Our Honeymoon - Pt 1.

Our honeymoon was seriously one of the best trips we could have taken after a long wedding planning process.  It was the most relaxing trip I have ever been on.  It was Dan's first time out of the country (other than Canada) and his first time on a boat.  I was so excited for this trip not just for me, but for him, as well!!

We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale on Monday October 18th at the Ft Lauderdale Hilton Marina.  What a great hotel.  We got out of our taxi and a bellman took our luggage immediately (straight out of the cab).  He asked us what we were in town for and I mentioned we were on our honeymoon.  He turned to a group of about 40 people who were waiting for transportation and said, loudly, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this couple just got married on Saturday!!"  The crowd of people cheered and clapped and congratulated us as we walked by.  That was so sweet!  During check-in, we were upgraded to a suite with a marina view and given free drink and dinner coupons. 

The hotel sent up a complimentary bottle of champagne, as well as chocolates to celebrate. 

 Our Hotel View!

On Tuesday, we boarded the ship.  This was one massive vessel!  We stayed on the 11th floor - the Aloha Deck.  It was a lot of fun getting off the elevator every time we got to our floor and hearing, Aloha!  No, we're not in Hawaii, just going to our stateroom.  :)

Our Stateroom View!

SCORE!  

Awesome fruity drinks...yes please.  Um, let's limit these $8.95 drinks, though, k?

And some "we're so happy to be on our honeymoon!!!" pictures.  We took these with my handy dandy new mini tripod that I bought just for the trip.  I would like to forget that I forgot to carry it anywhere else we went that day, though....oooops!

The first two days on the boat were At Sea days.  We spent a lot of time these days doing lots of fun things that the ship had planned for their passengers......or maybe we didn't.  Maybe we actually slept for most of those two days.  Know what?  We were totally OK with that!  I spent some time at the pool, we saw a show and we ate.  We ate a LOT!

This was my yum-tastic seafood pot.  Oh dear, it was so, so very good, I can still taste it.

Yes please, on the escargot!

Mushroom Tart

Fettuccine in the cheese bowl.  Less fettuccine, more bowl please!!

And then there were the desserts.  Oh, how we enjoyed dessert.  I was particularly excited by the fact that they served cheeses at dessert time.  I am not always a huge fan of chocolatey desserts, and that is what a lot of them were.  Therefore, I tried the cheeses.  ALL of the cheeses.  Most were delicious.  See that little ball of greenish yellowishness, though?  That was gross.  No other word to describe it. 

This was our special honeymoon dessert and the other one is what they call the Princess Love Boat.  Along with the special honeymoon dessert came some entertaining, singing waiters who sang Happy Honeymoon to you, we hope you get some tonight.  That was embarrassing and hilarious all at the same time.  Especially with all of these 60+ers around watching the scene!!!

That was our first Formal Night dinner.  The next night we did something extra special, we had a Balcony Dinner.  Our own private meal on our balcony with a waiter who would bring us anything we needed.  More on that later....