Behind Jimmy is the World Trade Centre finally rising again, almost 10 years later. Jimmy enjoyed passing his neighborhood in Brooklyn on the way out, making calls to all his friends and family, telling them to look out for the boat.
From the start, Charlotte was in her element. Unlike the 6 kids of the last cruise in Brazil, there were now 100, and Charlotte just made it into the “tweens” group age 8-12. As an 8-year-old “tween”, she was now allowed to sign herself in and out of kids’ club (with our permission). The ship was the same layout as our previous long cruise, so Charlotte was very familiar with it and before long, her and some new girlfriends were signing themselves out of kids’ club to go “exploring round the ship” and playing Hide and Seek. More than once I found them in the restaurant eating ice cream! It was a newfound freedom for her, in a safe environment.
We soon got back into the “Life on Deck”. This cruise we had a Veranda Suite at the back of the boat, which was very nice, in particular for the first few days, which were warm and sunny and we could watch the sunset.
However, later in the trip we were surrounded by fog! By the end of the trip, the sunset cocktails turned into snuggling up with the blanket on the lounger in the north Atlantic! (and it’s July!)
However, later in the trip we were surrounded by fog! By the end of the trip, the sunset cocktails turned into snuggling up with the blanket on the lounger in the north Atlantic! (and it’s July!)
We soon got into our routine. With only a little home schooling on this cruise, I played bridge each afternoon (they had a good 8 table game each day), fortunately finding a nice partner of similar level.
Jimmy enjoyed the extensive library (in particular the very comfortable chairs, that it seemed most people seemed to fall asleep on each afternoon!!) Charlotte loved kids club and made lots of friends, and then we would all meet up at the pool later in the afternoon.
The evening routine consisted of sitting with Charlotte while she ate earlier, and then, while she went kids club, we enjoyed wonderful dinners in the dining room, having fun and interesting conversations with different people at the open seating each night and then enjoying spectacular shows.
On the final night we all had dinner together in the dining room with another family we had all become friends with.
We met a number of families on the ship that were moving to Europe (with tales of anywhere from 10-20 bags of luggage in their rooms (not to mention the children!)) With the cost of excess baggage on airplanes nowadays, this is certainly a more economical way to travel transatlantic (not to mention having a vacation at the same time!!)
