's become one of my best friends and it could be a long time before I get to see her again. It hasn't fully sunk in that I won't see her for a long time yet. I'm waiting for that time hit me along with a stream of tears. Anyways, at that point, it was me and the road. It wasn't long before I had to pull over and take a 15 minute nap. So a few stops, one 5 hour energy drink, about 400 songs, and 11 hours later I finally made it home. I surprised my parents and brother by showing up to Hunter's choir concert. They didn't know I was coming in so early. They cried when they saw me! Me and Holli are pretty darn sneaky.
So now I've been home for a solid 24+ hours and it's weird. I'm trying to figure out how I fit back into the puzzle of life here. It's hard just coming back into life here when it's been going on the whole time I've been gone. I think that's the worst part is adjusting to life back home. I've gone from working every day and playing at Disney all the time to being back in TN. It's not sunny here. The temperature is amazing though. Not blazing hot like in FL. I'm still unpacking and organizing my things for now, but once that's done I'll have to start finding things to do for the summer. I will say that I am super excited to be back home with my family and friends here. I've missed them all so much, but I for sure miss my roomies and work friends. And of course I miss the Disney parks! I'm ready for whatever the summer wants to throw at me. And in 2 days I'll be 23. Where did the past 4 months go?!
Home,
Katelyn
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