Cruise Day Two : Food - Fun - Fat People

We have been on the seas almost 24 hours. We are in a community of 4000 people - all hoping to get some sun - enjoy visiting some new places - and meeting new people.

We board our ship - Freedom of the Seas - at about 2 PM Sunday. Port Canaveral is a very nice port - you can see the NASA buildings from the decks on the ship. 4000 people were unloading and I must admit the cruise company was very organized. They seem to cater to an older crowd although there are more young spring breakers than I expected. The depression on the shore did not seem to affect these folks - because the boat is full from stem to stern.

Food seems to be one of the biggest interests on board. One has four different options of places to eat. First - there is a giant glass cafeteria this is available almost 24 hours a day. Second - there is 24 hour room service included in your admission. Third - there are two seatings of a formal dinner - one at 6:00 - the other at 8:30. Fourth - there are many restaurants that are an additional charge. Many of the people on the cruise are veterans - very few people we have talked to are on their first cruise - and their waist lines show it. This is our third cruise and it shows. My scale at home read 215 before we started.

We have a table of six for formal supper. Last night - was interesting - because while choosing our prime rib from a large menu - the captain announced we were returning to port to drop off a really sick passenger. We were about 30 miles out to see - and it surprised me that they did not just use the helicopter port on the bow above our room. We are on the 7th deck - deck 5 is the main one. We are all the way upfront on the port (left) side. Funny - they call it the port side but the starboard (right) side was touching the dock when we got on.

After supper for a comedy show in a large double decker theatre. After that - we went to bed as the captain was making up the lost time.

So far today - we laid out on deck - visited the hot tub - ate - and explored the ship. Someone pointed out a special set of steps to watch during the day - it said usually 4 or 5 "greyheads" fall down them.

Internet - we have wi-fi in the rooms - but it is expensive. You get a password - login - and are charged 55 cents a minutes. Needless to say - there will be no surfing the web at that rate. We will type our email ahead of time - then log-on - send the mail - and get our own email. I am posting this story as an email - so if the formatting is strange - that is the reason. I will not be sending any video clips because they would take too long.

Tomorrow morning - we arrive in Haiti. Trying to judge Haiti by landing in this enlave called Labadee would be like judging the US from a trip to Disneyworld. We will get to see very few Haitians and will not be allowed to leave Royal Caribbean property. Only Haitian employees are allowed to the enclave. We are carrying over 100 pallets of foreign aid to Haiti as a good will gesture.

I did bring along my GPS - did not use it yet - but we could see land off to the right for a long time. I am guessing it is Cuba.

Oh well - I must send this - see if my system works - if you are reading it - it did.