When we arrived at Ft. Lauderdale at 1:30 in the morning, we were surprised to find it downright cold. It finally warmed up about the time we boarded to the point where we could go without jackets.
Embarkation was pretty quick, but had one annoying quirk. We had filled out all our paperwork online, or so we thought. However, when we got there, we were given 5 Bahaman immigration forms and two medical forms. The medical forms were no big deal - basically we had to affirm that no one in our party had thrown up in the preceeding 2 days. The Bahaman forms took much longer to fill out. I have no idea why these were not sent with our tickets and other forms in advance.
The first dinner was our first experience in Personal Choice dining. Four of us went in about 6:30 and were seated immediately. While the dinner was acceptable for most of us, I wasn't happy with mine. The prime rib was a bit tough, and the baked potato was a tad cold...it was able to melt the butter but not the cheeze. Either the waiter or the kitchen staff wasn't clear on the concept of shredded cheeze...I had asked for cheeze with my baked potato but received a small cup with chunks of cheddar...big chunks. Rather hard to melt that in a cold potato.
Woke up that first morning with a headache. Took two ibuprofen and went up on deck, but that just made me feel worse. Then I decided to go back to bed. An hour later I woke up and felt fine. Weird.
We didn't attend the first art auction but there are definitely some pieces we're interested in. As we have a total of 3 at-sea days, I assume there will be more art auctions.
The at-sea dinner didn't sound particularly appetizing, and we had a bit of a time crunch regarding the kid's formal night activities, so we ate at the buffet. So far the selection has been amazing, and it seems to change every few hours.
After dinner, we saw the comedic ventriloquist Dan Horn in the Vista lounge. This was one of the funniest acts I'd ever seen, but his routine only lasted a little over half an hour.
After leaving Cozumel, we were all fairly tired, so we just ate quickly in the buffet before attending the comedian in the Vista Lounge. The comic, Rodney Johnson, was one of the few blacks onboard, which made his routines even funnier. Apparently he had opened the night before in Las Vegas for Bob Dylan, so part of his routine was mocking Dylan's voice.
After leaving Grand Cayman, Theresa and I went to dinner at the main dining room. As we rounded the stairwell on the Promenade deck, we noticed that the sun was about halfway below the horizon. Hoping to see the 'green flash' as the last vestige of the sun slipped below the horizon, we went out on the Promenade to watch. Sadly, we didn't see the green flash. Maybe another day.
When we got to dinner, we were told there were no tables for two available, and offered the choice of going to a different dining room or eating at a large table with strangers. Of course we picked the large table and had 6 other dinner companions for conversation. The escargot was the best I've had on any ship, and the rest of the dinner was excellent too.
We ended up at dinner with one of these couples another time (this time with their daughter and her husband) and had another enjoyable conversation. We were sad to hear that one of them broke her ankle in St. Maarten and spend the rest of the voyage in a wheelchair.
Copyright © 2008 by Dana Cline
Last updated on 7/8/2008
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