Lots of water

Hello from the Atlantic Ocean! It is now Friday, our first full day on the ship, and we love it! It is very weird standing out on the deck and looking out to see nothing but an endless stretch of water in every direction. The ship is enormous, and when you’re inside, you really kind of forget you’re even on a boat. When we first embarked, we walked all around the ship and tried to see most of it… there are bars, lounges, a casino, a big auditorium where they have shows, a mini shopping center, a gym, a ¼ mile track, three pools and whirlpools or hot tubs, and places to eat everywhere!

The ship didn’t leave the port in New York until about 6:00 pm yesterday, so we were a couple hours behind schedule. It started to pour while we left the port, but it cleared up later, and today it is beautiful. When we first got on the ship, at 2:00 pm, there were people already sunbathing, swimming, eating, drinking… it was like they had been on the ship for days already, while it had only been a couple hours at most. We found that pretty funny!

So last night (Thursday), we sat down with dinner around 8:15. It is a sit-down dinner with assigned seating in a big formal dining room. They sat us with another couple who were nice enough, but not the most talkative people in the world, so it was a little awkward. Nothing a bottle of wine couldn’t cure. The food was really good – smoked salmon and chicken satay for appetizers, salads, and tilapia (Amanda) and peppercorn steak (Gino) for the main course, and we finished with two chocolate desserts. After dinner we played in a BINGO game for a jackpot of $500, but obviously lost, then sat through 15 minutes of a comedian, but he wasn’t very funny, so we went to a few different lounges/bars and had a couple drinks.

We woke up this morning, got breakfast, and went out to the pools pretty early. We laid out most of the day. The sun was really hot, but it was really windy on the upper deck. I think I burned. Tonight is a “Captain’s Cocktail Party and Dinner” – it is formal dress – should be fun.

Everything is great so far! There are some interesting characters on the boat, but we’re having fun already! (A lot of Yankees fans too, since we left from NYC!)

More tomorrow...

PS – I don’t think we have the program to download pictures onto my laptop, so you might have to wait for pictures until we get back. Sorry!