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It’s the third day of our cruise, it is 7AM and we are pulling into our first port of call, Port Canaveral, Fla. As the ship docks we have a great forward view of The Space Center and a distant view of the Space Shuttle launch pad. It is very impressive but it pales in comparison to the aft view. The brand spanking new Disney ship “Fantasy” is docked about 200 yards away. Its black haul glimmers, its white upper deck glows and the red smoke stacks shine like the sun. All the fixtures and the scripted name are in gold.
On our second day at sea we cruised down the Atlantic Coast. The temp got warmer but the winds still sustained at 30 MPH. I learned from a Miami Weatherman that to say “sustained wind” the wind speed must stay at or above that number for 1 min. Another bit of useless information that I am now passing on to you. Even with the winds howling we were able to enjoy the South Carolina sunshine on the Serenity deck. Snoozing and cruising, doesn’t get better than that.
Tonight was the Captains’ formal dinner. We had decided long ago in the planning process that we would not attend. We would dine in the buffet and hit the casino while everyone went to the dinner. It was great fun people watching. With some of the outfits the men were passing off as formal, I could have worn my kaki pants, a sport shirt, a tie fashioned from my belt and my wind breaker and more closely resemble Cary Grant in Breakfast at Tiffany than 25 % of these guys. One thing that totally amazed was how well the College Crew looked.
At three AM we were awaken by the sound of water splashing against our 7th deck balcony door. The sounds of metal creaking and the feeling of the ship rocking fwd to aft tell us that we were in some kind of rough seas. Our TV had a channel that keep you update via GPS as to our ships location, the wind speed, wind direction and the ships speed. Even with half opened eyes we could see on the TV screen that we had left the calm waters of the Chesapeake and were now in the ocean off the coast of NC. The wind speed blowing south to north was 53 mph and the ships speed was 21 knots.
“Life boat training is mandatory; all passengers are required to join the crew at their assigned areas on the main deck balcony no alcohol is permitted during drill”. I don’t think that was very hard to understand right?
Our cruise is leaving out of Baltimore so my sister and a family friend drove us to the port. When we saw the ship we were all amazed at its size. Drop off was easy but the check in was a little nerve wracking with all the Homeland Security and passport checking. Still we made it through and started walking up the gang plank. We were both exhausted by time we reached the main deck. This is a big ship.
If you are among the growing list of single Americans today without a special someone to spend the day with, Kiplinger's new 10 Best Cities for Singles list may be too late to do you any good this Valentine's Day (unless you live in one of those citi
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