Second Port – Savannah

15 June, Savannah, GA

Awaiting departure from the wharf in New Orleans, we saw a Carnival cruise ship overwhelming the skyline, and later passing us as our tugboats stood by, patiently waiting to turn us back toward the Gulf.

Hmmmm….. almost 4,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members. And here we are, with 2 passengers and 20 crew members – a much higher crew to guest ratio! And our verandah is bigger than the Carnival casino! Dinner, however, probably not so impressive:

More on food – breakfast is either eggs or cereal…. No fresh fruit, although the crew likes “juice drinks” at every meal. Lunch is the main meal – always a soup (and so far they have been quite good), fresh salad, entree, side dish and then we might see fruit. Dinner is light – again, more salad and an entree, usually with a vegetable side. That’s it. No dessert, which seems surprising for working people, but good for us in that we hopefully won’t gain too much weight here.

Our first night out of New Orleans seemed to be a bit of a celebration for the crew. The Filipino workers have a separate mess area, and they invited us to join them for a beer after dinner, to listen to them perform….. Karaoke! A couple of them were quite good; others not so much. The repertoire tends toward slow ballads that we have never heard before. We resisted offers to take the microphone, but may not be able to hold out whenever the next festive occasion arises.

We had an emergency muster practice one afternoon – the crew takes it seriously, thank goodness, and we got to actually climb into the lifeboat and strap down. Will take pictures next time…..

We also finally had a chance to venture to the fore part of the ship while at sea. It felt like quite an adventure, with lots of lines and equipment lying about. The “king of the world” section at the front was quiet but for the whoosh of the water, and we saw some flying fish.

Arrived in Savannah early this morning:

A pretty town with lots of lovely squares, but a really active tourist scene…. hard to go anywhere without running into clumps of people wearing matching T-shirts.  We chose to splurge on a nice B&B with great air conditioning.

We re-board the ship tomorrow with treats for the crew.  A few more days, then we visit Philadelphia, and a new passenger will be joining us for the Atlantic crossing.