The Cruise: All Aboard!

Here goes.
Our trip started early Saturday morning. We dropped Morgan off with some relatives and then headed for the airport. Our first flight was to Chicago where we had a one hour lay over before our flight to Miami. However, once we got on the plane in SL, it was just sitting there for awhile. Soon the pilot came over the loud speakers saying that there was a problem with the hydraulics. It was being worked on. We waited and waited in the hot plane and worried about catching our connecting flight. Finally they said it was fixed and we would be on our way. But after taxiing to the runway we stopped again. Same problem. We waited more and were sure that we would miss our next flight. They ended up just turning off the engine and starting it up again, and apparently that fixed the whole problem and we were off.
We landed in Chicago and made a mad dash through the huge airport to the appropriate terminal. Now, I was having a strange day with my bladder. My pregnancy hormones must have been a little crazy or something because I was having to use the bathroom every couple of hours. I really wanted to stop in the airport to do so, but we had no time at all. When we got to our gate we were rushed on to the plane and soon took off. So I got to use the airplane bathroom, just like I had to do on the first flight. I wouldn't recommend it. Those things are so so tiny! You barely have room to stand. They are smaller than a normal bathroom stall for sure, but they have a tiny sink crammed in there as well.
Anyway, we made the flight and landed in Miami rather late, especially considering we lost two hours. We took a shuttle to our hotel. It ended up being the wrong one. We had booked the hotel stays long before. One night right before the cruise, and one night right after. We went to the hotel that was booked for a week later. Oops. At this point we were very hungry, (not having eaten much since an early breakfast) and tired. We didn't want to try to find a way to the correct hotel. Luckily, they were able to switch our reservations around without problem.
Let me tell you about the kind of hotel room you can get for $50 in Miami. I wish I had taken a picture. It was so yucky and poor quality. The bed felt like it was going to collapse every time you sat on it. We wore our flip flops in the icky shower, the bathroom light only worked some of the time, the outlet in the bathroom didn't work at all, and if you hit the reset button on it, the bathroom light turned off. The walls and doors were very thin and we heard everything. Conversations in the hall, clattering dishes from the bar that was connected to the hotel, and our neighbors going about their nightly business. *ahem*
We didn't stay there any longer than was necessary.
Oh, an observation. For the first time in my life, I felt like a minority. Florida is much more diverse than Utah and Idaho. Kind of a strange difference.
The next morning we got another shuttle over to the port. We went through all the big lines for the check in process then parked ourselves on the floor of the building since all their seats were filled. There we waited for quite some time before they started the boarding process. We eventually made it on board though, and were immediately ushered to the lido deck for lunch. We found a line and got in it and had what was there. But soon we discovered that lots of people had all sorts of foods that we hadn't seen. Where had it come from? What we didn't know immediately was that there was a huge ol' buffet cafeteria beyond some doors. So. Much. Food.
Here's Aaron after eating our first lunch there. The Miami port in the background.
We did some exploring of the ship, which is a huge building. We eventually found our state room. It was tiny, but wonderfully refreshing after the hole we stayed in the night before. So clean and tidy. We weren't afraid of going around barefoot.
The ship set sail around 4:00, so we made it a point to be on one of the top decks for this. In the pictures over the next few days you will see many of me that I am not fond of. It has a lot to do with my chubby face, the affect humidity has on my hair, and my overall hugeness. I look like I'm ready to pop when, in fact, I have 3 months to go. So I don't like them. Know that.

This isn't our ship, but one that looks identical. It followed us out of port then went it's own way.

A view of South Beach, I believe, as we pulled out of port.

And there's part of Miami. It's huge. Salt Lake is so tiny in comparison.
I don't really know what we did the rest of the day. Explored more, unpacked, went to some of the entertainment things maybe.
Okay, so that's it for the first two days.