Esri

Read it on Go With Me! (With Pictures - 1 Now, More Soon)

Last night was a restless night. I felt exhausted by 10:00 PM, but stayed up to finish up the blog post, check e-mail, Facebook, and Cruise Critic. I went to bed around 11:00 and darned if I could sleep. I tossed and turned. I looked at the clock every thirty minutes or so. Finally, I think I fell asleep around 3:00 AM and woke up at 5:38. I had the alarm set for 6:00, so I just got up.

Breakfast was once again room service, but just juice and a Danish this morning. After breakfast I read another chapter in The Hobbit and waited for the announcement that we could disembark. It came around 7:30 and I was off the ship at 7:45 for an 8:00 tour.

I know it is cheesy, but I took the opportunity to have my picture taken with the pirate at the end of the gangway. I bought two photo packages at the pre-order discount and I intend to use them mostly for gangway photos. Our tour organizer, MaryAnn was waiting at the end of the gangway with another new friend of mine. A very nice retired doctor from Hilton Head, just north of where I live in Georgia.

The full group as gathered by 8:00. It was about 82-degrees and a little humid. Keep in mind I live in coastal Georgia so my idea of “a little humid” and yours may vary. We had a pretty good trek to meet the tour guide, Eduardo, and our driver, Yupy. Eduardo told us that Yupy is the second best driver in Costa Rica. The best is in the hospital. ;)

We loaded up the van and headed out for our scenic drive. It was as advertised – very scenic. I haven’t seen much of Costa Rica, but what I’ve seen is beautiful and much cleaner than Mexico. At least the part of Mexico that borders Texas. I’ve never been to the resorts on the coasts.

Eduardo was sitting right of front of me on the drive and he heard MaryAnn tell someone I had just retired from the Army. I said I’d just retired as a civilian working for the Army. Eduardo asked me what I did for the Army, make bombs? I laughed and said that I worked with computers. He said “You are a very smart lady. You can program computers?” I said I could and he said “You can make web pages?” I said I could indeed make web pages. Long story short, we exchanged cards and he wants me to do some web work for him after the world cruise. If I get a web site job on every tour my little side business will be off to a nice start.

Eduardo was a very entertaining host and his English was excellent. Our first stop was a little fruit stand where he showed us a coffee tree, a cacao tree and a cashew tree. I took a few pictures of the owner’s children and they gave me a flower. I was reaching into my little security wallet to give them $1.00 and Eduardo shook his head at me. I saw him tip the owner before we drove away though.

After the fruit stand we went to a Del Monte banana plantation. He showed us the little houses the workers lived in and said they didn’t have to pay rent or power. It sounds great, but I could hear Ernie Ford singing “I owe my soul to the company store.”

We saw how they bring the bananas down to the shipping facility from the fields. They have a zip line set up and they tie bunches of bananas to the line and when there are twenty-five bunches, a worker runs to the shipping area, pulling them all behind him. Eduardo said that each bunch of bananas weighs about twelve pounds, so that is 300 pounds the worker has to pull behind him, while running in the heat and humidity. I said “That’s a very hard job” and Eduardo agreed.

Next we drove to the village of Moin to take a boat ride down the Tortuguera Canal. This canal runs from Moin to San Juan, Nicaragua. A boat ride the entire length of the canal takes about five hours. We didn’t go down the whole thing.

Our boat captain was Frederick, or Fred. He had a most interesting accent – a cross between Austrian and Costa Rican. His parents came to Costa Rica when he was small and he still speaks German. He said it was not as good as his Spanish, but better than his English. His English was excellent, by the way.

The boat ride was quite pleasant. We saw a couple of Great Blue Herons, several types of Egrets and Kingfishers, and a few Grackles. We also saw several iguanas in various sizes and colors.

My goal on this tour was to see a sloth and we did see them. I can now report that I got a couple of good pictures of sloths, birds, and a really good picture of an iguana. The boat never stopped moving so I shot in continuous mode with the AI Servo auto-focus motor and hoped for the best. Just at the end of the tour I met my secondary goal – howler monkeys. A sloth and a monkey or two – checked off the list.

After the boat tour we stopped at a little bar on a hill overlooking the port and I was able to take few pictures of the Amsterdam at the pier. I had a Diet Coke (Coke Light they call it here.) The owner asked if I wanted ice because the soda was lukewarm, but I passed. My travel doctor told me the never touch the ice or water. I fear Montezuma’s Revenge. ;)

On the way back to the ship one of the ladies asked Eduardo if he knew where she could buy a battery for a clock. She had the old battery. He showed it to Yupy and we headed around corners and through traffic. He stopped in front of an auto repair shop and we all laughed when Yupy took the battery inside – saying we didn’t want a car battery. Even Eduardo laughed saying Yupy must have misunderstood, but he came out with the right battery and said they were $1.00. So more than one person ended up buying them, since most of those batteries are around $5.00 at home.

Shopping done, Yupy took us home. We had to walk about two blocks to find the van when we disembarked from the ship, but they dropped us off right at the end of the pier. Eduardo said the cruise companies don’t allow the private operators to pick up at the end of the pier, but they can often drop off because they know the gate guards. Go figure.

After I got back to my cabin and cooled off, I headed up to the Lido for lunch. I just got a Panini with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella with some potato chips. It was excellent and may become my go to lunch in the Lido.

After lunch I went in search of a good phone signal to call my sister back home. We talked for about fifteen minutes, which will cost me about $30.00. I needed to make sure she was doing okay though because our Dad’s death came as a surprise to all of us.

She’d been having breathing trouble and trouble sleeping. She said her breathing was better and she slept last night. We talked a bit about our pets and she had a couple of questions from Brenda about my Dad’s affairs. She said she was expecting phone calls from Brenda and her friends about the funeral, which was this afternoon, to start coming in soon.

After I talked to my sister I headed back to the cabin to work on this blog entry and my pictures from today. I couldn’t get on the Internet to post last night’s blog entry, but hopefully I can do that tonight. I got most of this entry written and my pictures loaded from my camera to my computer. I was backing the pictures up to an external hard drive when…

The lights went out! It is dark in an interior cabin when the lights go out. Luckily my laptop (which wasn’t plugged in – it wasn’t me!) gave off enough light for me to get to the door. There was emergency lighting in the hall, so I felt a bit better. The lights were only out about three to five minutes, at least on the Main Deck.

AFTER they came back on the Captain made an announcement apologizing for the loss of “hotel services” and said he’d make another announcement when they were all restored. A few minutes later, the Cruise Director came on for his regular afternoon announcements with no mention of the power failure. Eventually the Captain did come back on and said that while the loss of power was unfortunate, the system i as it should. We’d blown a few breakers, which kept the generators safe.

Dinner tonight was something of a disappointment. Our table was as lively and fun as ever. We all agreed though that today was the first time we had trouble deciding what to eat not because of too many tempting choices, but too few. The offerings were advertised in the daily bulletin as Costa Rican favorites. As far as I could tell they put the words “Costa Rican” in front of a few random offerings…

I ended up with a shrimp cocktail, a garden salad, and flank steak on polenta. It was all tasty, but not up to the expectations set by previous evenings. Everyone but me seemed to be having trouble with the quality of their food as well. They all said their food was barely warm to cold – even Mary’s French Onion soup was cold.

Then at dessert we experienced our first real service snafu. Most of us ordered the “Costa Rican” flourless chocolate cake and got the sugar-free Chocolate Delight instead. Aras was quite apologetic and offered to bring us all the correct dessert, but we just asked him to bring one so we could all taste it. The Chocolate Delight was quite good actually, but the flourless cake was really delicious. I just had one bite of that.

By the time we got up from dinner I was practically falling asleep on my feet. So, once again, my evening was spent in my cabin. I actually went to bed right after dinner. We put clocks forward an hour, reversing the change we’d made two days before, so it was 9:00 and I was exhausted.

Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep. I tossed and turned for half an hour and decided to get up and try the Internet. I managed to get my blog entry for Day 3 posted and my email read. Then I went back to bed.

I fell asleep right away, but woke a little after midnight and my knee hurt so bad I wanted to cry. Just touching it to the mattress or even the sheets was awful. It is the worst pain I’ve had in it since about mid-November. I got up and put a lidocaine patch on my knee – they are prescribed for my arthritis, but pain is pain. I also took a couple of Advil.

I was able to go back to sleep and slept right through our entry into the Panama Canal, but that is for the next post.

Note: I am still working on post-processing the pictures from the excursion. I'll update this post with a photo gallery when they are done.

Just a note before I post today's blog entry... Thanks to you all for your kind words about my father. He was a very good man. We will all miss him.

Read it on Go With Me!

I slept really well last night. I woke up before my alarm went off, but was well rested. I had time for a shower before my room service breakfast was due to arrive. After the shower I read a chapter in The Hobbit.

Breakfast arrived promptly at 8:55 AM and was quite good. The bagel was nicely toasted and there were two large and thick slices of lox along with some red onion and a few capers. I actually prefer dry-smoked salmon, but this lox was very tasty. The mango was sweet and juicy. (I do love mangos.) I had a glass of cranberry juice and a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice to wash it all down.

After breakfast I spent about thirty minutes on the Internet. I had to answer some questions from the sister that is handling my Dad’s funeral arrangements and freezing his accounts for me. I am his executor. Probate doesn’t have to be done immediately, but I have to account for all his assets so they have to be frozen. Thank you, Brenda, for taking on those tasks for me.

I made sure I logged out of AND disconnected from the Amsterdam’s guest network before starting to work on my Day 2 blog post. If you forget to log out the minutes keep adding up even if you disconnect. You don’t want that to happen at 25 cents a minute.

After the first draft of the blog post was done I went into Lightroom to work on the pictures I’d taken in Fort Lauderdale and on the ship. I love Lightroom. I can simply “clean up” simple problems like composition or exposure, but I can also get as creative as I want. I can make a photograph look like a painting or spotlight a portion of the photo for dramatic effect. It is great fun.

At 11:45 I headed for the main dining room for a Cruise Critic lunch get together. Lunch was very good. I had a vegetarian taquito and a latin-seasoned steak salad. I was going to skip dessert, but they had a no sugar added chocolate éclair that was calling my name.

That’s okay though, because after lunch I took my camera and strolled down Deck 5. I took a lot of pictures, but most of them didn’t turn out well. The pitch and roll of the sea is great (my Fitbit thinks I’m taking eight or nine flights of stairs a day), but I’m going to have to practice because most of my pictures were out of focus. I posted the few that came out with the Day 2 blog post.

I spent about an hour at the Ocean Bar paying for tours I’ve booked with Cruise Critic members. Well, maybe ten minutes paying and the rest just chatting. Then I came back to the cabin and finished up all my photos, including the new ones, in Lightroom. Then it was already time for dinner! Time certainly flies when you are having fun.

For dinner tonight I had the shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, and Veal Cordon Bleu. It was all good. They served the Cordon Bleu with a bit of mushroom sauce on one side of the plate and a bit of marinara sauce on the other, which I thought was a bit odd. It worked though. It was very good.

I think we have our table filled out now. This evening we had two nice gentlemen join us. However, Kay’s friend Joanne switched from the 8:00 seating to 5:30 and wanted to sit with us. Yesterday Aloha & Estelle’s other cousin, Vangie, joined us. So we only had one opening at our 8-top. Jack, one of the gents, had been assigned to our table. The other, Dick, actually sat at the wrong table. When the Dining Room Manager told Joanne she had been assigned to ANOTHER table instead of ours, Jack graciously volunteered to take her place at the other table.

So our group is me, Kay, Joanne, the cousins – Estelle, Aloha, and Vangie, Mary and her father, John. John said he has a harem. We were once again a lively bunch and nearly the last to leave the 5:30 seating. We might have made it out earlier were it not for the confusion over seating arrangements, but I wouldn’t have bet on it.

Once again I had every intention of going back out this evening. I was going to go to the movies at eight. Never made it. That’s okay. I’m enjoying what I’m doing and that’s what cruises are for, right? You do what you want to do.

Tomorrow is our first port, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. I’m taking a tour arranged by a Cruise Critic member – a scenic drive and tour of the Tortuguero Canal. Maybe I’ll see a sloth or a monkey or two.

Read it on Go With Me!

After I cried myself to sleep on Sunday night, I slept like a baby. I had set my alarm for 8:00 AM, but I woke up at about 7:30. I showered and went to breakfast – orange juice, Denver omelet, and toast. It was very good. I’m picky about eggs – I only like them the way I like them. HAL’s omelet passed the test.

Breakfast behind me, I came back to the cabin and worked on my blog post about my Dad for a bit. At 10:00 we had our first Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. I kind of sat in the corner and let folks come to me. Which they did – apparently the photo booklet and initial organization I did for the roll call was a big hit.

I was more than happy to let Wowzo/MaryAnn emcee the meeting though. I can do public speaking and teaching, but I prefer not to. MaryAnn did a great job though. The Meet & Greet was well attended and both Henk, the Hotel Manager, and Glenn, the Cruise Director, came and spoke. Waiters were serving champagne and mimosas and there was food, although I didn’t partake in any of the offerings so I’m not sure what kind of food it was.

By the way, Diane S. said I should send a shout out to her son, who reads the blog. If she told me his name, I forgot and I apologize, but “Hi, Diane’s son!”

I only told two people on the ship today that my Dad had died. I was talking to a woman who is taking a tour I arranged in Lima and she asked me a question about what time we’d meet and I drew a complete blank! I just said “I’m sorry. My father died yesterday and my mind just turned to mush. Could you call me later?” Of course she was most gracious and sympathetic.

Then at dinner one of my table companions, Mary, who is on the world cruise with her father, asked me if my father was still living. I said “No” and she asked when he passed. There was nothing for it but to say “Saturday night”. She took my hand and told me how sorry she was and that I could call her anytime I needed to talk.

Despite being kind of out of it, I had a pretty good day. Writing the blog post about my Dad was kind of cathartic. It reminded me that I was very lucky to have the parents I had. I still miss my Mom every day after ten years. I miss Paul every day too. That said, I’ve made a life and gone on. I have fun and I laugh just about every day. I’ll continue to do so.

Other than the Meet & Greet and working on the post and picture gallery for the blog I read a few chapters of “The Hobbit”. I’m reading it for what is at least the thirtieth time. One of the last things I did before losing free internet access was download it and “The Lord of the Rings” to my Kindle. I love my Kindle – I can carry a whole library in less weight and space than one paperback.

I did my reading in the Ocean Bar this afternoon – I’m testing out the most comfortable chairs and environments for reading as I plan to do a lot of it on this cruise. As I was out and about I watched the crew working hard to decorate the ship for our first formal night.

I have to say, I was impressed with everything about the evening. I did not attend the Captain’s Champagne Reception, but my dinner companions told me it was exceptional. The same goes for dinner. Every course tonight had so many things I’d like to have eaten!

I decided on an antipasto plate for a starter, skipping the escargot (although I like it). The antipasto was delicious – I even ate the romaine garnish! I stuck to my Caesar Salad although I was tempted by the spicy corn chowder – I didn’t want to spill soup on my good clothes.

Then I had to choose between three things I dearly love: Filet Mignon & Lobster, Chicken Kiev, and Eggplant Parmesan. I went with the surf & turf and it was excellent. The steak was a perfect medium rare and very tender. The lobster was well-cooked, sweet, and tender.

Dessert? Oh, there were only three or four things I’d have gladly eaten. A Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce, a Pear Purse, Cheesecake, Vanilla Napoleon, and Crepes Suzette. I decided on the Napoleon and then Mary went and ordered one of everything so we all ate our own dessert and tasted whatever else appealed to us. I was so full I just had a little piece of the chocolate cake with my Napoleon.

I am having just the greatest time every night at dinner. I think we’ve been the last early seating table to clear out every night so far and poor service is not the reason. We just laugh and have fun and time gets away from us.

After dinner I came back to my room, absolutely firm in my plan to attend tonight’s show – “Forbidden Broadway” performed by a troupe of off-Broadway performers. As soon as I hit the door I just wanted to put on my sweats and stay in. It was exciting to find my first towel animal and second “pillow gift”. Last night we got a nice Moleskine travel journal and tonight we got a canvas Messenger bag. It isn’t padded, but it’s big enough to hold my laptop or my camera. Very nice. It doesn’t say “Grand World Voyage 2014” or anything at all, but that could be a bonus when out and about in port. There was a small bag of “travel swag” inside that does say “2014 Grand World Voyage”. It had things like hand sanitizer and lip balm in it – nice to have on a shore excursion.

Tonight we turn back the clock an hour to Central Time. I’ve ordered room service for breakfast at 9ish: juice, mango slices, and a bagel with cream cheese & lox. I’m hoping to take my camera out and get some pictures around the ship tomorrow so I may be spending part of the afternoon tomorrow working in Lightroom so I can post some when I post this to the blog.

Read it on Go With Me!

Last night after I finished my Embarkation Day post, I logged on to Facebook. That’s how I found out that my father passed away sometime Saturday night. He went to sleep after watching his Saints win a play-off game and never woke up. His death was not unexpected. He was in a hospice. None of us thought he was going to die on Saturday night or next Saturday night or even the one after that. I knew it was a possibility he would die while I was on this cruise. I certainly didn’t expect it to be Embarkation Day.

I hope you will allow me to indulge myself and skip the write-up of what I did yesterday and tell you a bit about my father. He was my hero. One of my earliest memories is of him and me going fishing at a reservoir in Virginia. I made our lunch – peanut butter sandwiches and Oreo cookies. We sat on the reservoir and fished – I caught my first bass, but what I remember was how special I felt to be there with him – just us two.

I learned to love baseball and football because my Dad loved them. I’d sit and watch the games with him. I remember fetching his beer and even acting as the television antenna – moving the rabbit ears whichever way he said. Getting up to change the channel when he asked. So, not only was I the antenna, I was also the remote control. Not always, I have four little sisters and a little brother.

He was a Marine. He went to Viet Nam when I was eleven years old. I was just becoming aware of the world around me. I knew that “the hippies out in San Francisco” didn’t think much of the American servicemen who went to Viet Nam and did what their country asked of them. When I got a little older I developed some “leftist” sympathies. I began to see that not everything our country did was perfect, but even then it was hard to understand how people could spit on men like my father and his friends.

When I was seventeen I decided to join the Army after I graduated from high school. My father and mother both had to sign off on that because I wasn’t eighteen. My father refused to sign those papers. On the day I was supposed to go to the recruiting station to be sworn into the Delayed Entry Program (I couldn’t actually go on active duty until I was eighteen) my mother told me to give her the papers and she’d forge his signature. I got them down from the refrigerator and he had already signed them.

So I joined the Army. I got married and had two sons. Then I got divorced and met Paul. Well, technically I met Paul before I was divorced, but I was separated from my first husband. Paul was just the nicest guy I ever met. He adopted my sons and raised them as his own. My parents loved him like a son. My mother always said she thanked God I found him.

In 1990 Paul deployed with the 24th Infantry Division in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. I was terrified he wouldn’t come home. I was afraid he was just too good for me. One night my Dad took me out to his favorite bar and he told me how much he and Mom loved Paul. I told him I was afraid he wouldn’t come home. He told me he would. He did come home and we had almost 20 more years together.

When my mother died in 2003 my Dad was lost. That’s the only way to describe it. Then in 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck and he had a mission again – getting his house rebuilt and taking care of his daughters’ families while they rebuilt. After the rebuilding was done he told me he was trying to get in contact with his high school sweetheart, Nancy. They got together and spent much of the next eight years together. I’m glad he had Nancy in his life.

Dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2013. He was doing well on chemo, but then he got a staph infection in October. He spent the next two and a half months in the hospital. I went home in December to see him and it was clear that although his infection was gone, he wasn’t strong enough to go home.

My sister, Brenda, and I did the hard sell that he needed to go to a rehab facility. It was a hard sell. I felt like he hated me. He did go to a rehab facility, but then he developed bronchitis and couldn’t do his physical therapy. He hadn’t had chemo in three months. He felt like he was going one step forward and two steps back. He was tired.

I talked to him last Thursday night and he told me that he and Brenda had a meeting with his oncologist. Then he told me he wanted me to have a great time on my world cruise. I knew he didn’t want any more chemo, so it wasn’t a huge shock when my sister, Roberta, told me on Friday night that he was being transferred to a hospice. She said he didn’t have his cell phone and she didn’t have the info for the hospice yet. So I didn’t talk to him on Friday or Saturday.

According to Brenda Dad had a good day on Saturday. They stayed with him most of the day and through the Saints game. Dad was happy because the Saints won. They got ready to leave and said they’d see him tomorrow. He said “I’ll be here.” But he wasn’t. Brenda got the call Sunday morning that he died in his sleep.

Dad as much as told me to stay on the cruise if he died. All my family tells me the same. So I will be continuing the cruise and the blog. He had a good life, but he was still my Daddy. So I’m sure there will be times when I miss him more than I can say.

We will miss you, Daddy. Give Mama our love.

Read it on Go With Me!

I hardly slept at all on Friday night. I finally gave up and got up and showered at 6:30 AM even though we wouldn’t be meeting to leave for Port Everglades until 11:45. I went down and had breakfast then went up and repacked my luggage. I’d decided to let two bags be transferred and only carry on one. I had to redistribute my computer and camera equipment.

That done, I still had about 2 hours to wait. I took my camera downstairs and took some pictures of the marina pavilion. Nothing much to look at really, but some boats. There were a couple of cats down there, but they were in the bushes catching lizards or something. I messed around with some HDR settings on the camera and I’ll see how those turn out. (I’m importing my photos from yesterday into Lightroom while I’m typing this.)

It started to rain so I headed back upstairs to my room. I finished a book I started about six months ago (The Last Child by John Hart). I can’t remember why I stopped reading it, because it was really pretty good. At 11:00, I checked out of the room and headed down to the area where we were to meet to catch the bus to Port Everglades.

Pretty much right on time at 11:45 the HAL rep rounded us up and we went out and boarded the bus. It took about 15 minutes to get everyone on and stow the luggage for those who didn’t have the “let the bellman pick your luggage up” option. Then we headed through the beautiful industrial areas of Fort Lauderdale to Port Everglades.

As we pulled into the port area, the first thing we saw was the “Oasis of the Seas” which looks like an apartment building. We passed a few more Royal Caribbean ships and then we saw the Westerdam, which was heading off on a Caribbean cruise, I believe. Finally, nestled in beside the Liberty of the Seas, we came to the beautiful Amsterdam. There were several folks heading to the Westerdam and as those of us heading for the world cruise got off the bus a woman told me to enjoy my cruise. I told her to enjoy hers and she laughed and said “Mine is nothing like yours is going to be!”

Embarkation was pretty easy and went quickly. The longest line was about 5 minutes. We did have to wait a bit for boarding (at least those of us not in suites or having 4 or 5 Star Mariner status), but it was only about fifteen minutes before they called number 14 and I headed for the ship.

By 12:45 I was in my little interior cabin. Alas, only one of my suitcases got there before me. I unpacked it and decided to call my sister. No reception inside so I went out on the wrap-around deck and called her. She was cooking a Boston Butt and getting ready for the Saints game. I talked to her for about fifteen minutes and then went to lunch in the Lido. I don’t like the Lido, but I was hungry. I had some dry roast beef and French fries.

By the time I got back to my cabin another suitcase had arrived. I unpacked it and it was almost time for the emergency drill. I headed out to Lifeboat Station 12 and waited for the drill. I know they tell you not go out there until it is time, but I was tired and didn’t feel like trying to get out there at the same time as everyone else. I wasn’t the only one. The drill went pretty well. We did have to wait about fifteen minutes for stragglers – I think some of them weren’t actually on-board yet. The Captain said this morning that we left Fort Lauderdale late because he was waiting for passengers delayed by the weather.

After the drill I went back to my stateroom and read for a while until time for dinner. I’d arranged with several fellow Cruise Critic members to share a table, but all did not go as planned there. One couple who had dropped out was still in our group even though we had all “disengaged” from their group. Their company was quite enjoyable, so I’ll hate them go this evening. They had us at a table for eight instead of six and later the staff brought another couple to join us. Not a problem except that two of the ladies we’d arranged to sit with had a cousin join them at the last moment, so we didn’t have room for all three of them.

Dinner was really good and everybody was talking. I had the Carpaccio of Beef Medallion as a starter, something I’ve never had before. It was delicious and I’ll have it again if it is offered. Then I had a Caesar Salad from the “Available Every Day” menu and the prime rib. The prime rib was very good, but a little more to the rare than the medium rare side. For dessert, I had the Crème Brulee – again from the “Available Every Day” menu. It was good, but I have to say my sister’s is better. We were having such a good time that they had to chase us out so they could get ready for the 8:00 seating!

After dinner I was so tired that I went back to my room, read for about an hour, and then went to bed. All my luggage had arrived, but I left the rest of the unpacking for today. Thus ended the first day of my great adventure.

PS - Thanks for all the good words and well wishes!

Read it on Go With Me!

I am snuggled safely in my room at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. The most exciting thing that happened on the trip down was trying to find the Budget Rental Car office in Fort Lauderdale. For future reference, if you are returning a rental car to the Budget office at 1515 NE 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale, the office is in a shopping center called Quay Plaza. There is a parking garage at one end and a row of offices and stores on the other. Near the roof on the building opposite the parking garage it says "Budget Car Rental" -- the office is actually on the first floor just to the right of the sign (if you are facing the building). Do not believe your GPS when it tells you the office is in the shopping center with Office Depot and Best Buy -- it is not.

Yesterday I picked up the car at the Savannah Airport (thank you again, Belinda, for the lift). They gave me an upgrade for $5.00 a day to a luxury car -- a Lincoln MKZ. It was a nice little car with all the luxuries to which I'm accustomed. (They had me at "heated seats" -- I can't tell you the difference the heated seats in my Taurus have made in my ability to drive with the arthritis in my back and right hip.) I guess I really do need to upgrade the Sync in my Taurus because the newer version works so much better with my iPod -- it still can't find my songs all the time, but at least it always remembered the iPod was connected where my Taurus often forgets.

After I got home I finished packing all my remaining gear and clothes for a couple of days. Then I took my sister to the store to do her grocery shopping for the week. Afterwards, I said good-bye to my sister and the dogs. (My Siamese saw the suitcases being packed, said "Rowrr!" and turned his back on me. I didn't see him again before I left.) Then I hit the road.

I arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn in Palm Coast a little after 4 PM. I got settled in my room and called my sister. Then I went down and had bowl of clam chowder and a "Chipotle Steak Wrap". I can't honestly recommend either one. The soup was tasty but the potatoes were hard and the clams were chewy. The wrap was okay, but it had neither the cheese nor the avocado listed on the menu and there was nothing reminiscent of chipotle.

After dinner I called my son and my father and then I went to bed. I was one tired puppy. I seldom sleep the night before a road trip and Wednesday night was no exception. Last night I slept a bit better - I woke up a lot, but went back to sleep each time. I got up at 7:30 AM, took a shower, read my email and Facebook, and hit the road around 10:00 AM.

It was COLD. It was less than 40 degrees in Palm Coast and the wind was blowing. The sun was shining so I put on my sunglasses, but that was the last time I saw the sun until I hit Palm Beach around 2:30 PM. By the time I got to Fort Lauderdale it was around 73 degrees and very pleasant.

I spoke to the Holland America rep at the welcome desk and she assigned me to shuttle #1 for the Amsterdam tomorrow at 11:45 AM. She told me to have my luggage ready for the bellman to pick it up at 9:00 AM and to be in the waiting area, which she pointed out to me, at 11:40 AM. I think I'll head there a little early though -- say 11:15. I am ready for my adventure to begin.

Read it on Go With Me!

Well, today's the big day. Hitting the road on my way to Fort Lauderdale to board the ms Amsterdam for the 2014 Grand World Voyage - Treasures of the World. When I decided to drive and not fly I was having problems not only with my knee, but with the arthritis in my back. So I decided to make it a two-day trip even though the entire trip is less than eight hours. Neither of those is currently a problem, but I'm still making it a two-day. Why stress myself?

I'm up and showered, waiting on my friend to pick me up to take me to the airport to pick up the rental car. Then I'll come back home, get the rest of my stuff (already semi-organized into piles) packed, take my sister to do her weekly grocery run (save her the taxi fare and aggravation on Saturday), pile everything into the rental car and head for Palm Coast, Florida, around noon.

It is still raining so my side trip to the Alligator Farm in Saint Augustine is probably a non-starter, but I have things to keep me busy at the Hilton this evening. As usual on the night before a trip, I didn't sleep well last night so I'm hoping I will sleep better this evening. Tomorrow morning it's up and out of there on the road to Fort Lauderdale. I've never been further south in Florida than Orlando, so I'm breaking new ground. I'd have to drive south of Miami to finally rack up the distinction of having driven every mile of I-95. I doubt I'll take the time to do so, but it is tempting. I've driven every mile of I-10, I-16, I-65, I-75, and I-20 already.

I have been torn between almost overwhelming anticipation, excitement, and dread for about a week now. 115 days is a long time to be away from home. How long before I begin to think, like Bilbo Baggins, "I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!" Nevertheless, today I am setting my foot out the door on my own great adventure and I hope I don't run into any dragons along the way.

I hope the wallet, and everything in it, turns up. I can sympathize with John because I thought I lost my wallet at Cracker Barrel the other day. I rushed back to the table and looked all around. Then I took a deep breath and looked in my purse again -- I put it in the "wrong" pocket. That was just a few minutes but it was about as close to panic as I've come since my nephew wandered off at a Mardi Gras parade 20-something years ago.

I did my first solo cruise this past October and the most valuable thing I learned was to put my self out there by talking to everyone I met. I met people in the waiting lounge before boarding, at the CC meet and greet, at bars, at dinner (fixed dining 8-person table), in the casino, and at trivia. I started each conversation with "Hi my name is Elsie. This is my first solo cruise." People were great!

 

I even made reservations to eat alone at the Le Cirque dinner, Canaletto, and Tamarind. One of my dining room companions asked to join me as he did not want to eat alone and so we did 2 of the three "solo dinners" together.

I am heading off on my first solo cruise and I second this advice. I suffer from terminal shyness and I made myself volunteer to coordinate the lists for the meet & greets for the world cruise and to do the photo booklet. I put myself out there and asked in the roll call if anyone wanted to share a table and we have a group of 4 solo women lined up for our table of 6. I organized tours and signed up for tours organized by others. I met a fellow blogger for lunch last week and we'll be dining together in the Pinnacle Grill for a few of their special nights. Bottom line is I have a bunch of people who tell me they can't wait to meet me! Putting yourself out there is hard, especially if you are shy, but if I can do it, anyone can. :)

*snip* Do NOT expect to meet any single men. The only single men are gay and not interested in us but fun to party with.

Well, darn! ;)

Read it on Go With Me

Less than a week until Embarkation Day! Ask me if I'm getting a little antsy. I have just a few things to do on my "must complete" list. Today I'm going grocery shopping for the last time in four months. I haven't actually been that many times in the last six months either. Since I hurt my knee in July I've probably been three or four times. I've driven my sister to the store and sat in the car. After I finished my physical therapy my sister told me we could take turns, but I've only done it once since then. But I insisted on doing it this week. I can go to the commissary and there are some things we can't find anywhere else in town that she'd like to have on hand. So that's my major task for the day.

Tomorrow I have to finish cleaning the carpet. I got about halfway done on Friday. My back was killing me yesterday so I put finishing off until tomorrow. I WILL finish though. My last task for my sister before I leave is to connect our treadmill to the Internet. I ordered the treadmill about 30 minutes before I hurt my knee and the idiot that set it up didn't have the foggiest idea how to set up the wireless connection. It has been on my task list ever since, but I couldn't even climb up on it for several months and I've put it off for other tasks. Bad me.

Monday night I've having dinner with a dear friend. She's taking me to the airport in Savannah on Thursday to pick up my rental car so I can head on down to Florida. We wanted to get together one more time before I take off.

As for getting myself ready, I have only a couple of things left to do. The first is to get my photography gear organized. I know what cameras I'm taking, but haven't finalized what 3 lenses I'm taking for my Canon EOS 6D. I have to organize all the memory cards, batteries, and battery chargers too. Then get them all packed up. Yesterday I finished getting my laptop ready for the trip.

I'm hoping to get everything I'm taking into one medium-sized suitcase, a sling-style backpack, and a camera bag if I can't get everything safely stowed in the other two bags. All I really have left is my prescription meds, laptop, camera equipment, and enough clothes for 2 days. It should all fit.

Personally, I feel that only forum-related posts should be stickied. That would leave ONLY the acronyms and difficult posts threads stickied.

I agree that the world cruise bloggers threads generally stay in the top 2 pages due to frequent posts. It is also really easy to either subscribe to those threads, or the blogs themselves, or save them as favorites in your browser.

That said, IF a world cruise sticky is created I would suggest that the post for Jeff's blog be converted to a world cruisers sticky (temporarily for the duration of the cruise only). Since Jeff is going to be on the world cruise he wouldn't need his own sticky.

It's a southern Ontario "accent". I get teased aboot my pronunciation by non-Ontarians a lot.

Thanks for that clarification.

So glad to see your blog! Of course, now I have some hefty competition!

I hope to meet you to at least say "Hello" on-board the Amsterdam.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

I love reading about your cruise adventure. Thank you very much for posting daily.

 

One question, being a Canadian, what exactly were you referring to regarding the "oot" pronunciation? I got lost there.:)

To Americans some Canadians have almost a Scottish accent, most pronounced when using words like "about". We say "abowt", some Canadians say "aboot". Same with "out" - we say "owt", Canadians say "oot".

Read on Go With Me!

Time is just flying by as we head into the last 2 weeks until the ms Amsterdam embarks on her 2014 Grand World Voyage with me aboard! I've finished all my major projects -- including a new website for my friend Kim (she sells custom jewelry at Treasures by Eleni) and a photo booklet for members of our roll call on Cruise Critic. Now I only have "little projects" left to do.

Alas, not everything is going smoothly on those little projects. This morning I was trying to put together scrapbooks for myself, my sister, and my grandson, but the cheap binders I bought wouldn't go back together after I took them apart. The posts were plastic and totally worthless. So, I ordered some D-ring binders from Amazon. They are supposed to be here on Tuesday so I'll have plenty of time to put them together. Mine doesn't really need to be put together until I get back, because I'm not taking it with me.

I am taking a binder with me. This afternoon I'll be organizing the binder I purchased to keep track of just about everything on the world cruise. I've got tabs in the binder for copies of my travel documents, my custom itinerary printed from Holland America, all my tours and excursions, menus, the daily bulletins, new contacts, and information from our Cruise Critic meet and greets. The binder itself will be a great keepsake of the voyage and I'll also ransack it for items to scrapbook.

Tomorrow is physical labor day. I'm going to clean the carpet in the library where our puppy has missed the puppy pad on occasion. She's finally graduated from the puppy pads to outside. She learned to use the pads right away, but we failed miserably at transferring from pads to outside until a couple of weeks ago.

Tuesday and Wednesday are dedicated to celebrating Christmas with my sister and our four-legged family members. Later in the week I need to set up my laptop and accessories for the trip and organize my photography equipment. I also need to finish my packing list for what I'm taking with me on the drive to Fort Lauderdale. I'll need to finish up most of my packing before New Year's Eve, because I'll be heading out early on 2 January. I'm taking 2 days to drive to Fort Lauderdale. I planned it that way when my knee was really bothering me. I could make it in one day, but I'll stick to my plan.

Just subscribed to your blog. All the other blogs I follow on Wordpress, give me a delivery frequency option, to which I tick immediate as opposed to weekly or daily, but yours doesn't have an option...is that correct or is there something else missing on the update? :-)

 

Sandy in Spain

Mine just notifies you when there is a new post. If you always choose "Immediate" you are good to go. :)

Is there a way to subscribe to your blog please Patricia?

 

Sandy in Spain

Yes, there is! Thanks for letting me know it got turned off in an update! Right sidebar of posts and main page there is a "Subscribe by Email" form. :)

Very cool webpage and even cooler maps.

(With your screen name I rather suspected the later ;-))

 

Thank you for doing this and sharing. I'll be following along. The times between captain Albert's contracts are so long..... And I think I just found my new favorite site.

While I am quite familiar with the software of which you speak, my screen name actually comes from a character on Star Trek. I've used it in online games for years. The first time I tried to name a character I tried for "Jadzia", but it was taken so I had to settle for "Esri" -- whom I never liked. I didn't realize for a few years that I had actually misspelled it! (The character was "Ezri Dax". ;)

Thank you for the kind words about my blog.

I think the ship is a CELEBRITY ship not Carnival --------

Indeed it is. I checked it twice and STILL typed "Carnival". Sorry about that.

Thank you all for your feedback, especially about the holiday message. It is supposed to go away after the first time you see it and should be easy to close. It worked for myself and a small test group. Obviously, it doesn't work under all circumstances. I have deactivated AND deleted it. Please try my blog again. :)

Let me know if there any other anti-user elements on the blog! Please. :)

I'll be blogging my world cruise on the Amsterdam on my website at http://gowithme.net/. I've been blogging there for quite some time as I've made preparations for the world cruise and some travel beyond that cruise of a lifetime.

I've set up an archive for my live blog of the world cruise at:

http://gowithme.net/archive-2014-world-cruise-live-blog/

I've got several pages set up for the world cruise:

• World Cruise Calendar
  
• Interactive Map
  
• Itinerary
  
• Special Events
  
• Vessel Finder - ms Amsterdam
  

I'll be adding galleries for menus, the daily bulletin, pillow gifts, and towel animals. I will be copying the text part of my live blog to this thread for those who'd rather not venture out into the big bad Internet, but you can subscribe right from the blog to be notified of future posts. :D

Come on, go with me around the world!

OK I found the link from USA Today about the canceling of the voyages on Xpedition because of lobsters. To me this whole thing was crazy

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2013/06/05/celebrity-galapagos-cruise-lobster/2392235/

Not sure if it had anything to do with sustainable Seafood :confused:

Indeed it did have to do with "sustainable seafood". There are numerous environmental restrictions of cruises in the Galapagos -- apparently there are seafood restrictions among them. I think the cancellation of the cruise was unfortunate (Carnival should have complied with the restrictions on such expeditions) but not crazy. Sustainability of life in our oceans has repercussions on sustainablility of human life far beyond not being able to get good sushi.

Noted on the new PG menu the phrase "Holland America will only serve sustainable seafood". Also noted that lobster disappeared from the menu. Does HAL consider lobster as a non sustainable seafood ?? If so what happens to the surf and turf on the fairwell dinner. Is this a viable reason or another example of cost cutting ?

Some American Lobstes are considered "sustainable" and some are not.

http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/seafoodwatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=30

So, I'd say the removal of lobster from the PG menu is a cost-saving effort.

As mentioned above, make sure you have the pop-up blocker in your browser turned on. If you do have your pop-up blocker on, and you still see pop-ups, you have malware on your computer.

You need an up-to-date antivirus and spyware cleaner. Those mentioned above are good.

I prefer to pay McAfee an annual fee to keep all my computers secured with antivirus, firewall, internet security features,etc.., but to each his own.