Now at Sea

Sunday, November 7^th, 2010,

We had a wonderful, lazy day… we got up late… showed and packed, checked out of our hotel and went in search of food… Even with the advantage of a free hour, courtesy of the change due to Day Light Savings time, It was nearly noon before we reached a beach bar on Ft Lauderdale beach… We had to make a quick decision, breakfast or lunch… One kitchen crew did breakfast, and was preparing to leave, a second, just arriving would do lunch… lunch offered the option of alcohol… (but only after 12:00 noon, It’s the law.) We chose lunch…

Tina had a Blue Burger and a glass of chardonnay; I had alligator and a glass of beer… I was seeing a trend, Last night I ate a bunny wabbit, Big Bird, and Bambie’s mom, today I am after a big lizard… I can’t decide if I am an adventuress eater, or if I am trying to consume every cartoon character I can… At least I am irritating the vegetarians I know…

Having eaten, we went in search of a liquor store to purchase supplies… It’s seven days at sea after all, then went to the cruise port and left our luggage… We knew we couldn’t board until 4:00, but others thought they could board at 1:00, and some had been told that boarding would start at 11:30… We figured the further we could be away from the cruise terminal the better… but we wanted our luggage to have a head start on the transfer process…

Having sent the luggage on its merry way, we headed back to Ft Lauderdale, to their historic downtown village/square… where it was the monthly Jazz in the park… (we didn’t hear much music, but we saw many, many people picnicking, with lots of wine and beer, and even more dogs… apearrently Ft Lauderdale is a dog city, who knew?) We found a parking place (with strange and unexpected ease) then went to the New River Inn, a 1905 hotel, which houses Old Fort Lauderdale Museum of History. Our goal was a tour of the 1907 King-Cromartie House, a house museum (I run a house museum, I like to visit house museums)… The next tour was nearly an hour away, so with time to kill we joined a historic walking tour… very well done, tying many loose bits of local history together… returning to the hotel late we got an abbreviated tour of the house…

By now it was after 4:00, so we headed to the airport, to return the rental car, and grab a cab for the cruise port… All went well, all quickly, and we arrived at pier 26, to find the shuttle busses with the throngs of early arrivals returning from their shopping trips… (because of the late departure, Hal (aka Holland America Lines) had arraigned shuttle busses to the convention center, where there was more room, and access to the rest of the city… ) Many of the passenger were frustrated with the late departure, the shuttle, the convention center, and the phase of the moon… we did not share their frustrations…

Now aboard Nieuw Amsterdam in Ft Lauderdale…

We missed the delay and late boarding and arrived about 5:00 after boarding had started… it was close to a walk on… less than 30 minutes from taxi to stateroom

The ship is beautiful… as others have noted a bit sparse, but really pretty… They have the most ornate flower arraignments I have seen on a ship.

The Capt. has announced that he expects to sail a bit earlier than planned at 7:30 or so… Of course that didn’t happen… the earlier departure announcement was followed by announcements that they were looking for two couples, 4 passengers, who we suspect were not aboard… but were not required to be aboard per the ship’s schedule… we suspect they were having a wonderful evening somewhere in Ft Lauderdale, since the ship was not planning to sail until 10:00… and the ship didn’t, while we were at dinner, about 10:15, the ship quietly dropped her lines and made her way out the channel, disembarked the pilot and entered the Florida Straits.

Monday, November 8, 2010, Aboard Nieuw Amsterdam

At Sea, off Exuma Islands, Bahamas

The Florida straits can be rough… The Gulf Stream passes through the Florida Straits, and there it meets the continental weather for the first time… Many years ago on our first cruise we crossed the Florida Straits to find conditions so rough that the ship’s propellers we regularly coming out of the water… Most of us spent time in the state room that night with Mal de Mar… Last night on this ship the propellers didn’t come out of the water, but the ship moved, in unpredictable and interesting ways… kind of like a cork screw… I suspect many passengers went to bed to hide…

I rose a little early (6:30 am) got coffee an half a grapefruit… Returned to the cabin, to work on this, and get Tina for breakfast, followed by the captain speaking about the ship…

Outside its grey, the skys cloudy, rain squalls on the horizon, the seas steely blue grey… There are swells, but not many white caps… Although the Bahamas are in sight, it doesn’t feel very tropical… Who cares? We are on a ship, at sea, on vacation...