My ipad travel blog: Cruising Day One

I am actually writing this on the plane leaving Miami. If I thought it was a bit difficult writing a blog on an ipad it is even trickier on an iPhone and without wireless that it where my pictures were during the cruise so as a result I am way behind in my blogging it seems but here we go!

My first cruise was in 1981 to Alaska from Vancouver where I had moved from Montreal in 1980, my second from New York City to Bermuda in 1991, my third was to Alaska again in 2007. The first and second cruises were with my friend, Linda and the third and now fourth were with Linda; her sister, Carol, and their incredible mom, Lorraine. They all live in Montreal. I missed their Mediterranean cruise two years ago since I was still teaching!

This cruise was only planned about a month before we left as we worked around various schedules. Linda and I really enjoyed our first cruise as it was quite different than anything we had done before. the second cruise we didn't enjoy as much although we had a great time in New York and loved Bermuda.

The second cruise to Alaska was fun but I had been there before and had been living for many years on the west coast but I was looking forward to this cruise because it is always fun being with the Benoits and I love going places where I haven't been plus although Vancouver has the mildest winters in Canada days are short and can be often cold or rainy or this year foggy so a couple of weeks of warm sunshine was definitely appealing.

Coming onto the ship was clear sailing and it was nice to be greeted with mimosas! The ship was lovely and eventually we were able to check out our rooms and balconies. And then we said farewell to Miami!

Here is our official welcoming picture but we kind of like the second one below more!

We enjoyed our first ocean sunset and then we had a great dinner in the dining room followed by a show spotlighting all the entertainment on board. We chose select dining so that we made a reservation each night or took our chances. We had our own table that turned out to be the same table each night with our new friends, librarians from Nashville next to us. We thought we had the best waiter and assistant waiter. Most of the rest of our meals were eaten at the buffet on the 14th floor.

Here is that first sunset from our balcony! It have to admit our first full day is now a bit of a blur as we explored and became familiar with the ship. I know we enjoyed using the pool and hot tub! And just relaxing and reading our books! The ship had a good library! It is great having access to lots of entertainment as well. We also planned our shore excursions! Here are a few views around the ship!