Wednesday Jan 11, 2023
Well gang this was one crazy day! We weren’t leaving for the port until Noon so we were able to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast. We got down to the lobby with all our luggage about 11:45 when we hear that they closed the port due to high swells and the ship was not allowed to dock so the cruise sent a message to delay coming to the port by two hours!
Our driver was already on his way so we went ahead and got in the van and headed to the port. It actually took 2+ hours to get there so we arrived about 2:30 PM. They gave us all boarding numbers and our group was number 128! We went inside the terminal and there were already probably 500 people there. The ship holds about 2,200.
There were chairs but they were all taken so we just stood around for awhile. By this time it’s 3:30 and there were still people coming off the ship. We talked to some people and they had been there since 11 AM! Around 4:30 they finally started boarding people with the suite passengers first and they started called numbers but they had only gotten up to group 25 and we were 128! We literally thought we’d be there until 8:30 PM before we boarded. We actually spotted a peregrine falcon in the rafters and we figured he was waiting for people to kill over and sweep down! Lol
By now it’s 5:30 PM and we luckily had some snacks thanks to Kathy (she always keeps us from getting hungry with all her goodies!). We kept listening for our group number and they were only on 40! Finally a few mins later they jump to group number 125! We started laughing and we’re soon going thru the check in process and boarding the ship by 6:30 PM. Which was 4 hours after we got there!
So when we got on, our rooms were ready and our luggage was in our rooms so we just freshened up and headed up to the Lido buffet and met our friends Sue and Stuart for dinner. The food was really good (but then again we had no lunch and were snacking on Cheetos all afternoon! Lol).
After dinner we got unpacked, had to do the muster safety drill and then went to listen to the dueling pianos players. They were good piano players and played fun songs but the guy wasn’t the best singer. But we’ll still listen to them for the next 22 days!
Around 11 PM, the Captain announced that he’s not sure when we can leave since the port is still closed due to the high swells. So we may not even get out tonight! So the big question remains… who looked into the statue’s eyes???? lol.
We have a sea day tomorrow but are wondering if we will be delayed getting to our port the following day. Time will tell!
PS: Posting this now and will send pictures later.
The Wandering Italian 