All aboard! ... ?

Well, here we are on the Carnival Splendor - at last! We were due to board at 1.30 Saturday Afternoon, in Fort Lauderdale, but spent the next 8 hours shut in a shed with 1200 others! Somehow, there was a bomb alert, so we waited ... and waited .... and waited, knowing that those on board ahead of us were eating a delicious lunch and drinking champagne - while we sat on a floor and waited hours for water! We're luckier than some, though - 500 or more people tried to board without a Brazilian visa and were turned back - if they get one in Miami today, we'll meet them in Barbados on Wednesday.
Eventually we made it on board the Splendor at 9.30pm - so tired that we didn't unpack until after lunch on Sunday. But it's worth it, now that we're here. our stateroom is roomy and bright, with a glass-fronted balcony so that we can see the world go by - yesterday we saluted Samana Cay where Colombus first landed in 1492, and San Salvador, his second island stop. If the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria "sailed the ocean blue", they were luckier than us so far - the Caribbean is a very gloomy sea so far, but we hope that it will be sunnier in Dominica tomorrow.
The Captain's cocktail party tonight - John resplendent in evening dress, of course - and we'll join new friends there ... sharing a corner of concrete floor with strangers soon develops friendships! Fortunately the ship is so big that there's LOTS of walking, so we hope that that will counteract the superb meals we're eating ... we'll see. We've heard of fires in Victoria - hope all is well for all of you.