If you asked me earlier this year if I would sign up for a cruise that left port on Friday the 13th, and sailed through the bermuda triangle, at the end of hurricane season on a vessel that had been on fire earlier that same year I would have said "Pass". But I am very glad that I did not. I have traveled around the world but this was my first cruise, so I thought a 3 night short hop would be a good test of my sea legs. It was a great opportunity to meet up with my online friends and even make some new ones along the way.

**THURSDAY November 12th

Arriving at the hotel a couple of hours later than expected I found my shipmates in the bar waiting patiently. We then headed off to the Hard Rock Cafe and the tourist/shopping area right close by. We met up with some other cruisers on the way and had a fun evening stopping to listen to the reggae band playing a concert on the waterfront. Back to the hotel and to bed pretty early for our adventure to begin the next day.

**FRIDAY November 13th

We are off on the short ride to the port and our ship. Because we had been able to pre register and sign up for our sign&sail cards at the hotel earlier in the morning once we arrived at the ship we were escorted directly through to an area where we could pick up our room keys and our highlander clan cruise packages. Wouldn't you know they were missing a few boxes and my package was in one of the missing boxes, so one of my cabin mates (Jazz) and I boarded and found our suite on the Verandah deck and unloaded our carry on luggage and checked out our private balcony, which we all agreed later was well worth the extra expense. I checked to see if my other friends were already boarded, rang their rooms to no avail (I really missed voice mail on this trip).

After wandering around a bit, we left the ship. Me to pick up my highlander cruise package, Jazz to make a conference call before we sailed. Happy that the missing boxes were no longer missing as I turned and walked from the table, inspecting the contents who did I literally walk into? None other than Anthony Delongis, his wonderful girlfriend Mary and Bob Chapin. I re-introduced myself to Mary (we had met in Anaheim), and was warmed that Anthony seemed to remember me from ACCESS. Bob and I had be in contact via email, and he too graciously remembered me from ACCESS and put the face with the name on the email address. The Clanranald guys were milling around the highlander clan check in area, and we were being serenaded by Jacl the piper. The cavernous area allowed the sound to ring true and clear, it was beautiful, although Jazz was concerned that she might not be able to hear her conference call over it.

Back on to the ship to meet up with our other roommate Pax and again wander the ship in search of other friends and to get the layout down. The grand atrium reminded me of a glitzy vegas game room, all neon lights and noise. We went out to the verandah level overlooking the lido pool area and had our first glimpse of Stan and his girlfriend out taking some sun. This is where I also ran into Kerry, the liaison director for the talent. I had worked for her as a volunteer both in Anaheim and at ACCESS, and again was pleased she remembered me and greeted me by name. Not much after this, we were all warned over the PA system that the impending Life Boat drill was going to happen. I don't know if anyone else thought this way, but his voice sounded like davey jones of the monkees to me. He also looked like a young davey jones when we finally met up with him as he lead us from the ship on monday morning. After the life boat drill was over, I endeavored to find my friends fullmoon and frank who were flying in from Canada. I was lucky to find them in their cabin after the life boat drill and rushed to meet up with them. Due to a flight delay they had *just* made it on to the ship before we set sail.

There was a bon voyage party on deck, then a mad rush to change before the opening ceremony and the Jim Byrnes band concert and the costume contest. fullmoon showed up in her belly dancers costume and when all was said and done had *won* for the best highlander character costume! We sat up in the balcony area of the blue sapphire lounge and had a great vantage point to see it all. Servers came around taking drink orders and offering appetizers, gratis. The concert went well, with a portion of the stage being set aside for dancers, even the men in kilts joined in the festivities and boogied down. After the concert, we strolled to the Wind Song dining room (not to be confused with the Wind Star dining room which was a different location on the ship).

We were at table 206, which was on the starboard side of the ship and towards the back of the dining room. We were a few rows behind where the talent were seated. We were very lucky to have a great table, with friendly and personable women. I have read some reports that were less than glowing about the food and the service. Again I think we were pretty lucky. I was very happy to walk away from the cruise not gaining weight, I believe it was all the stairs I choose to do in lieu of the slow elevators. I personally found the food portions to be more than adequate and left food on my plate every night.

From the dinner, it was a short hop up the stairs to the Starlight lounge and the screening of audition tapes and the Jimmy scene between Adrian and Peter, we even heard it dubbed in German. We got to see many different takes of the Jimmy scene, the power and intensity of each take was awesome. Many reports have been written that go on in detail about these screenings, so I wont go further than to say they made the right choice in picking Val to be Kronos. The understated energy, the controlled evil was brilliant!

Next stop was aft on the Verandah deck, for the Clanranald challenge which turned out to be a quite realistic battle re-enactment. The men were all in authentic garb, and were using real swords, shields and a rubber war hammer that I still think would hurt if you got whacked hard enough by it. We were really motoring towards Nassau and the aft of the ship was quite windy, my hair was in my eyes unless I put it back in a ponytail, but this did not daunt our, Scottish friends. They were true Scots as whenever they did a fall as they were killed, or a roll to dodge a sword their kilts flew in the breeze and we all got a view. I found it funny that the fallen men would shake with giggles when the appreciative cries went up as a new man fell. I had a conversation with one of the clan members later in the cruise about this. He said they were used to a bit of ribbing and good natured fun, they were not prepared for the 600 women in such close proximity cheering for their behinds We had front row seats for this and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Next we moved back a bit on the same deck to see Anthony and Bob do a whip demo. Given the wind during the Clanranald event I wondered how well this would work out, but Anthony as usual was superb. Bob had whip in hand, but as they were running a bit long (and it was all impromptu, not choreographed) Bob never got to show his skill, other than standing there looking as good as ever and attracting a lot of new fans. Somewhere on this cruise he gained the name Robert the Viking. When someone in the crowd called to Bob that way, and Anthony looked curious I yelled out "HEY WHIP BOY" which is his title in a magnificent 7 episode yet to be aired he turned to find me in the crowd, knowing who said it =8>. After their demo was over, Anthony and Bob were inundated with fans, new and old. As usual they were gracious and made sure every fan felt welcome and special.
After watching the Clanranald giving swordmanship basics lessons again in the wind aft on the Verandah deck I decided to turn in about 1:30am (it was still only 10:30 la time for me)

**SATURDAY November 14th

We were off to the lido deck for a quick breakfast before the first event of the day, which was a complete guest Q&A. Meeting up with my friend Janean we found an empty table on the crowded deck. We were joined by some of our other friends Jazz, Mommysplat, Katieo and Pax. Bob Chapin, Donna Lettow and Gillian Horvath had been at at table nearby, and when Bob got up to leave, Mommy noticed that there was a green embarkation sticker attached to the seat of Bob's jeans. She quickly pointed this out to him and we all had a great giggle over it. After seeing how much a piece of tape that was attached to Adrian Paul's butt had fetched at auction at the Gathering 4 in Denver, I quickly informed Bob to save it for auction later, who knows how much he could get. He Laughed at this and informed me he had heard the story from Denver but didnt think he was in that league yet. Little did he know that by time the cruise would end he would have his own set of stalkers.

The 10:30 Q&A did not contain much in the way of suprizes or new information. There was quite a bit of good natured ribbing and joking around, with Peter and Jim eating their breakfast at the table as they answered questions. We saw others there taking copius notes, even a woman with a laptop transcribing everything that went down. To this end I will not report on what was said as it has all been said before. At the end of the Q&A the winners from the costume contest were announced. As I said before our friend fullmoon won for the best highlander character costume and was given a smooch on each cheek from Peter Wingfield once she arrived on stage.