Welcome Aboard!

April 21st, 2001

Flying In

I'd arranged to cruise with my friends Jim and Cely for a little five-day jaunt in the Caribbean, leaving from Florida.  It was part of a large group that they'd got together.  I'd decided to fly down that morning and meet with everyone on the ship: However, I didn't want to take the chance that my flight would get delayed.   So that meant getting up at 4:00 am for a 6:00 am flight.  Ugh!

Arriving in Tampa, I had some breakfast at the airport and grabbed a cab to the docks.  As it turned out, they started checking in and boarding fairly early, so I was actually one of the first people on the ship!

My cabin on the CCS Jubilee (one of the smaller ships in the Carnival Cruise fleet) was quite roomy (thanks to a free upgrade we got) so after unpacking I took a quick nap before looking for the rest of my group.

Everyone else trickled in by ones and twos: as we were departing everyone gathered on the aft deck to watch our departure (and take advantage of the open bars).   However, the revelry was short-lived as the manditory lifeboat drill was taking place soon!

I hadn't actually met a lot of the people in our group: most of them were friends of my friends, and so on.  Our group was large enough to take up two tables, and there were a lot of new faces.  One of the best parts of travel: making new friends!

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© 2001  William Geoffrey Shotts. Last update: Saturday, November 02, 2002