Cruise Three Begins

The ship is currently pulling away from the dock so I have to say that cruise three has begun.

I am happy that we did not have to head home today, but by the same token I would not be upset if this were our final day. This has been an amazing cruise. The weather, the shore excursions, the food, the shows, everything has been wonderful.

We awoke early this morning and had our usual room service breakfast and then got ready for our excursion around Fort Lauderdale. Our group had to meet in the Casino and we were the second group to head our. We boarded the bus with 34 other passengers. The bus was large, beautiful and clean and not at all crowded. Our driver was Reginald and our guide was Laura. She was Polish and she had an accent but it was very easy to understand her. The bus drove us around the downtown area and then we went to a waterway where we boarded the paddle wheeler Carrie 3

There was an upper level and a lower. We choose the upper but there was a covered area so we had the best of both worlds. We had the full view and some shade. We toured the waterways that give this city the title of the Venice of America. The homes along this area are unbelievable. One has a cost of 35 million and the property tax is a thousand dollars a day. The exception was the house that was under a million dollars. The guide pointed out a 30,000 square foot home. Apparently only 2 people live in it.

He also pointed out the home of an older gentleman who was ninety years old and he had been legally blind for the past 20 years. But he told us not to feel sorry for him because he was the inventor of automobile air conditioning and he gets a royalty every time Chrysler sells a vehicle and he had married a 22 year old bar tender just the year before.

 There was one vacant lot there and it has a price tag of 21 million. 

They told us that there are 42 thousand yachts registered in Fort Lauderdale. With a population of only 116 thousand that is amazing. A lot of the owners of these mansions live here only during the winter and they have 2 or 3 homes in other places.

We saw some of the most amazing yachts. One in particular is for sale for 3335 million and it costs 500 thousand to fuel it up. Apparently the master bedroom on the yacht is over 3000 square feet. But fear not you can rent it for a mere million dollars a week .

We had an hour to roam the main street and peek into some of the exclusive shops. We poked our nose into the Wyland Gallery. We must have looked like we had money because one of the salesmen made certain to give us a special showing of a work done on aluminum. We left without making a purchase.

The passengers flying out were dropped at the airport and we were returned to the ship. It was so much easier than we dared hope.

We had lunch, I decorated our door in a theme of Carnival and we did our clean up and throw out papers thing and soon it was time for sail away. Ken went topside and I am here typing to you. I sure hope we get some nice tablemates but the group we had last time are going to be a hard act to follow.

We have returned from dinner and we have met our new table mates. They will do. It is a mother and her son and her daughter and they seem to be very nice . We think it will be a good cruise. They will be on for 10 days, and they are from Colorado. The son and daughter are adults not little children by the way.

We were shocked and pleased to find that Kim our TA has again sent us gifts of chocolate covered strawberries and a coffee card. What a winner she is!!

Tomorrow we are back to Princess Cays.

Arata and Pim, our waiters

Our door decorated for Cruise Three

French Fries!!! WOW!!!