With 26 cruise ships arriving and leaving Ft. Lauderdale every day, they have embarkation and disembarkation down to a fine science.

I was onboard by noon and had the chance to acquaint myself with the ship . Met my cabin steward, Ratno, who is on his first long cruise. He and his fellow stewards had their work cut out for them getting all of our luggage to our rooms before we sailed. My room is nice, clean and bright with windows but no verandah. I'd rather drink wine than pay the extra. With only one twin bed I have lots of room.

Between get-acquainted gatherings with 59 other Road Scholars, a fantastic dinner and Bon voyage party I managed to get everything unpacked and stored away before I went to bed. Slept good but getting up at 6:30 a,m. was a challenge. (Still on PST). Great stretching and exercise classes before breakfast, an hour of Windows 10 instruction on computers with 27" touch screens, checked out bridge group which happened to be duplicate so passed, attended a Holland America (HA) lecture on Everglades, and a Road Scholar (RS) lecture on the Age of Exploration: Sail with the intrepid Mariners who traveled to the edge of the known world and beyond.

This was fantastic and left us all anxious for more lectures from this accomplished presenter. Do you know why Brazilians speak Portuguese instead of Spanish? Why was it necessary for ships to set sail across uncharted waters? Just bored? Don't think so.

Dinner was great and the nightly entertainment 5 stars. Having such a great time meeting fellow travelers. Some have cruised around the world multiple times. They are from all over the country. I've met 3 from Seattle area. Amazing careers and backgrounds.

Ok, nothing much to take photos of so I decided to build a background of this adventure. From here on out I'll dispense with food, entertainment, etc and focus on the stops. (As soon as we have a stop, on Saturday at Santa Marta, Columbia). Rick Steves I'm not but hope you can picture yourselves along on this with me.