Cruisin' - Day 1 - 11/28

Well, like I say over and over, it's been forever since I have written a blog post! I am mainly on Facebook these days as everyone is. Not many blogs still going that I used to read daily! Anyway,

I am using this as a way to remember our trip and give advice for friends who have one coming up!
I am back at work today and it's really hard to get in the rhythm of the daily grind again! Our trip was Nov 28-Dec 5, so I had 12 days off in a row because of Thanksgiving! Longest I've ever been away from the office in years, well, ever....
Day 1:
We got on the Carnival Freedom on Saturday Nov. 28th. We went with two other couples, so we all rode together since we all live in Seabrook and could save money on parking at the cruise terminal.
We unloaded and got in line, as we got to the building we all had to use the bathroom before we got in the security lines, and we were laughing and cracking jokes. As Jennifer and I headed into the ladies room, a man was standing there and said, "Looks like y'all are already having fun?" and mentioned he wanted to "check us out" when we were finished. We got to talking in the bathroom and were a little mystified. So we come out of the ladies room and meet Nick right in front and this guy comes over and asks if we could help him test security? Nick says sure and he puts a bullet in an outside pocket of our carry on bag. He also led us to a line saved for VIP's and we didn't have to wait at all! They ran the bag thru and even though it was a set up we were a little nervous, but they found it and passed the test! We even beat our other friends through the line who had paid extra for "Faster to the FUN" to bypass lines, etc. :)  The weather in Galveston was cloudy and cool, so we were all in warm clothes, no shorts and tanks yet! We were all hungry so we headed to the Lido deck for lunch. First stop, Guy's Burgers. Food Network Star Guy Fieri has this restaurant and the burgers are amazing and you can have as many as you want, and I did, almost everyday!!

Our rooms weren't supposed to be ready for a while, but we went up and checked and they were! We put our stuff down and went back up top to check out the boat. The guys found the putt putt golf and so that's what we did. It was very windy up there on the top deck, so we all sucked!

Wandered around a bit more, went back to our room to watch sailaway from the balcony. We all had rooms side by side, so we opened the dividers on the balconies and had one long 40 foot balcony!

Dinner was at 6pm every night and we had a table in the very back of the dining room in the very back of the ship. Too bad it was always dark at dinner, would have been a great view! Our server was Leilani, she was from the Philippines and was the sweetest girl. She had been with Carnival for 10 years, she was great at her job and remembered our names after the first night. She would always greet us by name every night. She was always happy and cheerful, as were all of the stewards and waiters. Our room steward greeted us by name everyday, "Good morning, Miss Kristin and Mr Nick." After dinner we ran around, went to the club, saw a show and played ping pong and chess on deck. It was still a bit cool, but not for long! First night towel animal was my favorite, an elephant! Day 1 was a hit, and we were the last ones up on the whole ship I think :) Couldn't wait to find a spot by the pool the next day and get some sun before the Texans game!