It was a SERIOUS rock and roll time out of Bermuda. 35 foot waves. 30mph winds. The long Atlantic swells were coming in at a different angle from the wind-waves. The Captain was doing 10 knots, going in the wrong direction. Wave spray washing over the lounge on the 10th floor. Elevators all out of service--2 broken in fact. Staff getting hurt--our steward caught her finger in a porthole cover that bounced loose (7 stitches) and various waiter staff members had bandaids on various parts. Food flying off the waiter stations; pizza flying out of the pizza place. You get the picture.
We stayed as low in the ship as possible, and as near to the middle as possible. Even so, in our cabin, the roll was of the order of 5 degrees--the phone slid off the dresser and our full wine bottle fell over.
The Captain announced that we weren't going to make it to Fort Lauderdale on time--there was a period of guessing just how late we were going to be! We rebooked our flight out for the next day and booked a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale.
As it ended up, we were about 14 hours late docking. We got off the ship just after 7 PM and had a good sleep at the hotel. Caught the Air Canada flight to Montreal and had a long layover there--getting home just after 10PM. A long day.
A good cruise--excellent itinerary, but we do not want to travel on a small ship again. Quite apart from the fact that it is more wobbly (30,000 tons vs 100,000, a couple of hundred feet shorter and a bit narrower makes a difference!) there is not as much to do on the smaller ship. We were bored on sea days. So we probably won't do more small ship cruising.
We made it home for Christmas (joy) and are getting ready for our next adventure! Till then, happy trails to you!
No comments:
Post a Comment