June 18, 2012

• Anatomy of a Cruise

  It surprised me to see that I have been away from xanga for just over a year! I decided to come back because some things are only fit for a blog. We recently celebrated out 35th wedding anniversary. Every five years we have tried to do something extra special. We spent the whole year trying to decide what to do for this anniversary and finally agreed on a cruise. This was no small decision since I had to first overcome a great fear of oceans and boats but it was an economical way to do something novel for us and to add four islands to our collection. As it turned out, this was the right decision because it was as near to perfect as a cruise can be and like a second honeymoon for us. We know we were blessed because the week before, we were told, it rained the entire cruise. Let me introduce you to our ship, Explorer of the Seas. She is like a floating resort hotel. There were over 3000 passengers on this trip along with over 1000 crew members! One of the things we enjoyed about the cruise was the diversity of ethnicity onboard both in passengers and crew.

  

  We departed from Bayonne, NJ where we had a spectacular view of NYC. The Statue of Liberty is in the middle and the tall tower with the black top is the new Liberty Tower on the site of the former World Trade Center.

  

  With advice from experienced cruisers, we booked a middle of the ship stateroom with a window onto the grand promenade. It was so nice and comfortable.

  

  

   I ordered some special treatment as a surprise for Greg which included champaigne and cupcakes on arrival, special canapes and desserts on the first formal night and a framed portrait.

  

  On the way out of the harbour we had a close call with the Verazano Bridge. In the 1960′s when this bridge was built, it was the longest and highest suspension bridge in the USA. Everyone was out on deck and applauded when we made it under the bridge.

  

  

  

  We experienced beautiful weather nearly the entire cruise.

  

   Our stateroom attendant, Kassandra, gave us excellent service and delighted us with her folded towells.

  

   We cruised Thursday and Friday arriving at our first port of call Saturday morning.

  Next blog … Bermuda.

  • 5:53 pm
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