Some pictures so far

That had to be the quickest stay in a place. We arrived in Ft Lauderdale at about 8 pm on Sunday and by Monday shortly after lunch we were on board the ship. I can't really say that I got a taste for Ft Lauderdale. It looks like a nice city with good beaches and all, but I can't really call myself an expert on it.

Backing up a little, our flights across the country were fine. We flew from San Francisco to Houston and then on to Ft Lauderdale.  Everything went well--no delays and our luggage arrived without any problem. I was really worried about the luggage not making it. How do they deliver your luggage to you if it doesn't arrive and if you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after? But my worries were not worth paying attention to.

Boarding was a breeze. No lines and the people who checked us in were extremely friendly. A big contrast to the previous check-ins we've done for cruises. The porters took our luggage and we waltzed through the check-in process. The next thing we knew we were on the ship. Easy!

It's now been about 24 hours since we've been aboard the Equinox. We've spent our time exploring, eating, and being entertained. It's a fair sized ship--2,850 passengers and about half as many crew. Celebrity is very attentive to its guests and that's a nice thing. Our room steward is a very pleasant man from the Philippines named William. He's taking care of us very well.

The three of us have two staterooms side by side, both with verandas. We're at the aft of the ship so we look out from our veranda onto the ocean with the ship's wake dividing the view. As I type this I'm sitting with the door to the outside open and I'm listening to the sound of the Atlantic and the ship sluicing through it.

This morning Allen and I did a tour of the ship's galley. Unfortunately, the tour group we were in was too big and I couldn't hear our guide who was one of the sous chefs on the ship. But it was interesting to see the big space where our food is prepared and our dishes are cleaned. It's a big operation as you can imagine.

They're doing something different on this cruise. Whether you realize it or not, you have to keep changing the time as you head across the ocean--about an hour a day. Every other cruise or crossing I've been on has done this in the middle of the night, just like the time change during the spring or fall. But on this trip, they're changing the time in the middle of the afternoon. We lose an hour at 2:00 pm. I actually like it better because it means you're not constantly losing an hour of sleep--except during naptime of course.

Okay, it's time for bed so I'm going to sign off. Thanks for reading.

Our ship and our route

It's almost time

I've finished my last task at work and I've got my boarding pass. Clothes, though not packed yet, are sorted and just ready to be put in suitcases. I'm on vacation! Yay! And what are we doing on  this vacation? We're taking another cruise. This time it's a sail across the mid-Atlantic stopping in the Azores, Portugal (Lisbon) and Spain (Cadiz, Málaga, Alicante) ending in Barcelona.

We'll be aboard the Equinox which is one of the Celebrity cruise line, the same line (different ship) that we sailed to Alaska last year. The Equinox carries 2,850 passengers and 1,250 crew. You can follow our voyage on line on www.seascanner.com. Just click on the "ships" link and then select "Celebrity Cruises." Then click on the "Equinox" link. That will take you to a page where you can see pictures and information about the ship, deck plans, and ship location. On the deck plans, we'll be on the Sunrise Deck or deck number 7. Scroll down to the bottom of the deck and find stateroom 7362 and that will be our home for the next couple of weeks. You can follow our progress on the ship location link and see where we are.

We're spending seven days crossing the Atlantic and then have several port stops. We have shore excursions lined up in Ponta Delgada, the Azores, in Malaga to the Alhambra in Granada, and around Barcelona. At the other ports we're on our own. But more on those when we get to them. 

There are three of us going--Allen of course, our friend Marilyn, and me. Fortunately, we have adjoining staterooms so we have some room to spread out. Plus each room has a veranda. So, we can enjoy our time outdoors as we sail; as long as the weather cooperates.

So off we go. Feel free to follow along on this blog. Make comments and enjoy vicariously.  If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

Ahoy!