Day 1: After an overnight red-eye flight through Atlanta we arrived in Orlando at 8:00 a.m. Papa Jim picked us up and whisked us away to Port Canaveral. We met up with Mimi, Uncle Mike & Jen at the Radisson and thehotel's transportation service took us to the cruise terminal. We took pictures, had identification cards made and waited (impatiently) for our group to be called onto the ship. Around 12:30 they announced lucky number 13 and away we went. Just after crossing the gangplank and stepping onboard they loudly announced "Welcome aboard, Carpenter family!!!!! folllowed by hoots and hollers and picture taking. Permanent smiles were etched on our faces. We had definitely entered the "happiest place at sea". Our rooms weren't ready until 1:30 but we were free to visit the restaurants for lunch. We chose the deli where they made grilled paninis, salad and fruit. Right next door was the self-serve, soft-serve ice cream machine--open 24 hours no less. That's all the kids needed to hear. We checked in to our cabins and that's the last we saw of the boys until the send-off party. Being a family-oriented cruise, there was no breaking of champagne bottles on the side of the ship but instead a big ol' dance party on the upper deck replete with streamers, music and dancing. Most of us were too tired to participate but enjoyed sitting by the pool to watch. By 8:00 we were all tucked in and fast asleep.

Day 2: We woke up to find our ship was docked at Nassau, Bahamas. The weather was pretty overcast but warm. We left the ship to do some exploring only to find that the extent of it was an open air market with locals selling baskets and waterfront businesses persuading us to take a boat ride or buy oversized conch shells and starfish. There was the option of taking a bus to the Atlantis Resort and viewing their world famous aquarium. No one was really interested so back to the boat we went, sans Ian & Trey. They wanted to go explore the island. I wanted to go explore the adults only pool. Around 6:00 we checked the younger boys into their kids' club and they stayed for all of about 30 minutes. They're just not "club" kind of kids. They would rather swim, visit the arcade and sport court. The way dinner works is that you have either a 6:15 or 8:15 seating with a rotation to each of the four restaurants. The really cool part is that the same waiter stays with you every evening. This night we ate at Animator's Palette. The walls were decorated in sketches from many different animated Disney movies. Intially they were in black and white and then one-by-one they would come to life in color. The food was pretty good. I'm not picky as I was just glad I wasn't the one doing the cooking.

Ben wishing the surfboard was portable.