A foggy day

We reached America on Sunday, and officially concluded our transatlantic voyage! Unfortunately being in America means everyone has to go through immigration, including full crew for our first visit after being abroad. Some poor souls were waiting 6 hours in the cold Galveston Fog for the customs agents to get their act together. Luckily my friends and I kept asking before trying to go through, and several times were told not to bother, and come back in an hour. Waiting until things got going saved us a lot of time, we only waited half an hour. After which the customs officer looks at my American passport and says, why did you bother? You're a citizen. Ha ha...but we do all have to go through before crew leave can be granted.

Unfortunately for our new embarking guests, not only was embarkation delayed several hours, but the heavy fog caused the port authorities to close Galveston's harbor to all traffic. Essentially, for safety reasons, the ship was not allowed to leave port. So began the waiting for break in the fog. We were there overnight, all of the following day, overnight again, and finally left this morning, after the fog lifted enough to allow the authorities to open the port. As a result we will miss one of our ports, and right now the ship is rocking quite a bit as the captain is trying to make up for lost time - full speed ahead. Another consequence of not leaving the port is that none of the bars could be open, no alcohol could be sold, the casino and the onboard shops couldn't open, and most tragically, no bingo. Needless to say, the guest had a lot of reasons to be upset. The show must go on, of course, so our schedules didn't change much and entertainment continued as scheduled, but even though the ship is incredible and there is plenty to keep you occupied, whats the fun in being on a ship if it doesn't go anywhere?? Midway through the day yesterday when we still didn't know if/when we would ever be able to sail, the guests were offered the choice to stay, or leave by 11pm in return for credit to exchange this cruise for one on a different date. 800 guests took the offer. So we are now riding a bit lighter than normal this week, though the ship still feels full to me.

I do admit that even though it was a big disaster for the guests and the company financially, I do sometimes like it when mother nature flexes her power and makes things interesting.

Almost to land!

After six days at sea, we are finally approaching land again! Tomorrow we spend the day in Nassau, Bahamas, a port I visited a lot during my time on the Norwegian Majesty. It will be nice to have a stop in a familiar place, and nice just to be docked! Unfortunately we have to have a "boat drill", followed by a rehearsal for a show, so we won't be getting off the ship until around noon, but we'll have a few precious hours ashore. Everyone cannot WAIT to get off the ship after six sea days - we plan to take advantage of it because after tomorrow come 2 more sea days, followed by our first stop in Galveston, Texas, USA, where we won't be able to disembark the ship at all except to go through all-crew immigration (darn U.S. Customs to Hades), followed by two more sea days. So the next chance we'll have to get out will be in Cozumel, Mexico.

But despite our anxiety to step foot on dry land, the crossing has been absolutely beautiful all the way through. It has been nicer weather than any crossing I have ever done before (only 2 prior to this, but still), with sunny days every day and little to no rocking. Better than I could have hoped for. I haven't been bored at all, and have actually liked not feeling the pressure that I should be getting off the ship and sightseeing. My friend Tatiana and I have been making a point to go out on the bow of the ship to watch the sunsets, and I even got up for a few spectacular sunrises. There is so much beauty all around, and I feel so lucky to be here.