It’s been a long day. Dad woke me up at 03:20 this morning, and we got off shortly after 04:00. All the early morning hocus pocus was nearly for naught, though, because our flight out of Greensboro got delayed by a missing flight attendant. We got to Atlanta with just enough time to be worried about our bags and for me to run several times through the entire terminal in order to find an available restroom. As we settled into our seats in the back of the Boeing 737-300, I spotted a baggage cart with our bags in it getting hauled away.
The flight from Atlanta to San Juan was long enough to warrant an inflight movie: the new Pink Panther film. I haven’t had much interest in that one because I felt like the Peter Sellers version really didn’t need to be messed with. I did watch it, though, and it wasn’t terrible, but I do still prefer Sellers over Martin (and monkeys over hamburgers).
I spent most of the rest of the flight staring at cloud formations over the Caribbean. As we got close to San Juan, though, things got hazy and cloudier.
After enough standing and queueing and shuffling to make me feel thoroughly British and completely exhausted, we made it onto the Carnival Destiny. Since then we’ve spent some time exploring and acclimating ourselves to the environment. We had a lovely dinner with a married couple from Houston and a newly-wed couple straight out of college in Missouri. I was feeling somewhat ill at that point–most likely due to too little food and rest, and only had beef and barley soup and a salad for dinner. The others had some terrific steak and a Black Forest dessert, both of which I tried.
We headed up on deck after dinner for some photos and watching the lights of San Juan (pictures). It may be the cloudy, hazy day, but I think I prefer the city in the dark. Before departure, we held a lifeboat drill, which, as I stood on deck with my orange lifejacket, I thought would never end. After that, we returned to the upper decks to watch as the ship left port. Seeing the fortress lit up at night was nice–which I’d had my camera then.
My sea legs are developing. There’s not much noticeable sway and only a little vibration. Nothing much to speak of.
Best end here so that I’m rested for St. Thomas tomorrow and our Atlantis Submarine tour.
Ooh, are those stars? — No, of course not; just dust on the laptop screen. — Wait… they’re scrolling with the picture.
Sadly, Greg, I’m afraid that those aren’t stars. Those are photographic noise due to me trying to take nighttime photos with a point-and-shoot, obsolete digicam.