Stampin' Up! - Grand Vacation! - Part 1

I am back! ..... Actually I have been back for a week now. BUT, I have had the most horrendous jet lag! It's still with me, but I am slowly starting to function again now :o)

It was the most amazing trip! Every minute was precious and it was wonderful sharing it with my lovely daughter Lauren.

We arrived in Miami in the afternoon on 1st May. Three hours later! .... we were out of the airport and in a Taxi transferring to Fort Lauderdale. 

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, Pier 66. This was the one of the views from our balcony .... nice eh?  :o) 

And this is one of the hotel, from the ship.

We spent the next two+ days going around Fort Lauderdale shopping! We visited two main malls - Sawgrass Mills, which is the largest outlet mall in the World! And a smaller mall, The Galleria. Both were fabulous and we scooped some amazing bargains!

We left the hotel on Sunday morning and transferred to the ship ..... The Allure Of The Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world! You cannot imagine how large it is, 17 decks! It's enormous!

There was quite a delay between arriving at the Port and actually boarding. I don't think we got on board until about 3.30pm - and we were starving by that time! The first afternoon flew by with eating, settling in, a safety meeting, more eating! ..... and getting our bearings on the ship. 

Stampin' Up! had even decorated the doors to the cabins! How lovely was that???

Dinner was posh the first night ... in the main restaurant. We ate early each night, so we didn't have to rush to get to the various shows we were due to see.

After dinner everyone attended the Boardwalk Bash. The whole area was closed off just for the Stampin' Up! group ... it was amazing. We had all the entertainment, shops etc all to ourselves. This was one of the displays - an ice sculpture of a mermaid with the Grand Vacation logo frozen inside ... Fabulous!

This first night, the show was the OceanAria. AMAZING! We absolutely LOVED it! Set in the outside Aqua Theatre. It included High Diving, Acrobatics, Trampolining ...... and a whole lot more!

This was my first Incentive Trip :o) In the past, I have always enjoyed seeing all the gifts everyone is given ...... so I thought I would share some of those with you today .......

Each day Stampin' Up! opened the Hospitality Area for us. This was a lovely large room where we could meet, chat and relax.

Every trip they set up a game of some sort where you can win a prize. Now, I know in the past these games have been simple ... like Plinko, Spin The Wheel etc and you cannot fail! All change for this trip though, we had Hoopla with BIG bottles and tiny hoops! Needless to say, I was rubbish at it. BUT it made no difference, you still got your prize :o)

This pic shows all the little prizes I won. It also shows the wonderful Project Life gifts that my upline - Monica - gave me at the start of the cruise! Whose a lucky girl eh???? :o) Thank you Monica!!!! xxx

That's all for now ....... more coming soon!