Finally we have an internet connection!
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2009
1
3
Trip End
May 24, 2009
Ponta Delgada,
Madeira Islands,
Portugal
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The morning was uneventful and we departed Casa de Smith at 0800 to meet Carolyn (our travel companion) in the employee lot at MCO. Picked up the rental car, actually got it loaded--it all fit--with a nice little cocoon in the back seat area for Carolyn, our journey to Port Everglades began at 1000. Only a small glitch --a turn onto the Florida Turnpike (North) and a small 15 minute detour to get back on the Turnpike South we were on our way! Turnpike was definitely the way to go, Terry's goal was pulling into the Port at 1330 and we were right on time--even with a two stops--one for Star Bucks and the other for a potty break.
Plan was to drop off the checked luggage and Terry with the carryon's, drop off the car with a shuttle ride back to the Port and onto the Eurodam. When we got off the shuttle, Terry was patiently waiting on a bench surrounded by his "wine" bags and a couple of ladies. As we approached, the one looked familiar and I realized it was one of our neighbors' sister--she and I recognized each other right away, had our hugs and giggles about the coincidence. We had heard there was a large group of Victoria Gardens residences (our sister 55+ community) that would be with us for the first 18 days of our 28 night cruise and we found them before we even departed! We were in our cabins by 1430 after having to fill out the medical paperwork about our bowel habits of the last few days and "had we had any contact with Lou Stoolz" (for some in FL, apparently he's an attorney with a billboard on I-95) but he was now our code word "I need a lavatory, stat!"
We lunched on the Lido Deck restaurant , had sushi and Thai food (which I think will be a staple of our diet for the next four weeks!
Back to our cabins to check out the status of our luggage--all had been delivered except one of the large duffels (with a case of wine and coats) and the toiletries bag. Wine showed up right away so Terry was happy, but he then started to doubt whether he had remembered seeing the toiletry bag curbside--had the bag made it out of our car back in Orlando???? Luckily, a call from Carolyn confirmed she was still waiting on two of hers so not to panic--popped a bonine (preventative) then off to do mandatory drills.
Met a nice couple from Copenhagen while clustered on deck for drills and oh, did I mention yet that the average age on board the ship 71.5--It would be 72, but me and the one four year old on board brought it down the .5 J
Back at the cabins, all bags finally arrived and we had only two fatalities--my brand new 16oz can of aerosol hairspray that was to get me through the month and a 1997 Super Tuscany (12 year old bottle of red wine for those of us who didn't know)Luckily not too much damage--just had to clean it all up--could have been much worse! Oh yeah, Terry and I originally were going to schlep the 50+ lb bags with 2+ cases of wine up the gang plank but the baggage handlers talked us into letting them taking them, thus the broken bottle and punctured aerosol can. Oh well, if that's the worst thing that happens......To finish up day one--Carolyn retired early, we hit the all-night pizza for a couple of slices and finished up at the Piano Bar with Dave--our new friend from Ft. Lauderdale--I think we'll be spending a lot of time with Dave!
Highlight of Day 1: a stroll through the photo gallery perusing the "embarkation photos" revealed an 8x10 glossy black and white of Terry and Carolyn--I had conveniently been cropped out!
Lesson learned: Never assume!
Day 2: April 26, 2009 At Sea
Great night's sleep even with losing an hour (will lose an hour each night of cruise till we get to Europe) Set the alarm for 0715 with great aspirations of going to 0730 aerobics class--instead, woke Carolyn up at 0800 and met on Lido Deck for coffee and light breakfast. Eight different versions of eggs benedict--I opted for Scottish: lox and egg smothered in hollandaise on English muffin with a side of spinach--will definitely be trying them all out! Felt a little sea sick so donned my sea bands and popped another bonine.
1000: Spent an hour in the gym--tons of cardio machines and nice weight machines as well-- deck nine looking out over bow--great view of the most spectacular dark blue waters! We thought wrong when we speculated that the gym wouldn't be very busy--these old folks all work out--almost every cardio machine was occupied and there was a wait for the weights!
1200: Had sushi again for lunch (big surprise) then headed to group trivia in the Crow's Nest Deck 11. They basically had you break yourself into teams of six--Terry, Carolyn and I were conveniently sitting at the bar so made up our own team--bartender Ramón wasn't much help--just smiled a lot! General trivia--our team "high flyers" (I wanted to be "peanut pushers" but Carolyn thought that would draw too many questions) got 13 out of the 20 correct--not bad for first day! Who remembers "Cogs well's Cogs" was the competition of Spacely Sprockets on "The Jetson's
1400: attended the "Detox for Weight loss" seminar at the gym--I think Terry just wanted to listen to the cute 30 something blonde with the European accent--she didn't tell us anything we didn't already know other than Terry is convinced we need to take "green algae"--in what capacity, I don't know, but I'm sure once we're not paying .25/min for a slow internet connection, he'll be googling it and finding out where he can get his hands on some! I cut out early since I wasn't feeling 100%--I think bonine made me a little sleepy so I headed back to the room for a two hour nap.
1700: Woke up a little famished--snuck up to the Lido deck where they had just raised the buffet shade and snagged a couple of shrimp cocktail cups and Terry a cheese plate and crackers. Called Carolyn and told her about my score--she was in beautify mode so I went and got her some shrimp cocktail/crackers and delivered them to her abode on Deck 1--she thought she could smell sewage--I actually smelled sterile gauze, but that may be due to the fact that we're "assisted living" at sea!
It was our first "formal night" so we dressed up and Carolyn joined us for a glass of vino on our verandah. We are open seating for dinner assignment. We weren't real hungry so waited till last minute and opted for an 2045 seating in the Rembrandt Dining Room. Lobster Thermadore and Rack of Lamb were our selections followed by a few bites of cheesecake and other tasty desserts.
We missed Piano Bar Dave's Broadway sing-a-long at 2100 so we headed to the Main Stage for a musical medley with everything from Cher to The Beatles. The Eurodam entertainers were just that--very entertaining--lots of great costume changes and oddly enough, all the female dances had lots of wig changes--Carolyn and I decided we may have to invest in a visit to a wig shop and check out the latest "Cheryl Tieg" or Ann Margaret collections. Much easier than having to adorn ourselves with Velcro rollers nightly. My only question was how many Styrofoam heads could they possible have back stage???
Finished up the evening with Dave at the Piano Bar--a little more crowded than the night before--Dave remembered our names and welcomed us back and Carolyn hung tough with us until someone requested "The Hokey Pokey" and Dave obliged. We finished up with a New Yorkers version of "The Gambler then Terry and I bowed out when the yellow "post its" dried up with requests.
In bed by midnight--decided we'd have coffee & cereal in our cabin so placed our "room service" door tag out of an 0800-0830 delivery.
Highlight of Day 2: Discovered we're not the youngest ones on the ship--although we're definitely in the youngest 1% of the 2,045 passengers. (Staff don't count)
Lesson learned: you're only as young as you act--we're definitely not the youngest--there are some pretty spry folks on here! Although it didn't stop us placing bets that we'd have at least one fatality in our initial 18 days based on the demographics. Sorry, sounds morbid but it's a reality--and what better place than the beautiful Eurodam!
Day 3: April 27, 2009 At Sea
Alarm was set for 0815 but at 0700 an announcement ship wide indicated "Brightstar Brightstar Brightstar Lido Deck Aft Starboard" not 100% sure what it meant, but thought it might not be good news for someone at the breakfast buffet. We were awake at this point so patiently waited for our "continental breakfast" to be delivered to our stateroom. It was a nice way to start the morning aside from the "Brightstar" alarm!
We discovered on Day 2 that there was not a rooftop jogging track on the upper decks as we've found on other ships--Deck 3 has a perimeter deck that is about the equivalent of a lap around a track so we decided since it was a smooth, sunny morning we'd do cardio outside. It was quite busy and we had to dodge in and around a few strollers (not ones with wheels, just slow walkers), but we managed 10 laps in about 30 plus minutes then we took six flights of stairs to Deck 9 for some leg exercises on the machines. Okay, so 2 or 3 people lapped us, but one looked like she was a staff member and she was jogging which was not encouraged by signs and another lady looked like she was a professional race walker and she was only slowed down by the large purse she was schlepping around--who carried more than a tiny purse on a ship--all you need is room for your ship card, lipstick and a camera!!
We followed up our weights with a 10 minute Vitamin D shot on the aft pool deck and and soaked up some sun! News flash: we found out what "Brightstar" means--it's code for we're making an unexpected stop in Bermuda this evening for disembarkation of a medical emergency passenger that the "highly trained medical staff" must not be able to handle. It shouldn't interfere with our arrival time in Ponta Del Gado on Day 7, we're just sailing a little faster now--average of 16 knots and know were at full speed at 22 knots.
We had an 1130 reservation for lunch in Tamarind Pan Asian specialty restaurant for lunch--a fixed menu of a variety of dim sum, a nice green salad with a sesame dressing followed by tastes of coconut ice cream, mango sorbet, green tea tiramisu followed by a cup of jasmine green tea. Yummy and light-- no seconds like the buffet--you can eat without gorging yourself on a cruise ship!
1300: Day two of team trivia--the "high flyers" were ready--back to the Crow's Nest, bellied up to the bar with Ramón sans drinks of course. Cinema was the theme of the day and we picked up a Scottish and Irish duo to join the team--course they weren't much help when given the honor of answering the question regarding who was the royal that consulted Kenneth Branaugh for his role in "Hamlet" They were quick to say Prince Edwards but much to our chagrin, it was actually Prince Charles--who knew! We got 15 out of 20 (two better than first round) and we missed one on a technicality--question was "In which city must a movie play in order for it to be eligible for an Oscar?" Our pick was Hollywood/LA--had we put LA first I think we could have argued as it was the correct answer and Cruise Director is a stickler when it comes to correct answers and it has to be what's in the book. Oh well--there were less than 10 teams that got 15 or more correct so we definitely did well and the winning teams each had 17/20 correct and the tie-breaking question: in what year did Billy Bob Thornton get nominated twice for his Directing and starring role in a movie--I actually got it right, 1990 Sling Blade! I've never even seen the movie, but I remember their production company rented Dad's time share in Park City that year for the Sundance Film Festival--that's me--a plethora of useless information!!
We plan to rendezvous in the Crow's Nest at 1900 for a Peartini and a nice view of our arrival into Bermuda and hopefully a "rubber neck view" of the body--I mean patient. A boat will be meeting us off shore so as not to delay us any further with the difficulty of docking.
We're looking forward to a quiet evening, "smart casual" dress and I'm sure a follow up at the Piano Bar with Dave! Ta Ta for now!
Day 3 Highlight: One of the smoothest days on the Atlantic that our travel guide, Ian, has ever experienced--thus no bonine or sea bands!
Lesson learned: Spend the extra $100 bucks for the travel insurance if you're going to be out of country for more than a day--a full-fare, one-way ticket from Bermuda to the U.S. can be pretty costly! (I'm guessing)
Days 4/5/6 have pretty much been a blur sleep in, work out, eat (of course) go to shows and do trivia! We joined forces with an Irish and Scottish couple who are quite fun--one of the younger couples on board. Oh yeah, Carolyn confirmed that my statistics were very under estimated earlier--she confirmed that there are only 4 passengers that are under the age of 40 and yes, I am one of them as I will be 39 for six more weeks!! Also, the average age is actually 82. And I'm sorry, but some of these old folks can be quite mean and rude! They cut in front of you at the buffet line and if you turn your back for just a wee second, they'll steal your table or lounge chair poolside! They may have to cancel trivia just because these darn folks think they know it all and challenge the answers to half the questions!! Cruise Director Nancy will probably have "trivia bouncers" by the end of the first 18 days!!
We've had a few dolphin sightings and what I believe to have been a shark fin. We've had fabulous weather and thank goodness I threw in a few Capri pants and short sleeve blouses otherwise I'd be quite overdressed in my "cold" weather attire I have packed for the Baltic countries.
Also, good news, no fatalities or major illnesses that we know of other than Carolyn overheard someone in there cabin saying they had been quarantined for the big "D" or as we like to call it--Lou Stoolz! We have increased our usage of the hand sanitizer machines and only wish we owned stock in Purell (sp) Also, the New York Times is our source of News so we have a very skewed view of what is happening in the world--the only thing we believe to be true is the sports scores and the daily temperatures! Where else can they fill 3 pages of editorials on the Swine Flu alone! Course, one is on the business page referring to investments in pharmaceuticals!!
Tomorrow is our first official land stop in the Azores--Ponta Del Gado which is part of Portugal and is approx. 500 miles from Lisbon! Hoping to find an internet cafe' so that we can update you all properly! I must say, it's been quite challenging staying off the internet! I can only imagine how many "notifications" I have on Facebook!!
Highlights of Day 4/5/6: Enjoying what has turned out to be almost like a Caribbean cruise--we seen more sun damaged, old skin, "man" boobs and bad face lifts that we care to admit
Lesson Learned: There is always someone who looks worse than you in a bathing suit!!
ps--we just got a fire alarm notifiation while sitting on our verandah! Not a drill--apparently there is a fire in the main engine room! Will hopefully update more later and that it was nothing to worry about!
pss--good news--no fire, just overheated something but nothing to be alarmed about and full speed ahead! Also, we went to the show tonight and it was comedian, Jeff Nease, who Terry and I believe we saw on the Vision of the Seas in January of 2008 when we cruised to Mexico with the family! He was as funny as then, however, his act was not cut short due to the fact that he had at least 5 minutes of his act dedicated to making fun of Southwest Airlines and he quickly edited when he found out we worked for them! Tonight, however, he kept his act to non-specific teasing about most airlines! If we have a chance to talk to him before he leaves us in Ponta Del Gado, we'll be sure to remind him that we altered his show in the past!
Finished out the night with a few songs with Dave at the Piano Bar!
