August 8 - “All my bags are packed. I’m ready to go.”

Here I sit waiting for my ride to the airport and the beginning of my next odyssey.  For the first time in ages I’m taking a chance flying in on the day the cruise begins.  Hopefully all will go according to schedule.  If not, I booked my travel through Seabourn so it will be obliged to get me to the ship.  Also for the first time in more than 30 years I’m in a cabin without a veranda.  I booked this cruise very late and the choices were a veranda cabin very far forward or a midship window.  Considering where we’ll go (the North Atlantic) the latter sounded like the better choice. We’ll see.

This trip will take me to a few new places and some I’ve seen before.  We’ll stop in Ireland, Scotland, s couple of islands north of Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Canada before sailing down the New England coast.  I’ll disembark in New York City in mid-September.  I have some tours booked in several ports.  In others I’ll just play it by ear so to speak.  As I’ve written in the past, the biggest draw of cruising for me now is the opportunity to socialize as much or as little as I choose.  I also love to listen to live music and see shows, things I have virtually no opportunity to do here in Williamsburg,

There are a few friends from previous cruises who will be onboard and it will be nice to reconnect with them.  One of my favorite bands will be on which makes me very happy;  they play good music for dancing.  The cruise director from my last cruise on the Ovation is coming onboard after the first week.  I look forward to that; he’s an entertaining guy, and he does a good job with trivia (very important 😊 ). He was one of the people who joined me and other friends for my birthday dinners the last two years.

Anyway, I don’t look forward to the long flight to Heathrow via Washington-Dulles.  Why can’t someone build a transporter so I could just be beamed up?  Oh well, more later.