Here I am on day 3 of the cruise, sailing toward the Cayman Islands, and already four days behind on the blog.  HAL has contracted with a new internet provider that is even sloooooower than the old one, so I don't know if I'll be able to do much witgh posting photographs; so everyone will have to wait for the thousands I will post when I return home.

So far all is good.  Delta flight from Tucson to Fort Lauderdale was delayed for 45 minutes due to failure of bolt on hydraulic brakes, but all was repaired and because of really pushy tailwinds we were able to make up most of the time and arrived only 15 minutes late. The flight to Fort Lauderdale left and arrived on time, with my luggage!  Private car was arranged to take me to Westin Hotel for overnight (of course, all this has to be paid for).  Flopped into bed as soon as I reached the room.

Friday 7 February 2014

Room service breakfast (very reasonably priced) and then an 11am shuttle bus for the 20-minute drive to Port Everglades and the ship.  The really good news is that about two hours before boarding I received an email from my extraordinary HAL cruise consultant, Crystal, offering me an upgrade to a Neptune Suite on the concierge level (Deck 10).  The stateroom is 625 square feet (about 2.5 times the regular stateroom), with a balcony twice as large as typical ones.  Lots of special perks and services too, that I will describe as the days pass.

Once settled on board I visited the special concierge lounge for free champagne (there's a full bottle in my suite also) and goodies to snack on.  After the usual ritual of locating my table in the dining room, I met a recently-married gay couple (even older than I am) from St Lake City.  I hope to make more contact as we sail for the next 3 weeks.  They, like many others, arson the whole 46-day cruise back to Fort Lauderdale.

After the required life boat safety drill and sail away party at 5pm (although we didn't actually sail until 6), I had a bratwurst and salad snack toehold me over til dinner (you will note that I didn't have lunch).  A short nap before dinner and I was ready forth emetine rituals in the dining room.  My servers seem very nice and extremely efficient.  Dinner was tuna & salmon tartare w/creme fraiche; button mushroom and baby spinach salad w/bacon,egg balsamic vinaigrette; grilled trout fillet over pasta w/ fresh tomato and Olive oil (just as I used to make at home in Richmond).  And my favorite Burgundy Cherry ice cream for dessert.