"I'm coming Dad!" I shouted while trying to lift my humungous suitcase off of the ground. The day had finally arrived. The day that me, my mum, my dad and one of my best friends, Anna, were going on a cruise to Hawaii and North America. I was so excited but i am not a morning person and unfortunatley our flight was at 10.00am, so we had to be at the airport by 8.00am and i had to be up by 7.00am!

"Come on Bethany, hurry up or we will be late!" Dad told me from downstairs.

"I would have been down there already if i had a bit of help with my case!" I shouted back. Dad ran upstairs to my bedroom and lifted my case with one hand down to the car. I just didn't get how he could lift it without a problem yet to me it was like lifting up a sumo wrestler. I grabbed my travel bag and bottle of water and then rushed downstairs, out of the house and then slid into the back seat of my dad's shiny black jeep. Mum came out of the house then with a bag full of goodies and behind her, Dad came and locked the front door. We would meet Anna at the airport and from there it would be the plane, the ship, the pool and the sun!

      It took us about 40 minutes to get from our house to Edinburgh airport and then another 15 minutes to check in. Once we were checked in we had a look around the little shops and then went to meet Anna at a little cafe. I spotted her sitting on a warm, coffee coloured couch with her Mum sitting next to her. We walked in, spoke for a few minutes and then Anna and her Mum said there goodbyes. Her Mum left and the four of us(Mum, Dad, Anna and me) walked to customs.

"I'm sooooooo excited!" Anna said hyperactivly, " I can't believe we are going to Hawaii!"

"I know," I replied, " I can't wait either. Its gonna be fab!" We went through customs no problem and then we went into the duty free perfume shop. None of us bought anything there but me and Anna got an ice lolly and a magazine each from the newsagents.

"mmm...!" i said as i licked my lolly, "Blackcurrant, my favourite!" Dad checked his watch, it was 9.25am. Just as he did our flight number was called to tell us to go to our gate. We headed to the gate and before we knew it our flight was boarding. Our flight was to San Fransisco and thats where we would join the boat. Tomorrow we would be in Hawaii and then we would be going to other places.

     I sat next to Anna in First class with my Mum and Dad in the next two chairs. "These chairs are really comfy!" Anna said while reclining.

"I know!" I replied, "The legroom is fab too. We have so much space!" There was a huge T.V screen directly in front of us that would be showing the main film and then at the side of us we had our own personal T.Vs where we could watch the other things that was on. The plane took off and i looked outside at the tiny houses and up at the fluffy, white clouds. "Bye Scotland!" I whispered as the city disappeared. Now it would be a solid 8 hours of flying in First Class with our feet up watching plasma T.Vs. First I watched Step up 2 which was fab and then i watched some of the Disney Channel. Me and Anna read our magazines and chatted about Zac Efron and some of our fav celebs. Then the food came. I hate plane food but this wasn't that bad and the ice cream was really good. Then 27 dresses was showing so i watched that while Anna slept.

        The seatbelt sign flashed, as we were just about to land. I peered out of the window again and saw the clouds starting to disappear and some land came into focus. The pilot told us that we had arrived in San Fransisco and that it was only 10.00 am there. At exactly the same time, me and Anna turned to each other and said "10.00am, wow!". We laughed and then tuned our ears back to the pilot to find he was finished talking and was begining to turn the plane. Then the air hostesses came and opened the plane doors and everyone began to get up and evacute the plane. I yawned and leant under my seat to get my bag. Anna, me, Mum and Dad joined the queue to get out and thanked the air hostesses on our way out. The heat hit us like a ton of bricks as we got out of the plane and walked to the place where the people with the signs were. We noticed the name of our cruise ship on a big neon yellow sign that a man standing in the corner was holding up. Many people were around him so we joined them and waited for him to move. We were lead outside into the scorching heat until we got to our bus. The bus was also neon yellow and again it had the name of our ship painted across it. The seats were black like the interior of the bus except they all had one neon stripe across them. Mum reached into her bag and took out 2 bottles of juice for me and Anna and we both opened them as quick as you can say jack flash as we were so thirsty from the heat.

              Ten minutes later we were at San Fransisco's harbour getting out of the bus while looking gob smacked at the size of the cruise ship. To me it was about the size of 10 stretched limos in length and about 9 double decker buses in height. "Photo op!" Mum said gesturing for me, Anna and Dad to get our photo taken with the ship. She only managed to get half of it in though because it was so big! We got on board the ship and went to the reception to get our cabin keys and find out where everything was. We got our cabin keys and mines was neon green, Mum's was neon yellow, Anna's was neon pink and Dad's was neon blue. I almost flipped with excitement when my Dad told me that me and Anna had our own cabin. The ship's logo and advertisments were all in neon colours but the interior of the ship itself was very different from all the bright neon colours. It was more classy than the neon logo with a big crystal chandeleer hanging from the very centre of the main deck's ceiling. Also the huge white grand piano below that and the round glass tables with comfy leather chairs around them looked amazing. "Wow!" I said mezmorized, "This place is so cool!"

"I know!" Anna said wide eyed, "I can't wait to see our room!"

"Well girls you don't have to wait any longer cause thats where we are heading now," my Dad said as he started walking in the direction of our cabins. Mum, me and Anna followed him just up a few steps and round a corner to our cabins. How handy! i thought to myself. Mine and Anna's cabin was right next door to my mum and dad's. We left Mum and Dad, walked into our cabin and took a good look around at our home for the week. There was 2 single beds in the cabin. They were right next to each other against the side wall. Four small cabinets lined the back wall and a door was next to that which led to the bathroom. The walls of our room were sea blue and the carpet was more or less the same colour. On mine and Anna's beds there was a welcome pack that had loads of cool things in it including free lipglosses and nail varnish. "Wow!" I said in excitement, "This has got to be the best holiday ever!"

"I Know," Anna joined in, "Look at all this stuff!" We each picked a cabinet and unpacked all our stuff into it. Then we decided to explore the ship. We walked out of our cabin to find Mum and Dad just coming out of their's and ready to explore. There was so many cool things like these huge sofas shaped like the ship and tables that looked like portholes. The main restaurant had an underwater theme which was really cool especially the fish shaped seats.

      After exploring a bit we went up 2 decks to the pool and deck chairs to swim and sunbathe. I laid my towel flat on one of the deckchairs and sipped my coke. Anna took out her nail polish and started to paint her toe-nails a summery bright yellow. I got up, leaned on the banister and watched as the ship tore away from the harbour. The cruise had begun. "Fancy a swim?" I asked Anna.

"Yeah. Ok then. Race you there!" She replied. We ran down the stairs passing loads of people relaxing on deck chairs and then made a splash as we jumped into the pool.

"Call it a draw?" I asked Anna seen as we both were there at the same time.

"Fine but we both know who really won. ME!" Anna said. We both giggled and then started to play with a random beach ball. Some Jamaican boys came to the band stand and started singing summery beach songs. It was such a nice summers day and it was great just to chill. After being in the cooling pool for 15 minutes we went down the 2 flumes. The orange one was swirly and not too fast but the blue one was the best. It was zooming fast with sharp corners and at one point it went all dark on the inside.

     We went back to the deck chairs to collect our stuff and then we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. I decided to wear black leggings with a turqouise top that had black stars on it and all black accessories. Anna chose white leggings with a floral smock and white accessories. We went to the mexican restaurant on the ship and ordered our meals.

"Can we have the medium sized cheesy nachos to share please?" I asked the waiter for me and anna. The plate arrived and it was much bigger than we expected. We struggled to finish the nachos but we still had a little space left for some cheesecake. The food was exsquisite. It was the best i had ever tasted.

      After dinner we went to the theatre to watch the show- Alice in Wonderland. It was amazing and very realistic. We went out for a walk on the deck and just caught the end of the sun setting. It was such a pretty sight and it was great to think that it would only be the first of many. I checked my watch to find that it was 10pm. I had had a long day and was more than ready for my bed so we all back to our cabin to go to sleep.

   "Ahh!" I said as i stiffled a yawn the next morning. I rubbed my eyes and looked around at the spotless, cosy cabin.

to be continued. .

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