January 3 – Our journey begins!
We had a bit of last minute pre-cruise drama. We had a few
couples that had to cancel their cruise due to illnesses and so contacted tour
guides to straighten that out. I feel so terrible for those that had to cancel.
It must be a huge disappointment and having an illness that your doctor says
“don’t go” isn’t great news either! Makes one aware that it could be any one of
us….
We had another schedule change that we found out about the
day before boarding. Janie emailed me asking if I had noticed. We got nothing
from Princess with the changes. We were arriving in Aruba on a whole different
day with entirely different hours in port. So, I emailed the place where we had
our private horseback ride scheduled to see if they could move us to the next
day and earlier in the day for pick up. We were supposed to be there Friday Jan
6 from noon to 8:00 and now we are there Saturday Jan 7 from 9:00 to 7:00. They
were very nice and changed our day and time so it worked out fine.
Santa Marta (the next port) is now 9:00 to 7:00 instead of
7:00 to 5:00. I already had to deal with the guide requiring a deposit since
it’s high season and the guides wouldn’t chance taking our tour without one.
So, we made the deposit by PayPal, the day before boarding. Then, with the change in hours since we arrive
later, the National Park people said the entrance tickets needed to be paid for
in advance as they sell out by 9:00 in the morning if there are any left at all
that morning. So, we pre-paid for the 4 of us on the tour to ensure we get our
tickets. They also wanted passport info, which I had for the 4 of us, but they
also needed the other couple’s date of birth. So, last night on the ship after
dinner I called their cabin to get that info. So, we should be good to go now!
OK, now our adventure begins!
We got up and Greg got the car loaded with all our stuff.
(way too much stuff) He got it to fit and off we went from Port St. Lucie to
Ft. Lauderdale Port. It was a fairly uneventful drive down, except for this
young lady that as we were pulling up to the red light in the left turn lane,
she decided to make her left turn from the other direction right into our lane.
Yikes! She knew pretty quickly that she should have been on the other side of
the median which luckily wasn’t too tall and she swerved and drove over it to
get to her correct lane. I turned to Greg and said “well, that could have gone
horribly wrong”. The driver in the truck next to us, looked at us and smiled as
he shrugged his shoulders with a “what the heck” look on his face. (or more
likely a less clean version) I smiled back and returned the shrug. Luckily, it
wasn’t a disaster….
We dropped our luggage to be checked and I waited with our
carry-ons while Greg returned the rental car. While I was sitting there I saw
Rick & Janie drive by. In 2013 they actually arrived literally right behind
us in line to drop bags. This time they arrived later, but due to the slow
shuttle from the rental car company they ended up on the same return shuttle.
Wow, we feel back at home on the Pacific Princess. We got to
our cabin and some of the luggage was already there. We grabbed some lunch at
the buffet and came back and unpacked. Did I already say we brought “way too
much stuff”?
We had our lifeboat drill. Nice and civilized in the dining
room with no standing outside in our life vests.
Another change was instead of early dining being at 6:00
it’s at 5:15. I had heard others say that Princess seems to have changed it for
the earlier time now. I just hoped it wasn’t true. That’s one of the reasons we
like a bigger ship because then they have open seating with no set dining times
and you sit with different people every night.
We were still unpacking when I looked up and said we are
moving! It was after the scheduled 4:00 as they had waited for some late
passengers. Then, the ship made its’ way through the Florida Straits.
Pacific Princess waiting for us at the pier!
our home for the next 111 days!
view from the balcony
sail away
All too soon it was time for dinner. We have a table for 8,
but only 2 other people showed up. He’s stoked about the world cruise and his
wife said “she just doesn’t get it” She doesn’t particularly like cruising. And
you’re on for 111 days??? They were an interesting couple to talk to.
The Welcome Aboard entertainment was a couple of short
production numbers by the Princess singers and dancers. Other than the female
lead singer they were all pretty talented. (I’m hoping she was just having mic
issues) There was also a comedian Troy Thirdgill that was pretty funny. He does
a full show tomorrow night.
We walked about the ship for a while and it was time to turn
in. Our first day was mostly unpacking and organizing.
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