Saturday/Sunday

The car came on time and we headed for the ship terminal in NYC. Being Saturday morning, there was no traffic and we got to the pier in about 1 hour and 10 minutes and arrived there at about 10:15am. At about 11:15 am they had us line up for security and check in and by 11:45 we were on the ship and headed for our cabin.

The Verandah Suites on this ship are much smaller than those on the last cruise we were on. Even though the cabin itself is smallish, the storage space in both drawers and closets is the best we have ever had. The suitcases plus the case of seltzer and the case of water were delivered one at a time but by 4 pm they were all here and unpacked. It was kind of a good thing to get them one at a time – unpacking was not as overwhelming as usual if all you had facing you was one bag. Of course Bob overpacked again! His carry it onto the boat bag must have weighed 40 pounds all by itself, never mind the other 2 ½ bags he filled (I had 1 full bag plus the other ½ of the bag we labeled miscellaneous stuff – you know – all of the extra shoes that didn’t fit any where else, cigars, snackie things for the cabin, cosmetics, hair goop, all of the electric cords, and power strip to use with the chargers for cameras, phones, walkie-talkies, curling iron, etc., etc., etc.).

After finding the cabin and depositing the carry on stuff we went to the Lido (buffet restaurant) for lunch. We were surprised that it really wasn’t as crowded as we expected and we had a nice sampler of the foods available. After lunch, we toured the ship to find out where everything was at and tried to get out dinner seating firmed up. We wanted what is known as main seating, but had been assigned ‘Anytime’ dining. Needless to say, they were somewhat less than helpful, said we were on the wait list and they’d get it sorted out tomorrow.

Up next was sailaway, which we did from the balcony of our cabin. This was the first time we left from NY when it was daylight and not raining. We were facing the NJ side which was also the Statue of Liberty side. We waved to the lady in the harbor and she waved back. You can see her waving at us in the pictures. Soon after that we passed under the Verrazano Bridge and out to sea we went. Just after that we were totally fogged in, then it began to rain. We wandered around inside the ship some more and introduced ourselves to the slot machines in the casino. They were happy to meet us and took our money happily – let us play for a short amount of time then ate all the money.

Decided to make the best of the ‘Anytime’ dining so we dutifully changed into ‘smart casual’ and made our way to the dining room just before 8pm. When we got there we were told that it would be 20-30 minutes for a table. We didn’t want to wait that long so we decided to go to the Lido buffet where they were serving most of the same dishes as the dining room. We picked up our starters and sat down to eat them and just then they rolled down the shades and closed the buffet. Although the program claims they were open until 8:30, the folks there believed they closed at 8pm. We grabbed a waiter to find out if we could still get food and he went away to check and came back and told us there was a choice of steak or chicken. We both ordered steak with French fries. We got steak with mashed potatoes and a mixture of onions all swimming in some awful tasting sweet soy sauce gravy. The steaks weren’t bad once you scrapped the sauce off. There were still a few puny pastries left on the dessert table, so we sampled a few with some leftover lukewarm coffee. There weren’t too many people in the restaurant but several others that were there were about as happy as we were – not very! Although we certainly had enough to eat it was not a very pleasant experience and nobody wanted to listen to us bitch and moan about it. We decided to use the Steven Ramm approach to problems and stopped for a comment card at the desk. We turned it in this morning but haven’t had any reply as yet. We did go bug the assistant dining room manager again today at noon, and we did get reassigned to main seating starting today. I don’t think this was in response to the comment card though because there wasn’t enough time from when we turned it in to make that change.

Last nite the casino had a welcome aboard champagne reception, so we went there to cheer ourselves up after the dinner disaster. We got a nice glass of champagne and a raffle ticket. Then the slot machines ate more of our money while we waited for the raffle. Guess What?? I won the first raffle – I got a pen, a baseball cap and a very heavy metal keychain that I’m going to throw overboard to see if it will anchor the ship. The second and third raffle winners got the same great prizes.

We lost the first hour last nite but I slept really well and didn’t notice. Although the weather has been foggy and rainy all night and most of today, the seas have been calm and the ship just has that nice rolling motion that lulls you to sleep, or makes you look slightly drunk when you’re walking around.

Today was an at sea day, I got up early and went and exercised in the gym – back to the room for a shower and we went to breakfast. After that was the galley tour which is always nice but this ship is much smaller than the last ones we were on so the kitchens were a lot less impressive. Next we were off to the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet., where we met many of the people we’d been communicating with online. Now we have a bunch of folks to say hi to as we pass them in the various gathering spots around the ship. It’s nice too because we’ve set up a number of tours with them and it’s been very convenient to have a ready made group.

We went to Tea this afternoon in lieu of lunch and that was good – nice little sandwiches, Bob was thrilled they had sausage rolls, and lot’s of nice pastries. After that it was off to trivia for me – my team tied for first place with 2 other teams – but we lost in the tiebreaker. I really didn’t feel too bad – the prize was a heavy metal keychain! The casino had gambling lessons today so I learned how to play blackjack, Caribbean stud poker and three card poker all with fake money. When they wanted real money I switched to the slot machines which were fun until they ate all the money.

Now we are back relaxing and typing in the cabin. We do need to get all duded up for the first formal night at which we will meet our tablemates for the rest of the cruise. I hope they didn’t punish us by putting us at a table with non-English speakers (there are a fair number of German and Scandinavians aboard).

So that’s all for now. I will try to do something with the pictures later or tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be in Halifax.