Happy New Year! We started the day - and the year - by sleeping late. Then we got up, had lunch at the hotel restaurant - not very good - checked out, and hit the road again.
We didn't have very far to go - the cruise left out of West Palm Beach, about an hour's drive north of where we were staying. Except it took longer than that because I elected to take a leisurely drive on surface streets, instead of the freeway.
At one point, where the road went right along the shoreline, I stopped to take some pictures:
After taking some pictures looking out to sea, I turned around and took a picture of the fancy houses and apartments on the other side of the road:
Looking down, I saw a coconut lying on the ground at my feet:
...so I looked around for the tree it must have fallen from, and I found it a few steps away:
I also noticed this group of sailboats pulled up on the shore - except from where I stood, all that was visible were the masts:
So we finally got to the port, parked the car, unloaded our bags, and went to board the ship:
The boarding area
Terry is ready to board...
...while Trooper asks "Are we there yet?"
Terry on the boarding ramp
Our ship - the Bahamas Celebration
We went to an orientation session in the ship's disco:
...presided over by the cruise director, Jim Ward. Among other things, he asked who was the oldest passenger in attendance. It turned out to be an 88 year old woman, who was here with her husband for their anniversary. Jim asked how long they had been married. She answered "Two years!" and received a rousing ovation. Jim then asked "Any children yet?"
Jim also announced a karaoke contest. I was all ready to sign up, until I discovered that the prize was... a free cruise. In February. The cruise would be free, but I'd have to pay the airfare to get Florida, which I couldn't afford, even if I did have the vacation time, which I didn't. So I passed on the contest.
We then went and got settled in our room. As I've mentioned before, cruise staterooms are exceedingly small - especially if you get the cheap inner rooms, like we do - but that's OK, because you don't need to spend a lot of time there. This room had two single beds, instead of a double, so Terry and I had to sleep apart. But the worst part was that each bed had a decided slant. We were each afraid to roll over, for fear we'd end up on the floor.
The next adventure had to do with finding a place to take Trooper out. We asked the cruise personnel where to take him out, but they were rather clueless. We finally found a little-used corner on one of the decks. It wasn't off limits to passengers, but it was an area of little interest to passengers, where there was nothing to see or do, and there was no carpeting or fancy flooring, just a plain metal deck. So Trooper got to do his business there. At first, he didn't want to, but we insisted, and he finally gave in.
This was now our third cruise, and the quality of the accomodations was a little short of what we experienced on our other two cruises. Just a little short, mind you - it wasn't a hellhole by any means, just a little frayed around the edges.
After an excellent dinner in the main dining room, we went back to the disco for a couple of games of Bingo - we didn't win - and then stayed for the evening show. There were three acts. First was Linda Shepherd, a singer (I don't know if that's the correct spelling of her name):
She was backed up by two dancers, whom she introduced as her daughter and nephew.
The next act was two performers from Cirque du Soleil, Serge and Alina. Again, I'm guessing about the spelling - Alina's name is pronouned a-LEE-na. She started things off by doing an acrobatic act suspended above the floor by two long strips of cloth:
Then Serge came out and did a juggling act. For the grand finale, he picked up a large cube, maybe six feet on a side, made of silver colored plastic tubes. What he did with it was simple, but striking. He lifted the cube up over his head and started spinning it. As it spun, it reflected the colored lights - aqua, pink and purple - and as it spun faster and faster, you could no longer see the individual sides of the cube, and it was as if he were spinning a huge ball of light. Very impressive.
The final act was a guy named Carloid, a comedian. His main act was doing impressions of people he'd come across in various countries of the world. The one Terry and I particularly appreciated was his impression of a guy from the 'hood in South Central L.A.
After the show, we took a walk on the deck, and then went to bed. Unfortunately, the air conditioning in our room wasn't working, so we were rather warm that night. When I went to take Trooper out, I mentioned it to a maintenance man that I passed in the corridor. I then had to talk fast to convince him that we did NOT want him to fix it right then, because Terry was already undressed and in bed!