Saturday, September 15, 2012

I am posting this early today.  It has been a busy day so far and will probably just get busier.  

This morning the Captain announced that in order to get ready for inspections in Boston tomorrow they would be having a series of drills and we might see people in fire fighting equipment, fire hoses out, etc. but that it was only a drill and would not affect the passengers.  Whenever they come back to the US after being away they have a series of inspections that they have to pass and they are preparing for the inspections to make sure everything is in top notch condition.  In fact they were late opening Chops this morning because they were having an inspection.

Shortly after the Captain made the announcement about the drills he came on and made another announcement that they had a medical emergency and were going to have to evacuate one of the crew.  A helicopter would be coming in shortly and he told us what areas of the ship were going to be closed to the public etc.  Shortly after that he made another announcement which we were not able to hear.  Someone told us that evidently the helicopter had refused to come (not sure why) and that we were going to meet a rescue boat towards Halifax, Nova Scotia.  It took a couple of hours for us to get there.  Within about the past 30 minutes or so the evacuation was completed and we had a perfect location to watch it right from our balcony.  The weather is beautiful outside and after the evacuation we even saw a whale!

I still need to start packing.  This is my least favorite part of the cruise.  Mary P is already packing and will probably be finished by the time I get back to the room.  We have to have our suitcases out in the hall no later than 11:00 pm tonight.  That is really early.  Usually it is by 1:00 am or so.  I am not sure if I will go to the show or not -- I still have money to spend in the casino!

I hope you have enjoyed following along on my trip.  We get to Boston tomorrow and will spend 2 nights there before coming home to Dallas, and after that, next stop Australia in December 2012!