April 26th - 28th
So, after working in my garden a few days before our cruise, I was suffering from a painful sciatic problem - I could easily walk on both flat surfaces and hills/stairs, but I found it uncomfortable to sit or lie down for more than a few minutes. And as you all know, you can't just walk around all day and all night without a bit of rest occasionally. There was no time to see a doctor/physiotherapist/chiropractor, but the injury was not going to cause me to cancel the trip - you will note in the above picture that I don't seem to be suffering at all....
Ber and I left Ottawa on Tuesday morning, April 26th, driving to Toronto for an overnight stay before catching our flight to Florida - within an hour, I had to move from the front seat into the back, where I laid sideways, propped up with a pillow, for the rest of the 4 hour drive. Now I know how little kids feel on long drives - the only things I could see were clouds, tree tops, and large trucks as they passed us - that got boring pretty quickly. In Toronto we checked into our hotel and headed out for a visit with Ben, Jenn and kids - Jenn fed us well, the kids were great - happy, friendly and very well mannered, even though we kept them up past their bedtime.
On Wednesday morning we left our car in secure parking at the hotel and took the shuttle to the airport where we joined the hordes of travelers heading south. At our departure gate was a group of 65 bridge players who all happened to be going on the same cruise that we were - they all assumed we were bridge players as well, and the leader frequently included us in her information sessions. It was a friendly group, though the leader tended to micromanage everything and I think caused more confusion than necessary. The flight was uneventful once the leader rearranged many of her group's seats and we landed in hot sunny Fort Lauderdale just a little behind schedule. A shuttle bus was waiting to take all of us to the luxurious Westin Hotel - as I boarded the bus, an unexpected small step caused me to turn my ankle - same side as my sciatica - didn't think I hurt it but it felt odd. We and all the bridge players had to line up and check in one at a time... I would have pushed ahead if there weren't so many of them! The hotel was very, very nice, but according to the desk clerk "not walking distance to anything". But they don't walk in Florida - we changed from our travel wear into clothing more suitable for the climate and headed out to find a restaurant that was in our price range (i.e. not the hotel dining room!) and within a mile and a half we were surrounded by a number of ideal places. We didn't see another pedestrian on the entire route. Enjoyed a nice meal and walked back to the hotel to sit by the pool with a glass of wine before turning in. The walking caused me no problem at all until I got out of bed in the morning - very stiff, very sore, but a few stretches took care of that. We joined the bridge players for the breakfast buffet - very nice, as it should be at $20 per person, and by noon the buses arrived to shuttle us to the cruise port. Ber and I both agreed we would never, ever travel in a group - the leader kept trying to organize everyone to the nth degree and we had to wait while she checked and double checked her list of names. Finally the driver was ready to go when one man jumped up and ran from the bus - he had left his passport and tickets locked in the safe in his room! Makes you wonder.... Next time, rather than use the ship's transfer service, we will just take cabs on our own, like the sisters did so successfully!
At the cruise port, the check in went very quickly - we were just ahead of the crowds I guess. Holland America's new policy is to have your cabins ready as soon as you board, so we were able to go directly to our cabin, drop off our bags, meet our cabin stewards (Yodi and Sugi) and head for the Lido deck. When the mandatory life boat drill was held we were assigned to Life Boat Eleven - I was pleased that we didn't have Life Boat Thirteen, as on a previous cruise - somehow just the name "Life Boat Thirteen" did not give me a secure feeling. Eleven seemed like a lucky number.....
It was a lovely day - hot and sunny - we joined in on the sailaway party and waved goodbye to those on shore. For the sisters info, we passed the same beautiful homes and condos on the beach as when we left the port. We watched the pilot boat head back to harbor and felt we were truly on our way.
At dinner time we met our table mates, a slightly older Italian couple, celebrating their 50th anniversary (the cruise was a gift from their only son) and a slightly younger couple taking an extended holiday to use up accumulated vacation days. We enjoyed a wonderful meal with great service from the friendly table stewards, checked out the string quartet playing in one of the lounges, then settled in for the night.
Seas were calm as the ship headed in a northerly (?)direction.....
No comments:
Post a Comment