I lost a friend yesterday, more than a friend, someone that I’ve spent damn near every hour of my life with for the last year.  I am sick at my soul.  My friend was a dog.  Simple.  A dog.  Despite her status as just a puppy she warmed my heart, made me smile and loved me unconditionally.  She had a face that would turn your lips up regardless of the situation.  She laid by me when I’ve been sick.  rejoiced with me over victories and never demanded anything other than a few treats in return. 

My dog, Lucky, is in heaven.  I’ll be thrilled to see her again. 

Hug your pets… they’re precious…

I used this cool new app that Trip Advisor has online to create a little slideshow of our voyage on the Carnival Ecstasy.

Hope y’all will enjoy it!

TripAdvisor™ TripWow ★ Crazies in Ecstasy!!! Slideshow ★ to San Antonio, Galveston and Gulf Of Mexico (near World) by Mach. Stunning free travel slideshows on TripAdvisor

via Crazies in Ecstasy!!! Slideshow.

The sea state had worsened a bit, the roll was more pronounced than previously and the frequency had increased.

As I was getting dressed I knew something was amiss as my leg went in the wrong hole in my slacks. I never do that so something was up.

Prior to putting on my shirt I went back out on the balcony to find the ocean was definitely more displeased than just 30 minutes ago. Cool. I love my Cove Balcony.

The position of our cabin was great. It was a short walk in either direction to the midships elevators or the aft elevators. The best way to the Scarlet was aft.

We were both getting a bit hungry but knew that the doors to the dining room should be open when we arrived as it was past 8:30. When the elevator doors opened we were greeted by a sea of humanity. We could barely squeeze out of the elevator and against the port wall. The doors were still closed and locked and only occasionally would a few early dining folks emerge from the venue. I guess that the late embark caused a delay in getting folks into the dining room so they extended the availability of the first seating.

Regardless of the cause the aft atrium was packed with passengers who had adopted an odd swaying motion. Most folks swayed pretty much in unison but there were those who swayed to a different drummer. Those folks were rapidly adopting a unique green tinge around the gills, as it were.

From the forward end of the Atrium some odd and unsettling noises erupted followed by similar odd and unsettling noises. It seems that those out of sync swayers were succumbing to the ways of the sea.

We were quite fortunate at our end of the Atrium. Those who felt that the end was near retreated as quickly as they could to the rest rooms positioned both port and starboard.

It was already 8:45 and those who were still swaying in unison were getting hungry and restless. I’m not sure what the purpose of it was but they began a countdown. I don’t know what they were counting down to but when the reached zero nothing happened. Odd…

About 8:50 the door swung open and the crowd surged forward as if they were afraid that the food might be gone if they were the last in the dining room.

The Scarlet is, well, its scarlet but scarlet in a calming sort of way, not an aggressive scarlet at all. It’s really rather elegant looking.

We were ushered toward our table, 401.  With the ship being as full as it was we were looking forward to being seated at a large table full of talkative fellow passengers.  Around a corner we went to arrive at a table for two.  A little bit of the wind left my sails but it a table for two it was.

Our waiter was a bit atypical.  Not young, not energetic but wonderfully efficient and good at his job.  The menu was a hit featuring many of the dishes that one would normally find at Elegant Evening.  Our eyes lit up when Escargot topped the list of openers. 

We made the rest of our selections and settled back with our drinks for the moment.  Did I mention that our waiter was efficient?  Somewhere around 12 minutes later our Escargot made the scene.  Lovely!

Not too long ago Stitch had never had the pleasure of experiencing Escargot.  Now, she’s a snail lovin’ fiend!  We savored the garlicy, buttery morsels.  Scant minutes later a small dish of  Pasta Maricosas arrived.  It’s a rigate pasta with a slightly dry red sauce topping it along with a chiffonade of fresh basil.  It was my least favorite dish of the evening.  Not bad just not brimming with flavor like the rest of the items we had for dinner.

As unsatisfying as the pasta was the Chateaubriand was brilliant.  I had ordered it rare and rare it was.

Perfectly prepared and, as the saying goes, tender enough to cut with a fork.  It rode in atop a dollop of garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli spears making for not only an elegant presentation but a nice diversion from the richness of the beef.

As I am not a huge dessert eater I just ordered something to take a picture of and nibble at.  Stitch, on the other hand, loves sweets and chocolate in particular.  Those of you familiar with Carnival know what’s coming next… warm chocolate melting cake.  Yep, the stuff that causes Stitch to produce slightly unnerving cooing and sexual sounds while she eats.

My dessert thingy was some flavor of cake.  The presentation was very nice, indeed, and looked quite tempting.

I can tell you that it was very dense cake loaded with dark chocolate, not truly sweet but very, very chocolate.  I ate perhaps a quarter of it when my chocolate overload light illuminated.

 I indulged in an espresso to keep things chugging along as it had been quite a long day and there was more, much more, to see and do.

The pilot boat was at the mercy of the swells. At the crest of one swell I was sure that the crew member on the deck of the boat was no more than eight feet below our balcony. Thankfully, there are rails near the bow to hang on to as the ocean was getting pretty testy at this point.

The crewman made several attempts to grab the pilot and drag him onto the boat but he simply couldn’t get close enough. On several occasions the guy in the orange jacket would look directly up at us as if he was wondering what we were doing out there or just how stupid we were for being out in conditions like that. I was wondering the same thing about them.

In this next picture the pilot had just jumped onto the deck of the boat with the assistance of the crewman. You can see the crewman looking straight up at me.

They made their way aft toward the cockpit, firmly grasping the rails all the way back.

When they were safely in the wheelhouse the power came up, the boat turned hard to starboard, crested a large wave and headed off into the black.

Stitch and I stood there momentarily in stunned silence being lashed by the wind and the rain. I still couldn’t believe what we saw. Shortly, we looked at each other and broke out in the kind of laughter that occurs when something extraordinary happens and there are no words to describe it. It was an amazing event that was the beginning of an amazing evening and night.

As soon as I opened the cabin door I saw it… the small table that lives between the chairs on the balcony was in front of the door. Bummer. I figured I’d look to see what the secured weather door looks like so I pulled back the curtain. Low and behold it wasn’t closed!! I let out a WOOOOHOOOO and bolted out the door.

The chairs were MIA but the balcony space was available!!! Too cool.

At about 7:35 the Verrazano Narrows Bridge began to grow larger as we approached. I’ve got to tell you, it’s an impressive sight at night.

Even from the Main Deck, three decks below the Promenade, and above the howl of the wind I could hear the passengers whistling and cheering as we sailed beneath the bridge. It reminded me greatly of sailing beneath the Sunshine Sky Bridge sailing out of Tampa except COLD!!!

As we headed out into open ocean the conditions began to change. There was more motion, more rolling and more pitching. I’ve got to admit that the familiar old recommendation that ‘lower and midships is better’ is spot on.

Our dining time was 8:15 in the aft restaurant, the Scarlet. We had decided to wait a bit as there tends to be a crowd waiting for the doors to open so we took our time. I laid on the bed and idly watch whatever movie was playing on the ViewSonic flat screen TV as Stitch did what women do before going out to dinner. I was enjoying the silly bouncing action that the ship was experiencing given her size and weight. The power of the sea is amazing!

Eventually, Stitch vacated the bathroom and it was my turn. I had to wait for the temperature to come down below 160 so I fidgeted with my camera a bit. Soon the conditions in the bathroom became tolerable so off I went to shower. Before I could turn the water on Stitch called to me and said ‘The pilot is out here!’ Huh? The pilot? We’ve been underway for almost three hours and the pilot boat is still out there?

I had to look for myself so clad in my boxers and a smile I ran out onto the balcony.

Yep… bigger than Dallas there was the pilot boat closing from the stern and looking like it was headed right at us. I still couldn’t understand what the pilot was doing out there and I wondered out loud if they were coming back with the pilot to return us to the port.

I ran back into the cabin, donned a pair of proper shorts and returned to the balcony with my camera in tow. The pilot was still there and, in fact, was closing fast.

I still didn’t understand the situation but I knew I was gonna get some great pictures of what ever the heck was going on…

It was obvious that whoever was at the helm of the pilot boat was having a very hard time with the conditions. The Dream was at almost 17 knots and the seas were building. The pilot would close on the Dream, get forced back away from the hull and then maneuver toward the ship again.

All of this was occurring directly below our Cove Balcony cabin. I was amazed, confused and thrilled all at once!!!

With a resounding THUD the pilot boat made hard contact with the starboard side of the Dream. I can’t imagine what that sounded like in the cabins on the Riviera Deck below us. The boat angled out by perhaps 20 degrees and increased the power to keep the bow pinned against our hull.

Now, understand, please, that I’m a computer guy.  I had my first computer in 1984 and it was a computer not some silly little Radio Shack thing or something with data stored on a cassette tape player.  It looked a great deal like a very modern desktop machine, perhaps a tad larger but quite handsome nonetheless.  It had a real hard drive, a floppy drive ( I know a number of you folks have no clue what a floppy drive is…) and even sported a color monitor.  Out the door price… a tick over $5000.  People came to visit specifically to drool over the beast.  I have to say that it was my pride and joy.  I recall the glee I felt listening to the squeals and beeps as the modem (another thing many of you have no clue about…) went about it’s job of trying to connect to a remote computer… not the internet… another computer.

One of the most challenging things I did back then was to send an image.  Sending someone a picture of something was much like inventing television.  It didn’t work well at all and when it did the result sucked.

Here we are… over 25 years later and I am being thwarted by the same problems.  Gone are the modems with their squeals and beeps.  Gone are the CRT color monitors replaced by flat screen LCD panels and gone are the massive financial investments necessary to own a computer.  However, getting an image from A to B still remains problematic.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I rely heavily on pictures to convey experiences, thoughts and moods.  I love being able to do this.  In fact, I find it so necessary that I pay a service to host my pictures.  I know that there are sites out there that will host images and even videos for free but my needs are a bit greater than most so I elect to pay a yearly fee to have pictures available on demand for all of you wonderful folks to view. 

You might wonder where this is all leading… well… it’s leading here.  This blog thingy is wonderful.  It lets me play like I’m a writer and lets you read my miserable musings as I play like I’m a writer.  However, this blog thingy has limits.  Normally, I don’t mind limits.  Everything has limits.  I walk fifteen feet and I find the limit of my office.  I take 4768 pictures and 4769 will not be added to the memory card in my camera.  I drive my Bonneville at 130 mph and I find the limit of my driver’s license.  I try to post a picture that’s more than 430 pixels wide and I find the limits of my blog.

430… seems like a strange number, doesn’t it?  Why not 400?  Why not 500?    Where in the world did 430 pixels come from and, for that matter, why is it measured in pixels?  Why not feet, inches, kilometers or centimeters or even perhaps fish?  Pixels?  Who out there has a pixel ruler?  If you have one may I borrow it?  Do digital guys measure important parts and pieces in pixels?  I don’t know the answer to any of these questions and I’m not sure I want to know the answers.

So, what does all this have to do with me not blogging recently?  Simple.  It’s all about size… size matters.  The pictures I take are big… not necessarily good but they’re big.  They’re so big that in order to get them uploaded to the aforementioned hosting site I need to resize them.  I get out the magic dust that Irfan provides me and reduce them by a huge percentage.  Then, summoning all of my tech savy, I sent them across the internet to appear magically at the far end in my photo albums.  TAAAADAAAA! 

OK, so, my pictures are now over there and I want them here.  I want my pictures to meet that magical 430 pixel number so resizing is once again in order.  The website that I pay hard cash to has a thingy that lets one resize pictures online and save the resized copy.  This is cool.  At least it would be cool if it worked.  It says it works.  It dutifully reports to me that my pictures have been resized and saved as I commanded.  It affords one a feeling of power akin to what a Harry Potteresque wizard must feel… a feeling of power until the whole thing goes awry.

Weilding my wizard wand I command my resized picture to appear here following a paragraph or two of drivel.  POOF!  There it is!  At least there is the left 1/15 of the image.  You, my friends, get to see a wall or perhaps some random individual wandering past a random location while all of the good stuff exists only in the ether off to the right where no one can see. 

I suspect this is how the Klingon Cloaking shield works… the ship is really there… it’s just so far off to the right that it’s not visible. 

Foo. 

I want to finish adding my review of the Dream… I really do but it relies so heavily on pictures that to post it without them would be like replacing your Avatar 3D glasses with a blindfold.

I have to say that tech support at said web site is working on it… so they claim.  I’m hoping that the fix is coming (so is Christmas and my next cruise…) and that I’ll be able to complete the rest of my review before we sail on the Carnival Ecstasy. 

Keeping me from being able to add pictures is like handcuffing an Italian and asking him to talk.  It just doesn’t work out right.  I can say that.  I’m Italian.

So, in the meantime, I’ll try to add some musings handcuffed though I am.  I also promise that I’ll be taking hundreds of pictures on the Ecstasy and I promise that I’ll get them added here even if I have to do it with tape and glue.

Technology.  Foo. 

Ciao

Mach

Here goes.

I hate winter.  Now, realize that I used to LOVE winter.  I loved the snow, the more the better.  Deep white powder… a thing of beauty and a joy to cleave  with my trusty skis… brought joy to my heart.  I loved to see the huge flakes drifting out of the sky, softening the earth turning, hard edges into gentle curves. 

Standing in foot deep snow watching the flakes glisten and bounce light like diamonds made my heart soar. 

HOWEVER… I now live in Texas… have for well over 30 years.  Winter in Texas is irritating.  It’s spotty and annoying and it’s not even a proper winter.  There’s no snow to speak of.  The last time it snowed any amount at all here was 1985.  Winter is gray skies, rain, drizzle, mud and sullen faces.  Foo.  No glory in that. 

This morning the day has started out with rain, gray (currently black…) skies and, certainly, mud.  My glistening black car will turn gray or brown during my 20 minute drive to the office.  The entire day will do nothing to stir my soul, at least the weather won’t.  No sunshine, no blue skies, no fun.  Foo.

As I mentioned, winter here is spotty.  The weather has been like this for three days now.  Ugly, uncomfortable, uninspiring and now cold.  The weather started looking like winter a remarkably long time ago, about two months ago, I believe.  Considering that winter in Texas is normally about two weeks this year, I have determined, sucks. 

Bottom line, I need a cruise. 

A glimmer of hope glows dimly in my soul with a cruise a scant three weeks away.  The date isn’t close enough to be giddy about but it’s close enough to make me hate the weather we have now.  Of course, I know that there are benefits to our current conditions.  We need the precipitation.  All of our drinking water come from an aquifer, a huge cave in the ground that fills with water when it rains.  We need the cold to kill off the hundreds of billions of insects that would otherwise dot the front end of my car and windshield come spring.

Despite that, I still find it all very depressing.  The current temperature is 42 degrees down from 53 degrees when I woke up.  This is not a good sign.  The wind is blowing 30 knots and we have an actual wind chill.  I don’t want to even think about what that turns out to be.  Winter is no friend of mine.  Every bone I’ve broken (quite a few…) and every surgery I’ve ever had (quite a few…) are driven to remind me of their existance in conditions like this.

The folks just a few hundred miles to the north have it much worse.  Really, I find it difficult to feel more sorry for them than I do for myself because I’m not there.  Pretty selfish, huh? 

Now, some of those folks a few hundred miles north are experiencing real winter… snow… ice… schools closed… all those things that most folks associate with winter.  A fortunate few will be joining us on the Ecstasy soon.

I expect that glimmer of hope I mentioned a bit ago glows even brighter in their souls than it does mine.  After all, their winter REALLY sucks.  Three weeks or thereabouts… the website tells me 22 days… until we escape winter for the glory of the Caribbean.  How cool is that?

For most of the US it’s the dead of winter which begs the question… why aren’t you booked on a cruise?  Any cruise will do… three day… four day… seven day or twelve day… it makes no difference.  Waking up the first day at sea to warm, salty breezes fixes any number of ills.  Digging your toes into white sand while sipping something tropical lifts the spirits beyond imagination. 

It makes no difference which cruise line, they all sail the same water, you breath in the same air and make the same ports.  The Caribbean is no more blue on Celebrity than it is on Carnival or Royal.  The air is no more fresh on Cunard than it is on NCL.  Find a cruise line that fits you and get on board. 

There are some things that are true beyond a shadow of a doubt…  winter is depressing and a cruise isn’t.   It’s that simple.

I’ll see you on board.

Ciao

Mach

Who doesn’t love to plan?  Visiting web sites… asking questions (hopefully on Cruise Critic… )… taking notes… considering finances and schedules brings the cruise alive perhaps even more so than making the final payment does. 

Cruisers are notorious planners.  Before my first cruise, back in the dark ages when the face of the internet was CompuServe and Cruise Critic didn’t exist, the only way to plan was to visit a travel agent, beg a few dog-eared brochures and stare longingly at pictures of blue water and white sand.  The word of the travel agent had to be trusted for accuracy.  I remember vividly the phrase ‘You’ll LOVE this ship.’  Well, that ship that I ended up not loving nearly put me off cruising forever.  God bless the internet and Cruise Critic.  Now, planning has taken on a different hue completely.  Information is available for virtually (no pun intended…) anything cruise related. 

Consider that Cruise Critic currently has over 550,000 members a very large percentage of whom are active.  Consider that Cruise Critic has a forum for every cruise line in the world and some that aren’t even cruise lines… the forum for non-traditional cruising… cargo ships and the like. 

There’s also forums for nearly every port of call in the world.  Just think about that… where are you going?  Egypt?  Got a forum for there.  Thinking about a voyage that has a stop in Gdansk?  Got a forum for there.  Wondering what the party scene is like at the southern most city in the world?  There’s a forum for Ushusia.  How cool is that?

Of course, Cruise Critic isn’t the only source of information.  Each and every cruise line has their own sites and they’re getting better by the day.  Many have user-centric forums where cruisers can chat and exchange information.  Every site has deck plans and tons of pictures to ply the mind like good wine. 

Pretty much every port, even more, every resort and every tour operator has a web site.  Wanna find a great personalized tour in Jamaica?  Oooo… look… it’s Marva Shaw at knowjamiaca.com!  Wanna float through a cave in Belize?  Cave-tubing.com is there to answer every question and even book your tour.  Wanna get up close and personal with an airliner?  No problem, mon… there’s a website that tells you everything you need to know about Maho Beach in St Maarten.

Planning takes time… generally more time than the voyage.  We plan months in advance, sometimes years in advance.  We bookmark websites in our favorites and return to them two, three or four times a week just in case something might have changed.

Planning is tempered by change.  Mentally, the plan is perfect.  The PLAN: We’re going to be in port at 8 AM; debark by 8:30; in a cab and on the beach by 9 with a frosty, exotic concoction in hand.  The REALITY:  You stand on the deck of the ship miles from shore listening to the criuse director explain that the government of the island has been overthrown by the military and they’re  eating tourists.

Reality is far from perfect.  Weather pays no heed to your plans, for that matter, neither do the so-called governments of many of the locations we visit.  Take Roatan, for example.  Gorgeous island with a brand new port built by Carnival; Mahogany Beach.  Awesome… simply awesome.  However, let some low-level bureaucrat get his boxers in a wad over his brother-in-law getting fired from a convenience store and there are protests and strikes.  This is just how things are in the Banana Republics we all love.

I mentioned weather…  My favorite time of year to cruise is at the peak of hurricane season… late September.  Now, I have never missed a port of call due to a hurricane or had a cruise canceled because of one but I’ve come close.  Just a few weeks before a sailing on the Carnival Conquest a hurricane named ‘Ike’ elected to visit south Texas.  That reminds me… how the heck did hurricanes get to be named after men?  Odd…  Anyway, Ike took a heavy toll on Galveston and put the kibosh on my plans.  We ended up sailing from Bayport, near Houston in the muddiest water I have ever seen.

Weather can force changes to plans in many ways.  Now, allow me to digress for a bit to discuss waves.  Waves are generally a function of wind… yep… wind.  When wind travels a distance over water, called ‘fetch’, waves are produced.  Some waves are big, some not so big.  The not-so-big waves are either not noticeable on a modern cruise ship or are little more than amusing.  The Big Waves can move even the largest ships about like a cork.  So, even when things seem calm on the ship the waves can cause you to miss a port.  As an example, Grand Cayman.  Grand Cayman has a remarkable reef that the local government is quite protective of.  For that reason, there is no pier and if you want to visit Georgetown you must do so via tender… a smallish vessel that transfers you from ship to shore.  On occasions the seas will simply be too rough to safely allow passengers to board the tenders.   There goes your afternoon swim with the stingrays and your visit to Hell.  Instead of luxuriating on Seven Mile Beach you get to hang out on the Lido Deck and gaze at Seven Mile Beach.  Foo.  Nothing can be done about it.  It’s luck of the draw and just one of those things that keeps cruising, and planning, interesting.

I mentioned on a blog several months ago that I will be sailing on the newly refurbished Carnival Ecstasy in February.  Stitch and I will be joined by some absolutely wonderful folks, many of whom we have had the honor to sail with in the past and count as friends.  There’s Dread Pirate and his Princess; Star453 and Virginia; Texgen and Walter; Teri1 and her son and a roll call full of great folks who we have yet to meet.  

Just like every other cruise there has been discussion about what we’re going to do in port.  We make port in two of my favorites… Progreso and Cozumel.   Planning for Cozumel alone and take several years.  There are so many beaches, so many tours, so much excitement available that piecing it all together would frustrate the most avid puzzle builder.  Mr. Sancho’s; Paradise Beach; Playa Mia; Nachi Cocum; Playa Uvas; Carlos n’ Charlie’s; Chankanaab; Palancar and the list goes on… and on… and on. 

What’s a cruiser to do?  So many places, so little time. 

I came up with a plan… of sorts.  I call it the ‘No Plan Plan.’  Yep… no plan.  We’re gonna get off the ship and  go where our noses and our toeses lead us.  I suspect my nose will lead me to someplace with margaritas and good food.  I suspect my toes will lead me to white sand.

On the No Plan Plan the only constraint is time.  When do we have to be back on the ship?  Once that’s established all the rest is gravy… or perhaps guacamole in this case.

Really, I can’t see a down side to the No Plan Plan.  I’m sure we’ll hit some of our favorite watering holes and shopping spots.  I’m just as sure that we’ll laugh, hug, relish the sun and the distance from home.  Even more, when good friends get together who needs a plan anyway?

Ciao

Mach

The folks at Carnival offered to take a group photo of us so Eli, one of the folks from the entertainment staff, organized a parade of Cruise Critic members to the Atrium where we essentially took over for the photo shoot. Great fun!!

A few stuck around to have a cocktail at the Lobby Bar but most went on their way knowing that the boat drill would be coming up soon.

We returned to our cabin to take care of a few things first. I wandered out to the balcony and because our cabin is at eye level with the waiting area in the cruise terminal we could see folks, quite a few folks, still milling about. It was already past 4 PM and our scheduled sail away was 5 PM. A glance at the Deck 0 boarding area showed passengers still filing onto the ship. We speculated about reasons and the only thing I could come up with was flight delays as the weather had gotten worse throughout the afternoon. I still don’t know the real reason for all the delays. I talked with a friend a Carnival and he responded with an official position. He said that because the normal boarding procedures could not be used and the requirement to go through Deck 0 boarding was delayed. This is from his email:

The embarkation challenges for the Carnival Dream in New York were due to the fact that we were not able to use our normal passenger gangway and board through Deck 3 into the ship’s lobby. The delays were not at security screening nor the check-in stations but rather at the entrance to the vessel itself. Based on the configuration of the terminal and ship, it was necessary to board through a crew area on Deck 0 where there are a limited number of elevators which caused significant backups.

We are currently examining the situation to determine what modifications can be made to alleviate the situation for the Carnival Dream’s final voyage from New York next week. Once the ship arrives in Port Canaveral, we will be able to use our normal gangways and do not anticipate any issues with the boarding process.

So, embark was slow and sail away was delayed. We wandered the ship and I took pictures here and there, marveled at many of the tiny details that Joe Farcus had added to the ship and many of the elements that he had carried over from the Carnival Splendor. Many of the colors and accents borrowed made the experience more comfortable, more familiar. On the passenger decks panels in the hallways have whimsical art applied very much like the wall art on the Splendor…

There were great new additions that took a bit of searching to find. If you like to do scrapbooking and want pictures printed right now you have an option!

This station allows you to make cards, album pages, booklets and more!

Eventually, the call came for the boat drill. For the fist time on the Dream the new boat drill was used. I’ve read others say that there was a great deal of confusion. We saw some of that as well. Our muster station was C4 which turned out to be in the Chambers Conference Room. The marking to the location was poor and several of the staff members I talked to had no clue where that was. We actually got flat wrong directions at one point. I knew we were in the Chambers, I just wanted directions and the answers I received were confusing, indeed.

Once in place the boat drill was quite painless. No life jacket, no standing about for 30 minutes just a quick safety briefing and a video, perhaps 12 minutes or so once everyone was in place.

With the briefing over we decided to head up to the Lido Deck for a snack before dinner. We popped out on the Panorama Deck to find that we were underway!

The above photo was shot at a very unique camera setting that reduces the size of the image and concentrates the available light so it’s reduced here, as well.

As we left port there was an air of excitement spreading throughout the public decks. Sadly, once clear of the wall of buildings that were shielding us the wind made itself obvious. The forecasts were for 35 gusting to 40 and I can guarantee that they were all of that.

I grabbed a few pictures of the skyline as we made our way out of the harbor area…

It certainly was an impressive sight.

We slid back inside as the wind was beginning to howl and the temperatures were just barely above 40. The wind chill was amazing and we were both in need of some warm air and a bite to eat.

We finally made it to the Deli to grab a sandwich. We both got the Combo which was corned beef and pastrami on rye. The meat was shaved very thin making it amazingly tender. It was warm, very good and filling enough to hold us ’til dinner.

We were both anxious to sail past the Statue of Liberty so I would occasionally get up and run out onto the aft end of the Lido Deck to look for her. When she finally came into view she was well off the starboard side of the ship. The wind was ripping making standing difficult, let alone taking pictures but I was able to get a few pictures that were fair, at best.

I have to say, the Caliente is cool… very cool. Stitch allows that it harkens back to the days of disco. This ain’t no disco place I ever saw!! Look at this!!!

That, boys and girls, is in the Caliente!!! In fact, there’s a BUNCH of ‘em!!!

The venue is remarkably cool and I was so grateful to get this place for our M&M.

Our Meet & Mingle was scheduled for 2:30 to 3:30 PM to allow us to meet before the boat drill, which was scheduled for 3:30… or so…

As 2:30 approached folks began arriving. Lots of smiles were exchanged as we had all met on the roll call but most of us never in person.

The list of folks who attended is long, indeed, and we ended up with about 120 folks there. That’s one heck of a Meet & Mingle!!

We were thrilled to have Hailee Steberger, the Godchild of the Carnival Dream Waterpark, and her parents join us!