Babs & I started out the trip with a 45 minute
“technical” delay, translated waiting on six late passengers to fill the
flight, on our Southwest Airlines flight to Ft. Lauderdale where we met our
ship. Once there we grabbed a taxi for the short ride to Port Everglages with a
quick stop at Total Wine to purchase a couple of bottles of wine to take on
board with us.
Boarding our ship, the Island Princess, was amazingly easy.
Our traveling companions, my Spadaro cousins and their wives, were already
onboard. We met them on the Lido deck and ate pizza for lunch. Like our airline
flight, our sailing was also over an hour late leaving port because of side
thruster failure which required diver intervention.
Our bags took forever to get to our stateroom and Babs
thought for sure that the baggage screeners had discovered and confiscated the
bourbon and vodka that we had carried on in our luggage. The bourbon was
spirited away in Listerine mouthwash bottles that had been sanitized of the
mouth wash, and the vodka in Smart Water bottles. The luggage arrived after we
had returned from dinner, liquor intact.
Our first two full days of our trip were at sea. We busied
ourselves playing cards, going to comedy shows, eating (way too much), and me
ending my evenings at the casino. The captain had to make up time so we moved
right along at an average 22 knots, which is really fast. Add that speed to
wave swells of 8-10 feet and the ship literally rocks.
Our first port of call was Aruba. Neither Babs nor I had a
chance to tour the town because we were only there a half day and we both opted
for different excursions. Babs opted for horseback riding and had a great time
riding both inland and on the beach. Her only regret was that there was not
more time on the beach.
I took the catamaran snorkeling trip. The boat ride was fun
and the snorkeling in crystal clear waters. My cousins, who live in FL and dive
a lot, said that the water was the clearest that they had ever dived in. There were
two snorkeling stops, the coral reefs and a 400 foot long wreck. I didn’t do
the wreck one because the current returning to the boat was too strong for my
ability. However, my cousins said it was great and that they would like to
return and dive with tanks.
Internet access is at a premium so I’ll do photos later. The
ships internet is both too expensive and too slow.
Tomorrow we will be at Cartagena, Columbia.
Babs Says: When it's hot it's HOT!
No comments:
Post a Comment