End of First Day On Board

We boarded the ship around 2pm today. Except for one item, all of our belongings cleared security. The item that did not make it was a pedal wrench Sr had brought to swap out pedals on whatever bikes we find along the way with the SPD (clip less) ones we tossed in the luggage at the last moment, along with some old bike shoes. We did find that the spin bikes in the fitness center take the kind of shoes we brought, so that will make riding them nicer.

After finding Mary in the library (see previous post), we settled in our cabins for a bit, then sent up to dinner. Dinner was a small buffet of salad, fish, and a pork stir fry. Quite tasty, and Sr was a fan of the pecan pie offered for dessert. Jr ate his usual raw carrots, celery, a few bites of fish, and a roll, then wanted to head back to the cabin to continue working on a Lego project he had started while we were unpacking. He spent all his Christmas money on kits at Legoland earlier in the week, and had been true to his promise to save them for building once we were on the ship. So of course that was the first thing he wanted to unpack.

After dinner we did more unpacking. We are pretty well moved in now. Sr and I have a nice cabin with a little sitting area and porthole. Jr's cabin is across the hall. He will share it with Grandpa when he boards in about a week with the rest of the lifelong Learners and students when the main Spring voyage starts. Tomorrow the 4 day reunion voyage starts, with alumni of past voyages sailing for a few days with their family and friends to Mexico and back.

We took a little self guided tour of the ship this evening, exploring all the decks and common areas. There are beautiful views of San Diego in 3 directions, since the ship is docked right downtown. There is a barely perceptible rocking motion so far, every once in a while you find yourself taking an extra step or leaning. It will get much more noticeable once we start sailing. We are docked here until about 11pm tomorrow, when we set sail for Ensenada, Mexico.

Tomorrow, we start unpacking those 19 boxes of library books and supplies. They arrived safely and are awaiting Mary and my organizational efforts.