Come Sail Away - 03.01.26

After a night of much needed rest, I woke up refreshed and ready to go. The nightmare of finding last minute lodging was behind us and nothing but sunshine and open ocean was ahead of us.

Before we started our cruise vacation, my family and I had an important breakfast to attend with a special someone. My abuelo invited us for a delicious homecooked meal at his apartment. It was wonderful to spend a few hours with him as we enjoyed breakfast, caught up with each other, and even celebrated my mom's birthday early with sweets, singing, and party hats.

From my abuelo's we were onto our next adventure which was transportation. My mom and I dropped my dad and sister off at the cruise port terminal with all of the luggage and we went back to the airport to return our rental car. After we successful returned the car, we took an uber back to the port. Once our party was reunited, we started the boarding process onto the ship. The process was smooth and did not take all that long. We made it onto the ship and started exploring.

We went straight to the Garden Cafe, buffet, as we were ready for lunch. I made myself a plate with potato salad, short rib, chicken, and a seafood roll. Everything was good especially the seafood roll! After lunch, our rooms became available, so we headed to them to freshen up. We then went back up to the deck for the sail away party, where my sister and I ordered cocktails.

Before long, we got ready for our first dinner at the Venetian, one of the two main dining rooms. For dinner I ordered, the Caesar salad (romaine lettuce, focaccia crouton, parmesan cheese, Caesar dressing), grilled tilapia (quinoa, arugula salad, lemon olive oil dressing), and seasonal fresh fruit plate. My sister ordered the cream of cauliflower soup (cauliflower florets, toasted almonds, chives), grilled tilapia, and warm chocolate lava cake (strawberry compote, stracciatella gelato). My mom ordered the cheese ravioli (lobster cream sauce), chicken piccata (pan-fried chicken breast, lemon-caper butter sauce, roasted tomato, sauteed garlic spinach, rigatoni gratin), and seasonal fresh fruit plate. My dad ordered the Caesar salad, breaded flounder fillet (arugula salad, cherry tomatoes, mustard remoulade), and warm chocolate lava cake. My mom and I ended up also splitting a warm chocolate lava cake as they were too good for just a bit of someone else's. We also split a bottle of white zinfandel for the table. My sister's soup and the lobster sauce from the raviolis were some of the dinner highlights.

After our meal, we attended The Welcome Aboard Show and The Sip and Sail Away with Effy Jewelry. The show was a nice preview of bits and pieces of the shows to come throughout the week. The jewelry party had mentioned complimentary champagne, but we did not receive any.

Overall, our embarkment day went smoothly and tomorrow would be our first of two at sea days.