Next Cruise begins differently!

This is turning out to be an unusual evening.

We were steaming toward Aruba when we suddenly changed directions. The ship turned around and headed back toward Fort Lauderdale. After a few confusing minutes we got a ship wide message saying that the reason for turning around was the sighting of a capsized vessel. The Island Princess in cooperation with the US Coast Guard has begun to check out the situation. So we are waiting for more news.

In the meantime, a report on today:;

We got up at 5:30 and managed to be all packed and on our way by 7. After a few course adjustment we made our way to the turnpike and away we went. The trip was uneventful.

We arrived at the Budget place with 15 minutes to spare. Then we loaded up our luggage and headed for the airport and a taxi. Soon we were in line waiting to Board the Island Princess. It went very smoothly and in about 15 minutes we were on board.

We headed to the dining room right away in the hopes of meeting our friends there. It was already oer o’clock so we figured they were probably gone already. So when we arrived at the dining room we told the greeter that we wanted a table for sharing. We were lead to a large table for ten and much to our surprise and delight it was the table where our friends were seated. We had a grand lunch and a wonderful visit with friends. They are Howard and Janeen , Fred and Mary and Nancy and Pam. Nancy and Pam are Howard’s sisters. We have sailed with Howard and Janeen and Fred and Mary before.

After a great lunch we returned to our room to unpack. Our luggage had arrived. We met our steward “Randell” He is a sweetie.

 He gave me a big hug and declared that I would be his substitute Mom. I don’t know how pleased I am about that . He could have said that I was his substitute grandmother, so I guess it could be worse. Because we are in a mini suite we get champagne for sail away. Randy left us an entire bottle. I am going to enjoy that.

 He also brought me a perfect sized vase for my flowers.

I also decorated our door.

Next we went to Muster drill. We were on deck 6 so we took the stairs.

They just announced that the overturned vessel has been taken care of by the coast guard and that we are free to continue to make our way to Aruba. We saw nothing. It is now dark so we have no idea what was seen or not seen.

It is also 8:30 which is the time for the second show so I guess we will not be going to the theatre to see the second show.

Our dinner time is 5:15 so we will be going to the second show. Dinner was great, We have wonderful waiters .  Caesar is our head waiter and Bryan is our assistant waiter. The food was very good and we did a lot of laughing and visiting. This is going to be a fun cruise.

We really like our accommodations. The suite is as big as the one on the Regal, but the Regal had large screen televisions and this one had much smaller ones. This balcony is about twice the size but the balconies on deck nine are completely open. That means that people can look down on you so they are not as private.

We have received a wonderful gift of a Champagne Breakfast from Kim, our travel agent. She is an amazing agent to have. She certainly lets you know that she appreciates your business.

Basically we have found our way to the dining room and back and we have not explored much of the ship. We have another 17 days to do that.

Stay tuned!