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We’re off again, this time just the two of us.

We’ll drive the four hours to Tampa and stay near Ybor City Saturday night. Sunday, we’ll put the car into a parking facility and be shuttled to Terminal Six, where Holland America’s “Ryndam” will be waiting. We’ll have to go through the rigamarole of check-in, luggage checks, assign a credit card for on-board expenses and be shown to our cabin.

We’ll unpack and get settled into our cabin then explore the ship. We’ll watch as the ship gets underway at 4pm and crosses the harbor to the Gulf of Mexico. We’ll probably be in sight of land for a while as we head south for Key West.

We’ll post our updates to these pages during the trip when we can get an adequate internet connection. Posting our pictures may have to wait until the end of the cruise since we tend to take many pictures and they take more time to upload to the server.

The overall cruise is shown on this map, which is NOT accurately dimensioned.


20150214 Saturday, Valentine’s Day
Actually: We packed the van, closed the house, said bye to the neighbors so they’ll guard the place and went to Jamie’s basketball game. Basketball is not his sport. But it was fun being with the kids.

We stopped at Wendy’s for a light lunch and hit the road. I can’t begin to tell you the route we took. We told the iPhone & Google Maps to keep us off interstates and it did that. Some of those roads haven’t seen anyone since the Seminoles. But we arrived at the motel ok and checked in. Then we went to dinner at Outbacks (haven’t been in one in years). The service was great and the food tasty. Watched the end of the Duke/Louisville basketball game while eating at the bar.

We heard that tonight was a zoo in Ybor City, which we’d hoped to see. There was a marathon there today, and there’ll be parades and fireworks tonight, along with much revelry by the young crowd. We’ll wait and see it after the cruise. So now we’re settled into the motel with wifi and tv, and ready to drive the remaining four miles tomorrow to go on our adventure.

20150215 Sunday Tampa & Boarding Ryndam PhotoLink
We had breakfast in the breakfast space at the motel. Then drove to Walmart because D forgot nightwear. Then we cruised back through downtown Tampa to Ybor City.

We checked on the hotel in which we’ll stay after the cruise. It looks really neat. The desk person said it was crazy last night with all kinds of people and a bunch of drunks. It’s good we stayed where we did.

Then we wandered Ybor City and found the places we’d like to visit later.

We pulled into the parking place and were shown where to park. The shuttle took us to the checkin area. Our bags went one way and we went another to be security-screened (just like airports). Then we received our magic key for the trip which is our room key and check-signing key. We were told we wouldn’t need our passports anymore, until the end of the cruise.

We found our cabin and unpacked the one suitcase we brought onboard ourselves (wine in it). Then we went off to explore. Later: we got lost several times but you can’t get too lost on the ship. We had a small meal on the Lido deck, then wandered some more. After the ship’s safety drill (attendance taken, mandatory participation) we went to watch us get underway. It was late due to the Norwegian and Carnival ships going out ahead of us.

But we followed them out the channel (it weaves all over the bay) and went under the Skyline bridge two hours later, just after sunset. The bridge connects St Petersburg & Bradenton. It’s a big bay. We had a light dinner crossing the bay and finished in time to run to the Lido deck and watch us pass under it.

Then the ship turned south for Key West. We fell into conversation with a guy wearing a UVA cap and his wife. Dolores & Boggs talked for a long time on education (he taught all over Northern VA) and his wife Susan chimed in. They now live in Fredericksburg, where our daughter took her undergrad degree at Mary Washington. Nice folks.

Off to bed afterward.