Onboard!

Amsterdam – Wednesday, Jan 5, 2011
After a night at the Springhill Suites, near the port and Ft. Lauderdale airport, where we were working until 2:30 AM, the bus ride to the port was relaxing as we knew we were almost “there”. Sometimes you just need to know you are out the door and almost “there” so you can handle the next event. This was the first day of sunshine and it was quite appropriate, considering the circumstances of embarking on a world cruise!
Check-in was smooth; boarding was quick and we were in our room by 12:30 - #3324 with a window out to the promenade deck. Honestly, the room seemed small. The sofa and bed appeared huge and the empty space appeared minute. Oh dear. And there was very little luggage in here at the moment. How will we manage?? I don’t think I did any better packing for this world cruise than I did for the last one!! Ketut and Niyagon are our stateroom attendants (4th born in Bali and 3rd born in Bali – each son has the same name so you know their order of birth). We did not have time to go up for lunch and worked from the room and from the pier before dinner at 5:30. Table of 10 but we were six and then two latecomers appeared. San Diego, Victoria and Roanoke were our tablemates. Dinner was presently beautifully and I was famished! We finally set sail after 6:15 since it took longer to load the “stores” for the first leg of the journey. Met with the front office, figured out the computer logon/off; handled a $6,660 hold on my credit card from the cruise line!!!!; booked some travel and wished I was in bed! But the welcome show is next and then I will collapse. Several suitcases appeared and a few were emptied but the mess is still around us. I need to get organized tomorrow for phone calls and meetings…our first cocktail party is on Sunday!