Fantasy

Day Two, Friday June 11, 2010! Our ship doesn't disembark until 4 but we know the day will go fast and decide to check out of the hotel and head straight for the docks.

We can leave our cars at the hotel and take a shuttle. But the shuttle is forever in showing up, so we call a cab. Then of course the shuttle appears and not the cab. Finally our cab arrives but with our entourage we need two. We have told the company what to expect and yet they send a regular size cab. The driver explains that another is right behind him.

Finally we are at the dock. We need to tote our things to a waiting bus that takes us to the port authority building. We feel like we are at Busch Gardens.

At the check in procedure, Donny gets flagged. I have suggested to him to bring a private flask of our favorite nightcap, Remy Martin, reasoning it will not be a problem, even though anything besides a single bottle of wine is on the don't list.

The flask is spotted in the baggage scan and I think it hurt the authority worker more than us as he poured our treat down the drain. He was very apologetic as he returned the empty flask to Donny.

On board the Fantasy, we find our rooms and get settled in which takes about two minutes. We are ready to explore. So is Colleen who is rooming with Deirdre right next door to us. Off we go topside. We get our bon voyage drinks. Colleen's age is not brought up by us or the drinks gal. We have discerned that cell phones do not work on the ship without ponying up a hefty service fee so our only form of communication when we are apart from each other is to find a house phone and hope someone is in their room.

Before long, the rest of the group finds us lounging inside and we learn that there has been a mild frantic search for Colleen. Seems she forgot to tell anyone where she was going.

We have opted for casual dining and after trying to enter the dining room from the wrong end we finally get settled at one of the few bigger tables. Our waitress is Anna and we all love her. We learn that getting her will be hit or miss depending on whether the table is already occupied when we get there. We decide we're going to work it out to get our Anna every night we can!