This was the day were we embarked on our summer journey. Eagerly, we looked forward to the endeavors which were awaiting us. After breakfast — at a very sunny day — we took a taxi to the pier. In former times we could have traveled there by train. Sadly, these times are gone and the train station at the pier and the pier will be replaced by a new cruise pier by 2023.
Before we entered the cruise center, they took our luggage (it reappeared later in our cabin, marvelous). Freed from our burden, we first forgot to check-in in the lobby of the cruise center. Instead we went straight to the security gate. We blame the reduced mental capacity on the heat. Thankfully, fellow travelers showed us their boarding passes, so we slowly realized that we forgot an essential part of registration. So we went back, calmly in panic, did our check-in procedures, and then got on board safely. feeling relieved.
Not much happened on that day, as we had to wait quite a bit before boarding. Inside the terminal, it was hot, humid and muggy. Onboard, we went to our cabins, had a safety drill, dinner (very nice), and visited the evening sail away happening. For the safety drill you have to find your life jackets in your cabin, check the plan in your cabin which illustrates our route to the staging area and our lifeboat. We had to assemble in the Atlantic Launch. There we were instructed what to do in case of an emergency and finally how to put on the life jacket.
Quite a few people were unable to complete the task because they were not listening. While some elderly people had motorically related issues, but knew what to do, others seemed not so interested in their life and intellectually challenged by the task. In case of a real emergency, they would either jump from the ship killing themselves or endanger others. An anthropologist would have had a great field day. Don’t get me wrong, they are lovely people, it is just the strange experience how average human beings can behave without any sense for logic and structure, which are otherwise rather successful in live. Surely, I behave like an idiot from time to time and then other may wonder why this guy is behaving like this.
After that great experience, we had dinner and then went to that evening act. The act was presented by four singers who and a narrator. They performed songs reflecting the age of the different cruise ships of the company, which was quite entertaining. Though, some songs were a little bit outside of the good taste zone. Later, we went to Harry’s bar to get some Mochitos and enjoyed the warm night with an almost full moon looking very romantically over the ocean.