Night and day

This Emerald Princess is above and beyond any superlative description I can think of. The transition from Costa has been so wonderful - I even met lovely people in the ship terminal during check-in (and was called "delightful" by one older lady). I have a stunning cabin, D109, a kingsize bed, huge three cushion sofa with coffee table and side chair, more walk-on closet space than I know what to do with, two plasma screen TVs, a bathtub and a balcony that has a table a four chairs - gee whiz, waaaay over my head! The bed has a down duvet and lots of pillows. What incredible comfort! The transition from Costa to Princess has been like going from darkest night to brightest day!

My dinner table (set for 7 people) has only had me and one other couple for the first two nights, but the maitre'd says he's going to add two couples to us as the cruise progresses. My table mates now are simply wonderful people from Kansas City, where the gentleman was the President of Park University for 14 years. There is terrific, intelligent conversation (I try to keep up). They have traveled extensively and have been sharing their adventures while on an African Safari. They are going again in 2009 and say I should think about that trip. Too much!

Today is a sea day before our arrival in Naples and my tour of Pompeii tomorrow. I went to the bridge lecture this morning at 10am, played Mah Jongg at 10:30 (won two games (my favorite hand of 2 flowers, NEWS, and two kongs of dragons)), joined a team trivia competition at 11:15am (we got 15 of 20 answers right) and then broke away to come update the blog. Duplicate bridge begins at 1:30 this afternoon. There were so many at the lecture this morning, there will probably be over 16 tables!

Everyone is very friendly and nice, although there are indeed a few "travel snobs" who love to let you know every little detail of how fabulous thier travels have been. I still consider myself very lucky to be out here doing this at all. I thank you all for your support of me and for your continued encouragement in all that I do. I miss you all --- it's indeed a long time to be away from home!