The Beyer Family: Kym & Mike Imagination Vacation Feb 2012

So... Mike & I Were able to get away for a week last week and take a 4 night cruise on the Carnival Imagination. We had the BEST time ever. So good, that I am in a serious Post Cruise Depression Right now. Yes, It's Real. :-)

Anyway, We left after I got out of work on Friday Feb 3rd. Mike slept the day away while the kiddos were in school so he'd be able to drive that night. I had to work, so while he drove, I'd sleep. We got the car packed up and loaded and hit the road around 9:15pm on Friday Night. We had a great smooth, no problem drive. I am going to try to blog about the trip in sections, since i have SO many pictures to share, and it should be a bit easier to follow if I do it this way. First I need to say Thank You to Meema (my mom), GG (Mike's mom) And Grandpa (my Dad) for helping out with the kids while we were gone. Obviously this much needed (and deserved if you ask me) trip wouldn't have been possible if our family wasn't willing to help out taking the kids. The kids of course had a GREAT time with all the grandparents, and enjoyed the week of pure spoiled-ness. :-)

So Here are Mike & I at our first pit stop. A rest area somewhere in West Virgina. It was around 3:30am when we took this picture. Excited for the adventure that was to come still!!

And the outside of the rest area, See.... we were in WV! LOL

Ah.. We made it to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina around 11:00am. We were able to spend the rest of this day and night with Mike's Aunt Sandy who lives here. Mike's Cousin Mark & his wife Shelly and their boys also live here, so it was awesome to be able to send time with family, and get to visit the area a bit as well. We never get to see Mark, Shelly and boys much at all, so that was even better.

What's even better?? SONIC!!! we don't have a sonic here. We LOVE Sonic. We stopped at one in Colorado when we were there in 2010 and loved it. Now we actually plan our routes when we travel, so we are able to stop at one. This was our goal, to be able to make it to Sonic around Lunch time. We did it!

The Menu!

Here is just a picture showing GREEN LIVE plants and tress in February. Remember, we live in the North, it's Cold and ugly here right now. How cool that you can drive for 11 hours, and it's 40 degrees warmer and GREEN! And Palm trees... ah how I love palm trees.

Here we are in the car, getting ready to head to Aunt Sandy's house, after our yummy lunch. Yes, we are looking a bit rough, but we had been in the car for over 12 hours at this point.

We arrived at Aunt Sandy's house, got showered and freshened up, then Aunt Sandy took us (well me really, since Mike's been there done that before) of the beach/Ocean and boardwalk. It was SO warm and nice out! Well, for us NYers anyway.

The Sky Wheel, that I would NEVER go on. Nope, I don't do Ferris wheels.

How pretty is this Beach front?? I love the dock in the background.

All the hotels along the Ocean Front. thankfully we weren't here at a busy time. I am sure it was more locals out and about then anything else. A week from now, during winter break, this place would be PACKED.

Looking the other direction.

The boardwalk. I guess this is all new, and it continues to be added onto, I loved the space and feel of it.

Know the group "Alabama" ? (they sang our wedding song, not in person of course, but they sang it nonetheless)

Well, here is the BOWERY where they got their start!

Hm.. Did you know it is the 8th wonder of the world?

Headed to Miami!!

Obviously we don't get hurricanes in Buffalo. We have snow evacuation routes, not Hurricane ones. Our's have Snowflakes on them, so I thought it was cool that theirs had the hurricane symbol. So at 4am, as we were headed out of SC, I had Mike pull over and take a picture of one (and he wanted to get a drink out of the cooler in the back of the car too, so it wasn't JUST for this picture. LOL)

So we left Aunt Sandy's house just after 4am. I wasn't sure how to dress, since we'd be in the car for the next 13 or so hours to begin with, I figured pants? But Mike decided to wear shorts, so I thought, Ok, maybe it will be warm later on, I'll wear Capri's.

Needless to say, as we head out to the car, I sure am glad I put on Capri's.

Look at that temp! It's 4:28 AM and it's already 63 degrees outside!

We arrived at the Florida Welcome Center at around 11am if I remember correctly.

How Fun is it that they give you Fresh squeezed Orange or Grapefruit Juice?? It was good too!!

Wahoo!! We made it to Florida. too bad it's the longest state ever and we still have like 5 more hours to get to Miami. LOL

Talking to the boys on the phone at the Florida welcome center before we head on the road again!

Holy Moly am I glad that I wore my Capri's! Mike was sure glad he wore shorts, It's 80 degrees at 11:48AM! So that's almost a 50 degree difference from when we left home 36 hours before.

And around 4:00 or so we arrived at our hotel! We stayed at the Fair field Inn, in Fort Lauderdale, FL. I got a great rate of $78.00 for the night from LMT (last minute Travel), much cheaper then staying right in Miami, and we were only around 30 mins away from port anyway.

Our hotel room. It was small, but nice. Not bad for under $80.00

I liked the contemporary colors that were everywhere.

Los Olas Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

After we got refreshed again, we headed out to find something to eat for dinner. I did some research prior to leaving home, and we thought it would be fun to go to a Hibachi restaurant. So off we went to downtown Ft. Lauderdale. Only we never found the restaurant, so kept driving and found this awesome street that was apparently the happening place! We parked and walked up and down the blocks for a while, taking in all the cool buildings, in fun designs, amazing tropical colors and quaint little rivers etc. It was like being in someplace out of a movie. So serene and pretty. The Blvd was pretty crowded, being Superbowl Sunday and all, BUT there were alot of places closed as well. I am thinking it was because it WAS a Sunday evening, not a Friday or Saturday. I imagine those nights would be even more crowded. Every place had outside seating with candles on the tables, menu's were outside for you to glance at before you decided. It was awesome.

I am sure the people who live probably don't appreciate the neat architecture like I do, or the fun colors, but I couldn't help but take pictures of all of it.

Underground parking for these amazing townhouses.

How neat would it be to sit out on your balcony and look at the small river flowing beneath. Not sure how you feel, but water always calms me.

We ended up stopping to eat the cheesecake factory. Yes, we have one at home, but neither of us had ever been there before (well, I was once with the girls from work, years ago, but that was it) Outside, was a gentleman making objects from palms. He made this awesome rose, out of 1 single palm. How cool is that?? It smelled so fresh. And We'll have it forever, even after it turns brown.

Side view. We ended up eating inside, because the wait to dine outside was close to an hour. we needed food fast! We had a nice relaxing delicious meal, even if our waiter left something to be desired.

After dinner we made a quick stop at Target (I needed a new blow dryer) and we bought a couple things as well. It was WAY cool to walk into Target on Feb 5th and have SHORTS out to try on!! Mike told me to be quiet, I was sounding like a tourist. :-)

We spotted Jamba Juice in the next plaza and HAD to stop, even though we were stuffed from dinner. We experience Jamba Juice in Colorado as well, and loved it. Why can't any of these good places come to Buffalo??? Hello!!

Sailing Day has arrived!!

Monday Feb 6th 2011

We woke up the next morning to a rainy dreary day. Who cares - We are getting on the SHIP today!! Off to the Port of Miami we head.

Side Note - Miami traffic is HORRIBLE!!!

We eventually made it to the port. I see the tops of some cruise ships!! This moment is so exciting, no matter how many times you've cruised or what port your out of. The first glimpse gives you butterflies in your tummy!

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, NCL, Oh my!!

We got to port about 10:30 am. Miami has a kiosk check in, can't really get much easier then that can they??Got our welcome back sea passes and we waiting for Zone 5 to be called!

As we were waiting to be called, it was 11:00am, and past passengers were STILL filing off the ship. What the heck! I guess there were delays with the weather getting everything and everyone off the ship in time, and the customs to clear then, so we had to wait for them to get off first :-(

Patiently waiting for zone 5!!

Or... Not so patiently.

there's the imagination right out those windows!!! I want ON! Finally about 11:45am, we were called and aboard we went!

Of course, first place was to eat!! Passing the pool & deck area along the way!

Cabins aren't ready until 1:30pm, so we hung out on the top deck and watched them loading the ship with our luggage and other goods for the week. Monday is the big loading day (not Friday when we get back to port and the 3 day cruise goes out, just Monday's)

See that piece of purple luggage in that cage??? It's OURS!! At least we knew some of our clothes would make it. LOL

Miami Skyline.

then we went wandering some more.

Waterworks!! can you believe we never made it back to the waterslides after this day?? We were so busy doing other things we never got back here. Next time.

Serenity - Adults Only spot. there were 2 hot tubs here as well.

There is Destiny behind us

Rain stopped, and the sun came out. And it was HUMID!!

And of course, Carnival's "whale tail" Freddy as the kids call it.

These were some comfy chairs.

Another view of freddy.

Finally able to get into our rooms!! Yippie!!

Here is our bathroom :

Shower/Sink area

Potty :-)

And our Cabin. We had an ocean view room, on Empress deck (7) Cabin # E102

Desk/vanity & Closet view. the bathroom is across from the closet.

We decided since we had time to kill before our Roll Call meet & greet, sail away, and our luggage arriving, we'd take a spa tour. In all 5 of our cruises, this is the ONLY one we've ever taken, and I've always wanted too, so it was fun! Remember this is one of the smaller ships we've been on (as well as Sensation) so I can only imagine what the spa looked like on the Dream! (we never even found the spa on dream)

Front Desk area.

The Salon (Hair & Nails)

this is the women's locker room, heading to the treatment rooms and the gym area. There are benches, lockers, sinks, a shower area with a bunch of showers and a changing room. So quiet and relaxing.

The showers/changing area. ANYONE can use these facilities, you don't have have a spa appt to use these showers or the sauna/steam room. Someday I am determined to take advantage of this. It will have to be a 7 day sail though, so I can fit it in.

The gym!! All the same awesome equipment you'd see at your gym at home, but this one is at sea. And with the best possible view ever! But no worries, if you don't want to look ahead at the water, there are TV's built into the equipment for your pleasure.

Here is the aerobics studio and the cycling bikes.

Just one of the MANY treatment rooms.

This was as a treatment room that had a divider between, so it can open up to the other one if couples or friends wanted to share a room :-)

The Spa waiting room.

Finally! Time for our meet & greet at the waterworks bar from our Cruise Critic roll call.

Ok, me with my first drink of vacation!

And while we were waiting, Mike noticed that Carnival has it's own Trucking company, so he says we can move to Florida, and he can drive for them, and we can cruise all the time, since we won't have to travel to port!

Anyway - we had 30 people on the roll call, but only a few of us showed up (of course, all the important people) he, he. We met some amazing people that we will hopefully stay in contact with for years to come! Gloria, Frank, Cyndy, Jason, Dan & Jenn & Roxie, other then us were the only ones who showed up. We did later on the sea day, meet up with Shayne on deck, so I am glad we were able to meet her. Jason and Dan had been on board for 2 sailing already! they were at the last leg of a B2B2B2B (back to backs) How awesome! (Um... Yea, I am jealous)

Hm... misplaced aerobic room pic

After the meet & greet, we headed back up to the gym to see if we won any prizes from our spa tour. We didn't :-( BUT I have to say I will always take a spa tour from now on. I had no idea that they did sample procedures on you, and gave so much stuff away. See.. 5 cruises in and still learning!

The theatre.

Looking down the stairs from the 2nd story.

WE ARE CRUISIN'!!!

Here's some Pictures of certain areas of the ship.

Here we have the ever famous Casino. Happy to say that we didn't step one foot into here. And it was WAY too smokey to even try to if we did want too. ugh.

The thing with Carnival is the odd decorating style. The Dream wasn't bad since it was a NEW ship, Imagination is 17 years old though. They had these statues through the atrium. No big deal right? Not until we notice the breasts hanging out. LOL

The other Casino Entrance

Heading into the atrium from the promenade

And if you go this way, it brings you to one side of the photo gallery and an entrance to the Dynasty Lounge (the theatre)

Looking down into the atrium from Deck 9 - the promenade, our cabin was down the hallway right behind the shore excursion desk down there. It was an ideal location. Loved it.

Sail away!

Destiny pulled out ahead of us.

Goodbye Miami - How pretty is this place?? love it!

Looking down onto Lido deck 10

Hot Tub, Mike sat in here for a LONG time one afternoon. Way too long. needless to say, his blood pressure was SKY high for a few hours after.

Mini Golf anyway?? Here we are on the sports deck.

Jogging track.

Palm trees!! Love the perfect lines!

Sail Away Deck party!! Shake it Gloria!

At the aft of the ship, as we sail away. Bye Bye Miami!

Happy Birthday to us! What a great week to sail! We decorated our door :-)

Of to dinner on the first night! I think we need to bring a tripod next time. LOL

This picture we took for Courtney - Circle C which is the hangout for the 11-14 year olds. She loved Circle C on Dream.

This would have been her camp counselor.

Our waiters dancing to Low on the first evening. We had any time dining this sailing. It was different, but I liked it.

our first towel animal! Hello Mr Seal

More Birthday Decorations. We had to keep it fun you know!

Here's a good view of our cabin from in front of the window, on the opposite side of the bed. That's the door to the hallway straight ahead. 4 huge closets to the left and the bathroom across from them. Then we had the vanity /dresser area with 4 drawers. We had a chair in our room as well as the king size bed. Plenty of space!