Cruising the Florida Straits

 It's Thursday. We know this because the carpet in the elevator says so. We have to trust whoever changes it day to day knows the correct day. Our morning starts with breakfast in the specialty restaurant, the Pinnacle. It's a perk of the Neptune Suite and a nice quiet place to eat. I ordered a half grapefruit and it turned out to be the smallest grapefruit I've ever seen. The cereal with berries and almond milk was great and I snitched some of Bob's crispy bacon that he ordered to make his bacon/English muffin breakfast sandwich. I know, it's the inner chef in him.

We walked around the Promenade deck and then headed up to the sports deck at the top of the ship for Pickleball that couldn't happen because it was too windy. We did meet several Pickleball players who said they would be there every morning at nine so maybe our port days will have some games.

The most delightful excursions director gave a morning talk about the possible fun we could have on shore. We've already booked our excursions but wanted to make sure there was nothing else that caught our fancy. She was hilarious with her descriptions of shopping opportunities and box lunches and restroom breaks, some of which you needed to be sure to bring a little cash for.

While Bob was at coffee with the cruise director who was interviewing several staff members in the lounge below, I took opportunity to catch up with my blog and do some writing. The internet is frustrating, sometimes very slow but basic service is free since they are trying to get people to use their app onboard for the daily schedule and booking restaurants and excursions. I also cannot embed a YouTube video because it will not let me into the site. There's another $50 charge if you want to stream anything. No Neptune perks there.

Laundry on the other hand is free for us so we'll be packing our little blue bag soon so we can clean up the clothes we've worn so far. But that's probably TMI.

We had a Ceasar salad for lunch up in the Lido buffet. Saving our calories for our dinner in the specialty restaurant tonight. Bob spent a few hours in the gym and the thermal suite while I busied myself with a book and a stroll around to see what was happening. I think most people were out by the pool.

Dinner in the Pinnacle was good but service was sooooo slow. It took a long time between courses. Maybe the kitchen was slow. We changed our plans to attend the early show and decided we'd have to catch the late show. The show was six dancers and lots of video effects that coordinated with what they were doing. It was very modern and interpretive but fascinating. Their interaction with the video made them appear to be part of it at times. 

Clocks needed to be set ahead an hour to prepare us for our stop in Aruba in another day. Hopefully we won't be switching back and forth again with daylight savings on Sunday.  Even more, I hope we actually wake up on Saturday and see Aruba.

Welcome Aboard!

It was Wednesday. Pancake breakfast day for Bob. Where do you go for pancakes? The IHOP of course. After breakfast we returned to the hotel room and gathered the rest of the things we'd unpacked and stuffed them into the suitcases again. I let out a deep sigh of relief when it all fit back in. I had packed pretty tight so that we only needed two suitcases plus our carry on case and backpack. 

It was a pleasant ride to the Fort Lauderdale airport where we returned our rental car and Bob called for an Uber to take us to the ship, the Eurodam. We had a sweet ride with an equally sweet lady who said it was her first time going to the port. Thankfully it wasn't a hectic morning. There were only two ships in port. 

She dropped us at the gate and a porter took the luggage that we'd already tagged and we were on our way to navigating check in. With the Holland America Navigator app we had already registered our proof of vaccination, our health questionnaire and even our security pictures. When we had our antigen tests done, that was registered as well. There was nothing more to do as we entered the cruise terminal but to go through security and show our passports at check-in to receive our boarding ticket with a bar code to get on board. We were told our key cards were in the room. 

We got the token welcome aboard picture taken by the ship's photographer and easily boarded when ship security scanned the bar code. Oh, did I mention that we had premium boarding because of the Neptune Suite we had booked? In fifteen minutes from Uber to ship we were in our room, which surprisingly was all ready for us. 

And what a room! I encourage you to click on the video link here and see the tour, The Neptune Suite. Happy birthday to me!! I'm looking forward to breakfast and maybe even a dinner on the deck.

We also were privileged to be able to eat in the dining room for lunch, another perk of the Neptune suite since it was not open to others. We both had cobb salads, Bob's with chicken and mine with salmon. Bob was ecstatic to see that they also have caffeine free Diet Coke. 

Our sail away was fun as always when you sail out of Port Everglades. People came out of their homes and apartments to wave as we passed by. 

It's been a long time since we've been on the Eurodam. There are some changes and we explored a bit to reacquaint ourselves with the ship. Of course the spa always insists on a tour and we took it just so Bob could sign up for the Thermal Suite which includes steam rooms, heated loungers and a hydro-pool. He'll disappear for a couple of hours each day and I hope they'll wake him up for dinner.

Our dinner was ordered from a special Club Orange menu that comes as a perk from our suite. The only difference was one special that isn't on the regular menu. It was Peruvian chicken that was okay but the corn with it was delicious. Hot fudge sundaes were a splurge in calories but who knew they wanted to give me my birthday cake? I passed on the cake. It's not my birthday yet.

The night's entertainment was actually a presentation of the history of the Holland America cruise line narrated by the cruise director. It was a very interesting journey through 150 years of history for the line. 

The only down part of the day was the sunset. It dipped into the water without much fanfare but we still have ten evenings left to catch a good one.