G's dessert on sailaway evening

Warm passionfruit souffle with warm vanilla cream sauce.
Wow.

Home sweet home

We're safely onboard, with no mishaps en route. We were in our cabin by 12:15pm and at lunch in the dining room (having a cloth napkin placed in our laps and a menu in our hands) by 12:30 We looked at each other and said, "We have 89 99 more days of this!!!!!". And that just boggles the mind. Of course, I had salmon. I will be growing gills from all the seafood I'll be eating! G had beef tenderloins. And pronounced them very tender.

Apparently an email went out to the different departments in the ship stating that we are going to be on board until February. And we were going to try to fly under the radar, letting just the maitre d' (Nicola Furlan from Italy) and our cabin steward (Cristian from Romania) know of our plans. We had no idea that someone had connected the dots of all these individual cruises into something more significant.

This is a photo of our cabin. There is a vanity you don't see and a hallway closet and bath. I'll post more photos later. The Love Boat cabins it's not, but it is perfect for us as we have quick access to the outer decks on the back of the ship.

We are awaiting sailaway right now (we're 30 minutes late already), but it's a quick sail to Eleuthera in the Bahamas and Princess' private beach resort, Princess Cays. Stay tuned for photos of that in the next few days.

Life is good.

Day by day

Cruise #1: Where we're going

These 90 100 days of cruising are actually comprised of nine ten 10-night cruises. Every 10 days, we'll be back in Fort Lauderdale while the ship does a nine hour turnaround and heads back out on the next cruise. The itineraries alternate, Southern Caribbean/ Eastern Caribbean. We visit St. Thomas and Princess Cays, Princess's private beach resort on the southern tip of Eleuthera in the Bahamas on every cruise.

We've done these same itineraries several times since 2003, on three different Princess ships. They are the perfect mix of sea days and port days.  On this itinerary, we particularly love Bonaire. And Aruba. And Dominica and St. Thomas. Yes, we love this itinerary, and also the alternating Eastern Caribbean itinerary. 

If you're near a computer today beginning at 4p EST, check out http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com.  There are a few ships in port today, so the Emerald may not be the first to sail, but if you're patient, you might see us on deck, waving as we sail away.

There is also an Emerald Princess webcam at http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/ep/emerald_bridgecam.html. You can see the view of each port that we see from the ship.

Almost there!

We are happily ensconced at the Hyatt Place North near 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale, about a 10 minute taxi ride from where the ship will be docked tomorrow morning.  Our flight was uneventful barring a couple of pockets of moderately severe turbulence (there have been tornados on the ground in Oklahoma today).  Flying Southwest into Fort Lauderdale is becoming familiar to us, and makes the baggage claim/hotel shuttle process very easy. In fact, we waited less than 5 minutes for our free shuttle to the hotel.

We stayed at this hotel last year for two nights between cruises. It's noteworthy only for its proximity to Port Everglades, a Publix and Total Wines. We'll stock up tomorrow before we head to the ship.

I will thoroughly enjoy my final shower here, the last time I will be in a shower large enough to shave my legs for three months. Princess showers are....well, let's just say that if you drop the soap, you have to step out of the bathroom to retrieve it. It's a hardship I'm willing to bear!