Oldies On Tour

We have two whole days at sea, so today we decided to finish un-packing, or at least tidy up, we went for a swim before breakfast, then changed, and had a late breakfast, followed by coffee, which Geoff had to try out his booze package card, for brandies, yes it works!
We booked our trips for Aruba, then did some more exploring, this is a lovely ship, plenty of seating areas, we had no problem finding a seat by the pool, in fact Geoff had a couple of cocktails, whilst I enjoyed an ice cream. I need to do some ironing, so the next trip was to find the launderette, yes we can do our washing on board, very civilised, I had to hand wash on the Norwegian. All jobs complete, we went to the quiz, we met a couple of Americans, who said we could share their seats, this was trivial quiz, and guess what we won, so the Alcoholics still have it! We won a plastic water container each, didn’t we do well. It was good news having the Americans, cos we had a mixture of questions, and the questions on America they answered.
We left there, changed for dinner, had a drink beforehand, went to the show, which was excellent again, had dinner, went to another quiz, this one was on sixty Mystics, we didn’t win, but think we came third, so not too bad, we named all the tunes, but missed out on the artists. We listened to the Rock and roll, but Jan and I are feeling queasy, we think it’s motion sickness, cos a bit rough, so an early night was had by all.

Day 2 at sea

We had to put the clocks on another hour last night, so we are now 6 hours behind UK, so instead of 7.30am swim we went at 8.30am. It was really fun in the pool as the seas are rough, so we have our own wave machine, it was hard swimming, against the waves, but a lot of fun, we had a jacuzzi, then upstairs change for breakfast.
They had a film on the History of the Panama Canal, it was very interesting, we then had coffee and Geoff had his brandies. Today they have a themed UK pub lunch, which we made the mistake of going too, Geoff and I had a ploughman’s the trouble is we have an early dinner tonight, oh well, never mind.
Tonight is formal night, so out came the dresses, and guess what, one the zip has got jammed so couldn’t wear that, the other I was all lumps and bumps, and the skirt was too tight, so really fed up, fortunately I had my new dress and jackets so I wore that, shame cos I was looking forward to wearing long. Anyway I felt ok in what I had on.
We had an early dinner, which was a special menu, as they were celebrating 50 years of Princess cruises, so instead of the normal three courses they wanted to give us five courses, I missed one of the starters off, but Geoff managed his, fortunately we had fish so not too heavy, we could have had steak! Anyway we have decided it’s time to cut back a bit.
After dinner the Captain introduced himself, and his top men, and very friendly they all seemed. They had a champagne fountain, which we couldn’t get near, but they were very concerned with it, because it was so rough, anyway it worked, and it was very effective.
Next was the show, which was brilliant, they had a comedian who could certainly play the piano, he could play, sing, and tell very funny stories, another good night.
We decided to have an early night as tomorrow we have a very early start, as we are going to Aruba.

We were up early, I had lots of birthday wishes which was lovely, and because of the time lapse, they were all there when I woke up.
Breakfast was taken, and it is still raining, Mike loaded the car, and off we went, and the rain kept coming. Fortunately it’s a Saturday, so not much traffic, but we saw cars in the ditches, and stranded, a terrible drive. The closer we came to Fort Lauderdale, the sun was trying to come out. We arrived at the rental place, where they bar coded the car, it was amazing, we were worried because we had lost the paperwork, but within minutes, he had checked the car, and cleared us.
We were then taken by shuttle to the ship, Island Princess, after queuing we managed to get on the ship, and wow, what a lovely room we have, so much room, it’s amazing.
The ship is much better than Norwegian in every way. The captain is British, and some of the crew, but most of all, although we are in the minority we do get a mention, where as we were in the majority on Norwegian but you would think it was all American!
We went to lunch, and met a lovely couple from Louisiana, they were really funny, and it was lovely spending time with them. After lunch we went back to our cabin, where we unpacked our clothes, and got sorted for the cruise.
Everyone had to do the safety first drill, so as we are in Group A, we had to go to the Theatre, the briefing was very thorough, a lot different from Norwegian, as we did not hear what they were saying! A quick shower ready for the evenings festivities.
We then met Mike and Jan, had a pre-showdown drink, then went to the Theatre, where we watched the welcoming show, they had singers, dancers, and a very good American comedian, we then had dinner, and then the waiters sang happy birthday to me, and presented me with a birthday cake, which we all enjoyed.
After dinner we went into the Wheelhouse Bar, which I knock named the whistler, lovely room, with leather settees and chairs, very comfortable, they had a guitarist playing, who was very good, we left there and started exploring, more of the ship, and ended up in the indoor pool area, where we played table football, the boys beat us easily, obviously their misspent youth, we then played ping pong, well at first I couldn’t even serve, but I soon got the hang of it, and we lost, but only on the third game.
Well thanks everyone I have had a really enjoyable birthday.

We went to bed with it raining, thunder and lightning, and woke up to the same, it hasn’t stopped for 24 hours, we decided to go to the Theatre of the Sea, in Key West, rather than staying in, so off we went.

Well when we arrived it had stopped raining, so we asked at reception what was happening, and was everything continuing, he assured us yes, so we paid our money, went through the doors, and down the rain came again, this time it was worse, we laughed, hid under the umbrellas and waited to see. The lady turned up to do the 12am tour, so off we went, we saw turtles, most of which had been damaged in some way, Nursing Shark, lots of species of fish, she was feeding them as we went.
We moved onto the parrots, which we were allowed to hold as there was only four of us to watch the show, she explained about the parrots, got them to do tricks etc., they were intriguing.
After Parrots came the Dolphins show, my favourite bit, they were brilliant, the tricks that they did were fantastic, I even got to kiss one, one of the girls went into the water, and the tricks they did were fabulous. After half an hour of watching them, they moved us onto the Sea Lions, that also was a fantastic shown the lady got the sea lion to smile, balance balls, poke his tongue out, and so much more.
We were allowed to stand next to him, a very very good show.
We then. Moved onto a bottomless boat, where a dolphin did a trick where he jumped through a hoop and rang a bell.
Despite the weather, we had a fantastic day, the way they ran the whole theatre, was efficient and very very good, I think we gained as the weather was bad as not many people were there, but they didn’t stop doing anything, in fact we could get up closer to the animals.
Well worth the trip.
We left there, soaking wet, we found a Dunkin donuts, had a hot tea, and of course a donut, then headed home to dry off, and get the washing done, yes it’s still raining!
We decided to go back to Denny’s as I didn’t want to drive, and the boys had had a drink, we had a lovely meal there, and played Sequense, the evening finished in a draw.

Up quite late, had a lovely breakfast again, then decided to go to the Everglades Park, where we could go on an air ride.
We set off, and soon arrived at the Everglades Park, we paid our monies, and entered.
We wondered around

had fun with the Emu’s they were very friendly, and wanted to peck you. We went to the first show, which was on alligators, it was very good, and very similar to the last park we went to.
We then went on the Air boats, which was great fun

We were given ear muffs, because of the noise, then started our journey, we saw alligators, herons and iguanas, we meandered over the water, and as we were in front row we managed to catch the spray

we got quite wet, but it was fantastic fun.

. I had been waiting for a long time to this trip, and it was worth waiting for.

After the ride we went to the snake show, which was very good too, I even got to hold one

. It really did feel funny, it wouldn’t stay still, and you could feel it’s muscles inside.
We stopped for coffee, walked all around the nature trail, saw all the snakes, crocodiles, turtles, tortoises, alligators, many birds, including a barn owl. Excellent trip.
Left there and looked into a historic village, historic being 1903, we quickly walked around, but did not find anything really that was worth spending time on, pretty little place, with quirky shops.
We headed back to the hotel, where we had a swim in the pool, it was very nice, heated and empty, can’t be bad.
Later we went for dinner in the Crackerbarrel Restaurant, the food was good, but we ended up disputing the bill, which put a damper on evening, but we went back and played Sequence, Jan and I lost, but it was close, and they were very good games.