Sunday. Day 1. better late than never.

Yesterday began and ended the same way - plowing through water.

We awoke to thunderstorms, lightning and pouring rain.  When Emile arrived at 6 am to take us to the airport, he informed us that there was no way to get to the airport on Rockaway Turnpike because of flooding and so we would have to go all the way to Sunrise Highway (way out of the way) and then around to JFK.  As we were loading the van, Lisa decided it was the perfect time to mail a letter and drop something off at someone’s house, which apparently had to be done before we left.  Since Steph’s car was the only one not put away in the garage, I drove her.  We backed out onto Muriel avenue to discover it was completely flooded.  The sidewalks were gone.  I floored it, but could only move about 10 mph through the river of Muriel Avenue.  Broadway was okay, but when we tried to get home on Meadow, we encountered even deeper water and had to turn back for fear of being stuck.  Actually there was a car up ahead that appeared to be stuck.

Emile drove extremely slowly to the airport despite being in a van so high it was impervious to the flooding.  We would’ve missed our flight, had it not been delayed from 8 to 830.  Sheldon went through the body scanner, but the rest of us chose security lanes that only had metal detectors.  My bag had to be checked, and the TSA agent who checked it was a young guy who started telling Steph and I about how his girlfriend (almost fiancé) just got back from birthright and wants to go back to Israel on their honeymoon.  When we asked if he’d ever been he told us he's catholic and their families don't get along.  Oy.  Our flight was delayed again to 1010 and we sat in terminal 5 eating dunkin doughnuts, fruit and yogurt.  We boarded by 1010 but didn't take off until after 11 because we had to wait for connecting passengers to get on.  Once we took off the flight was fine, except my TV stopped working halfway through, which was okay since I was really just watching things on my iPod and got a $15 JetBlue voucher out of it.  We landed at 145, got our bags and two taxis, and got to the ship terminal, Port Everglades by 230.  Check in took 20 minutes and we were on the boat.

 The boat, which is currently the largest in the world, really feels like the largest in the world.  It doesn't even feel like you're on a boat most of the time.  You almost never feel it moving.  It's really more like a floating resort.  The ship has 17 decks, 7 "neighborhoods" (more on that later), 6 pools, at least 12 whirlpools, and way too many restaurants.

 We got on the boat and walked through the Royal Promenade (neighborhood #1), which is basically like a huge mall and the heart of the ship.  There's four bars, an English pub, a pizza place, a cafe, a cupcake shop, guest services, a Guess store. One bar is called the Rising Tide Bar and is an elevator that goes up and down between decks 5 and 7.  Then we went to our rooms on deck 9.  Steph and I are on the port side while everyone else is starboard.  The rooms are actually really nice.  They make really good use of space with tons of cabinets and drawers and a compact bathroom.  We have a queen sized bed, a sofa, a desk and a nice balcony.

 Then we hit the buffet, Windjammer Marketplace, where we got fish and pasta and bread and corn and string beans and fries and... They say the average person gains 1-2 pounds a day on the cruise.  We saw religious Jews with black velvet kippas and peos eating regular food at the buffet - all veggie stuff, but still odd.  After the muster drill (in the event of the ship sinking were supposed to go to the dining room - guess we just get one last formal dinner and then go down with the ship) we walked around some more then showered and changed for dinner.  Dinner was in the dining room and really good.  Sheldon told them we don't eat meat or shellfish and we're "sort of kosher."  Our waiter is Dennis from the Philippines, and our busboy is Indian. Again, we saw frum Jews in the dining room, but didn't see what they were eating.  I had a mushroom quiche and mushroom pasta, and Steph had a fruit appetizer and an Indian entree.  We got all the desserts on the menu.  All was good.

Then we saw the Ocean Aria show in the outdoor Aqua Theater, which was really good, had amazing gymnastics and was kind of like the Cirque du Soleil show "O" that we saw in Vegas, but better cos it was only a half hour.Next we walked around the whole ship.The boardwalk is outdoors on deck 6, has the Aqua Theater, a Mexican restaurant, a Johnny Rockets, a carousel and other stuff.Deck 8 has Central Park, with trees, park benches, restaurants you have to pay for, a Coach store and an art gallery.There's also a huge gym and spa, a running track that goes .5 miles around the whole ship.After all of that we checked out the nightclub, which was a little sad and seedy as all nightclubs are, and then the jazz club which was actually really nice.Then we went to the room and went to bed.