At Sea

It will take us until tomorrow to get to our first port of call which is Grand Cayman, so today we cruise the Caribbean Sea and the southeast end of the Gulf of Mexico.  Off to port (left side of the ship) we can see Cuba and the city of Havana, although I do not have my camera with me when we pass Havana. 

By the time I do get my camera Havana is gone from view but, we can see some of the mountains along the coast as we travel west along Cuba. 

While we are walking through the ship we pass the atrium and of course I have to take a picture of the atrium, so from the top deck of the atrium, I get this picture of the center hub of the ship.

I went to a wine tasting where they had a champagne, two red wines, two white wines, and a port.  Carmen did not go to the wine tasting since she does not drink wine, so I sat at a table where they had a single seat remaining.  Good thing I sat at this table because one of the women did not drink wine, so I drank hers.  Good for me.

The port was very good; again for me another of the ladies at the table did not drink her port and her husband did not like his, so she gave it to me.  Mmm Good!

After the wine tasting, I met with Carmen and sat on the open deck by the pool where we listened to music and watched a movie.  

The Sea here is very blue and very pretty – or at least to me.  We finished our day with dinner and then a show. 

Tomorrow Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

All Aboard

Well Carmen and I are off on another trip.  Today we begin our cruise to the Panama Canal.  We left Sebastian, FL at 9:00AM and winter has come to our part of Florida; when we left, the temperature was 53° - cold for our area. 

Our plan is to get to the parking lot early so we have a chance to get a shuttle to the boat without having to cram ourselves in or waiting in line for the next shuttle.  That part of the plan worked out great and was transferred to a waiting shuttle with a load of passengers on the way to the various ships.  Temperature when we arrived at the parking lot was 66°, much better than the 53° we started with.

At the ship terminal, we can see there are five other ships besides ours berthed waiting for passengers.  It is going to be a busy time departing the port.  Also from the top deck of the ship, we can see Ft. Lauderdale and some of the private “boats” that are docked and coming in and out of the inlet.

Shortly after getting on board, we found out that we would not be able to get to our room until after 3:00pm, because they are doing a deep clean and disinfecting, so after a quick lunch, on the Lido Deck.  Later we moved to the excursion desk making our reservations for the various islands, before everyone on board tries to do the same thing.

We are the second cruise ship to leave Port Everglades.  I watched from the Sun Deck as the first ship, the Serenade of the Seas, leaves and we begin to push away from the dock.  

As we begin to leave the port inlet, we are greeted with horns and flags from the condo units along the canal inlet. 

Clearing the Inlet, as we move out of the port, we have a clear view of the length Fort Lauderdale’s beach.  Nice clean beach sand all the way up and around the front of the high rise condo units. 

There are three other ships that follow us in short order.  From our vantage point is looks like two of them are fairly close to each other.

Once we cleared the port and was far enough out at sea we traveled south along the coast soon nearing Miami Beach as the sun was setting.  Absolutely gorgeous, the colors after the sun set - fantastic.

Dinner and a show rounded out our evening along with a walk around the deck of the ship.  Air temperature out at sea is 72° and the water temperature is 82°; can’t get much better than that.  As we pass South Beach and the Port of Miami the sunset still has a nice after glow. 

Tomorrow is a full day at sea and we have been invited to a wine tasting and a Captain’s event.