Day 1, Day 2

Day 1; 31 October 2014

Fort Lauderdale, Fl

On the day of departure we breakfasted at the hotel, packed our suitcase and removed to the lobby. Our check in time for the ship is 1 p.m. And hotel check-out is 11 a.m. With all going on at the hotel, we could not get a delayed check-out so we said out good-bys to the wonderful staff and dashed off in a cab for the port. I thought we could find a coil of line to sit on and whack rats for awhile. As it turned out, the rat whacking was not necessary either for entertainment or time passing. We arrived about 11:20 and by 11:45 were in our cabin onboard. Shortly after arrival our luggage appeared and was unpacked and stowed. Two suitcases made late appearance which caused some consternation in the meantime. With everything accounted for and stowed, the empty bags either stowed under the bed or sent to stowage, we briefly acquainted ourselves with the “what is where?” exploration of the ship. This is very similar to the ship we are most familiar with. At 3:15 p.m. The ship's alarm sounded and all guests headed for their assigned lifeboat. While some lines ask you to watch a safety movie or attend a safety briefing in a theater sometime prior to the end of the voyage, this line insists on all passengers appearing at their assigned boat station and receive a safety briefing there. Anyone missing is hunted down and placed ashore. The line no longer requires the passengers to appear in life jacket for this drill though. I guess too much noise from passengers playing with the life jacket whistle made it difficult for the boat's officers to be heard. At 4 p.m. The bridge blew the ships horn and we shot away from the pier, pulled a hard right and dashed out to sea. No bands, confetti or weeping and waving families.

We had received an invitation to a private party before dinner so managed to get cleaned up and dressed for dinner. This is a “resort casual” attire night which it usually is on first night out. On the way to the party I noticed a few passengers who seemed to think we were on a death ship as they were attired as creatures from the dead but then realized this is Halloween and the masks and bones were not a serious statement. The party was a lively meet n' greet for a small group of us to get acquainted with each other and with our Captain, Hotel Manager, Cruise Director and a few other Officers. We then wandered off to find our table in the dining room and meet our table staff. More on that later. Suffice it to say we got our request for a private window table for two and we immediately hit it off with a fun loving happy table crew. After was a short show finished the day.

Day 2; 1 November

At Sea

More settling in and meeting fellow guests. A rain cloud is following us and often unloads over the ship. At 10am there was a port lecture which provided insight into what we may expect at our first two ports of call. Lunched, napped met more passengers. This evening we began a favorite routine of having dressed for dinner, wandered down to one of the lounges to take in a half hour of classic violin and piano prior to dinner in the Pinnacle. This evening's dress code was formal and folks looked very nice dressed to the nines.

Noon report: position 24º 19.14'N and 074º 29.30' W. Course 126º with a speed of 15.8 knots. The wind is West at 20knots. Depth 2125 meters. Air temp 79º. Distance traveled since departure was 336 nm (nautical miles.) We are heading South East as a leisurely rate.