Well, we didn’t see her sail in, of course that would have meant we were up at 5:30AM, so, we were a little too optimistic about that! But when we awoke, there she was and the current passengers were streaming off in droves. We went to the gym, re-packed our bags and left the hotel a little before 11 to board our new home for the next 14 days.
It was a 5 minute walk to the port – dropped our bags right as we walked in and got checked in and aboard in no time. We settled in the buffet, had our salad (we are on a diet now – no more heavy food, no more waffles – boo hoo – but still chocolate that we’ve hoarded for little sweet snacks!), and then wandered the ship. Not like we needed to, we know it like the back of our hand, but we were just exploring.
Actually, we had learned from Cruise Critic earlier in the morning that there may be an itinerary change. There was some big storm and allegedly Bermuda had been cancelled and we would be sailing for an as of yet unnamed port in Portugal. Hmmm….really???
Well, we figured if this were true there would be mass revolt, so we were actually wandering around to see if anyone was complaining yet! We went to the shore excursion desk where it was confirmed: Bermuda is out, Madeira is in! Yay! We love Madeira so it was a good exchange for us since we’d just been in Bermuda in April. Arrival in New York was now Tuesday 11/18 as opposed to Sunday 11/16, and while that put a kink in our plans (we’d already booked a Statue of Liberty tour on Monday and a theater matinee on Sunday), we still weren’t losing any time in NYC. We were pleased, but we were betting there would be lots of teeth gnashing and grumbling.
We headed to our cabin, and then went down to the Reception desk to see what was happening. The daily program was out with the schedule change and there was a line a mile long, but not too vocal. We sat for a while people watching, then went to the Internet café get our minutes (it’s all automatic now so we just sign in), and hung out in our cabin waiting for our bags.
It poured on and off all afternoon, no sailaway party on deck for sure! Muster drill was the muster drill. It was there however, that the captain announced the itinerary change and said he filmed a video for us to watch in our staterooms. We went back to watch – and sure enough there is some huge weather system coming across the North Atlantic with 30 to 40 foot seas and strong gusting winds. So in the name of safety, we’re heading south – not due West! We’ll still get into rough weather on Tuesday before we arrive in Madeira – and it may well be rainy and windy while we are at port, but it is sure better than what that weather chart looked like! Been there, done that – we’ll take Madeira any day!
Our bags finally appear – we had already sailed and I was getting a bit antsy. This is the first time it has ever taken so long to get the bags and all I could imagine was that they hadn’t made it aboard. But I think they were so early on, they got stuck at the end of the line (bottom of the pile) and were just some of the last to be delivered.
So – unpacked, organized, exercised, and showered, we head out into the night to find the lounge bartender and start our 2 weeks at sea!
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