Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Ft. Lauderdale
Outfit: Blue jeans shorts, "Cruisin' Thru Life" RC T-shirt
With Hurricane Dorian well to the northeast, the day started out slightly overcast gradually clearing to sun-filled skies by noon. The drive to Ft. Lauderdale was, like last time, smooth and easy. But this time, Hulk lit up its "Low Tire Pressure" light AGAIN, even before making it out of Highlands County. Yup...right front tire again. All of them were a tad low but that one was below 25 psi. Finally found a gas station with a working air pump after three tries and filled the sucker. Light extinguished. Isn't this the tire I just bought a year ago? No, it was the left front tire.
Park N' Go was smooth as ever and embarkation was also a breeze. My cabin is still the guaranteed inside I was handed when I booked. No upgrade. This was especially irritating since 1.) it was a really small cabin, I was feeling very cramped and 2.) I later found out the number of passengers on board was waaaay low so there must have been upgrade opportunities. So much for being a cherished Gold Level passenger.
Had lunch in the Windjammer Buffet (WJ) of Tilapia Fingers Tempura with tartar sauce, Pork Schnitzel with pork gravy and, of course, those delicious Royal Caribbean mashed potatoes. Mmmm.
Allure of the Seas, which I took a short video of in Costa Maya last year, was sharing our port with us.
Here's a peek into my "desk work" that I do each day on a cruise. I use the daily planner (Called "Cruise Compass" for Royal Caribbean) to plan out my daily activities and shows. The legal pad is for journaling my day in order to create these posts to this blog.
Shifted around a bit throughout the afternoon, mainly staying in Boleros but also sitting on Deck 7 promenade, the Sun Deck in the sit-up chairs which are only at the smoker's area and a short visit to the Schooner Bar. Stuck with Dos Equis and had only four. Plus two glasses of my in-cabin Chianti.
Watched 70's Disco "Name that Tune" with only five players, and went to the Spectrum Lounge to check out Karaoke. Only a handful people there so I chose to walk on by. Why such low turn outs? Well we truly found out at the Welcome Aboard Show in the evening. Tornado Tanya (yep, she's still the Cruise Director) told us that there were less than 820 guests on-board! The crew number around 850. So there were more crewmembers on-board than passengers! Thanks Hurricane Dorian!
The comedian in the show tonight, Don Gavin, was really good by the way.
Dinner in the WJ: Steak with chimichurri sauce, awesome lasagna al forno and, yup, mashed and gravy.
As night approached we entered into some post-storm churned waters and the ship was rockin' and rollin'! During the show, both Tanya and Don, the comedian, nearly lost their balance and walking through the ship afterwards was like being totally shitfaced drunk. This was the rockiest I'd ever experienced. Of course, I totally loved it!