We're Off for the Caribbean

Sunday, April 2, 2017
Finally about 2 days ago I threw off the nasty crud I acquired the week before Anders came, and just in time.  Because today we were leaving early for Fort Lauderdale to pick Beth up at the airport at 11:00 am and then continue on to the port to board the Crown Princess. It was time for our vacation with her to begin.

Our timing worked perfectly - she texted us when she got in and by the time she had gotten her luggage and moved outside the doors with it we were pulling into the area to pick her up.  It was so exciting to see her after the long wait and give her a big hug.

We went directly to Park and Go where we park our car while on cruises and before we knew it we were on the bus headed to the port.  Unfortunately the staff had had a hard time getting everyone off the ship so they were unable to get us on right away but we were put in the line with the other Elite passengers and once the doors opened it took almost no time at all to go through the necessary steps to get on the ship and off to our room which was already for us.

We left our carry on luggage there, and went up to the buffet area for some lunch together - getting there before lots of others were on the ship so our surroundings were actually quite quiet.

Then we gave Beth a quick tour of the boat so she could easily find the important things as well as get hers and our cards stamped for the drawing for prizes at the Sail Away party.  Then it was back to the room where she quickly changed into her bathing suit so she could do some relaxing and reading by the pool.  She returned fairly quickly and told us she'd rather sit on our balcony.

Meanwhile our room steward showed up with glasses of champagne for each of us to toast the start of our adventure together

Then, while she relaxed on the deck, Ken and I unpacked our things (our suitcases had arrived)

Before we knew it, it was time to report to the general emergency stations for the necessary briefing before we sailed. Then we went up to the sail away party both to watch all the activity on the water as ships began to take off as well as to listen for the calling of names of those who won prizes in the drawing.  Here we are along the rail

We were the last ship to leave.  But it was fun to see the others maneuver out of the tight quarters and head out.  This huge ship had to back out and the then turn around to head out the channel

/After our dinner in the Botticelli Dining room where we met the others we'd be sharing the table with for the week, we went to the Welcome Aboard show.   Then after wandering among the other activities on board we discovered the trivia game for that evening.  It had just started so we couldn't join in but we did sit through it making our own guesses as to what we thought the answers were doing fairly well.

But once that was done, we were done in since all of us had been up very early in the morning.  So we were off to our cabin and very shortly after that in bed with the lights out.