Embarkation: Ft. Lauderdale and 1st
Day (of 8) at Sea
The Ruby Princess is currently 24
hours from Ft. Lauderdale far into the Atlantic Ocean. Sunday morning M.A. and I took the hotel shuttle
for the short ride to cruise port. This cruise port is very organized and
efficient.
We’ve cruised with Princess
several times over our ten years of marriage so we have some perks and one is a
shorter check-in line. We found it, went through security and got our boarding
passes in about ten minutes. There was just one problem; the ship was not ready
to accept passengers, so we waited in a large room with all the other “platinum
and elite card holders.”
The call finally came and we
boarded the ship and found our cabin on the 12th deck. Our room is
nicely furnished with a flat screen TV, desk and chair, and lounge chair. We
also have a balcony with a table and two chairs. One of our other “perks” is 500 free internet
minutes. While that might seem like a lot, if you’re surfing they go
quickly. Why would we be surfing? One of the trivial pursuit questions (a team
game we like to participate in) was which president had what he called “Shangri-La”
as his hideaway! Our team put down Reagan, even though MA had suggested
Roosevelt. She was right but we already
turned in our paper.
 |
| Leaving Ft. Lauderdale |
My first unpacking uh-oh was
about what happened to MA’s special face cream and our toothpaste. Although I knew I had packed it, it was
nowhere to be found. I could replace the toothpaste but not special facial
stuff. (It’s a ladies’ thing, that cream stuff.) Anyway for awhile there I was
temporarily in the dog house! Fortunately we found them and MA was happy again
but now it was my turn. Where was my toothbrush? This time I put myself in the dog house and
went a bought another new one. If these are our only problems this should be
the greatest of trips!
We signed up for 8:15 seating for
dinner. This is every night, same table for eight with the same folks. We were joined by only one couple last night,
(typical for first night out). Walt and Christina are from Columbus, OH. After dinner, which I cannot remember what we
had and which was therefore nothing to write about, we called it a night. Long day! (MA says it was so-so prime rib!)
Our first day at sea began at
7:30am when the room service waiter brought coffee and yogurt to start our day.
We later stopped by the breakfast buffet. MA then went over to the fitness
center to work on that knee on the stationery bicycle while I walked 3 miles
around the ship.
Princess was offering “English
Pub” lunches in the large Explorers Lounge today and we usually like these. You
can choose a typical English plate of fish and chips, Ploughman’s (don’t know
what that is) or Shepherd’s pie. We had the fish and chips today. After lunch
we enjoyed a great movie with Maggie Smith, “Quartet.” If you haven’t seen it,
it is worth renting or watching it on cable.
This was followed by trivial pursuit and cappuccinos.
This brings you up to date on our
cruise. Thanks for wading through all this. I’ll try to shorten everything next
time. But we enjoy reliving our days with you all. Tomorrow I’ll try and show
you some of the Ruby Princess. Later!
