Managing Expectations 101

At the hotel prior to boarding the ship, we met "Barb" and "Bob", who were also going on the trip and had been last year.  [Note:  I use air quotes for their names because I don't know if those are Vegas/ship names (i.e. what happens on the ship stays on the ship).]  Despite this being a repeat MV Explorer experience, "Barb" described last year's trip as "quirky" and "unorganized."  That forshadowed comment led to a two-hour wait in line to get on board, followed by a muster-station safety drill that was long, hot and served only to highlight that if our captain gets a little careless at the helm, we're going down like Leo and Kate.  Well, there's always cocktails and the pool...which turned out to be slightly smaller than the standard backyard version.

On the upside, this is an educational enrichment voyage, and being good students, we learned that the drinks are cheap and there's nothing like an emergency trip to the bar for attitude adjustments.  Day two can only get better!