Jan 31 - Departing Ft Lauderdale, FLA

SANDY SHORE : Boarding an ocean liner takes quite a few hours on a good day, but throw in a bomb scare and getting underway takes and additional 6 hours! We set sail around 11:30 pm EST and finally, our long voyage begins! ~ss

DONNA KAY PHILLIPS : I have always had a respect and affection for dogs but I am especially grateful for the bomb sniffing German Shepherds that excelled at their job today. Basil (SmoothLounge Aussie Shepherd) would have been truly impresssed.There appeared to be 8 pieces of luggage in question which the FBI, Miami Dade Police and Bomb Squad chose to examine for 4+ hours. 800 Remaining passenger, including my parents, were fed and kept safe in a terminal across the way while the bomb robot did it's job. Very surreal to see this off of the movie screen, but quite happy to wait while all was thoroughly checked out.

Fortunately we were onboard to eat, unpack and relax while we watched the Carnival Freedom and Holland America's Eurodam set sail only a tad behind schedule. With 2+ semi trailers full of supplies yet to load onto our ship, and 800+ passengers to board, we set sell well after sunset where we proceeded East directly across the choppy Gulf Stream towards the Bahamas. Our sea legs developed quickly as we set out on a challenging North Atlantic, but also very happy to be underway on this long planned journey. -dkp