Starting off in style

Once on the ship, we headed to our room, unpacked and checked out where everyone else were located. We were all just a door or two away from each other except for Gary and Peggy who were a few dollars...ah decks above us. These rooms were a bit smaller then last years but still very nice and comfortable.

We all met on deck, took a few pictures of the Seattle waterfront, and then grabbed a table and toasted our cruise. It was bright, sunny and warm until a breeze kicked up in the afternoon when the coats and deck blankets came out to play. Pete ordered the first round of Coronas and found out that this made him the new best friend of our waiter who wanted to make sure Pete did not want for anything, about every 10 minutes for the next hour or so. Once on our way, there was a banding playing and dancing broke out on the pool deck. One thing about cruise ships is even though it is the job of the crew to keep us happy and sell us drinks, they all seem to be genuinely friendly and enjoy their job. This year there were over 60 different nations represented in the make up of the staff.

What is really fun is even though half of our group had never met each other, after 15 minutes and a drink of two, it felt like we were all old friends. OK, so as not to give anyone the wrong idea, that would be old friends as in knowing each other for years, not long in the tooth old friends. When it finally got a bit too cold to continue to sit on the deck, we headed inside to the warmth of one of the lounges.