The adventure begins....

After a great sleep we awoke in the hotel around 6.00 and made a coffee. We had about four hours until we leave the hotel and get on the ship, so we had breakfast, packed up and went for a walk. The weather is cool by Florida standards but great with us.

The hotel is right on the water, [Atlantic] and there was a brisk but not too cool breeze blowing. I can understand people living here, in Florida. The weather is usually great and the sun does feel good. At home we make the best of what we have, but four or five months of wet dreary weather does get some of us down, So we compensate by 'looking forward to spring'. I believe that here, the opposite is true, they must 'look forward to' a few days of cool, or rain to break the monotony.

It is really amazing to see so many older, or shall we say 'mature' people walking, jogging, biking, roller-blading or just out having a coffee or other, early in the morning. [Some of these people must have been pretty good looking 50 or 60 years ago!] Now however the muscles and other body parts look a bit either flabby, bulbous or have the appearance of well-tanned leather. I only need look in the mirror to prove this. Who cares, they are enjoying life to the max! We all seem to want to defy mother nature and refuse to just get old and wither away, some of us go down fighting.

The transfer to the ship was smooth and so was the embarkation process, we were on board by about 12 noon. We were met, greeted and escorted to our cabin in jig time. The cabin is smaller than others we have had, but no complaints folks! We then had a bite to eat and met up with some friends from two years ago Ruth and George. Neat folks, more about them in the weeks to come.


We also found our good friends Gail and Jim Cutler, whom we have planned this trip with for over 18 months. We were on a long voyage with them two years ago and they also visited with us in Maui and Vancouver and we have been to their home in Sacramento. My sister Moe was on the ship somewhere but we did not connect until shortly before lifeboat drill.

Moe found out she was on late seating, in error, and has had to make arrangements to change that. Just for the record, we are not seated at the same table as either Moe or Gail and Jim. We all want to get a chance to meet new people and we thought that this was the best way.

We also bumped into a lot of familiar faces from two years ago and somehow it makes the ship a bit 'friendlier'. Some of you may know that I had a bit of a problem with the 'quality' of the passengers two years ago. Jim helped straighten me out on this and have myself mentally prepared to just take it as it comes regarding people.

Our luggage has all arrived and Fellette has the unenvious job of unpacking seven suitcases. Our nieces case is safely stowed under our bed. [Barabara joins the ship 2 1/2 months from now.]



One day at sea tomorrow then The Grand Cayman Islands.

In the photo you can see how my laptop has doubled in size with the new 'remote keyboard' that I had to get to bypass a keyboard problem that happened to my Mac on the way down.