Just back from a nice long holiday and getting caught up with things.  Will put some comments about the holiday as well as some photos in the very near future.

Before I left I had about half of the next portion of reminiscing written but wanted to have the full "chapter" (2002 - 2004) finished before I put it up.

take care...

Here we are back in Tampa Bay and getting ready to disembark.  Last night our duty free purchases were in the cabin along with disembarkation information

Again the organization was superb.  We were given a number and time to be on deck five to be ready to leave.  We had our ‘carry on’ and at 9.15 we ushered back down to the lower deck, into a holding room where our other bags were lined up, in I believe deck order. U. S. Immigration & Customs had desks set up to check our documents which proved to be a very routine procedure and we were cleared within a minute or two.  Then it was out to find the valet parking attendant. The most difficult thing I ran into was finding the valet parking booth.  After spending a couple of minutes search there it was right across the street from the exit!  Open your eyes Bill!  From the time we were ushered to the ship’s exit until the time we were driving away was not more than 15 minutes.  Ah the air lines certainly could take some hints.

It was then off to New Smyrna Beach to meet up and spend a couple of days with some DFAIT friends.

Ships Stats:
Position 27.56.56N 082.26.71W - Tampa Bay cruise ship dock
Total Distance: 1679 Nautical miles

Here we are back in Tampa Bay and getting ready to disembark.  Last night our duty free purchases were in the cabin along with disembarkation information

Again the organization was superb.  We were given a number and time to be on deck five to be ready to leave.  We had our ‘carry on’ and at 9.15 we ushered back down to the lower deck, into a holding room where our other bags were lined up, in I believe deck order. U. S. Immigration & Customs had desks set up to check our documents which proved to be a very routine procedure and we were cleared within a minute or two.  Then it was out to find the valet parking attendant. The most difficult thing I ran into was finding the valet parking booth.  After spending a couple of minutes search there it was right across the street from the exit!  Open your eyes Bill!  From the time we were ushered to the ship’s exit until the time we were driving away was not more than 15 minutes.  Ah the air lines certainly could take some hints.

It was then off to New Smyrna Beach to meet up and spend a couple of days with some DFAIT friends.

Ships Stats:
Position 27.56.56N 082.26.71W - Tampa Bay cruise ship dock
Total Distance: 1679 Nautical miles