Got here a little late due to a "cargo issue" on the plane out of Toronto. But as I hoped, the embarkation process was truly effortless. I drop my luggage to the porters, walk in to the terminal...it's virtually empty. Go through security: "oh don't worry about taking your laptop out of your carry on" they say to me. Next to check in and walk on the ship. Immediately the stress starts to disappear. As I walk onboard the champagne is offered and they tell me that lunch is on until 4. Because we are a bit late it's now 315 so I check out my room (more on that later) and get some lunch. (The Air Canada pretzels didn't cut it). Even though I'm at the end of the lunch period, I get a nice plate of veggie pad thai and some salads. It's warm enough to sit outside and quickly I'm offered some wine, which is included with lunch and dinner (different than most cruise lines). So much for the run I was going to do.
Everything goes down really well and I go back to my room. It's smaller than QM2, as is everything on this ship. But it's very comfortable. Bottled water and soft drinks stocked (again,different from most cruise lines). My luggage arrives shortly after as does my room steward who introduces himself. Olivina is his name. I'm assuming he's from the Phillipines. Nice fellow. As I start unpacking, if there was any doubt about going for a run, they announce the muster drill will be held at 4:45. Good thing I stuck around. I unpacked and went to the drill which was well organized. Our group assembled in the main dining room and got the run down on what to do if you hear the alarm. Basically: go to the station and follow the instructions. It's not too hard. I have to say that with the smaller ship, it seems like it would be a much easier task to move all passengers and crew into the lifeboats.
Another safety procedure that I didn't hear last year: if there are children with parents, they children are given coloured bracelets to wear. If, by chance, the parents and kids, are not together when the alarm goes off, the parents are to go to the muster station and the crew take the kids to the appropriate area. Makes sense. Having said that, I haven't seen one child on the ship!
By now it's 530 and I take a taxi to the meat packing district for dinner at Barbuto. Thanks to our good friends Gina and Blair for this recommendation. A relaxed, neighborhood place, that seems to have been a garage at one point. I had ricotta and sweet pea bruschetta followed by the best gnocchi I've had. A couple glasses of chianti to wash it down and all was good.
I walked over to Greenwich to the Bluenote and took in the show with Jim Hall. It was superb. He's not the youngest guy but he still plays a great guitar. The songs ranged from blues to brazilian to jazz, all very accessible. If you aren't a jazz aficionado, I think you would still have liked it. He also had another guitarist named Jullian Lage playing with him. He was fantastic. I will have find some of his recordings.
So maybe tomorrow I will get that run in, or the spinning class at 4. Just as long as I'm on deck for the sail away. Weather looks great: 70 and mainly sunny!
No comments:
Post a Comment