It was worth getting up for!
We went to breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room shortly after 7am ('cause I can't get Christmas stollen in the Horizon Court Buffet), and then went up on the Promenade Deck to watch the turnaround days comings and goings (and there are a lot of both). I love the choreography of the pier side activities on turnaround day, and one of these times, I promise myself, I will park myself on the Promenade Deck from arrival to departure and just observe.
A sniffing dog (I think this one's looking for explosives, but there are others; stay tuned...)
About the time that we were going to walk off the ship to run a few errands, it was announced that things were seriously backed up in the terminal, and disembarkation was going to be temporarily halted. That changed our plans a bit, and we decided to wait for the in transit meeting at 10:30am to walk off the ship as a group and go through immigration. In the end, even that didn't happen until almost 11:30am, and so we came right back on board for embarkation lunch (which, I may have previously mentioned, is our favorite) in the DaVinci Dining Room.
G's
Mine
We had only a few minutes to listen to the carolers that had come on board to sing for three hours during turnaround, because once lunch was over, we left the ship to walk first to CVS, then to Publix and finally to Walgreens. (Except for potential future sunscreen purchases, I think I'm good for the duration...however long that is). We stepped it up a bit as we walked back to the ship; all on board time was 3:30pm, and we got back on at 3:27pm. We needn't have rushed...
We were showered (which is a great way to spend the muster drill announcement, as it's the only place on the ship where one can't hear it, but even then it sneaks through the sound of running water a bit) and dressed for dinner by 4:15pm, and went up to Skywalkers to watch it from there. Captain Nick had announced that, due to one late arriving flight, we'd be leaving a few minutes late, about 4:15pm. Around 4:45pm he announced that we'd been delayed a bit longer due to some luggage loading issues. Then it started to get weird.
Announcements were being made, first by the Passenger Services Desk, over and over again, for a passenger to call them. That's not so unusual, and my initial thought was that someone had already had a family emergency at home. But eventually Captain Nick started making the same announcement, and that IS unusual. Finally, he made an announcement that the missing person team should mobilize and cabin stewards were all called to the Accomodations office. Things were getting interesting...
From our location up in Skywalkers, we could see a number of police vehicles arrive at the terminal and when Captain Nick announced that he was going to have to shut down the engines, speculation was running rampant. Eventually, pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place: rumor is that cannibus was found in a passenger's checked luggage by a drug sniffing dog; meanwhile the passenger had boarded the ship, and when the announcements were made, the he retreated to the Terrace Deck, no doubt to work out a plan to "Escape Completely". ;-)
More rumor: the passenger was identified on the Terrace Deck after his photo had been shown to the missing person team, he was watched for awhile with the hope that he would surrender, which he apparently did, and was led away in handcuffs. In the end, we didn't sail until nearly 6pm, and after Captain Nick announced that the Technical and Deck departments and the missing person team could stand down, he admitted that we had had a rather dramatic start to our cruise.
And we were left to wonder why the passenger felt compelled to bring something on board that was freely available on the islands. :-)
But today was exciting even before police officers and a dog appeared on board and a passenger was led away in handcuffs...G told me this morning that, as a Christmas present, he had reserved a chair for me in the Sanctuary, the extra cost, adults only quiet area at the front of the ship. I have a lounger with a 6" cushion waiting for me whenever I want to use it, not to mention Sanctuary stewards to keep me supplied in cucumber and orange waters and...well I'm not exactly sure what they do, beyond the water thing, but I'm sure it's wonderful, whatever it is. Once I found out about this surprise, I spent the morning downloading lots of new audiobooks to listen to this cruise, and told G he may have to drag me off the ship in port. I haven't actually seen my reserved lounger yet, but I'll publish photos and thoughts in a later post. Too fun!
And if today was any indication, we're off for what's looking to be an exciting and different holiday cruise. Pray for us. ;-)
