Days one two and three

We walk onto the ship, and the first thing they tell us is that our cabins staterooms wont be ready until 1.30 pm so to head for the Windjammer all you can eat buffet on deck 11, we must have walked on there at about 12.30...

...we walk into the lift, we go straight to deck 11 (like the good people we are), and some people (the ones who think that the staterooms not being ready is just a ruse) press the floors for their rooms...

...guess what? They are greeted by fellow people (who also didnt believe that they were included) saying we cant get into our room! And the other people still decided to try their rooms for themselves!

We walk into the buffet area and it was rammed - we managed to find a table for two and James went up to get his first plate of food, then I went up and I got chicken, beef rice pork stew and a corn on the cob (all on one plate) ;o)...

...not wanting to miss out on anything yummy I then had a hot dog, onions and french fries.

And if that wasnt bad enough I then had some dessert!

Im pleased to say that I didnt carry on eating like this - because I really would have had to be rolled off of the ship when we finally docked!

Anyhow 1.30 comes and they announce that our staterooms are now ready, so we get our backpacks and fleeces and find our cabin, and it looks good a fairly decent sized room (considering we are on a ship and I heard that everything is tiny) and a balcony with two seats and a table.

We didnt have our luggage as it was taken when we first arrived at the ship to be scanned and were told that all luggage will be back with their owners by midnight!

When we first came onto the ship we were given a leaflet on the activities for that day...

...at 5pm (the exact time that the ship was leaving the dock) was when the tickets were available for the ice show - so I go down to where the tickets are being given out at at 4.55 and the queue snaked back on itself!

So I joined the queue and there was a woman in front of me who insisted on talking to every person that she was opposite to in the queue whether they were behind us or in front of us...

...half an hour later I finally get to get my tickets and there were only a few shows left. I asked which ones were for the days that we were at sea and they pointed to the ones on day 8, so I got two tickets for the 2.30 show (I was well pleased with myself).

Our luggage finally arrived at 6.30 (so in plenty of time for us to get dressed for dinner).

When we booked the cruise it asked if for dinner you wanted to be sat alone or with other people (as you are never sure who you will be sat with I quickly said sat alone), so I was slightly nervous when we went for dinner just in case they said "sorry you have to be sat in a group", when we walked into the dining room I was pleased to see that there were tables for two people, the only problem was that we were sat in the walkway!

The dinner itself was really nice, there were several choices including "specials" and even had "low calorie" dishes as well - so if you wanted to be good (I didnt go for the low calorie options), you could eat a meal for less than 800 calories.

The next day we saw that they were having a bingo session, so we decided to have a go as it might be something fun to do...

I had heard that bingo games are normally really fast and was worried that we wouldnt be able to keep up, then I thought to myself "hang on - this is a cruise ship so they are going to be catered to the old dears" I shouldnt have worried as the bingo was slow - some may even say that it was p-a-i-n-f-u-l-l-y s-l-o-w ;o)

That evening we had the Captain reception (this was our first formal night) I wished that I had used my full ass when trying to diet as I had real trouble getting into one of my dresses (it was one of the ones that I bought back in April), still thank goodness for the cardigan I bought also ;o). There was even a photographer to capture the first formal night and we bought a couple of the photos ;o).

We managed to change our table too (and got a far better spot by the window)

The menu as supposedly chosen by the captain was more upmarket than the usual everyday menu. James was quite vocal about the fact that fishfingers didnt appear in any shape or form, and if they were good enough for Captain Birdseye then they should be good enough for our captain!

It was weird waking up in a new port, we opened the curtain and saw that we had already docked in Portland Maine, we got off of the ship and because it was quite early 8am I think, none of the shops were open. We did find a small cafe that was open and got to try their pumpkin pie latte ;o).

We then made our way back to the ship as we had pre booked a shopping trip to Freeport, we had three hours of shopping but that was not nearly long enough for us...

We did find a Friendlys restaurant to have lunch in...

...my favourite part of the lunch was the sweet cinnamon roll sundae - I wish that I hadnt bothered with the burger and fries and just had two sundaes instead ;o)

We then returned back and managed to get on the Portland Trolley Tour, they werent sure if they could fit us on there, so it was touch and go...

...luckily (two minutes before the tour was due to start), they then decided that we could fit on the tour - we were stuck behind a group of ladies from Massachusetts who were on a girls weekend! We heard more about what they were getting upto than on Portland facts ;o). The trolley driver was actively encouraging them!

We then made our way back to the ship...

...to be continued...