Sunday, February 14, 2010

Fort Lauderdale & Sea Days--Jan. 19 to 21

We docked in a chilly Ft. Lauderdale and got off to go through Immigration. The only small glitch was that security didn't know what to do with back-to-back cruisers. A slight delay, but soon we were back on the ship. Jim was busy watching the dock as they loaded the ship with food for the next cruise.

The next day was a formal night. We met in Explorers with about 10 people from Cruise Critic. It was nice to put some faces to the on-line names that we have been chatting with. You always pick up a few travel tips from everyone. We normally don’t make it a point to go to the champagne waterfall, but we were going through the atrium at the time, so we stopped to check it out. Here is the cruise director, Frank, who has practically been invisible on both cruises. Very different from Neil on our transatlantic cruise, who was really hands on.

They introduce the heads of each department.

And finally the captain says a few words. He is the one who married Michele and Fred on the last cruise, and we have yet to see him crack a smile. Italian captain…don’t mean to pigeonhole them, but they do tend to be the same.

Here he is getting ready to pour the champagne with another beaming smile!

The next two days were sea days...ahhhhhh, we love sea days! One of the activities going on was making posters for the Panama Canal transit. The photographers will take pictures of you holding your sign over the balcony and the best poster wins….well, something! I decided it would be fun to make a poster for Mike, the cook who has been preparing all the appetizers in Explorers lounge each night. We talked to Mike quite a bit during the last cruise. He told us that at first he was so shy, he wouldn’t talk to anyone. Now he is such a good representative for Princess. He greets everyone with a handshake and a smile and is such a pleasure to see each night. After 11 months, he is going home at the end of the cruise and is counting the days. So I decided to make a countdown poster for him. Here I am…hard at work!

It will be fun to give it to him…

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