It’s 5:46 am, and I can’t sleep any longer.  Too excited.  We leave today.  I already made the morning coffee, went out to sweep the courtyard, fill the bird feeder, and hide peanuts for our squirrels.  There was already dawn light at 5:15 am in San Jose, and the temperature was about 57 ºF – no jacket required.

This may be my last time on good internet for a while.  I can’t see how the ship can maintain good bandwidth over a satellite link when thousands of passengers share the connection.

My mind is racing.  The ship is supposed to be 781 feet long, more than a city block, but will every space be congested with passengers?  The brochures show it as empty, but who knows?  I remember riding the overnight ferry from Patras, Greece to Brindisi, Italy, and that it was so crowded, we had to step over people sleeping on deck to find a little space for ourselves.  Will there be lines for everything, like the buffet?

How good will the buffet be?  Will it be closer to a high-end Vegas spread, or North’s chuckwagon?  The pictures on the website look great, but then again, I’ve known some buffet concepts to look great in pictures, yet be awful in implementation.  I’m talking to you, World Buffet and Buffet 100.