We ate breakfast in our room and packed up to head out to Miami beach to spend some time before the cruise. First we enjoyed shuffle board, ping pong, and walking around the resort a little more. Camden made sure to find Lulu, the resort activities lady, to tell her goodbye and thank you.
We parked near Miami beach and walked along the boardwalk area before venturing out to the beach. Since we were in our cruise boarding clothes, we didn't want to get dirty but that proved to be a bit difficult since the kids wanted to jump in waves. We ate our picnic lunch on the sand and walked around. Jonas found a coconut, Savannah found a hermit crab, Levi found "weeoohs" that would go up and down the beach. It was hard to wait to head to our cruise terminal, but we weren't allowed to arrive until 1:30pm.
Once at the terminal, we went through several stations and people - we had our vaccination status checked, tickets confirmed, a health screening, passports checked, photos taken, Covid tests results reviewed, test paperwork for the kids done, Covid tests for the kids...so many stops! It was a bit nerve racking to wait in the large waiting area for the kids Covid tests results to come back...any positive and we would be really in a bad situation! Forty minutes later we got three "negatives" and were finally allowed to cross the bridge onto the ship! Once we were on, we had to do the muster drill, which is now done individually for social distancing. Then we were finally free to see our cabin.
Almost two years ago, I booked an "ultra spacious ocean view" room during a "kids sale free" promotion which made our room very affordable. Even though we were all in one room, it felt spacious enough and the room attendant kept it very clean during the day so it did not feel too crowded and she would set up the sofa bed each night while we were at dinner for Jonas to sleep on. We would definitely pick that room again. It had an awesome view of the very front of the ship through two porthole windows so we could always see where the ship was headed.
I hurried to make appointments for the kids in the Adventure Ocean kids club (since they are limiting reservation numbers) while everyone went for some pizza at the pizza parlor in the promenade (free food was sooooo amazing). We unpacked and made it to our dining time in the Main Dinning Room at 5:30. Every night we were fed a four course meal: bread, appetizer, entree, and dessert. The menu changed nightly but our waiters, John and Crit, stayed the same. It was one of the best parts of the cruise!
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