We awoke
to our alarm at 6:00 AM and headed to the airport for our 10:20 AM flight from
Peoria to Ft. Lauderdale, via Chicago and Dallas. Although our scheduled flight to Chicago had
been cancelled, lucky for us, American booked us on a later flight to Dallas at
12:40 PM.
In
Ft. Lauderdale, we were picked up by the Rodeway Inn shuttle and arrived at the
motel about midnight – two very exhausted people.
On Thursday,
30 Jan, Jesse woke up about 9:00 AM, but was unable to get Sally to budge. After checking to make sure she was still
breathing, he went down to the hotel breakfast room and picked up waffles, eggs,
and cereal from the buffet and brought it back to our room.
Since
it was rainy and dreary in Ft. Lauderdale, instead of visiting the beach or
traveling about on a water taxi as suggested by our hotel shuttle driver, we
decided to spend the day in our motel room, taking turns playing with genealogy
on our laptop and watching TV.
We enjoyed
an excellent dinner at the motel’s restaurant, which included clam chowder, Caesar
salad, prime rib, and Key lime pie.
Since Jesse decided that this Key lime pie tasted better than the one he
makes, when he gets home he’ll be searching the Web looking for a new Key lime
recipe!
We
woke up about 7:00 AM on Friday, 31 Jan, even though we had set our alarm for
8:00 AM, and soon went down for the hotel breakfast. We loaded the motel’s shuttle at 10:30 AM. While waiting to board the ship, we met a
nice couple, Carol and Conway, from Alberta, Canada. After a few minutes, we were allowed to board
the ship and were in our Island Princess cabin by 12:05 PM.
After
enjoying a light lunch in the Horizon Court with Pat and Reggie, a couple from
Charlotte, NC, we returned to our cabin to unpack. We had not totally finished our unpacking
when the alarm sounded for the 3:15 PM lifeboat drill. On our last cruise, we sat comfortably in the
Princess Theater for the drill; this time, however, we had to stand for about
20 minutes in a very warm, humid room with no seats. A man standing behind us looked as though he might
pass out. Afterwards, we returned to our
cabin, finished unpacking and relaxed while we recovered from the day’s ordeal.
For
the first time since our Alaskan cruise in 2008 with the Norwegian Cruise Line,
we chose “anytime” dining. Although we had
decided then that we did not care for anytime dining, we decided to give it another
try. We sat at a table for two, but enjoyed
a pleasant conversation with Aaron and Geneva, of San Antonio, TX, who sat at a
table just inches from ours. After
dinner, we danced to pre-recorded music in the Explorer’s Lounge, and then to
the Playlist Band in the Wheelhouse Bar.
At 9:00 PM, we decided to call it a night and returned to our cabin. Since we have to set our clocks forward one
hour tonight, it was good to stop early!
