We were up and about by about 0730, excited to be embarking on a new adventure. Weather was good. Fort Lauderdale glittering in the sun. No wind!!!
We had an email from Princess 2 days ago to say that as they were arriving from a foreign country, they would have to go through the same procedure that we did yesterday, in Port Canaveral ie everyone off and rechecked. Therefore please don’t turn up till 12. We hoped Cunard would let us stay till 1030 but no we would have to be off at 0845 latest. We pondered hanging around longer but didn’t like to think of our luggage sitting lonely in the middle of the arrival shed. We had too much luggage to seriously consider going anywhere other than to the dock where Majestic Princess was berthed, early or not. So off we got……
And straight into the crazy tipping culture of the US. No luggage trolleys in the terminal…. Only porters. Handout no. 1. Taxi to Princess terminal. Fare and handout no. 2. Porter to load our luggage from the curbside 2 feet to a baggage cage. Handout number 3. Why not just pay these guys some sort of living wage???
The Princess greeter said the terminal doors would open for checkin at 10 am ie 45 mins. That’s a long time to stand, I said. ROFL!!! We got in line, maybe 20 people ahead of us. Well…. 10 came and went… The line behind us grew to over 2000 people. The noise was deafening. 11 came and went. One old guy behind us nearly collapsed…. I knew how he felt. Finally at 12, the manager of the terminal came out and said they would let us a little way in but everyone wasn’t off the ship yet so no one else could board. We got in about 50 feet, as far as the scanners. Another half hour. My back was killing me. Over 3 hours in a queue but where else to go when it would mean then being behind the big queue….
1230 we were scanned and allowed through and 10 minutes later we were on board. Phew.
What a beautiful ship.It’s big. 19 decks, Very glamorous and modern. Immaculate. Our cabin is smaller than Queen Victoria but very comfortable and the bathroom is bigger. Our formal clothes in a suit carrier and Bob’s golfclubs arrived….. Our 2 large cases with everything else did not. We had a late lunch. Nothing arrived.
This is unusual in our experience. Generally your luggage is with you about 2 hours maximum after you board.
The steward tried to reassure. Oh yes…. did I mention we had sailed at 3pm. We did. We would have loved to enjoy the pool but we only had the clothes we stood in other than our evening wear. The airtags were last seen on the dock in Fort Lauderdale. By 730pm we gave up and went to dinner on the clothes we’d queued in all day. A very nice dinner by the way. Amazing choices each course.
Got back to the cabin about 9 pm and thank god there were our 2 missing cases. We unpacked and turned in. Knackered.
Luckily, we slept well and woke this morning to a better day. The steward brought us welcome hot tea and coffee after which we got up for breakfast. We could see it was a lovely day outside. The sun was shining and the sea was a flat calm. How nice….. We pegged out on one of the sun decks ALL DAY!!! I had a swim at one point. Otherwise I just lay there like a piece of toast, turning brown (hopefully) while I read my book. Bob went for lunch. I lacked the energy for it so he brought me back a lovely ice cream. After yesterday, it was just the antidote.
Tonight we went to a Princess classic event, the Champagne Fountain and Captain’s Welcome Party. Always a lot of fun. Once, some years ago, they chose Daisy to start it off and she had to stand on a platform to reach the top!! Did a good job tho. These days the maitre d’ kicks the fountain pouring off and whilst you can pose for a photo, you are not allowed to hold the bottle yourself. I daresay there have been some unfortunate incidents which have led to this change!!!!! I have to say it would be terribly easy to cause a calamity.
After that we went to a comedy show, then had dinner (excellent again) and then went to the main theatre musical show called Sweet Soul Music. It was good and quite spectacular though the band wasn’t in the same league as the Cunard band and neither was the show – rather old fashioned in it’s way.
Well, today was great and a much better start after yesterday. Looking forward to another relaxing day at sea tomorrow before we start arriving at the islands.
