Saturday, January 3, 2015 Westerdam
Here we go again! With the help of Msgr Fetcher at St Sebastian parish are Port Everglades, “Thelma and Louise” boarded the Westerdam for a week in the eastern Caribbean. Getting them situated down the hall from my room involved 4.3 miles of walking. We had a late lunch out on the back Lido deck, and it was so windy more of my salad blew off the ship than got into my stomach! It was a warm and muggy day, and because there were so many ships sailing this afternoon, we were late in leaving. There were 42 at 5:00 pm Mass tonight, and during communion I could see that we were finally underway an hour late. The Captain explained that a much larger ship had tied up in front of us, and there was no safe way to get the Westerdam out until the larger ship had sailed.
The “Drill” at the Muster stations was actually more organized than I have experienced in the past, but it still took 45 minutes, and it was hot standing in the crowd on the sunny side of the ship. We sat through a “Welcome Aboard” talk that provided some information about the ports of call, and then wandered down for dinner in the Vista dining from where we joined some folks from New York City and New Hampshire. The stage show tonight was great, and the cast is talented. However they are doing exactly the same shows and music that I heard last month. There was a comedian who did a few minutes promoting his big night when we are in San Juan, and he had the place laughing for fifteen minutes.
Tonight I simply wanted to let you know that I’m out at sea again with my sister and Judy Filler down the hall for their first cruise ship. More tomorrow. We will be “at sea” all day, so there will be plenty to report with ample comments.
