The BobLog, Sunday, January 11, 2004.
Got up, after waking up a few times. Think the mistake was to eat
such a big meal right before going to bed! Oh well. It’s a
nice day here, still a little windy, in the 60s. We got our bags
all packed and tagged for the ship pickup. I saw the guy that
picked up out stuff, so I felt a little more secure…
We decided to eat at the restaurant here at the hotel, as there didn’t
appear to be any good transportation available. All of the hotel
staff are busy with the people leaving for the cruise. The
restaurant had a buffet for a mere $14, of which we partook. We
met a couple there who is also going on the cruise, from Alberta,
Canada: Leo Schafer and Linda (Gould). Good people.
Mom needed to get some enzymes, so we took a cab to a GNC store that
was just a few blocks away. I thought the cab ride was mild, mom
felt otherwise. Heh.
We checked out time at noon, and are waiting in the lobby for our
transport to the Ship.
We were transported in one of 6 buses to the port, which took off after
some wait. Princess is real good about waiting for those people
who booked their travel through them. We waited for one such
person. And later in the day, the ship waited for someone to
arrive before leaving (about 30 minutes late).
Check-in at the port went quickly, except that mom could not find her
driver’s license (which they required). She finally found it, and
all was well. There were several other cruise ships in the port
(hopefully seen on the pics I will be uploading).
Our room is very conveniently located next to elevators, and is a nice
room. It took them a while to deliver our baggage, which finally
arrived in full sometime after 5pm. We went to grab something to
eat, did some walking around, then came back and unpacked the bags that
arrived. Our cabin is close to the middle of the ship.
Check out the view down the hallway! These pics show both
directions. Can you see the end?
We have a nice deck outside. This pic shows the shoreline of Ft.
Lauderdale:
We have a nice cabin, with an extra little sitting area:
After everyone was aboard, there was a emergency drill that was
required, which took around 15 minutes. It was close to time for
dinner, so we headed down to the assigned dining room.
There were quite a few people in line! The ship is pretty much at
capacity, which is 2500 visitors and 1200 staff, for a total of
3700. Most of the staff are from other countries, and do NOT have
English as their first language. Our room guy is Ruben, and you
have to listen very close to understand him. He’s a real nice guy
though, and everyone here is more than willing to help you.
We opted for the traditional dinner seating, which means they assign
people to sit at your table. We sat with a gentleman who used to
be an Air Traffic Controller who now lives in Arizona, A couple from
New Jersey, and another couple from Denver, CO. (Pictures will be
in tomorrow's log.)
The ship departed just before we went to eat, and the water was pretty
rough. The ship was definitely moving, and in the line waiting to
enter the dining room, people were grabbing anything they could to stay
up. Its pretty amazing that something this big would sway like it
did. Mom had some queasy feelings, but got over it. I was
fine, but the wife of the couple from Jersey didn’t fare so well.
Sheila was using a Dramamine patch, but it apparently wasn’t kicking
in. She went to her room, without eating.
The food was real good – I had a chicken and pasta dish, mom had the
salmon. The food was very gormet-ish, but the portion was small
(in my opinion). After I finished off the plate, one of the
servers asked if I wanted another. Sure! Hehe.
Nice.
After that, we went to see one of the shows at the Princess Theatre – a
comedian was there. He was pretty funny. They have all live
music, and there was a small band playing before and after him.
When we first arrived, there was a reggae band with steel drums playing
on one of the decks. An excellent pianist was playing on the
“first” public floor level in an atrium, and there was another band
playing at a different location. All the mixers here for the
various locations are Yamaha 01 digital boards (not sure the exact
model), with various different speakers.
The guy in the Atrium:
Mom checked out some of the shops, and I checked out the internet
café. They were selling jewelry by the foot in the Atrium
area:
Back in the Internet Cafe, I found a way to plug in to their network,
so I’ll try this tomorrow and see if I can send this off. We
stopped by to snag a snack, and came back to our room. Pretty
tired! It’s midnight, and I’m off to bed.
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