Dearly Departed

 

Like good travelers, we arrived on time for our scheduled boarding and departure from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Unlike air travel, boarding a ship seems to be a much smoother and friendlier process than boarding a plane. We were in our cabin in plenty of time to watch the bountiful food stores loaded, which went on for a few hours.

Mom suggested we bring some food with us to tide us over, but we knew that we were covered with the buffet and restaurants all open. Competition was keen at the buffet, but we succeeded in getting a nice fresh salad for lunch.

  

Port Everglades had many ships being provisioned and boarded for departure, and the scale of the neighboring vessels always amazes.

  

Usually the departure process is handled without a hitch, but things were not so smooth this time. Unfortunately, a crew member was discovered missing before departure, and a review of ship security cameras revealed he had gone overboard off the coast of Cuba. A very sad start to our trip. We really appreciate the effort that the crew members put in to making a voyage pleasurable and memorable, and respect the hard work and long hours away from their friends and families that is the norm for the crew.

A more minor problem was that Judi's bag didn't show up in our cabin, but was quickly located at the service desk along with others that had lost their flimsy luggage tags.

 

 

We also heard that two passengers were taken off the ship by ship-to-ship transfer due to medical issues, the first just offshore of the Bahamas, and the second as we passed Bermuda. As I finish writing this, we are east of Bermuda, the temperature has dropped to the low 60's, and the sky is getting cloudier.

Judi and I both have minor sinus infections, so we are hanging around our cabin and balcony most of the day, and wearing masks in the ship when foraging for foods and beverages. We're both feeling better, and I'll get going on some more photos for the next post.

Ahoy!