Having a hard time catching up. Several long days in a row.

So up yesterday about 8 and to breakfast in the hotel buffet. Pretty good. Nice waiter, who called us "Sir" and "Lady." hah Then we went back up and repacked for the cruise, showered, checked out, etc. I said goodbye & thank you to Gladys, we checked our bags [at the hotel] & ran a couple of errands (CVS, ice cream). Our dock is on the other side of the bay from the hotel so we walked along the pier to make sure we had picked out the right ship. Along the plaza, an older (60ish?) fellow stopped us & told us that he'd been mugged & his father-in-law was at the police station having already gotten stitches at the hospital. They'd lost their wallets & camera and the guy had no money for the ferry. Anyway, we gave hi $10 and he gave us his email addy so he could reimburse us. He's from Milwaukee, has lived on the sout' side his whole life apparently & he had the right accent.

Back to the hotel. Sat up in some out of the way area on the 2nd foor to kill some time. Once it hit about 1:30 we asked for our luggage back & a cab to the dock. Took the ride around the bay, unloaded our bags & got in line to check luggage whereupon I discovered my passport wasn't in my back pocket where I'd put it that morning. Commence frenzied searching of pockets, bags, zipper compartments ... to no avail. Beast caught a cab BACK to our hotel while I sat & waited and asked "what if" questions of the staff. They said if someone @ home could find my birth certificate & fax or email [a copy of] it to me, that would work. So I called Cindy D__ & asked her to go through my safe & look. She called Beast for other places to look; he was retracing our path from the morning. No luck. Two hours pass. our options are limited. Others are waiting with me, in the same boat--a couple from Knoxville waiting with a couple from Cleveland. They get their b. certs. sorted & board.

Beast cabs back having found a kind cab service owner who is combing all her company cabs for him, and boosted his spirits. He's also filled out a police report in hopes that will cut some ice with RCI ... no, it doesn't. We are well & truly screwed.

I decided to do one last check of the big suitcase. Hadn't looked before because that was the checked bag & why in the hell would I put my passport there. ...  Well, because when I showered at the hotel, I changed pangs and FORGOT TO MOVED THE PASSPORT FROM THE MORNING PANTS TO THE CLEAN ONES I had on!  OMG. Yes, I'd had the damn passport all along, but because I didn't want to get my underwear out & look under it ... OMG OMG OMG A whole wasted afternoon of worry & frustration...  Thank God - no, seriously, THANK YOU GOD! - Beast didn't berate me.

We got everything repacked, pulled ourselves together, got in the (much shorter) line for bag checking and then went into the Port Building to finish paperwork, get our IDs for the ship and - - - - - at last, boarded the ship.

After some serious confusion on board (which way is aft?? are the numbers counting higher or lower along [this corridor]?) we found our room & met our attendant (Dwayn). Gorgeous, good-sized room, huge closet, lots of drawers & cupboards, better-than-expected bathroom, balcony, TV, mini-fridge. We are about 7 or 8 suites [edit: upon later exploration, more like 12-15] from the back on deck 10. Restaurants are either up one flight or down 5.

We arrived just in time to catch our breath & then do the mandatory safety drill. Once again we found that God took pity on us: our muster location is the main dining room on deck 3, so we could sit inside in the A/C while we waiting and got "trained." Our muster point is not, however, "our" dining room. Our assigned meal location is Mozart. I think we muster in Strauss.

We haven't actually eaten in the dining room yet. Maybe tomorrow--tonight is formal attire so we're eating at the buffet (Windjammer) again.

Anyway, I had made reservations at Giovanni's for last night. We stopped to confirm the time (good thing, too! I was wrong about what I remembered) and then did some basic wandering. It was pretty jammed everywhere post-muster, so we ended up back here in our suite till heading up to dinner.

Which was AMAZEBALLS! Good, seriously Italian dishes served by Ali (from India - Gowa). We shared [orders of] gnocchi & risotto as pasta, but started with meat & cheese plates which were so good. The gnocchi was good too, the risotto tasty but not overly attractive -- kinda oatmeal or old brain on a plate. And then Beast had a chicken dish & I had some sort of stuffed veal with black truffles and other yummy things. We didn't even TRY to finish it all. He (Ali) brought the dessert cart over & I caved on tiramisu, but he gave us a lemon custard/fruit thing that was just perfect. I keep saying "amazing" but really it was one of the best meals ever.

While we were finishing up, the ship left port, so after dessert we went up to the pool deck & watched SJ fade away into the dark. Gorgeous. Then we walked around some more getting our bearings. Found the Library & Internet stations and asked a few questions at Guest Services. The Promenade was less crowded, so we could see more of what the shops were about, but (I think) they were closed up again so we only looked.

Then back to our room where Beast unwrapped our "official cruise cups" & went upstairs -- to the pool bar? -- and got us some diet Coke. We'd eat had close to a quart of ice water with our dinner, so thirsty! The night wound down from there a we perused the Compass for  Day 2 and [prepared for] our arrival in St. Croix in the a.m.

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So. It's now 9:15 p.m. on Day 2 and I'm just starting to think about writing up what we did on the day we did it--shock, horror. However, I've also got writer's cramp & I'm pretty tired and vaguely sunburned. I'll just say that I know my way around better now, Beast has explored more as well and we're probably going to bed fairly soon so we can get off the ship earlier tomorrow before it gets into the heat of the day. To be brief, today was  fun and tomorrow looks equally entertaining. :)