It was a beautiful sunny morning when we woke up today, the weather forecast had been correct and we were going to have a nice weather day for our cruise embarkation. We all slept pretty well, no one seemed to have any issues with loud snoring, which I think we were all concerned about with the four of us sharing the room.
We had set a wake up call for 7:00 AM on the automated phone system, but for some reason, it never happened. Luckily, I was awake at about 6:00 AM anyway, so the wake up call had not really been needed.
We all showered, dressed, and packed up our luggage before heading downstairs for breakfast at the complimentary buffet. Beth had gone down first, and Stephanie, Ryan and I met her at her table in the lobby eating area.
The breakfast was pretty good, there was quite an extensive selection. After eating, it was time to check out. We put our Princess Cruises luggage tags onto the bags we were going to check at the drop off for the cruise, and placed them in the back of the Expedition so that we could quickly unload them once we arrived at the luggage drop off area at the pier.
The plan was for Ryan and I to drop off the luggage and the girls at pier number 2, and we would try and park the car at the Mid-port Garage, at pier 21, which will be the pier we return to at the end of the cruise.
The drive to Ft. Lauderdale was uneventful, the traffic was not that heavy since it was a Saturday morning. After stopping at a Walgreen’s for a pit stop right before we arrived at the port entrance road, we arrived at the port around 10:50 AM, and headed to the drop off location at Pier 2. We were early enough so that it was not crowded at all. We dropped off the checked bags and Stephanie and Beth took the remaining carry on items with them to the embarkation area. Ryan and I left to take the car over to the other garage at Mid-port.
In order tot get to the mid-port garage, we had to go through the port security, which would have been fairly quick except for the fact that it seemed like all of the cars ahead of us in line wanted to utilize the security for an “information please” service. We showed our Passports to a security guard who was actually proceeding down the line of stopped cars, and in return he handed us a pink card to display on the dash. When we finally arrived at the security gate, the lady guard waived us right through with stopping.
We drove around the port to the Mid-port garage and went inside to park. It was fairly crowded since this garage is smaller than the one by Pier 2, but serves as the garage for several other piers on that side of the port. We finally found a spot on level 4 and parked. We saw a shuttle bus sign so we headed to that side of the garage and down the stairs to the ground level. There were several shuttle buses parked nearby, but they were there for transporting passengers to Pier 29, which is quite a distance away, and was the pier for a Celebrity ship today. There is no parking at Pier 29. We asked about a shuttle over to our ship, and the driver we asked went over to another driver to discuss our request. Since it was early, and they were not busy, the other driver agreed to take us to our ship even though that was not their route for today. About 10 minutes later we arrived at the Caribbean Princess, and caught up with the girls who were waiting in the check-in line.
There were several large buses arriving with passengers, and the line was starting to get quite long. Stephanie informed us that when they had first arrived after we dropped them off, there was hardly any line at all, but we were now starting to see a lot of passengers arriving all at once.
Since we had preferred check in access, Stephanie had asked the port staff, who were directing passengers to their proper check in locations, if Beth and Ryan could go through the shorter line with us, which they allowed.
In about thirty minutes, we were through security, checked in and heading to our designated Elite status waiting area. We temporarily exchanged cruise cards so each couple had one black colored Elite card, and that allowed us to go to the Elite boarding area, albeit in a somewhat sneaky way. As soon as we got upstairs to the waiting area, they were already letting passengers from the Elite waiting area onto the ship.
After going through the security at the boarding door on the ship where they scan our cruise cards and take our pictures, we were heading to our cabins. It was about 12:15 PM, and overall, boarding had been fairly quick and painless.
We each headed to our cabins to drop off our carry on items before meeting up to go to the buffet for lunch. On the way to the buffet, we stopped off and purchased our all inclusive beverage packages.
After eating some lunch, we walked around the ship and stopped in for a beverage or two while we were waiting for the ship to depart at 4:00 PM.
Muster drill
Before our departure, we had to go to the muster drill at 3:30 PM, which was in two different muster locations for us and for Beth and Ryan since our cabins were not that close together, even though we were on the same deck.
Leaving Port Everglades
After the muster drill we got back together and we all went to the upper decks to watch the departure from Port Everglades. The weather had been nice for the day, sunny and in the low 70’s, but as the ship started to move, the breeze was a little chilly.
We all had decided to eat outside at the pool deck for dinner, it had been a long two days of travel, and we were too tired to go through the preparation required to eat in the dining room. Plus, Stephanie and I had a tradition of not going to the dining room on the first day on all of our previous cruises. We ate cheeseburgers and pizza out by the pool, what could be easier.
After dinner, we headed up to the Skywalker’s Bar to show Beth and Ryan what it looked like from high up above the ship. While we were there, a bunch of folks from the Concerts at Sea group started to show up.
Beth and Ryan In Skywalkers
There were about 700-800 folks on this cruise with a special group, and they were paying an additional fee through a special events organizer to be able to attend special concerts and presentations during the cruise geared toward 50’s and 60’s Rock and Roll Music. There were a few bands and some band members from this era on-board.
Apparently, they were having a kickoff meeting, but no one asked us to leave, and we felt we were not interfering with them, so we stayed. Then we felt bad about leaving during the middle, so we stayed about 30 minutes until it was over. At the end, the bar staff delivered glasses champagne to everyone, and one staff member left us five glasses, apparently math was not his strong point since there were only four of us at the table.
The Gang In Explorer’s Lounge
We headed down to the Explorer’s Lounge and had a couple more drinks there, and Stephanie took some photos. Afterward, we stopped by one of the photo backdrops that was set up in the Atrium, and had some photos taken by the ship’s staff.
Getting A Little Crazy
It was time to call it a night, it had been a long travel day with the extra parking effort, and embarkation is always a little tiring. We have two sea days before our first port of call, so the plan for tomorrow is to sleep in and meet up sometime later in the morning.