We spent all of yesterday morning just taking our time checking out of the hotel and getting to the ship. The folks at the hotel were tremendously helpful, even walking with us to the corner with our luggage to wait for the taxis to arrive. Ten minutes after that we were in line to drop the bags off, then into the passenger terminal to fill out forms, wait in another line to check in and then wait in yet a third line to get on the shuttle bus to take us to the ship itself.
The cruise ship was docked at the same pier as all the container ships, so our shuttle bus was driving in and out of these huge stacks of containers along with semi trucks and what looked like earth graders on steroids. We managed to be on the first bus to the ship, and among the first 10 or 15 people to board at about 12:00. We took five steps past the security screener, took a hard left into the International Cafe and proceeded directly to the first of our drinks for the day, and then lunch and then more drinks, all at the same little corner right after the gangway. We even managed to see our friend Jackie as she approached the ship gangway and were able to surprise her as she stepped onboard.
And then the five of us talked. And talked. And then talked some more. Around 2 or 3 we figured we might want to go drop our hand luggage in the room, and we found our bags already delivered so we unpacked and got ready for the muster drill. We went down early, and proceeded to talk and talk until the drill started. (Are you getting the idea of how we are spending our time together? It's sort of one giant roving cocktail party).
Directly after muster we had dinner. We have a great wait team who got us in and out quickly, and still managed to sing Happy Birthday and give me a small chocolate cake. Yummy! After dinner Kathi went to the casino, Denny watched one of the movies and the rest of us went to a trivia game where we beat the cruise staff team, so we are now officially 'Smarter than the Cruise staff'.
Today, being a Sea Day, was a relaxing start. After a late breakfast we went to the Cruise Critic meeting, where we met our online friends in person and put faces to names. Jackie went to a light lunch with us, and then the two of us did some knitting and embroidery on the back balcony until I came in to start this post. Tom went off to golf and the art auction.
We have our first formal night tonight, so we will all be meeting in the PES lounge for steak tartare as our dinner appetizer and then our dinner together. There is. It a lot to report for today, and that is sort of the point of sea days. They are a bit of a relaxing, lazy, Sunday sort of day.
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