Our friends Jon and Pat drove us to the Dundark Terminal Entrance, but they were not allowed to enter the terminal and take us to the ship.
Ellen and me with our luggage
There was a fellow named Patrick who was expecting us -- courtesy of Walter Celario -- and who drove us to the Atlantic Sky (for $55).
Actually, Patrick didn't just drive us there, he drove right up the ramp and into the ship and dropped us off in front of a crew member.
Once Patrick dropped us off the crew member checked us in, gave us Atlantic Sky visitor badges, and called a couple of other crew members to help take the luggage to our cabin. Two guy came and grabbed most of our luggage, and away we went. There were two elevators to get us to where we were going, so it was actually pretty easy.
Our cabin was cozy (read: small), but actually a little better then either of us had envisioned from the online photos. There was a desk (which was not in the online photos), and both beds -- yes, we would be sleeping in separate beds -- had bulkheads (walls) against which we could prop a pillow to sit up and read. This was not exactly what the online photos had indicated, either.
The bathroom was sufficient, and the shower was more than sufficient with nice, hardy streams of piping hot water.
And I was also pleased to see that all the electrical outlets were standard European outlets.
Shortly after we had arrived it was lunch time. Passengers had three meal times a day:
Breakfast: 08:00 - 08:30
Lunch: 12:30 - 13:00
Dinner: 17:30 - 18:00
We met our two current fellow passengers at lunch: Roland and Wilke. Both Roland and Wilke were German fellows -- not traveling together -- who had boarded in New York. They both spoke excellent English, so we all were able to introduce ourselves and get to know one another.
We had had some trepidations about the food, having heard mixed stories. In fact, the food was OK. There was a soup -- some sort of spicy vegetable broth -- that was delicious. The main course was chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, with a tomato and mozzarella salad on the side. Dessert was fresh fruit, and there was a good pot of coffee. Again, not bad.
(Note: I am not going to describe each and every meal of this voyage in detail. I'll describe the first few, and then later dedicate an entire post to the overall dining experience.)
After lunch one of the crew members gave us an orientation brief as well as a safety brief. The first part consisted of some dos and don'ts, e.g., don't try to hang out on the bridge of the ship when it's underway. The second part was a quick overview of how to don immersion suits, use the life jackets, where to muster in an "Abandon ship" situation, how to get into the life boat, and so on. We had another fuller version once all the passengers were onboard (after Halifax, Nova Scotia), but this was deemed to be sufficient for now. All in all it took about an hour.
The ship had a pretty decent exercise room, with a treadmill, some free weights, a universal machine, a rowing machine, and a ping pong table.
And there was a sauna just next door to the exercise room.
There was also a passengers' lounge with a couple of tables and chairs, some books, a DVD player, some DVDs, a small refrigerator, a coffee maker, and a few other items to make life at sea a bit easier.
A little while later we were back in our cabin and there was a knock on the door. One of the Second Officers told us he needed our passports. He said he'd make photocopies for us to take ashore in Halifax and Liverpool, but that the ship's Master would hold our passports until we reached our destinations. We thought that was a bit weird, but we didn't have much choice so we did it.
We took some short naps in mid-afternoon, then showered, and soon enough it was dinner.
Dinner was spicy meatballs with a spicy tomato sauce on fusilli pasta, along with a lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad. Again, not bad. That said, it appeared the meals would be mainly protein and starch; fresh vegetables would probably be rare. Fortunately, we had brought along some Citrucel and a bag of pitted prunes for fiber.
And it was soon thereafter that we pulled anchor -- so to speak -- and left Baltimore.
Our impressions at the end of the first day were generally positive. The only real downside was that there would be no WiFi. WiFi was just for the ship's crew. The only time we would have Internet access would be if we could get it from somewhere else while in a port. I supposed there are worse things in life than no Internet access for a few days. We had both brought a lot to read, as well as a lot of downloaded podcasts to listen to. And we each had a lot of writing to catch up on that would keep us busy.
Dundark Terminal Entrance
Patrick, our escort
Actually, Patrick didn't just drive us there, he drove right up the ramp and into the ship and dropped us off in front of a crew member.
The ramp into the ship
First glimpse of the interior
Our cabin was cozy (read: small), but actually a little better then either of us had envisioned from the online photos. There was a desk (which was not in the online photos), and both beds -- yes, we would be sleeping in separate beds -- had bulkheads (walls) against which we could prop a pillow to sit up and read. This was not exactly what the online photos had indicated, either.
One of the cabins
The bathroom was sufficient, and the shower was more than sufficient with nice, hardy streams of piping hot water.
Bathroom (shower curtain on left)
And I was also pleased to see that all the electrical outlets were standard European outlets.
Shortly after we had arrived it was lunch time. Passengers had three meal times a day:
Breakfast: 08:00 - 08:30
Lunch: 12:30 - 13:00
Dinner: 17:30 - 18:00
We met our two current fellow passengers at lunch: Roland and Wilke. Both Roland and Wilke were German fellows -- not traveling together -- who had boarded in New York. They both spoke excellent English, so we all were able to introduce ourselves and get to know one another.
We had had some trepidations about the food, having heard mixed stories. In fact, the food was OK. There was a soup -- some sort of spicy vegetable broth -- that was delicious. The main course was chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, with a tomato and mozzarella salad on the side. Dessert was fresh fruit, and there was a good pot of coffee. Again, not bad.
(Note: I am not going to describe each and every meal of this voyage in detail. I'll describe the first few, and then later dedicate an entire post to the overall dining experience.)
After lunch one of the crew members gave us an orientation brief as well as a safety brief. The first part consisted of some dos and don'ts, e.g., don't try to hang out on the bridge of the ship when it's underway. The second part was a quick overview of how to don immersion suits, use the life jackets, where to muster in an "Abandon ship" situation, how to get into the life boat, and so on. We had another fuller version once all the passengers were onboard (after Halifax, Nova Scotia), but this was deemed to be sufficient for now. All in all it took about an hour.
The ship had a pretty decent exercise room, with a treadmill, some free weights, a universal machine, a rowing machine, and a ping pong table.
Exercise Room
And there was a sauna just next door to the exercise room.
Sauna
There was also a passengers' lounge with a couple of tables and chairs, some books, a DVD player, some DVDs, a small refrigerator, a coffee maker, and a few other items to make life at sea a bit easier.
Passengers' lounge looking aft
Passengers' lounge looking forward
We took some short naps in mid-afternoon, then showered, and soon enough it was dinner.
Dinner was spicy meatballs with a spicy tomato sauce on fusilli pasta, along with a lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad. Again, not bad. That said, it appeared the meals would be mainly protein and starch; fresh vegetables would probably be rare. Fortunately, we had brought along some Citrucel and a bag of pitted prunes for fiber.
And it was soon thereafter that we pulled anchor -- so to speak -- and left Baltimore.
Leaving Baltimore
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