Precruise, August 26

The cruise leaves on Friday.  How exciting it is!  And a little bit alarming, too.  Because I am not sure of what to expect on this long boat ride.  We are traveling on the Regatta, one of the ships of the Oceania cruise company.  It is, I am told, a medium-sized ship, with only 650 guests or so, and probably half again as many crew and staff.  We are traveling with Aunt Blanche and Uncle Sol, two veteran cruisers who have in fact been on this very ship before.  They assure us that it is not fussy, and that we do not need to wear formal dress to dinner.  

The ship travels from San Francisco down the coast of California and Baja, stopping at Cabo San Lucas for a day and Puerto Chiapas.  Then, on to Costa Rica, through the Panama Canal and a stop in Cartagena, Columbia.  Finally, we cruise up the Atlantic coast, stopping in Norfolk, Virginia and on to New York City.  All of this in about 18 days, which means a lot of days at sea. 

I am looking forward to the transit through the Panama Canal, having just finished a book about the amazing engineering feat it was, begun by the French, and carried out by the intrepid Americans, battling yellow fever, malaria, and landslides all the way.  I trust that the mosquitos have been totally obliterated by now. 

My intention in starting this blog is to write something every day about the cruise experience that I can share with my friends and family, and to learn something about the blogging process,  including the posting of pictures.  I was greatly inspired by the delightful blog "Wertzlersinfrance" which I found out about through the greatest of coincidences, but have been reading with pleasure.

So far, I have been stressing about seasickness (is it likely?  should I take medication beforehand or just wait and see what happens?  will I suffer horrible side effects?) and more importantly, what to wear.  I have purchased a few surely totally unnecessary garments in the hopes of being more fashionable on this cruise (a fruitless quest).

Let's see if I can post this!

Best to any readers of my blog,

Carol

All we know so far...