Our cruise, Part 1

Perhaps the events of Saturday should have given us an idea that all things weren’t going to run smoothly. Of course, you never know in this type of situation.

We were going to set sail aboard the Carnival Legend on June 20th at 4:00pm. Donna and I, along with our friend Pete, had a balcony room confirmed but didn’t know which one it might be. Anyway, Pete’s son Peter gave us a ride to the terminal in Manhattan getting us there around 12:30. At some point during the trip Donna had taken her purse out of her carry-on bag. It was only after Peter had already taken off and we were in the terminal that she realized that the purse, with our Passports and boarding documents were still on the backseat. It’s at moments like that when I’m glad to have a cell phone.

Due to a motorcycle tour and several street festivals, changing the normal traffic patterns, what should have taken only about ten minutes took nearly a half hour. This was even with Pete & I crossing over to meet Peter at 44th St.

Once we had our documents it still took us until after 2:00pm to even begin the boarding process, since the ship had been delayed about two hours coming in that morning. When we finally got aboard we discovered our cabin was at the very stern of the ship on the top deck of those with cabins. You can imagine the view straight down to the propellers, which later would prove quite interesting. (I have some photos which I’ll be posting in a day or so, at least a couple showing the view.)

Pete had never been on a cruise before so he was delighted by the stateroom with its extended balcony. It was already set up with three chairs, a footrest (which doubles as a drink stand) and small table (usually found in the stateroom, but apparently moved outside). Over the eight days of the cruise we used them all quite a bit.

The first day of a cruise is always casual dress in the dining room, since many folks don’t get their luggage until later and you often have to wear whatever you had on when you boarded. If you’ve never cruised before let me tell you that it might pay to have a sweater or light jacket, since the A/C is cranked sometimes.

Pete discovered the casino the first night and soon became a favorite of the Casino Hostess. Within a few days she even sent along a bottle of wine to our table and on our last day gave him a Player’s Club ‘goodie bag’ of stuff. Donna and I have generally won and lost a few hundred dollars during each our cruises and never even saw the Casino Host, so I’m not going to guess how much Pete gambled.

It takes two and a half sailing days to get from New York to our first port, which in this case was San Juan, P.R. I’ll fill you in on our shore trips and the later part of the cruise next time out.

I've been pretty busy around here since getting back and wanted to at least begin telling you about the cruise. I hope to post some photos of the ship and the three of us tomorrow.