January 22, 2019
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Our day began with our neighbor Courtney picking us up at 8:15 am to take us to the airport. What service! We felt better to error on the side of too much time with the crowds we expected at security. There were none. Our flight left about 11 am. Our flight was uneventful and arrived in Miami about 1:40 pm. The Holland America (HAL) folks were there to meet us and called for a shuttle to take us to Port Everglades. When we arrived we again went through security and expected to wait in a very long line as we have done on previous cruises. What a great surprise. We were next in line! Check in took us 5 minutes! A HAL rep collected our passports, took a photo and issued ID cards for each of us. This card gave us access to the ship, our room, and doubled as a credit card for onboard purchases. We later learned that boarding began at noon and ended at 4 pm. Most of the 1400 passengers had already boarded. We started to get settled into our room as our boxes began to arrive and then our luggage. The king size bed takes up a good portion of the room and we struggled to get by each other as we unpacked. The mandatory lifeboat drill was at 4:15. We constantly saw folks getting re-acquainted with other guests and staff members. 80% of the passengers on this cruise have done this before. Most have been retired for years and are in various sorts physical condition. Unlike our recent trip to Seattle, we feel quite young here!
The lifeboat drill took 15 minutes and Captain Mercer gave us some brief announcements. I couldn’t help but think it was actually Sean Connery when he gave us the ship shheduule. Back to unpacking. We did manage to fit 4 months of clothes and various electronics in our room. Our room has a door to the hallway and one sliding door out to the Lower Promenade. This was an upgrade from the inside cabin we originally booked.
We had dinner at the Lido market and then we were off to the Bon Voyage party. The Station Band entertained the guests and there was a dance floor. We sat at the Lido bar and I had a few Martini’s and Terri had some wine. The bar tender decided to mix a “birthday drink” for me (no it isn’t). A mix of Vodka, Gin, and Grand Marnier with a twist of orange. Quite potent. We struck up a conversation with a gentlemen next to us. Dan was a single man about our age. He is currently employed and never married. He did work in Detroit for a few years and we had a lot to talk about. We talked about the age of a good portion of the passengers and it was nice that we were at the bar with folks our age. He had just done the “singles meetup” before the Bon Voyage party. I asked if there were any available women. He said, “yes, but they all look like Aunt B” ! We won’t ever forget that line. We ended up closing the party and went back to our room for the night.
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