All Aboard!

Our one night in Ft Lauderdale was pleasant. In the morning we went for a walk on the beach…the walkway, not the sand! It was funny to see Christmas decorations on all the lamp posts, w/the beautiful palm trees swaying behind them. Guess you’d see that in Southern CA also, but for us it was dif.

Our limo picked us up shortly after 10. It was a short ride to the port. We checked in then boarded after a short wait. Guess they let the suite and mini-suite passengers on before everyone else. There was no crowd, very nice.

We had lunch then explored the ship. It is a lot smaller than the other ships we’ve been on, but seems more than adequate for our 4+ month stay. After our exploring, we went back to the cabin and waited for the luggage. It started coming, one at a time. We were able to unpack one suitcase before the next one arrived. Then they started coming fast and furiously. Our room was FULL of luggage. It was pretty funny. You can see in the pic that it’s a MESS!!! We pretty much left it that way to get to dinner on time. We’d deal with it later.

We were on a waitlist for early seating, but were assigned it when we boarded. It is at 5:45, so a bit later than we usually eat, but just fine w/all the activities we’ll have on the ship, plus we’ll have more time to digest between high tea and dinner! We are at a table for 8. Two seats were empty, wonder if they’ll be filled tonight? One couple is from OR. They moved there after retiring from Sacramento. He was very high up in the Fire Dept there. Hmmm, maybe we need to get to know him better…are you reading Randy? Connections never hurt.  One lady was there but informed us she probably wouldn’t be there again. They put her roommate at a dif table, kind of strange. The 6th person there is from NY. She’s been on HAL many, many times. Seems nice enough, although she didn’t talk much. Maybe she needs to get to know us first.

After dinner we went back to our room and finished unpacking. Cold weather clothes and packing materials I brought for our trip home, went under the bed. Small suitcases we put inside larger ones, so when they took them away, there were only 9. We had NINETEEN bags and boxes to empty and situate in our 300 sq ft cabin. And we did it! Some things are just crammed into drawers and onto shelves, so I have a lot of straightening out to do. I think our home for the next 4 months will be just fine. Whew, I was a bit worried looking at how full it was w/all those bags!

Today we’re figuring out the internet and catching up on things. I’ll do some rearranging this afternoon. I also have to go to the shopping lecture. I showed the shopping expert my emerald bracelt and she gave me a VIP card immediately. LOL I hope to find a nice ring in Cartagena, our first port. We’ll see how that goes. After 24 hrs on the ship, I think it’s going to be a wonderful cruise.