Sunday, September 27

We left Ephrata about 6:45 AM – in two Ideal coaches and a mini-bus.

Most of the others in our group of 430 had traveled to the city the day before. They came from various places in the country: New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, and many states in the USA.

Entering Lincoln Tunnel. Holland Tunnel was closed due to a foot race.

Our bus drivers like to give themselves plenty of time to get to New York City, then because everything went well, we got a tour of the city. We also had time for a breakfast stop earlier in the drive.

The activities in large cities are interesting to this farm girl.

We must be close to Central Park where you can get a carriage ride.

The first sighting of our ship.

The first thing everyone did after embarking was go to Deck 9 for lunch.

I recognized two familiar faces – mothers of friends of ours from church – in the outside dining area.

A view of New York Harbor

After lunch, getting acquainted with the layout of the ship, settling into our room, and attending the safety routine, we went to Sail & Sing’s “Welcome Aboard” meeting at 4:00 PM in the El Morocco room on Deck 5.

The Sail & Sing group was just over a tenth of the people on the ship. There were 3,000 people on the cruise, plus 1,000 staff.

We were welcomed by Ryan Bomgardner – organizer of Sail & Sing Christian Cruise.

Becky (Times to Remember Travel, Inc.) with whom we booked the cruise, gave us some important travel information and answered our questions.

After we started moving, I went to the window occasionally to see what was happening outside in the harbor – and to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

There were others doing the same thing.

There she is!

The harbor was calm.

Because it was Sunday, we had a worship service at 5:00 PM.

John Schmid

Nelson Coblentz

Sharon Bethel Quartet.

Yes, there are five men. 🙂 There is an extra man for times when one is not available. However, all five were on this trip – consequently we had a quintet.

We had assigned tables in The Gold Pearl Restaurant on Deck 3 every night at 6:00 PM.

We loved our group of eleven, and got to know each other by the end of the week. We changed our seats each night to have time to visit with each person.

One of our great waiters.

Our meal always began with a choice of bread, then an appetizer, the entrée, and of course a delicious dessert.

After supper, we went to The Board Room on Deck 4 to hear Dwayne Sensenig speak on “Life of Christ Within Believers.”

Then it was time for bed in our neat, clean stateroom. By this time the covers were turned down and there was a towel seal on one corner of the bed.

We crawled into bed, barely feeling the movement of the huge vessel in the Atlantic Ocean.