Day 9: Ft Lauderdale - Turnaround/In-Transit

After having two calm sea days, we arrive quietly into Port Everglades.  We are awake just after 6am and find the Caribbean Princess backing into Terminal 21.  My favorite ship the Regal Princess is already docked at Terminal 2.  Since the Caribbean Princess is using a different terminal today versus Terminal 2 at the start of our cruise, Princess is providing free shuttle service between the two terminals for those who are parked near Terminal 2.  Princess uses these two terminals as well as Terminal 4.

We docking near a HAL ship and across from a Royal Caribbean ship.  It’s amazing to see these ships up close and with their lights on..

We catch an early breakfast before the buffet gets too crowded.  Even though we are part of the “in-transit” group, we still have to leave our cabin by 8am.  This will allow the cabin stewards to turn over the cabins:  Change out bed sheets and covers, scrub down the bathrooms and cabins, rearrange bed configurations (from twins to queens or vice versa), and basically get the cabins back to normal.  I think of it as “reset” or “default” setting.  The cabin stewards have a lot to do in 3 hours and it’s quite impressive when you think about the number of cabins that are under their care.  I think Sandy has 12 cabins to tend to.

BTW, we are getting a new cabin steward.  Sandy has finished his 9-month contract and is going home for 3 months.  He will be back on the Caribbean Princess to work for several months.  Maybe we will see him again.

We grab our necessities, iPad, laptop, and cell phones and head up to the Lido deck to enjoy the warm weather in Ft Lauderdale.  We meet up with D and M and hang out with them until they have to disembark at their appointed time.  We say our goodbyes and wish they were sailing with us on our next adventure.

We eventually hear an announcement that disembarkation is running early and all in-transit passengers should proceed to the designated venue.  Hubby and I meet our group in the Princess Theater.  Since we are part of a large group (550), Princess will be bringing Immigration onboard to process us.  Yeah, team!  We get to stay on the ship!  We are “officially" back onboard around 11:15am.  It’s amazing how fast 550 fellow cruisers can disappear on this ship.  We stop by our cabin and it’s ready for the new week.  I drop my bag and take my camera to go on a photog adventure around the ship. For about an hour, I almost had the whole ship to myself.  There were no “chair hogs” by the pool.  Come to think of it, I only saw a handful of fellow cruisers lounging around the two main pools.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day in Ft Lauderdale?

By 1pm, I notice the hum of my fellow cruisers and they are starting to mill around.  My ship is getting crowded.  I head back to the cabin to check on Hubby.  He is sitting out on our balcony and enjoying the weather as well.

I am using my time wisely while in Ft Lauderdale:  checking emails, texting with D (by this time took the trolley to FLL beach), and texting with my friend T (who will be cruising with his wife V real soon) to let him know I see his ship the Celebrity Silhouette next door.  Did I mention there were 5 ships in port today?

We are not rushing around today and for some reason…it feels like a looooooong day.  Probably because we had an early turnaround day, the cabins were refreshed quickly, and most important we were already in cruise mode.  I get a chance to settle in at our desk (in our cabin) and update my blog and quickly review a few hundred pictures.

At some point we meet our new cabin steward, Hector, from Mexico.  He is all smiles and wanting to know to make sure we have everything we need for the next adventure.  He brings us our complementary champagne and disappears as he has 12 other cabins to tend to.

We hear the announcement for muster.  Since we went through muster last week, we are not obligated to attend this week.  So we hunker down outside on our balcony and enjoy our view.

We set sail around 4pm.  I am waiting for the “battle of the horns” between the Caribbean Princess and the Regal Princess.  I mostly want hear the Regal’s horn play “The Love Boat”.  We hear nothing.  So hubby does his best imitation of the Regal’s horn.  That appeases me and one day I will get that on video.

I forgot to mention that there are Italian contractors onboard our ship.  They are doing the prep work for laying out the miles and miles of cables on this ship.  Have you seen the Princess ads for the new technology called the “Medallion”?  Well, Caribbean Princess will be one of first three ships to undergo the transition and have this new technology in 2018.  Our ship will be going into dry dock in a couple of weeks and will be fitted with this new technology.  Great planning on Princess’ part for getting everything in place, testing it out, and then flipping the switch in 2018.

Here we go on our next adventure…to the Western Caribbean!

Sunday-Day 8: Ft Lauderdale/Turnaround Day/In-Transit

We woke up around 4:45am this morning.  With the help of the Princess security system.  Inside each cabin and throughout the ship, the "ding-dong-ding" bell sound was being broadcasted repeatedly.  It was quite loud.  It must of ran for 15 minutes or so.  Hubby went out to the balcony to sit and read.  I got up and called down to Passenger Services to let them know.  My was call was not being answered and then passed to "Reception" and continued to ring.  I guess I was not the only one on the phone.

It was hard to go back to sleep and I eventually grabbed my camera to see what the world looked like this morning.  We were already in the channel and approaching Pier #2.  There was already six (6) other ships in port:

I automatically turned off airplane-mode on my iPhone and was getting lots of LTE bars.  I received lots of emails and a few text messages that were waiting for me.  It was wonderful to be up so early and see the sunrise:

We nixed going up to the gym and decided to hang out in our cabin until we were required to leave at 8am.  I quickly tidied up our room so Shiv did not have to do too much.  Like other cabin stewards, he has enough to do this morning.  We saw Shiv a few cabins down and gave him extra tip money for the past week.  He was a bit overwhelmed and very thankful for the gift.  We thanked him for going out of his way to take care of us and always anticipating what we might need.  Plus the extra tip money is his to keep.  The standard daily $12.95/day/pp onboard tip is shared among the waiters, food and beverage staff, cabin stewards, and others who support the daily activities on the ship.  If you do the math...that's not a lot of money to us, but means a lot of money to the staff who send their earnings back home.  

After breakfast, we lounge in the Terrace area at the back of the ship.  Around 9:45am we make our way down to deck 5.  I drop off the "You Make a Difference" card for Marvin and also a review card for the "The Voice of the Ocean".  We go up one level to deck 6-Fiesta and wait in a quick line for those of us "in-transit" and doing a B2B (back to back) cruise.  I walked by one of the officer who mentioned there were 900 fellow cruisers doing a B2B.  Wow!  That's a lot of people!  As we enter the doors we are scanned for the last time.  We are seated in the Princess Theater with our cruise card, passport, and Immigration form waiting for our turnaround:  

We hear an announcement that all passengers (2700+) have disembarked.  We are next and the last group to "disembark".  During this time, they are checking those who were scanned at the door and their system lets them know who is missing.  Thirty minutes later there are a few stragglers arriving into the theater.  Another announcement is made that all passengers have disembarked and the ship is ready to start the embarkation process.  Yay team Princess!  As we leave the theater, an Immigration rep is reviewing each passport.  We are back onboard at 11am to start our next cruise.  

We stop by the Passenger Servics desk to get our new cruise card that says (Elite).  This will help to easily identify us later in the cruise...you'll see later what I mean.  

I stop by to see Marvin and give him his pictures.  Now, how did I manage to print them?  I have a Fujifilm Instax printer that prints mini Polaroid-like pictures.  Way cool technology!  Another post for another day in regards to my photo workflow.  

I am now caught up with my blog.  Hubby and I are sitting at the top deck near the midship pool area watching the Seattle Seahawks and the Carolina Panthers game.  Oooooops!  I had to stop typing to ask Hubby who was playing:

Here's Ming waiting for us to get to our cabin:

BTW, Ming is also enjoying our new Elite status:

Hubby, myself, and Ming would like to thank you for following along with us on our cruise.  We will continue blogging on our next cruise to the Western Caribbean.  Remember, the same Disclaimers I had for the Eastern Caribbean apply to the Western Caribbean.  Yes, I'm now blogging from my iPad.  Yes, I will be using Hubby's free minutes as there will be lots of pictures to post.  Stay tuned!  

Saturday (01/10): Back to Fort Lauderdale and In-Transit Day

Fort Lauderdale:  Turnaround
Temperature:  72 degrees

Princess Patter-Today's Activities:  Going Ashore!/Lotus Spa & Gym orientation/Art Auction pre-registration/Brains over Bronze/$500 Treasure Hunt/Free Hair Consultations/Meet your Casino Host/General Emergency Stations (Muster for the newbies boarding)/Sailaway Celebration/NFL Football Baltimore Ravens versus New England Patriots/Tour of the Ruby Princess/Lotus Spa Free Raffle Prize/Piano Melodies/Solo Travellers Get-together/Welcome Aboard Trivia/Show:  Welcome Aboard with Ruby Princess Dancers & Ric Steel/Texas Hold'em/NFL Football Carolina Panthers versus Seattle Seahawks/Karaoke/ Music Trivia/Welcome Aboard Dance Party/Wake Show/Dance the Night Away

Cruise Life:  Today is our "turnaround" day. I set the alarm for 6am which gives us plenty of time to eat some breakfast, shower, and tidy the cabin a bit before we have to leave our cabin by 8am. The crew is busy cleaning the cabins and changing sheets/covers/towels for the new cruisers who will be checking in today. Our In-Transit group is suppose to meet in the Michelangelo dining room on deck #5 around 10:15am. We head over to the International Cafe for our Skinny Mochas to go and then plant ourselves in the Vines lounge near a window. I burn through the last few minutes of my free Internet package and continue to write up my blog posts.

In between several bathroom breaks (that's what coffee does to me), I run into a Princess rep to find out if there are any delays in disembarkation. Yes, but only 10-15 minutes. After sitting around for 2 hours, we head over to the dining room and sit with the 70 other "in-transit" passengers. Within 5 minutes, we are given instructions to have our cruise card, passport, and "in-transit" cards in hand. 

Several Princess security personnel armed with scanners are scanning the 70 passenger's cruise card. At this point, we're technically "checked-out/off" of the ship. Except. Yes, there's always someone who can't following the disembarkation process or appears to be missing. Someone on the bridge (not the Captain) is making an announcement for so and so from cabin #...please make your way to the Michelangelo dining room immediately. I counted 5 cabins that were MIA. After five minutes of waiting, everyone was accounted for.

We are given another set of instructions to get up and form a line and walk towards the dining room exit. Here we find a port security/immigration representative visually checking our cruise card and passport information. Once we passed his inspection we are then "scanned" by a Princess security rep and exit the Michelangelo dining room.

Now, we are technically back onboard the ship without ever actually leaving. Way cool. It's now 10:30am and the rest of the embarkation process can now start with the new passengers. That is the earliest disembarkation/embarkation process I've experienced with Princess. Kudos to Princess for always looking at ways to improve our cruising experience. The do read the surveys we all fill out.

Our main goal today was to eat lunch in the dining room. Last year I had to most delicious salmon meal. Hubby missed that and ordered something else. This time he did not want to miss it. Again, we don't normally eat lunch or breakfast in the dining room. This lunch was not to be missed. We had more time to wait as the dining room did not open until 12noon.

We find some seats at the International Cafe where the sweet delights are located.  

I called my brother to check his pulse and see how he was doing. He initially called me via FaceTime and I was able to show him what the interior of the ship looked like. We decided to nix that idea as I was trying to find a quiet corner/room to have a conversation with him and the connectivity was weak. I then checked my emails and posted a few pictures on FB. All this from my iPhone.

In the dining room, folks all around us ordered the broiled salmon with a side of fresh vegetables. It was that good and delightful! For dessert we had the Orange Souffle (sp?). It was hot as in temperature hot and a nice way to end lunch. Again, we herd gasps from our neighboring two-top tables.

The weather in Fort Lauderdale was a bit cooler than last week and rain clouds were making their way towards the Port of Everglades. There were not many cruise ships in port today. I thought I counted four ships. That's rare for a Saturday. We were the last to leave which equated to an hour late in departure time. We were escorted out by the Broward County Sheriff boat as we cruised out of the port and into the channel.

I think tonight we're going to have a simple buffet dinner. I'm getting to the point where I'm tired of eating. Is that possible? Yes. For me all I want is a salad and some fish. My tummy is not used to the rich food nor the variety we encounter in the buffet. I've started to pass on the desserts that are available. Yes, I'm feeling well. No, I don't want to feel bloated all the time.

During the early evening hours we stop by the Internet Cafe to figure out the issues we're having with getting an our free Internet package for the new cruise week. An older couple is sitting nearby when I overhear the issues they are having logging in. I spend a few minutes explaining what packaged is available to them (they are Platinum members like we are) and how to login and logout. The one major problem I could not help them with is how to get to their email and their password. They told me at home they just click on an icon and bam(!) they can access the email messages. I explain to them it can't be done like that on the Princess computers. We need to know more information (e.g. account name and password). I suggested they wait for the Princess rep to arrive and ask her for help. They both thanked me for the help and the husband offered me his free 150 Internet minutes. I told them I was glad to help and I couldn't accept those free minutes.

I left the Internet Cafe and came back to see if the Internet Manager was available. I had an issue where the system acknowledged that I was a returning cruiser, but I could not see my free minutes for the new cruise. Gabriella waved her magic wand and managed to fix my account as well as hubby's. Life is good.

Tonight we decide to catch an evening show called "Welcome Aboard Showtime" featuring the Ruby Princess dancers and Vocalist Ric Steel. We enjoyed this entertainment immensely. Ric is a wonderful singer and I could listen to him sing all day. He's scheduled to do a full show the evening when we're in Cozumel. I believe that's Wednesday evening.

Tonight's movie at MUTS:  None.  NFL Football game is showing tonight.

Hubby is out like a light around 9pm. I'm still on my laptop trying to catch up on the blog posts. When I get back on land I will have to do some major edits and add the many missing pictures to each post. I'm quickly fading.... Good night everyone!