Saturday, February 17 2007
Saturday, February 17 2007
Holiday Inn
Galveston, Texas
11:02 CST
Slept fairly well. Woke up at 6:30 for a bit. Mind working away while I mostly dozed. Alarm at 8:30. Shower – had to do the limbo to wash my hair, but hot water at least. Breadfast at the hotel place. Not bad – buffet, coffee, OJ (good) for $16 including tip. Quickly re-packed, then went for a walk. Can see the ships from here – in the other direction – Galveston is an island. Couple miles across, long. Our ship and one other in port. Walked along the beach. Lots of small shells. Two to three foot waves. Windy, not warm, but sunny. Nice. Two large rock jetties – big cubes of granite. Shoes and pants a bit sandy / muddy now. The boulevard is busy and intersections are few, so jaywalking is the way to go. Crossed paths w/ a few folks I knew here and there.
17:17
Grand Princess
Galveston, Texas
Somewhat chaotic getting on the buses this morning. Sat w/ MO and R. Not a long drive to the pier. Waited in line around 30 minutes, easy check-in though. Non-US passengers got a confused worker that blocked them up. To my room: Aloha deck, room 522. Port side, rear-amidship. The ship is big.
Walked around, ran into J and M, M and R. Got lunch at the buffet. Not bad. a few other folks. Hung out there for a while.
Went on a more extensive walk-around. Will take me a while to get it all figured out. Back to the room around 4. At 4:15, a General Alarm drill was sounded. Lots of people. I go downstairs to deck 7 (this is 12) and aft. They made us stand for 15 minutes while talking about tonight's activities, then showed us how to put on the lifejackets. Slow and mostly orderly dispersal from there.
Just unpacked, put on nicer clothes. There's a big ship-wide party thing going on now, will check that out. We have been cleared to sail, I felt a little movement 10 minutes ago. But nothing since.
17:34
The other ship just departed. Our horn may have blown too. They are pushing us away from the pier now.
19:38
We are underway. Got moving around 17:45. Not warm, and windy on deck. Now cold. Went up to the "party" and hung out for a bit, walked around. Found DB, JM, and MD at a table, joined them and got a Long Island iced tea. Not bad, a double. AR showed up. Cold even in there (quasi-inside).
Dinner will be at 8:15. Looking forward to it. A bit nervous about some things. Sigh. Must relax. . .
The view / experience from my balcony is very nice. Oil rig lights in the distance. If it weren't so cold, I'd be out there now. Romantic atmosphere. Sigh.
23:09
Dinner was good. Two empty seats at our table. Too much food. Should have skipped the spring rolls or the salad or the soup. Was preoccupied the whole time with not really having the opportunity to be social. By the time we were done, most tables were empty. Where did they all go? Passed ML in the stairwell, she said: "They're all in that bar. . .every single one of them. The one in the front [back?] of the ship". Walked around the ship several times. Every bar I found was a ghost town [missed at least two]. Ugh. Oh well. It's warmer outside, but still cold. I need to find a way to hook into the post-dinner stuff. Nobody else at my table is going to care about that. If every night is like this I'm going to die.
Anyway, going to read for a bit now and go to sleep.
Holiday Inn
Galveston, Texas
11:02 CST
Slept fairly well. Woke up at 6:30 for a bit. Mind working away while I mostly dozed. Alarm at 8:30. Shower – had to do the limbo to wash my hair, but hot water at least. Breadfast at the hotel place. Not bad – buffet, coffee, OJ (good) for $16 including tip. Quickly re-packed, then went for a walk. Can see the ships from here – in the other direction – Galveston is an island. Couple miles across, long. Our ship and one other in port. Walked along the beach. Lots of small shells. Two to three foot waves. Windy, not warm, but sunny. Nice. Two large rock jetties – big cubes of granite. Shoes and pants a bit sandy / muddy now. The boulevard is busy and intersections are few, so jaywalking is the way to go. Crossed paths w/ a few folks I knew here and there.
17:17
Grand Princess
Galveston, Texas
Somewhat chaotic getting on the buses this morning. Sat w/ MO and R. Not a long drive to the pier. Waited in line around 30 minutes, easy check-in though. Non-US passengers got a confused worker that blocked them up. To my room: Aloha deck, room 522. Port side, rear-amidship. The ship is big.
Walked around, ran into J and M, M and R. Got lunch at the buffet. Not bad. a few other folks. Hung out there for a while.
Went on a more extensive walk-around. Will take me a while to get it all figured out. Back to the room around 4. At 4:15, a General Alarm drill was sounded. Lots of people. I go downstairs to deck 7 (this is 12) and aft. They made us stand for 15 minutes while talking about tonight's activities, then showed us how to put on the lifejackets. Slow and mostly orderly dispersal from there.
Just unpacked, put on nicer clothes. There's a big ship-wide party thing going on now, will check that out. We have been cleared to sail, I felt a little movement 10 minutes ago. But nothing since.
17:34
The other ship just departed. Our horn may have blown too. They are pushing us away from the pier now.
19:38
We are underway. Got moving around 17:45. Not warm, and windy on deck. Now cold. Went up to the "party" and hung out for a bit, walked around. Found DB, JM, and MD at a table, joined them and got a Long Island iced tea. Not bad, a double. AR showed up. Cold even in there (quasi-inside).
Dinner will be at 8:15. Looking forward to it. A bit nervous about some things. Sigh. Must relax. . .
The view / experience from my balcony is very nice. Oil rig lights in the distance. If it weren't so cold, I'd be out there now. Romantic atmosphere. Sigh.
23:09
Dinner was good. Two empty seats at our table. Too much food. Should have skipped the spring rolls or the salad or the soup. Was preoccupied the whole time with not really having the opportunity to be social. By the time we were done, most tables were empty. Where did they all go? Passed ML in the stairwell, she said: "They're all in that bar. . .every single one of them. The one in the front [back?] of the ship". Walked around the ship several times. Every bar I found was a ghost town [missed at least two]. Ugh. Oh well. It's warmer outside, but still cold. I need to find a way to hook into the post-dinner stuff. Nobody else at my table is going to care about that. If every night is like this I'm going to die.
Anyway, going to read for a bit now and go to sleep.
posted by taylorsherman at 10:01 PM
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