underway

We’ve stepped from one universe to another kindler, gentler one. One where three course meals are served for lunch and supper. One where crisp white linens grace the tables, and heavy silver cutlery shines. One where my bed is made and chocolates magically appear on my pillow. It is strange but wonderful.

We took an Uber from the hotel to the port and then whipped through the embarkation process in minutes. The longest time we had to spend was convincing the security guy that our power bar was not surge protected (those aren’t allowed). We picked up our medallions - little round disks that open our room door, buy us drinks, and we aren’t sure what else. Zap, we were on the ship. Zoom, up 3 flights of stairs to our stateroom. Zonkers - even though it was only 11:30 our room was ready, so we took a few minutes and unpacked our carryons.

By noon we were in the MDR (main dining room) having a lovely lunch. I had a shrimp salad, beef tenderloin, and an orange souffle with hot custard. belch…

We wandered around until it was time for muster - that’s when you go to a predesignated spot to find out the emergency procedures (cue memory of Viking Sky). After that it was sail away time, oh and time for a pina colada!

Hurrah we sailed away! With the theme from the Love Boat blasting on the ships horns we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale. That’s one of my favorite parts. The sound of those horns brings back the memory of our first cruise and how excited I was.

Our suitcases had been delivered by the time we got back to our room, so we unpacked, got changed, and went… to dinner…

We sat with a lovely couple from Edmonton (retired ranchers), and two women from New York City, one of which works on the ship as something to do with entertainment. It was a controversy free meal.

After supper we scootched around for a bit and then got our seats in the theater. ‘Sweet Soul’ was a great singing and dancing production with excellent music. I think the singers are the best we’ve seen, and the ships band really rocks.

So now it is a little past 9pm and I am totally knackered and ready for bed. I just wanted to post a few words, and gosh I would have liked to include some photos but I took them all with my phone and it is too complicated right now to figure out how to get them from phone to tablet. I wish I had a bluetooth connection between them.

I think I’ll sleep soundly tonight!