Plans change!

You have to be flexible in this world. And I’m looking forward to our alternate ports. But I admit I am pining to get off the Carnival Glory for at least a couple of hours.

Hello from the balcony! It’s day nine on this Atlantic cruise. I was expecting to pay a visit to the Azores two days ago. But due to weather, we are cruising up and down the Straits of Gibraltar for awhile and will dock in Cartagena in Spain on Friday. In the meantime, I’m reading, working a puzzle, knitting, fine dining, going to shows, and checking out what else is going on around the ship. I finally got up early enough to see the caricature artist at work.

I took this picture because Ellen, who is posing for the artist, is a solo traveler who sits on the table next to ours during dinner. She’s also a veteran. Her flamingo is her traveling companion. She calls him Junior.

Anyhow, this firecracker has a waiter she likes so much that she’d rather dine alone next to us than join our big table.

Not only does she get her desserts while we are still waiting on our main course, but Ellen’s waiter made a really cute chicken and nest with napkins and then made her a gun which she promptly pretended to use as a hairdryer.

We had our big table to ourselves the first two nights, and then three solo women joined us on the third night. Two left their non-traveling husbands behind and they were friends. The third one is a retired Navy nurse. It’s kind of hilarious that Joseph is the only man. If Ellen had joined our table, it would have been five women and him.

Speaking of Joseph, he had his phone slip out of his pocket at the theater watching the juggling show last night.

This photo is actually from the juggling show three nights ago. Last night, it was two brothers from a French-speaking country, but I didn’t get a good picture of them.

The “find my” feature doesn’t work on the ship, because we’re moving constantly! I hear you can have the security team search the entire ship, including your room. A lot of elderly people find their phones in their room that way. I hope that won’t be us! In the meantime, we keep checking back with my doppelgänger in lost and found.

Like looking in a mirror!

Okay maybe not, but her name is April, so we have that in common. And “that’s not nuthin’!”

We were really looking forward to stopping in Ponta Delgada. I was hoping to make a few phone calls. See the sights. And walk on dry land!

But there was a very bad storm with high winds heading that way. So they not only canceled that port stop but also our stop in Funchal, where we had paid for an excursion with a toboggan on dry land pushed and steered by very athletic locals. Maybe next time!

Fortunately, the ship refunded our money. A lot of folks had purchased through online guides and didn’t have the same luck.

Speaking of luck, we seem to have stumbled into a casino cruise. No wonder it was such a screaming deal. It’s like being in Vegas with awesome buffets and shows, only they are included.

We will be in Cartagena, Spain on Friday. !When googling this city, be alert because Cartagena in Columbia seems to be the default search.

I brought along Dawn the Donkey on this trip.

Here she is hanging out with one of the towel creatures our steward, Alvin from Indonesia, leaves on our bed every evening. I’m going to try to use her to make a little storybook for my granddaughter once we get to shore.

If we ever get to shore!