YAY.. It's cruise day! When we woke up it was raining... Raining? Really this is Miami, I thought it was supposed to be sunny in Miami! At least it didn't last too long and we didn't have to leave until 11. First though Heather and Tim need to go down to the "gas" station to pick up an international calling card, Tim and I had sussed them out last night however neither of us really understood the intricacies of the whole $ minute thing so we decided to call in the expert! They came back with one which only cost them $10 and managed to get through to the commonwealth bank about their travel card, turns out they have to fill in a dispute form so could have done what they needed to do on the internet anyway. One good thing about the Habitat is the free internet, we had to pay $12 for 24 hours at the Stratosphere. Rodd was also downstairs at reception at 10am as they had finally told him the person that does the finances would be there then and they would sort out our "problem".. Rodd had done a lot of talking to them over the time we'd been staying with no luck as they stubbornly just kept repeating they had only taken half payment originally... He went down armed with not only the photo of our bank statement with the full charge to Habitat Residence in black and white but also the statement from our travel card which the extra days charge... Well he came back happy, apparently since we'd booked they had changed software and so somehow the mistake had occurred... Yeah whatever... As Rodd and I both said if we had a guest come to reception and show us proof we'd overcharged we'd refund the money immediately and apologise profusely not put them through the wringer and insist on our innocence! Anyway... Move on... We've got a cruise to get to. Reception very kindly ordered us a taxi which took over half an hour to arrive and he was somewhat dodgy, he told us he'd had 2 hours sleep and it kind of showed in his driving however we did make it to the port in one piece. Getting through security and check in was really fast and smooth and before we knew it we were on board. I'd received a text from Karen while we were in the taxi and just as we boarded she rang to say they were all in the main dining room and holding seats for us so as we couldn't get into our cabin til around 2 anyway and it was way past lunchtime we headed down. It was so lovely to see everyone again, I've got Karen and Ginny on Facebook so have kept up with them somewhat. Karen, Ken, Di, Tommy, Ginny and Bill were all there but Lena and Dan had been held up by a minor fender bender. Once lunch was done it was time to check out our cabins which we did very quickly then headed back up on deck for sailaway, we were just wandering around the decks when I saw a rather brightly clad couple coming towards us and an instant later recognition dawned as I heard that distinctive Arkansas drawl calling "Larnie" (larrrnie)! Lena! Dan! They haven't changed a bit, still the lovely, friendly chatty couple we met 2 years ago. Quick chat and on our way, up to the top deck for some photos and a chat with a Canadian couple then down to the informal meet and greet for the cruise critic group I've been chatting with for the last year. There is always a real party atmosphere at sailaway, everyone around the pool with lively calypso music blaring and drinks flowing. The night continued like that, we made a stop at the casino where I had a quick turn on the craps table and we saw a bit of the show in the Stardust lounge which was snippets of all the entertainment available throughout the cruise... Rodd and I ended up going to bed at around 10 ... Really quite early but maybe all those long nights in Vegas had finally caught up with us!