Turn around day again!

Saturday in Fort Lauderdale.

We woke early and we were able to watch while the ship sailed in and docked. It was a beautiful sunrise.

 Because we are not disembarking we decided to have a leisurely  breakfast in the dining room. The people we sat with were full of questions about Princess and the loyalty programs and some of the ports we have visited. We told them about Kim our amazing TA and they are going to write and get her information from us when we get home. We chatted for so long that we had to head for the Princess Theatre almost right away.

This is turn around day and because of it all of the in transit passengers have to report to Customs and have their passports checked. During the other two turn around days we have been checked on board and it was a fast an efficient procedure. This morning it was different. We were required to leave the ship and just before we were ready to return eight young men were called out of their seats and they were taken back on board in a separate group. All were speaking a language I did not recognize and all were carrying burgundy colored passports. Obviously these people had been on board the Caribbean Princess when Donald Trump issued his order about revoking visa and not allowing Muslim people into the US. I am afraid that these young men are Muslim and they will be caught up in this mad man’s insane policies. The gossip on the ship may clear this up. I am afraid for the world. We are all  going to suffer by his policies but we had nothing to do with his getting in this position.

Because sail away day is the day that they have deep fried scallop in Horizon court we decided that we should have lunch in the Buffet. It was a mad house in Horizon Court so we kept going to Café Caribe where it was a little less busy. The scallop were delicious. We were joined at our table by 3 ladies from Canada. Two were from Nova Scotia. We had a grand chat. Lots of fun.

After lunch we checked out the excursions for the next week. Ken decided that he would like to do the light house and beach break in Aruba. I filled out the form right away and I went downstairs to book it. I was lucky in that there were 4 spots left when I got to the counter so we got two of them. It is a 3 hour trip to the light house and time on the beach. It will be our only planned beach time for this cruise.

Sail away was also beautiful today.

At dinner we were greeted by Rui with a good old fashioned Hug. He says we are like family. It was great to be greeted by Pat and Darwin. It is almost like old home week. Before long we met our new table mates. There is a single lady whose name is Candy. It turns out that she is one of the Cruise Critic organizers and she was able to confirm that the meet and greet will be at eleven tomorrow.

The other table mates are a family of three from the Montreal area.  They are all adults, parents and a daughter. All are experienced cruisers and all love to spend time in the casino. They seem to be very nice people but it is not the same as Fred and Mary and Randy and Janeen. We ate light because of having had scallops at lunch time.

After dinner we went to the raffle at the Effy store. We saw lots of beautiful things. We did not win.

Next we went to the art gallery and sat in on their raffle. We did not win., but we did get small prints of caribou

We were early but we decided to go to the theatre for the welcome aboard show. We have not done this yet during this trip. The number by the dancers was very good and the comedian ( Eric Lyden )was fair, not bad and not great. We did get a few laughs.

After the show we decided to bring our free art back to our room. When we got to our room we discovered that we had an invitation to the most travelled passenger luncheon on Friday. I was really excited about it. For each cruise the 40 most travelled people are invited to a special luncheon with the captain and the senior officers. We did not expect this because so many cruisers do the Caribbean every year. This is the first time we will be attending this event.

We then went to Horizon court for ice tea and fruit.

We called it a night and a day. Cruise Four of 4 has begun.