So even though the Ship is a 31 years old, it is being treated as a brand new ship by all the regulatory agencies. So the inspections, testing and certifications have been many, somewhat surprising and some complicated. However, communication continues to be timely and informative. We all have faith in our Team, that we are going to get there. On this Tuesday's zoom, we found out that even though our insurance was in place, for us to board the ship and start living there, there is a 2 day waiting period needed for Official Notice with the insurance carrier. So now Friday 8/2, is our expected embarkation date in Belfast! Once off the zoom, I promptly called Aer Lingus, spoke with a gentleman with the loveliest accent, and moved my flight again - this time to 8/1 Thursday night. We are having another zoom Thursday at 2pm, so I will hopefully have all confirmed prior to getting airborne.

Today, I got to see the Ship's Manifest for our Belfast embarking and it was interesting to see my neighbors names, for the first time. We have an app where we have been communicating for months, but most are just identified there by first name or nickname. There are currently 140 passengers listed on the Manifest and only 13 are couples that share the same last name. I knew we had a higher than normal number of solo travelers, but didn't expect that many. On the zoom Tuesday, 50 of them were together at the Marriott in Belfast.

At this point in time, I have met about 30 between the dry dock tour, hotel stays, my trip to Canary Islands and four I met in Mexico in January.

In other ship news, we heard all the alcohol and frozen food was being delivered to the ship today and the fresh produce and veggies arrive Monday morning. So the hope is we will finally set sail Monday 8/5 evening or Tuesday 8/6. The plan is to head to Iceland, where we have a non-refundable Port reservation from 8/8 to 8/11 and it takes 2 to 3 days to sail there. Stand By and keep Fingers Crossed!