DAY 2 - Miami & the NC Pearl

DAY 1 – Miami and boarding the ship

I didn’t get much sleep last night so it took me a while to get up. We all packed and checked out of the hotel ready to head to Miami port. We were kinda early so drove around the beach and saw what we could of Miami beach, it’s really a great city. We saw our ship from the distance, and headed to the departure terminal. Everything was going well at this point, passed security, check in, and then the bad news – My I-20, it’s a pretty important form for international students, my brothers and Marzouqi had theirs in the passports but I kept mine in a folder – back in Richmond. I did have a scanned version on my laptop but at first they didn’t accept it. The lady at the front desk with a thick accent simply said I wouldn’t be able to get on board, unless I got that form. I was thinking of what to do alone in Miami for a week, or my other option to get someone to send it by Fedex then take a flight to Samana, Dominican Republic where the first stop is.

I said a dua under my breath and soon after, this guy comes out from the far counter and asked me to show him the I-20, I emailed it to the company and then he printed it – that was the green light for me, I was so relieved I couldn’t believe it– out of 2600 people we were the last people to board the NC pearl

All the people onboard were wearing life jackets, it was a mandatory safety drill. As soon as that we went to our rooms, we began exploring the Pearl. The ship is huge, 13 decks and each deck has 3 different sections.

As soon as I got up on the 13^th deck, we were moving – fast and I didn’t even feel it from inside the deck. Miami Beach was fading away slowly, I made a quick call to my mom telling her we’re on aboard and you might not hear from us this week. It was getting a little cloudy but the sun was pushing the clouds away, warm sunshine and a perfect blue ocean on the other side of the ship. The 12^th and 11^th deck was a little busier with people, mostly tanning and there’s a jogging track, people running an hour into the cruise – relax!

All the exploring made us really hungry - forgot to mention, we ate at 4 different restaurants in the entire day.

At night, the deck gets really quiet and its relaxing, looking out there’s nothing but the dark blue sea, looking up is another thing, the stars are all over the place shining right back at you, something majestic. There’s a lot more to say but Im tired now, till the next update and will leave you with a few photos.