The day we start our cruise has arrived and we left the
hotel at a bout 9:30am to go get gas and drive to the cruise port.
We rented from Dollar Rent A Car and they have a shuttle
station right next to the cruise port.
Today, there were 5 ships in port and we thought it would
take a while to get to the ship; however, that was not the case as we dropped
off our car, got right on the shuttle and was to the ship and in our cabin by
11:00am.
We went to our cabin and unpacked our carry-ons and went to
the food deck to have lunch.
We met our friends from London, Sandi and Brian. They were a couple that we had met on our
Dubai to Singapore cruise and ate with them most night.
We spent a couple of hours eating and catching up on the
past year before going back to the cabin to finish unpacking if our luggage had
arrived. Barb’s did, so one down, one to
go
.
The lifeboat drill was at 3:15pm and they check to make sure
everyone is there whether on not you have been on a cruise or not so of course
we went.
After the boat drill we went to the casino to meet our Host,
Angle and the Manager, Stephanie to hear about the black jack tournament. We have cruised with them before and they are
very nice.
The casino this trip put us in a regular cabin and it was very
nice. The problem was that Brian and
Sandi had purchased an Aqua cabin which is a higher level and cost a lot more. They will not let anyone eat in the Aqua
dining room unless they are in Aqua class, so we talked to the Casino Manager
and she talked to the Guest Services Manger and they moved us to an Aqua class
room. Lots of extra goodies with this
cabin and of course we get to eat in the private dining room for this class with
Brian and Sandi.
We met Brian and Sandi at the 7:00pm show and it was a show
by the comedian, Michael Paul who was very funny for most of the time – but not
all the time. Still it was a fine show.
Then it was time for dinner and we really enjoyed the
restaurant Blu and of course having dinner with Brian and Sandi. They are well travelled and the same age as
we are and are fun to be with.
After dinner we went to the casino and watched a round in
the blackjack tournament. It is being
played as they do all their tournament.
You get chips and they deal 7 rounds.
They then take the high 7 players from all the rounds who will play off
for the prize money. The money will
range from $15,000 for first place to $1,000 for 7th .
We will play in tournament tomorrow at 2:00pm and if we are
lucky enough, the finals are tomorrow night. I said we because we found out that Barb was
also on the list of people eligible to play in the tournament. So, there will be 98 people total playing.
After that Barb played slots and lost just a little and Ed
played blackjack and won 13 hands in a row, right from the first hand, then
lost 2 hands and got up for them table with a very nice win for 20 minutes of
play!!
That’s all for tonight - it was a great start.
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| Ready to go out for the evening |
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| The beach at Fort Lauderdale |
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| Barb with her flowers from Ed |
