A set of happenings puts us on board with relatives and old friends. For relatives, cousin Fran & husband Duane from Honolulu & Seattle had wanted this trip for some time, and are now taking it. For them it fills in a blank; they've cruised from Santiago around Cape Horn in the past.
For friends, a trio of retired USN submariner friends and wives had been cancelled on a Princess cruise - then their travel agent put them on this cruise. I'll introduce them as we come to them.
First we have to get to the ship. This was complicated by HA changing the departure port from Fort Lauderdale to Miami.
Now, we'll drive to south Florida on 11/17 to meet cousin Fran and husband Duane and stay the night at the Fort Lauderdale Hilton Marina. The following day we'll look around and do last minute things.
On 11/19 we'll drive the beach and end at the Airport Marriott complex near the MIA airport. There, we'll leave the car in long-term parking and get some sort of transport to the pier to board Holland America's Oosterdam, on which we cruised in 2007 to Alaska.
To Fort Lauderdale
Got on the road early and without problems wound up in FLL at the Hilton Marina about 1400. Fran & Duane had checked in. They came down to meet us after a short nap. We chatted and compared notes.
At meal time we went to Kelly's Landing for dinner. A cute little neighborhood place with a New England sort of atmosphere. Good food, wine was half-price so dinner came to $68. We will keep track of this place for future use.
Back to the courtyard at Hilton, where we bought bottles of wine to use and to take onto the ship. Then off to bed.
In Fort Lauderdale
Slept in, did room coffee, then met for lunch at Doc B's, where we've lunched before with Krista and Nick. Nice place.
Took a car ride around town and back to the Hilton. Duane stayed in but the rest of us boarded the Watertaxi that runs a circular route in the canals. Watertaxi wasn't really up to snuff today - boats breaking down, much confusion. We rode to stop 1 - Las Olas Blvd, walked the street a little, returned to the Boathouse of Riverside Inn for a glass, then waited and waited for a return trip. Finally we returned to the hotel.
We almost immediately departed for the Boatyard restaurant down the street. We had a nice dinner there but ran into resistance when we tried to get the Watertaxi discount. Manager 1 said no, since they'd terminated their agreement. Kept on until Manager 2 (of Manager 1) finally said they'd do it this time only. So we saved $45 and won an argument.
Back to the hotel. We met in F&D's room with wine and chatted for a couple of hours, then retired for the evening.
Boarding day
The day started with a surprise by Holland America. Now they want hard copy of our documents (Passport, Covid vax, Covid test results) at check-in in addition to seeing the documents at checkin. We finally found the copier in the lobby and made copies for them. We met a lady also going to Oosterdam making her copies. Great timing, HA.
We had our buffet breakfast in the hotel's room. Then, still bitching about having to make copies for a cruise line's use, we returned to the room for a coffee and to organize our luggage.
We examined "Marine Traffic" and found there are seven cruise ships here and six in Miami. The hotel is full of people milling around with luggage and a few dogs. Also some muscle-builder types; must be a gathering someplace.
At 1100 we brought the luggage to the minivan and started for Miami. Traffic was dense in a couple of places, then we found an open express lane that got us to the airport turnoff quickly. Out FL112 to the airport, down Le Jeune road to the Marriott complex. Put out the luggage at the door to the Courtyard and arranged for a big taxi. O parked the car way off in the boondocks and came back.
Since we had boarded early, our luggage wasn't at the cabin. So we went to the Crow's Nest to have a glass. There, we stumbled into the Mariner's welcome with lots of glasses. Fran & Duane came along so we planned the rest of the day over a couple of glasses.
Back to our very nice stateroom to do the required viewing of the Safety lecture. It would not run. Customer Service told us to turn it off for a half-hour and try again. We did, and did our unpacking into closets, shelves, and drawers. This Signature Suite is a nice way to travel with more room than the Verandah cabins we've used on prior cruises.
An announcement was made to watch the safety briefing so O did while D went off to mass. Standard stuff, not much new. A porter tried to put luggage in our stateroom that didn't belong to us, so O sent him on his way.
We went down to deck 3 to explore. D ran into Tom Teters & Sandra, with their friends Shirley and AJ. We chatted about when we met 61 years ago when we were young Sonarmen on USS Seadragon. Fran had sent a note they were in the same bar on the other side, so we joined them. Had a glass and went to the dining room.
We chatted and ate. Service was slow and sketchy but we had what we wanted. Finally we ran out of conversation and stamina so we headed for bed. Incredibly, Tom Teters got into the up-bound elevator with us. Hugs again and on to Stateroom 6109. O did these notes for later upload when he figures out the link to the internet from the laptop.
'nite.