Saturday continued.

On our way out to lunch I asked Pinky our room steward about getting another chair and I was so pleased to see that she brought us one.
I thought about it and decided that paying for the fast internet...Medalian was worth it to me, so I invested the 112. necessary to get that service. I can tell you right now that it was worth it to me. I can download pictures in seconds. Your blog will be much more interesting.



After we got up from our nap it was time to unpack because our suitcases had been delivered. We got it done before it was time to go to dinner.

We are dining in the Provence Dining room at table 184. Unfortunately it is a table for 10 and we had hoped for a table for 6. BUT only one other person appeared. Her name is Carol and she was so very interesting to chat with.
They were having a promotion...a peach Bellini.... for 3 dollars. I had one and it was yummy.

The embarkation Day dinner menu always features Prime Rib and Ken really enjoyed it. I had the Basa filet with mango salsa. So Very good.

It was so big that Ken could not finish it.
Our waiters are Bayou and Midi. They are a lot of fun and they are so friendly and efficient . They are going to be fun.

After dinner we went to the theatre for the evening show. It was a comedian . His name was Jeff Burghart. Most if not all of his jokes were old and lots of people laughed hardily. I think perhaps they were drinking a lot before they arrived.

After the show we headed back to our room and called it a night. We were more than ready to rest.

Tomorrow is EASTER.

The Beginning

We had breakfast at the hotel, or at least I think we did I was like a Zombie because I was so tired.
We did not go for wine or flowers, we just got the transfer to the ship.
We did not have to wait very long and we were soon on board.
We are on deck eight and it certainly is central. We found our room and when we walked in the first thing we saw was a paper saying we were invited to have lunch with the officers because we were one of the most traveled passengers on this cruise. I was thrilled. The top 40 get this invitation. Finally we made it.

Then I finally looked at the room. We liked it as is usual for us. Ken thinks it is a little smaller but I am not sure.

The balcony is smaller.

Next we headed for the Horizon Court to have lunch. The dining rooms were closed because of the Coast Guard inspection. Anyway we were amazed at how few people were there when we arrived but it was not long before it was full. I had fruit for lunch and Ken had an assortment of items. I picked up dessert for him, an amazing hot brownie with hot chocolate sauce, I had a lemon cookie. BUT I was really impressed by the assortment of desserts available. I will have to stay away from the buffet.

When we returned from lunch a beautiful bouquet of tropical flowers graced our room. Kim had struck again!! She has to be the best TA ever.

Next item on the agenda.....a much needed nap!!ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Catching up

We had the clock set for 6 and we woke just before that. I made breakfast and packed us a lunch and we were ready to leave the house at 7:25. The goal was 7:30 so we were doing fine. It was raining but there was little or no traffic because it was Good Friday. It seemed strange to not have hundreds of cars in view as we traveled. We arrived at Kerri's at 8:25. The city is so beautiful right now. Cherry blossoms everywhere. I love how beautiful this city is.

We had almost an hour to visit with Emmie and Leo. Of course Kerri and Stewart as well. We brought bags for them as is our tradition. 

We got a cab to the airport and again the traffic was light. We were checked in and through security by 10:15. The flight was scheduled to leave at 12:35 so we had lots of time to roam.

For some reason I could not connect to the internet so I read a little and we ate our lunch before boarding. The flight was uneventful and I passed the time reading my book and Ken listened to music on his MP3 player.

We arrived in Denver early, almost a half hour early. But the first thing we saw on the board that our flight was delayed. It would be delayed and our gate would be changed a few times. It gave us time to explore. This was a sign we did not expect to discover.

 Who knew that the bathroom was the safest place to be during a tornado???

We kept getting new departure times and to keep people calm the DOG arrived. This is Miles the therapy dog. You could pet him if you were missing your own dog or feeling stressed. He is a great dane and was the size of a small pony.

After about three hours of waiting United gave out drinks and snacks for all of us. Then at the 4 hour mark they gave out vouchers that could be used to get food. We each got 10 dollars and because we had eaten we chose to get dried fruit to use for snacking on board.

We arrived in FLL around 3:30 and after a frustrating hour of waiting for our shuttle to the Best Western we called a cab. We arrived, checked in and turned off the lights at 5:03. The day was too long.

April 20th

We embark today. We are in cabin E-304. It is a balcony room on Emerald deck ( deck 8)
We like the room and we love the flowers we got from Kim.

Because of the horror of a plane trip I am absolutely exhausted and I am on my way to bed. Tomorrow afternoon I will try to catch you up on all of the happenings and send pictures. Just too tired right now.

Cruise 48 and 49

This is really only one cruise but because people can embark in LA it is counted as 2 credits. That is a good thing. It actually works out to be fair because we have a 28 day cruise in January and it will only get one credit. Some are long and some are short.

The cruise is a trip from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver, making our 4th full transit of the Panama Canal. The first three were at a time when the new canal was under construction.
The expansion is complete and we are hoping to see the new canal

Here is the itinerary:
The itinerary includes 3 formal nights and 15 smart casual nights.

Panama Canal & British Columbia

Day & Date	Destination	Duration
Sat, 04/20/19
	Check In Begins At 12:30	– 4:00pm
Sun, 04/21/19	At Sea
Mon, 04/22/19	At Sea
Tue, 04/23/19	Cartagena, Colombia	7:00am – 3:00pm
Wed, 04/24/19	Panama Canal Full Transit Scenic Cruising	6:00am – 4:30pm
Thu, 04/25/19	Fuerte Amador, Panama (for Panama City) Tender Required wheelchair Access Limited	7:00am – 6:00pm
Fri, 04/26/19	At Sea
Sat, 04/27/19	Puntarenas, Costa Rica	7:00am – 7:00pm
Sun, 04/28/19	San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua Tender Required wheelchair Access Limited	7:00am – 6:00pm
Mon, 04/29/19	At Sea
Tue, 04/30/19	Huatulco, Mexico	8:00am – 5:00pm
Wed, 05/01/19	At Sea
Thu, 05/02/19	Puerto Vallarta, Mexico	8:00am – 5:00pm
Fri, 05/03/19	At Sea
Sat, 05/04/19	At Sea
Sun, 05/05/19	Los Angeles, California, United States Ship @ Port Of San Pedro check-In Begins At 1:00pm	7:00am – 4:00pm
Mon, 05/06/19	At Sea
Tue, 05/07/19	At Sea
Wed, 05/08/19	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

April 19th

This is our flying day.
We spend the night at the Best Western on State Street.

It is a basic clean place with near by shopping for wine and flowers. They also have transport to the ship so it is a good choice.

Because of the time of the year the prices are higher than we have paid on other occasions but it is better to fly the day before and stay over night rather than take a chance on problems with the flight making you wave good bye to the ship as it leaves port.


As usual the shuttle did not arrive and we had waited for him. We ended up getting a cab and when we finally turned off the lights and crawled into bed it was 5:03.
This would be a very short night. Hardly worth the price of the hotel.

Princess E-Z air

We decided to give Princess E-Z Air. The price was very good. I kept checking with other airlines and no one could beat Princess. They have a policy that you could cancel if you found a better deal. We did not cancel.

Flying from West to East is always a pain because you arrive so late. It will be almost midnight by the time we get to Fort Lauderdale. But we have the advantage of not leaving too early . Our plane does not leave until 12:45.

Here is our schedule:

Flight Schedule
Flight Details For: All Passengers Conf. #: MENHMT
Date Airline Flight From / To Depart Arrive Date Seats Location 4/19/2019 United Airlines 464 Vancouver (YVR) 12:25 PM           Denver, CO (DEN)   4:20 PM 4/19/2019     4/19/2019 United Airlines 1812 Denver, CO (DEN) 5:31 PM           Ft Lauderdale, FL (FLL)   11:20 PM 4/19/2019

We will drive into Vancouver and leave the vehicle at Kerri's and get a cab to the airport.

Our cruise ends in Vancouver so we will just pick up the luggage and head back to Kerri's




That was the plan but we were delayed and were 4 hours late arriving in FLL.