Day 88: Wucy, we're home!!!

I've always said that stepping on the Emerald Princess is a bit like returning home after a long shore excursion. Sure, this shore excursion was 21 months long, but the wonderfully familiar and welcoming feeling was no different. We are home. 

Embarkation day today was as painless as it could be. We did set an alarm for 6am this morning, but we had gone to bed early and slept well, so it wasn't a hardship to get up that early. We wanted to have enough time to enjoy an excellent breakfast at the Embassy Suites and get to Publix before our taxi pickup at 10am. 

We've decided that the Embassy Suites really is our favorite pre-cruise hotel in Fort Lauderdale. If we aren't going to arrive until late in the evening, it doesn't matter where we stay, but the few extra hours we had yesterday to enjoy the manager's happy hour and watch the Broncos game, and with the made to order omelets available with today's breakfast, it's worth the little extra money it costs to stay there. Its location and the microwave and refrigerator in every room make it perfect for a multi-night stay. We loved the sitting room and two TVs; and the two bathroom counters and space (what I wouldn't have given for that on Rapa Nui!), and everyone who works there was very welcoming. 

Following breakfast, I walked over to Publix to purchase a few things we didn't want to bring from home, mostly heavy liquids like mouthwash and coffee creamer for G and laundry detergent. There was a bit of a misty rain falling at the time (around 8am), but that didn't surprise me; today's forecast had called for showers, and I had resigned myself to a rainy sailaway. But by the time I finished my shopping, it was already starting to clear. Yay!

Back at our hotel room, G was busy rearranging things in the suitcases. With none of the usual flying restrictions on liquids, we moved our toiletries and over the door shoe rack items (such as sunscreens) into our carry ons and the beach bag/cooler, to carry on the ship. It really simplifies the unpacking process to get those things put in their places immediately when we board, before the large suitcases are delivered to the cabin. 

We had arranged for our taxi driver from yesterday, Ronel, to return with his Town and County van. We had scoped it out on our ride from the airport, and, knowing how lightly Suzan and Greg pack, felt it could accommodate four of us and our luggage in one trip. Ronel phoned just before he arrived at the Embassy Suites, and within minutes we were driving into Port Everglades. Surprisingly, the north security gate to Port Everglades has been moved, and we did not have to go through any security to get to the Pier 2 drop off point.

We were lucky; although we ended up standing in line until 11am before we could begin the check in process, at least we were in the front of the line, instead of stretched out along the entire west side of the terminal. Suzan and Greg are also Elite, and by 11:30am we were all in our cabins (Riviera Deck aft, just two doors apart). 

We had seen the holiday decorators pushing large boxes out of the Piazza, and it was obvious that we had missed seeing the Christmas decorations by mere minutes. That's okay...we've spent four Christmases on the Emerald Princess over the past few years, and know how beautiful they are. 

Still more Christmas decorations packed up in the aft elevator lobby. 

G vacated the cabin to do some exploring, and by the time he returned 20 minutes later, I had everything we carried on board unpacked. We didn't have to reach agreement about where things go; it's the Emerald Princess and we know this cabin as well as our own home (even better, actually, as there are fewer places to lose things). We happily went down to lunch in the DaVinci Dining Room (oh it is so nice to still have those keyboard shortcuts on my iPad. I knew we'd be back in the Emerald Princess (another shortcut) some day!). Just as predicted, I was soon having a napkin placed in my lap and a menu in my hand and things made sense again.

The Emerald Princess still has the old, "good" embarkation day menu with the salmon and the G's fav beef tenderloins, though he did say the beef tenderloins didn't seem as tasty as they used to (and the man is an expert on Princess' embarkation day lunch beef tenderloins. We have in the past pulled ourselves away from all sorts of fun and adventure in Fort Lauderdale just to return to the ship in time for lunch in the DaVinci Dining Room on embarkation day). We both had an orange soufflé for dessert, just because we could. ;-)

The maitre d', Giuseppe Franchina, was in the Michelangelo Dining Room between 1pm and 3pm for dining inquiries, so G left lunch for a few minutes to talk to him about our dinner table. We had been assigned a table for two in the DaVinci Dining Room, about four tables away from a window. We were fine with that, but G asked if we could be moved next to the window starting next cruise. Well, by 5pm, we received a notice in our cabin mail slot stating that we were being moved to a table for two next to a window in the Michelangelo Dining Room, just one deck below. Well...yay!

It was 2pm before we returned to our cabin to find that all four (grrrrr...) of our suitcases had been delivered. And by muster drill at 3:15pm, we were completely unpacked. Though this cabin is smaller than our window cabins on the Pacific Princess, there is even more storage, and it is more accommodatingly organized. Even with everything we brought with us, we have empty shelves and lots of vacant closet space. The clothesline is stuck to the walls, the over the door shoe rack is holding a myriad of makeup, first aid and toiletry supplies, and the walls are full of magnetic clips holding the embarkation day planning Patter, Elite Lounge drinks schedule, our cruise calendar and our spreadsheet of the ships in port with us each day. We are well settled in!

Muster drill (our third and possibly last of the season) was at 3:15pm. We were lucky and made a quick exit out of our muster station in Club Fusion and managed to get on an elevator before the crowd hit. I did not want to climb stairs from Decks 7 to 14 if I didn't have to. Everyone talks about only using the stairs on cruises to burn calories, but we have learned that, sometime around the end of the second week of doing that, our knees let us know all about it. We're better off exercising restraint in the dining room. 

We joined Susan and Greg on the Terrace Deck to watch sailaway. I phoned Mom one last time, and Suzan, who had been sending Mom notes and cards while I was out of the country, was able to talk to her for the first time. What a wonderful friend she is!

As I mentioned, Port Everglades was busy today. I counted six ships (Emerald Princess, Island Princess, Serenade of the Seas, Celebrity Constellation, HAL Zuiserdam and HAL Prinsendam), but I thought I had read that there would be seven, so I may have missed one somewhere. That many ships always make sailaway fun, and we were especially lucky to have clear blue skies and bright sun as we sailed through the entrance channel out to sea. 

The unattractive redesigned back of the Island Princess. It reminds me of a slide out on a camping trailer.

HAL Zuiderdam

The Zuiderdam leaving behind the Island Princess with the Serenade OTS in the distance

Looking northwest toward downtown Fort Lauderdale

Too soon it was after 5pm and time to dress for dinner. We aren't thrilled with our 5:30pm dining time, but it is still our best option. We don't want to eat in the Botticelli Dining Room at the back of the ship because it seems so far removed, and we do want a table for two and the same waitstaff every night. 5:30pm dining is the answer. We skipped the Elite Lounge tonight and headed directly to dinner. 

Speaking of the Elite Lounge (from this point I'll refer to it as the PES Lounge for Platinum, Elite and Suite Lounge),  our schedule of drinks and hor doerves clearly states that we can have any of the eight drinks of the day for $5. That's nice; we haven't had that option very often. It's also dangerous... Breeza Marinas every night?!?!

I was anxious to see the new dinner menu that has created such a stir on Cruise Critic. The usual always available items like salmon and chicken breast and beef tri tips have been replaced by three Curtis Stone items, and I know that's resulted in a lot of unhappy people. I opted to have two items that were new to me:  a butterfly shrimp appetizer with a Cuban garlic citrus oil and the Curtis Stone mahi mahi. Well, the butterfly shrimp were to die for. I loved the sauce so much that I kept it to dip bread in, and when I was served the pretty tasteless mahi mahi, I poured what was left over on the fish. That was good; the mahi mahi by itself was not bad but very blah. The plantains served with the entree were also tasteless. I'd order it again, but just if I could pair it with the garlic oil sauce from the butterfly shrimp. G ordered the prime rib and said it was a delicious and generous serving. For dessert...flourless chocolate cake, of course!

Curtis Stone mahi mahi

Service by waiter Victor from Mexico and Darko (no, not that Darko!) from Serbia was excellent. I was able to purchase a wine package of 12 bottles of wine priced up to $29 each for $240. I hope I can use it over the course of several cruises, but, if I can't, I'll just take the bottles back to our cabin at the end of this cruise. 

I was not particularly interested in seeing the Welcome Aboard show (with comedian Al Katz), and so we walked across the Promenade and Lido Decks to see what was going on, and I then returned to the cabin. G is still out and about somewhere, but I wanted to take some time to prepare this blog post before it gets too late. We move clocks ahead an hour tonight, and it's nearly 11pm the new time. 

Finally, some information that I promised I'd report on about the Emerald Princess after dry dock. We are on the Riviera Deck aft in an inside cabin.  

- Water pressure and hot water are fine. The cold water is not real cold (it never is) but it is certainly cool. The toilet flushes as expected. 

- Cabin temperature is fine. The thermostat is very responsive. We have it set to just below midway and are perfectly comfortable. 

- We have the new Princess mattresses. This may not be the best thing for my back, but I'm willing to adopt a wait and see attitude. They are very plush and cushy and not one bit hard. The pillows and linens appear to be new. 

- Our cabin carpet is slightly stained in several places, but that's not a cruise-ruining issue. There is a lot of new carpet in the elevator lobbies and other public areas. The Wheelhouse Bar now offers the Salty Dog gastro pub from 6pm to 10pm, but there is still a band playing in there with dancing in the evenings and anyone can enjoy that. 

- We haven't been up to Deck 16 to check out the new Curtis Stone S h a r e restaurant yet. 

- I haven't been all over the ship yet, but so far everything I've seen seems to be in excellent condition. The crew has been friendly and service has been very good. 

If my back can tolerate the new mattresses (fingers crossed!!!!!), I predict we're going to have several wonderful cruises on the Emerald Princess. 

To Fort Lauderdale (aka my toes aren't cold for the first time in amonth)

For a travel day on the Sunday following a holiday week, this one went like clockwork. Things were busy, of course, at our home airport and Fort Lauderdale. Lines were long and concourses were packed with people. Our first indication of what we were up against came when we entered our airport...and immediately were stopped by a mass of people. I stayed with the luggage while G looked for the end of the correct line. It took two to three times longer than usual to get our bags checked and go through security (even with our TSA pre-check, but thank God for that!) but we had allowed ourselves plenty of time and so didn't stress. Thank you, Martha, for getting up so early to take us to the airport!

Once in Fort Lauderdale, we hit our only hitches of the day, first when an accident on the airport's exit had traffic at a standstill, and then when the Embassy Suites didn't have a room for us until nearly 5pm. But, as we sat and waited, Suzan and Greg arrived (yay!!) and we met up again for the manager's happy hour from 5:30pm-7:30pm. The pita chips and hummus appetizers became dinner, and we sat and watched that exciting Broncos win over the Chargers. Playoffs on MUTS...woohoo!!

We are going to try to get up early tomorrow to enjoy the free breakfast at the Embassy Suites and then make a quick run to the Publix just behind the hotel before taking a taxi to Port Everglades. Surprisingly, there are several ships in port tomorrow, and backups getting through Port Everglades security are anticipated. But, hopefully, by noon we'll be sitting down to lunch on the Emerald Princess in the DaVinci Dining Room, where a napkin will be placed in my lap and a menu in my hands. And all will be right in my world once again. 

Life is good. :-)

Our day on land

We had such a restful evening last night. Friends we've recently met gave us the names of so many restaurants to try around the Embassy Suites, and on the Intercoastal waterway, but, really, all we wanted was to watch the race, hit the manager's cocktail party last night (another plus for the Embassy Suites) and then watch the Broncos-Chiefs game.  I barely stayed awake for the latter (but it was worth staying up for!), and then slept fitfully. My cold has worsened a bit and I was thankful for the Sudafed and Ibuprofen we always pack. 

We were hoping to catch sunrise over the Atlantic from our room at the Embassy Suites, and see a cruise ship coming into Port Everglades, and we did both!   Then I went back to sleep. ;-)

RC's Liberty of the Seas arrives in Port Everglades at sunrise. 

I guess at some point in time G went down for the free breakfast, which at the Embassy Suites includes made-to-order omelets (omelets and happy hours...they've certainly helped ease our transition from one cruise ship to another, haven't they?). He must have been quiet about it, because I just snoozed away until after 8am. Quick shower, and I grabbed some breakfast too. 

The Embassy Suites is undergoing a renovation of its breakfast area, which has been temporarily relocated to its restaurant. It's not annoying when we're in our room, but when G joined me for his second breakfast and construction work was in full force, with accompanying chemical smell, G turned to me and asked, "Why do I feel like I'm eating Asbestoasties for breakfast?"  That's my guy! 

Following breakfast, we put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.  We have six suitcases open on the floor, and stuff spread from one end of this suite to the other. Best not to invite outside scrutiny, we think. When G mentioned to the maid that he'd like her to skip us, but that we needed extra towels, she was so relieved  that he returned with an armload of towels and 8 bottles of water.  

When I picked up my iPhone this morning, I was rudely greeted by the same badge I'd been a slave to in our pre-cruise fury to get ready...a number indicating my list of to-do's for today. Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that; I had scheduled several things to be taken care of today while we had unlimited phone and Internet service. It was time to get busy!

While we worked and phoned, we continued to enjoy the view of the ocean and Port Everglades from our room. This room has what is called a French balcony, with enough room to step out on to, but that's about it (not too dissimilar from the Royal Princess!). But the sliding glass door provides a great view. I highly suggest that, if you stay here, you try to get a room on an upper floor on the east side of the building. It's worth it!

Next we took care of some personal beautification projects; G got a hair cut and I got a manicure, pedicure and my hair colored. And you know us well enough to know that none of these required a trip to a salon or barber shop. Nope, we're pretty self-reliant...and just a smidge thrifty. I chose to color my hair before moving to the Emerald Princess for several reasons:  1.) better light in the bathroom; 2.) more space in the bathroom; 3.) my hair color matched the granite in the bathroom perfectly, just in case of a chemistry crisis; and 4.) to avoid having our cabin steward giving me sideways looks and our waiter from asking, "Madam, wasn't your hair yellow at breakfast today?"  

Finally, it was time for us to head out for our errands. Our first stop was Office Depot, across the street (more or less) from the hotel. We've suffered our first casualty of the winter:  my mouse stopped working. I think the fact that it rattles when I shake it might have something to do with it. It was my lucky day; Office Depot had the same cordless mouse on sale, 33% off. G tried to fax our (caution:  cruise acronyms to follow) CCL OBC request to Princess, but either the Office Depot or Princess fax wasn't cooperating. That item remains on the to-do list. 

Next we walked down to CVS, and had a mildly successful shopping trip. I simply could not believe that they didn't have any Q-Tip brand Q-Tips. What kind of drug store doesn't have Q-Tips?  I'm still astounded. But they did have the 100% acetone I need to remove the glitter nail polish I wear on cruises (it's either that or a blow torch), so that was a plus.  But a few items remain on the list, and we still have to run over to Publix in the morning. 

By then it was almost 4pm. We returned to our hotel room just long enough to dump our our purchases, and started walking toward the 17th Street drawbridge to watch the Zuiderdam and the Liberty of the Seas sail away. As always, we encountered several other people there who were sailing on the Emerald Princess tomorrow, and it's always fun to talk and share the excitement with fellow cruisers.

We went to the manager's cocktail party when we returned to the Embassy Suites and ordered quesadillas for dinner by the pool. Almost everyone there will be boarding the Emerald Princess tomorrow  and it was pretty much a pre-cruise party. Honestly, socializing is one of the best parts of cruising!

Back in the room now, just in time to pack away today's purchases, and settle down to watch Monday Night Football, drink my fuzzy water and eat popcorn. 

I'm practicing for our cruise!

Sail away on Sunday night

We didn't make it down to the 17th Street bridge for sail away (the appeal of the NASCAR race and the comfort of our room dissuaded us from leaving the Embassy Suites), but we had a moment of silence to listen to the horns and watch as the ships left Port Everglades. It was fun to remember that we had cruised on three out of four of these ships in under three weeks. Even in our hectic post-Army deployment days, we never did anything like that. And we were much younger then!

The Eurodam

The Royal Princess and the Nieuw Amsterdam

The Allure of the Seas

Disembarkation from the Allure OTS and check in at...the Embassy Suites

It was just after midnight by the time we put our four large suitcases outside our cabin door to be picked up and taken off of the ship this morning. I was feeling a bit guilty about that, but saw lots of other suitcases still in the corridor too. Royal Caribbean asks that suitcases be out by 11pm, but...well, there you are. It's just another indication that we are tired bordering on exhausted. Thank God our travel plans for the day would take us only as far as the Embassy Suites, about two miles away. 

We slept in a bit and didn't vacate our cabin until almost 9am. The yin for the yang that our cabins weren't available until 1pm the day we embarked is that they aren't pushing us out of our cabin at 8am either. Somehow, we either didn't get (not likely) or lost (very likely) our disembarkation information. We had our luggage tags (group number 59) but I couldn't find anything else in the cabin that gave us the schedule for breakfast. We rolled our carry ons up to the Solarium Bistro but (no surprise) it was closed. The Windjammer buffet was a long way to go without knowing for certain it was open, and the digital displays around the ship that typically showed dining options were focused solely on disembarkation groups. So G settled me in a lounger in the Solarium and went off in search of food (which has been a common theme this week). He came back with pastries and muffins and (God bless him!) decaf coffee with cream. Breakfast was served!

The Allure was docked opposite of last week, and our view from the Solarium was of the Port Everglades entrance channel and the condos of Harbour Isles. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours, and by 11am we were walking into the terminal. And then the fun began. 

We found our luggage easily. What we couldn't find was the end of the immigration and customs line. Honestly, an area the size of a football field was filled with people pushing their luggage around in an indiscernable order. We decided that G would stay with the luggage and I would wander around in search of the end of the line, and then he would join me when I got close to him. I got close to him in about 20 minutes; 40 minutes later we were finally through the process and walking out of the terminal. 

A police officer tried to argue with me that four people didn't need a minivan taxi and we could hold our luggage in our laps...until G walked up pushing the same amount I had, and we were ushered into the minivan line. A few minutes later we were dropped off at our next destination, the Embassy Suites on 17th Street. 

It was only around noon at that point, and we were asked if we wanted the first available room or a room on the east side of the hotel overlooking Port Everglades and the cruise ships. For a one night stay, it would have been easy to take the first available and be settled in it sooner rather than later, but we're here longer than that and were a bit fussier. Although we were told it might take until 4pm, we decided to wait. 

After we checked five of our bags with the bell hop, and we settled G with the remaining bags containing the laptop, our valuables and our dirty clothes, I headed over to Publix supermarket just behind the Embassy Suites in search of laundry detergent, salty snacks and Reese's peanut butter cups for G, and fuzzy water, sugar free hard candy and popcorn for me. Fuzzy water. I was desperate for fuzzy water. 

While I was gone, G checked out the laundry room situation. We knew the Embassy Suites had one...I had phoned to confirm months ago, as that was the most important criterion. We knew we'd be disembarking today with lots of dirties. I returned, carrying double bagged detergent in one hand and a double bagged 2 liter bottle of fuzzy water and the snacks in the other, and passing all the crew members with the same thing in mind, I felt on totally familiar ground. G led me up to the 10th floor laundry room, his choice of the three available ones, only because it had a large conference table next to it which would be good for folding clothes. 

So there we went, even more laden. Now, this was a laundry "room" in name only; in reality they had shoved a washer and dryer into the ice machine room, and while a sticker on the washer and dryer stated they were emptied twice daily and not worth breaking into, I'm pretty sure they weren't cleaned nearly that often. But beggars...

It was quite a thrill to squeeze past the ice machine to get to the washer. Every time I passed through, my center of gravity would activate the ice machine and I'd get cubes shot down my backside. The only outlet in the area was on the other side of the washer, so I plugged in my iPhone and- really, this is my life- leaned against the concrete wall as I texted and emailed. The twins' mom informed me that they needed to build medieval castles for a school project, and she needed ideas please, so there I was, standing in this hot little ugly room, Googling "medieval castle design" and sending her some ideas about fire throwing catapults and holes in the castle floor over a moat for a toilet.  I was two miles and a world away from the cruise ships I'd been on for 19 days. 

Note the wet clothing draped over the carry on. Luxury living!

At 3pm, we received a call that our room was ready. G went down to get the luggage and keys, and I rounded up everything else, including wet laundry I didn't want to put in the dryer, and met him at our room. We could have kissed the floor (yuck! but you get my drift), we were so glad to get all of our "stuff" in one place. G immediately tuned both TVs to the NASCAR Championship race, we noted we could see the Royal Princess directly from our room and the Allure and a Seaborn ship if we looked to the right, and talked ourselves out of walking down to the drawbridge to watch sail away, and into viewing it from our cool, comfy room with one eye on the race. 

The Royal Princess as seen from our room

The Allure OTS and a Seaborn ship (much smaller)

We only received 30 minutes of Internet each on the Allure, and that didn't last long. I'll spend some time over the next couple of days uploading some of the photos and videos I have from the Allure of the Seas and St. Martin, and to publish some final thoughts about our week on the world's largest cruise ship. 

Our next stop, as some of you have probably guessed, is the Emerald Princess on Tuesday, November 19th.  I'll try not to embarrass myself and kiss the Piazza floor as we board, but, wow, we are ready to "go home"!!!

Life is good!