We were gone for 17 days, and did SO much, it is difficult to decide which parts to blog about. Together, we took 900 pictures, so I will not be posting them all, I can assure you! =)
I suppose I will start at the beginning... It was a race against time (mainly for Puddle Duck). She had a layover in Atlanta during the whole Nor'easter disaster. One by one the airports were closing and hers was next, but not until after her plane took off (YAY!). My own race was due to my procrastinating ways... =( I was trying to get my taxes finished before boarding the ship (we left on April 14th). I was not able to finish, so after boarding, I had to disembark to frantically search for a mailbox. In the end, a very nice lady who was at the ship to see off a friend, offered to mail it for me. =)
All our luggage made it to Miami (thankfully!). There were some people whose luggage did not make it and they were not able to get it until day 12 of the cruise (thanks to a storm at sea that prevented us from docking at Bermuda). Lufthansa did, however, manage to lose my luggage in Munich on the way back, so I am still without some very important items (e.g. european chocolate).
Before I left, I mentioned how we were leaving on the same date as the Titanic sunk, what I did not realize is that we would be visiting the last port the Titanic ever pulled into. Not only that, but we were the largest ship to ever pull into that port (we were practically celebrities! The locals came out in droves to take pictures and greet us as we docked, and wave farewell as we left). Below is a picture of the Titanic memorial, in the little town of Cobh (pronounced "cove"), which is part of the Port of Cork.
Another thing I did not realize was that this was the first trans-Atlantic trip for the Navigator of the Seas (not only for the ship, but also for most of the crew - not the captain).
Because of the storm, we had high winds and gray skies much of the time (probably a good thing since we did not have any sunblock other than my 15 SPF moisturizer). We also had 10-12 foot waves for several days. While this kept some people in their cabins and others scrambling to find those patches they stick behind their ears, it made ice skating and roller blading LOTS of fun for C. and me! We barely had to do anything to keep moving. It was like skating on hills, except, if you didn't want to work at going uphill, you could just turn around and go the other way. =) The first time we went, there was only one other person on the ice (an ice skating instructer from Huntington, LI - isn't that funny?), so we pretty much had the ice to ourselves.
Although there were 3,000 passengers on the ship, it never felt that crowded. The majority of the people were old (I'm not talking just retired old, I mean walker and wheelchair old - married 63 years old). Those who did not fall into that category were typically gay. So, we did not blend in to say the least. =) Not that we minded. =P Being the only young girls on a very large ship meant lots of attention from the wait-staff, etc (in a good way). One waiter always referred to us as Princess and Queen, while another would come by every few minutes to give us all the bread we wanted. Yeah, that was the life. *sigh*
Here are a couple of pictures of the ship:
The forward pool deck
The aft pool deck
The Promanade (inside on deck 5)
Sports deck
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