{"id":11717,"date":"2016-12-18T18:11:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-18T23:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11717"},"modified":"2017-02-15T08:31:05","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T13:31:05","slug":"two-days-at-sea-and-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11717","title":{"rendered":"Two Days at Sea and Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday December 18, 2016 \u00a0Easterly Wind: Force 9 – Strong Gale; 80 degrees<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0552\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The ship rocked and shook and shuddered all night long as she crossed the Caribbean Sea from Aruba to Florida. \u00a0I awoke to see heavy rain, wind, and spuming whitecaps on the water. \u00a0It was difficult to calculate the height of the waves from above but from a lower deck, we saw that they were impressive. \u00a0It was a weird experience taking a shower in a moving box this morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0549\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

There were too many shopping scams on the ship posing as activities so the list of events today weren’t thrilling. \u00a0Jeff found a good table by the front window in the Horizon Court, so we watched the frothing waves as we ate a leisurely breakfast. \u00a0The stabilizers keep the ship from rolling in heavy seas, but they cause the ship to shudder and shake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSC_0380\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We went to the theater to hear a presentation given by one of the junior officers about the workings of\u00a0the ship. His talk was very interesting and we learned a lot about how the ship runs, the navigation system, and how to become a seaman. \u00a0Unlike airline pilots who advance from the US military, the captain and higher level crew are graduates of merchant marine colleges and have years of experience on big ships. \u00a0This 3rd Officer, Junior Officer of the Watch (his title) was from Saskatchewan, Canada!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Later, the sun came out but the wind continued to blow. \u00a0We were heading northwest for most of the morning and about 2:30 we changed course to North. \u00a0We could see Haiti to starboard and then the ship passed through the channel between Cuba and Haiti. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We decided not to participate in the third and final “formal night” although the other two were fun. \u00a0We opted instead for a simple dinner and watched “The Girl With the Pearl Earring”<\/em> movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Monday December 19 – Last Day at Sea: Easterly wind Force 8 – Gale<\/span><\/p>\n

The ship’s clocks were turned back one hour last night. \u00a0We’re finally on Eastern Time! \u00a0Yay!! \u00a0There were still white caps on the dark blue sea and the air is warm and humid. \u00a0But we’re heading home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0550\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We went to the theater to watch a funny and entertaining presentation given by the \u00a0executive chef, Dirk Daumichen, and the Maitre d’Hotel, Ignazio D’Agostino. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0572\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

They talked about their jobs, gave a comical cooking demonstration, then took 600 people through the main galley for a tour of the ship’s huge kitchen. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We entered the Bordeaux restaurant and went through the service door and down an escalator into a clean, shiny, stainless steel world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0606\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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At the end of the tour, Ignazio and Dirk signed their cookbook which was offered for sale. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0618\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We spent our final day on the ship keeping busy and relaxing: listened to jazz in the Wheelhouse; saw a presentation of Hollywood Christmas movies; lounged on blue deck chairs while listening to recorded books; and walked around the promenade deck. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0628\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We had a delicious comfort food dinner – turkey for me and meatloaf for Jeff – in the Bordeaux Dining Room. \u00a0We shared a table and good conversation with a father and son from Ohio and a couple from Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0647\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The waiters were dressed up in red, white, and blue vests and near dessert, they performed a “Baked Alaska Parade” singing and dancing around the dining room. \u00a0It was a wonderful celebration and a great finale to a fun cruise. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday – December 20 – Welcome to Port Everglades – Fort Lauderdale, Florida\"IMG_0650\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I awoke before the alarm at 6:30. \u00a0The Island Princess was docked at the commercial harbor. \u00a0We received Disembarkation directions and were ready to go by 7:30. \u00a0We had a leisurely breakfast in the Horizon Court, watched the ships moving across the harbor, and waited for our time to disembark. \u00a0We had an afternoon flight back to New York City. \u00a0It was good to be home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday December 18, 2016 \u00a0Easterly Wind: Force 9 – Strong Gale; 80 degrees The ship rocked and shook and shuddered all night long as she crossed the Caribbean Sea from Aruba to Florida. \u00a0I awoke to see heavy rain, wind, and spuming whitecaps on the water. \u00a0It was difficult to calculate the height of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caribbean","category-cruising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11717"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11745,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717\/revisions\/11745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}