Ft Lauderdale & Home- Nov 6th

Up very early again (05:10) as we went through yet another time change with us switching to Daylight Savings Time. Kelly made some hotel coffee and, after checking on some additional geocaches, we headed out for a walk on the "Broadwalk"... yes I thought it was Boardwalk..... I was very close:-)

Friend Update: The Orr's "Great Travel Adventure"... they finally made it to Toronto and are about to get on the flight to Vancouver.

For a Sunday morning at 06:30 the place was hopping with walkers,  joggers, runners, bikers in every shape & size. It was busier than last night! We managed to get a couple caches and some DNF's (did not find) and enjoyed the walk in the wind. The sun would pop out every now & then to really warm us up. We stopped for breakfast & another coffee at the Brocheterie along the broadwalk.

Busy place!!

Flowers still in bloom.

Nice little place right on the broadwalk.

The latest naval destroyer was doing sea trials the past few days right off the beach area. It is pretty funky looking compared to conventional ships and is called the USS Zumwalt. You can read about it here

Look a Zumwalt!!

We headed back to the hotel and sat on a nearby bench soaking up the rays and the ambiance of the broadwalk. We think it would be a great RV trip down here for an extended stay with quickie cruises thrown in! We will see.

We showered up and finished packed all our bags (a top up really) and then headed to the airport via a shuttle.  A quick drop of our bags at terminal 3 and we headed through security. It was strait forward and at 11:30 we were through and headed towards the gate.  Lots of time so we grabbed a spot at the very crowded bar and had a nice beverage.

I was watching sports on the big screen TV and it showed a time of 12:52... that's odd because the clocks went back an hour last night??? I asked the lady next to me and her watch said 12:52. What the heck?  Turns out the ship's last day of sailing was not a time change! We spent the day one hour off and checked in just in the nick of time! Sheesh.

We gulped the drinks as the flight boarded and away we went. The plane pushed out of the gate on time at 13:20!  Into DFW at 15:30 local after another one hour time change.  Transfer to our next flight at 17:00 and pushed on schedule for Vancouver. Adios Dallas!

Friend update: The Orr's reported that they made it home... and the Green's are now in Boise hunting down a cat:-)

The flight was pretty routine with some minor turbulence and we landed 10 minutes early @ 19:20.... after yet another two hour time change! My head is spinning as I am pretty sure the Harmony had one too many time changes... not sure what happened to the spare hour!

We left our American Airlines flight and headed down to pick up our bags. Nexus got us through customs immediately and we then watch the bags dispensed onto the carousel. It then stopped... uh oh! Kelly then said the American Airlines Bag tracker on the app showed the bags loaded in Florida but they were now in PHX (Phoenix, AZ).  We filled out the usual paperwork (yes this has happened before) and then cleared immigration.

We met up with our son Kris in the main concourse and got caught up on his world.  Next we headed down to the commuter gates and checked on flights. Our 22:55 departure was still on time so off to Milestones for one last vacation beverage.  The flight ended up being full as we are now traveling on a pass. So... we waited a little bit more until the next one went at 23:55.

On the flight and into Victoria on schedule. Baggage was easy as we had none! Grabbed the car and yep... dead battery. Luckily I flagged down our Flight Attendant and she gave us a jump start. We were finally homeward bound on the last leg of our journey. In the door at 00:35!

Another great trip in the history books.... er I mean Blog  😀

PS: We awoke the next morning and 15 minutes later had a knock on the door for baggage deliver. Now that worked out perfectly!

Ship to Shore - Nov 05

We arrived into Fort Lauderdale in the wee hours of the morning. The ship, with it's 5600 passengers, would be disembarked in an orderly manor based on selected departure times. Our departure time was set for 09:40 so we had lots of opportunity to relax.   Patty & Guy posted that they had already arrived at the airport by 7 am. ! They were well on their way.

We did a final pack then went topside for one last walk around the upper deck. It was very quiet although the crew was busy getting the ship ready for the next cruise.  Great views of the port and surrounding area.

View from the balcony.

Flags are flying!

We texted with Bryan and learned that disembarking was delayed quite a bit. With the ships crew on the dock at 4am to clear immigration and the first groups left the ship at 6:15, things slowly ground to a snails pace when the Coast Guard decided to have the crew do a simulated emergency. Great timing. Anyway things eventually started to move and we got off the ship at 10:30 am.

Bryan was texting updates as they departed with pics showing long lineups. We finally made it into the terminal and started our bag search. The baggage was placed into numbered sections so we immediately looked for #53.... I couldn't find them in the area that was between 52 and 54... nothing! Kelly tried next and found out that there were two #53 sections and our bags were in the second one.

Once we had the bags our Nexus/Global Entry had us bypass huge lines of people and through Immigration & Customs very fast. Bonus!  We exited the building to a huge downpour of rain. What the H E double hockey sticks!!  We grabbed our Arcteryx jackets and away we went!

A cab ride took us to the Hollywood Beach Marriott and we quickly checked in, acquired internet connectivity and then headed down for lunch. We ate in the Latitudes Bar and the Calamari was great! 
 
The weather looked threatening but we strolled down the boardwalk anyway. Lots of shops and bars but the skies started to open up so we ducked into the Landshark's Bar & Grill... perfect timing in my book. Drinks and a short break allowed the weather to pass and we soon returned to our walk south.

Kelly bought a small suitcase to help fit all the stuff we are bring back with us. The skies opened up once again and ... yep you guest it, a bar appeared!  

The Boardwalk with weather starting to threaten.

Great mural in the stage area.

The rain passed through and we headed back to the Latitudes Bar at the Marriott. Kelly dropped off the bag and we had a beverage (happy hour) before walking north. We found a geocache in the area then strolled the beach.  

Not sure if I could hang on?

Kelly dips her toes into the Atlantic.

Beach views.

We enjoyed the beach walk then headed back to the hotel to relax. We had a special "sun screen" cocktail in the room and got caught up on the internet.

Turns out that Cathy and Bryan ended up missing their flight (due to the late disembark) and were still at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale! The folks at Air To Sea rearrange their flight and they now leave FLL at 9:20 PM and arriving at YYZ in the wee hours of the 6th. Ouch! Feel for them. Bryan says they will still make their ferry as they have a "reservation" :-) He is so confident!

Kelly and I relaxed in the room and then decided to head down for dinner. All good. We are dragging pretty good now with yet another time change tonight as we move our clocks back again! Arghh

Oh well life goes on :-)

Cruise Day - Nov 4th

Our ship has slowed during the night... and why do we know? The time changes have produced some early wake ups for us as we transition into the Eastern Time Zone.  Kelly was off for coffee and I lazed around.

I headed down to Deck 5 for some laps as she elected to skip walking. I think I was around twice when she texted that she was on my tail and catching up! Good for her! We did our laps then headed up to the Windjammer for breakfast.

With only one full day left we had to start thinking about packing up our clothes. We both had long faces! We have a couple options for disembarking and the one we like is to just carry our bags off ourselves. This works great and we have had great succession the past with this method. Unfortunately the only times that allow this is between 6 and 7 AM!! As we have a hotel lined up it makes no sense to go that early so we will have them tag our bags ashore for us this time around. We plan to get off at 9:40 instead. That’s the plan at this point.

We started figuring out what we would need for our last night on the ship, morning departure, day in Fort Lauderdale and our flight home on Saturday.  No problem for the packing master herself!

Bags organized we arranged to meet the Orr's and Green's at the windjammer for lunch . We planned out the afternoon for the meet up with the two other ships later on.  Depending on the positioning of the ships, our balcony could be a great view point... also Patty & Guy had a bottle of champagne that need to be emptied so this would be a great opportunity to do just that.

Cathy had been giving Bryan some grief on his golf game so we headed off for a round. It was fun and a definite improvement since Kelly's last outing on Adventure! 

We watched some flowrider action and then started to see the arrival of the other two ships. These are the Allure Of The Seas and Oasis Of The Seas, both slightly shorter than our ship but combined they are the three largest cruise ships in the world all in on place.

Kelly and Cathy with the Allure of the Seas prepping for the formation.

The crowds all gathered for a prime vantage point to view the formation. We basically form up at different angles and then past one anther to repositioning. It was obvious that our balcony would be prime viewing so we all headed there.

Oasis and Allure

 The view was fantastic as the ships moved around. We toasted the occurrence with champagne and enjoyed the helicopter flybys.

Pano of Allure from our balcony.

We loved it!

Another shot of Allure... Oasis is behind her.

After the ships broke off we returned towards the port for additional sunset photos with the helicopter. It was great weather for them! Click to see the video that was shot that day... three ships

We all headed off to prep for dinner and shows on our final night. Kelly and I headed to the Beatles Music Show in the main theater. It was great I will say. The crowd was on their feet singing away.

After that performance we met up with Patty & Guy for dinner in Chops Grill.  It was great once again. Cathy & Bryan had an earlier dinner at 150 Central Park but after dinner, we all met up one last time to say goodbye. 

These folks helped make our trip all the more enjoyable and I suspect we will see them again... maybe on a cruise ship someday:-)

We headed for bed after another exhausting day.

Cruise Day - Nov 3rd

I was up early and checking the baseball details. The Cubs Won! Congratulations to them and all the fans on the ship! There are lots of happy people on board! Also checked Google Maps for our location.

Morning location... we have slowed to 15 knots.

I decided to get up and do my laps around deck 5 but Kelly wanted to sleep a little more. The ship has a nice running track that mostly goes all around the ship (ex the bow) It is easy to navigate and features numerous signs that help promote health... like "To stop right now would be a waste, journey on, just set the pace" and my favorite "Go Man Go, but not too fast, spend it now, you may no last!

Running track layout and distances

Once finished I went and grabbed the coffee mugs from the room and headed to the cafe. Even used down the stairs :-) Grabbed coffee and danishes for us and delivered them to the room.  Quick shower and I was off to my lecture on the "Movies" by David Kirkpatrick.  It seems that I needed to stop at the cafe again as "my danish" disappeared into the other Abyss :-)

The lecture was well attended and entertaining. I headed back to the room to await Kelly and plan lunch. I also met up with Cathy & Bryan so we made some cursory lunch plans i.e. "Text when you know more".

The texting happened and we met up with Cathy and Bryan for lunch on Deck 3. We got caught up with their day and enjoyed a great lunch. My Lasagna was very good!

We headed back to the room and changed into some swim wear but the balcony was beckoning and the decision was made to get drinks and enjoy the views here.  A nice relaxing afternoon watching the waves roll by.

The aquatic show had been delayed but was now going ahead at 3:30.... but we missed it:-) No problem as the 5pm show was coming up so we headed for that one. I spotted a great vantage point and we soon had top notch viewing. The show was very good and we both enjoyed it.

Aqua show.

Next we walked Central Park and met up with Patty & Guy for a beverage. It's a great place to relax and enjoy the ambiance.and the birds that hitchhiked from Europe.

Dinner in the Silk Dinning Room with our table just next to the entry. A bit busy but the service was fast and the food very good. It was lobster tonight... and plenty of it!

A walk about the ship but once again the time changes are kicking our butts.  We retired at 10 PM

Bionic Bar

Nice evening walk.

Clocks go back tonight for the last time on the ship

Note: We meet the two other "smaller" sister ships Oasis and Allure tomorrow for a promotional picture... should be interesting! Our last full day!! :-(

Cruise Day - Nov 2nd

Coffee service by Kelly then off to watch a lecture on technology and its impact on our lives. Turns out the average teen spends 10.5 hours in front of a screen per day!

Kelly was off to her beading class so after my event I headed up on deck to watch some flow rider action. The ship has two of these machines that create a fast moving wave that allows people to surf or body board on. It's fun to watch but you can crash pretty hard if not careful.

This is not me:-)

 I also checked out the aquatic show preparations as the water in the tank has been a problem. For some reason the water was discoloring and after several fix attempts the show was eventually postponed. Hopefully they will sort it out and we will see tomorrow. This shot is looking down from the Abyss level.

Abyss from the side.

From above on the aft deck 15

 We met up and headed to the dinning room for a sit down breakfast. My Eggs Benedict was made to order and tasted fantastic. Kelly opted for the optional buffet style.   Next on the agenda was the Principle Crew Q&A in the theater. The Captain, Head Engineer, Head of Food & Beverage and the Cruise Director, Abe Hughes all took turns answering various questions. It was lighthearted and provided some new insights on ship life and the duties of each person. We have attended these before and although predictable, always interesting.

Q & A

Captain goes all out!

 Some issues were addressed with the electronic soda dispensers not functioning well, running out of baked potatoes & chocolate ice cream  no "News" available mid Atlantic (Satellite communications) and no pool in the Solarium being the main concerns. All first world problems lol

The event finished off with the captain joining the band for a final musical send off.

We wandered the ship and checked out the promenade and Central Park again. Everyone is enjoying the ship and it's amenities. The duty free sales desk had a two pack of one liter bottles of Amarula for $20 US! If we only had room!!!

We also tried to get into one of the Specialty Restaurants that we missed yesterday but it had a huge wait list. This is apparently caused by many people waiting until the last few days to go. We did manage to get one at Izumi though.

Next on our agenda was the usual trivia game with early rock & roll music the topic. It was fun and many great tunes echoed through the Schooner Bar area. It was the biggest crowd yet and the bar area was packed. Once again our "crew" did pretty good but missed a few of the tunes names. Next time!!

Off to our dinner at Izumi and the sushi was great once again. I really like this place as we were seated right next to a huge porthole with great views! The Cruise Director Abe was also enjoying his dinner a couple tables over. Probably the quietest place on the ship for him to sneak away.

After dinner we strolled the promenade and then Central Park once again. Kelly found the Omega store and spotted a lovely diamond encrusted watch.... she decided against it as we could do a cruise for the price of that bauble :-)

Evening walk in Central Park.

We had plans to take in the 90's street party at 10:45 but with all the time changes this past week we were dragging our feet pretty badly. We enjoyed the star views from our balcony then retired for the evening.

Cruise Day - Nov 1st

It's November!!!

A nice sleep in as we prepare for another day on the Atlantic! Kelly has her beading class at 10 and I am planning to go to Trivia at the same time in the Schooner Bar... which is closed at that hour:-)

As I was by myself I joined another team but alas, we didn't come close! Arghh one of these days we will win!  Kelly finished up her beading class early due to frustration so we went up to the buffet for breakfast. Met up with some Florida folks and we talked about what else... cruising!

Next up was the 12:15 Trivia but I noticed the host getting ready at 11:10 with pencils and paper... I went over and mentioned that he was really early.... It appears even the ships crew get screwed up on all the time changes from time to time:-)

We went down and stopped by Central Park as Kelly wanted some pictures with Gnomie (her traveling Velocity Gnome) with some of the others gnomes in the park.

Spot the Gnome!

Lots of friends... Kelly's is out front.

 Next it was back up to the Schooner Bar to grab some chairs for the next Trivia which was "international" in scope... turns out it was in English and Spanish. Cathy and Bryan along with Patty & Guy all showed up and we had fun answering the questions.  We got a better score but still not up to the standard we thought we were capable of :-)

Trivia anyone?

Cathy and Bryan had a 13:00 Cruise Critic Golf tournament on the putting green so, after charging the drinks, we headed to the 15th floor and the outdoor entertainment deck to watch the action. Turns out Cathy & Bryan were the only team to arrive... so we acclaimed them the champions and decided that lunch was in order. Mexican? Yes it was so decided and with the Abyss the quickest way down, the guys all headed for the ride. The ladies wanted video so we had to wait for them to get down to the bottom via elevator. This defeated the purpose of a quick ride down but it made them happy to get the shots they wanted.

Bryan and Guy heading down to the Mexican Bar on deck 6.

 The Mexican Restaurant had room for six drop in guests so we then enjoyed some margaritas and the great food! All good fun as we headed back to the rooms to prep for the show. We had cancelled our dinner at 150 Park Avenue tonight as we had lots of food at Sabor!

The show tonight was all about Christopher Columbus's younger brother "Marvin". A comedy/musical take off on sailing and the beginnings of cruising the ocean. It was funny and lighthearted with amazing technical and innovative props. The largest ever prop in the cruise ship industry was a replica of the Pinta & Santa Maria ships that CC had sailed in. It weighs in at 6 tons and in fact is only 4 feet shorter then the real one was! It rotates and splits open and also expands. (I can't even fathom traveling in a ship this size across this body of water!)    

Great prop... the star of the show almost.

We stopped for a quick bite of food and then headed back to the room. The clocks go back another hour in the night so we will be YVR + 4 hours tomorrow. We have gained a lot of time these past few sea days.

Cruise Day - 31st October.. Halloween!!

Nice sleep in today with scattered cloud and 78 degree temps on the balcony. Kelly is struggling with her cold but is slowly on the mend. Not the best time to catch colds for either of us!!

Kelly grabbed coffee’s and we checked out the events for the day on the cruise compass (this is the daily sheet that shows all the events for the day.) With highlighter in hand, we selected the various things that interested us. Lots of Halloween related events today along with the usual decor!

Even the car was done up!

The usual suspects!

Kelly went to a beading class while I went and played morning trivia. We then met up and went to the
Halloween scavenger hunt in Boleros Bar at 11am. We teamed up with Cathy & Bryan and with only 20 minutes of time, we bolted around the ship to complete the hunt. The team was required to take pictures of various items around the ship with the team in the picture. We also had to bring back a collection of objects like fake blood (ketchup pouch) etc.

We did pretty good but missed a few items and with time marching on, we returned to the start point.
Well we didn't win but had fun trying.

Team Vancouver Islanders at the Abyss.

Next up was lunch in the Windjammer and then off to the Blackjack Tournament in the casino. Most fun you can have for the least amount of money! LOL We did not make the final table but stuck around and watched the end. We then popped over to the Art action for a few minutes to see the action. Some very nice artwork was finding new homes.

The sun was blazing so we grabbed a cocktail and headed back to our room to enjoy the balcony. We  watch the ocean pass buy as we enjoyed the quietness... although you could faintly hear the steel band playing on the upper deck :-) 

Next up was our 5pm Trivia game and we met up with the usual crew to play. Once again we did not win but had fun chatting and catching up on each others day.  Cathy and Bryan had bought some more art at the auction and they had Wonderland booked for dinner. We told them to order "The World" for desert of course:-)

We then said goodbye as our dinning time was fast approaching. Off to the Silk Dinning Room and had a nice meal. For the first time that I can recall they ran out of our dinner choice but easily found
a replacement:-)

 We had nothing on the calendar for the evening but took in the huge Halloween party on the promenade. Lots of great costumes and fun!

Huge crowd for the Halloween Party

Clocks go back another hour tonight so we will be 5 hours ahead of Vancouver in the morn.