Fort Lauderdale

The rain continued through the night so I slept late because I did not plan to walk over to the shops until it stopped.  Decided I would go to the lobby and people watch while waiting for the rain to stop - weather predicted it would stop about noontime.  I was surprised that the lobby was packed.  Holland America had three ships sailing today and there were passengers for each waiting for their transfers.  

Sitting wasn't an option so I went over to the table where I checked in with my travel agency representatives.  I met one of the hosts they provide and was given my jacket and messenger bag which were two of their perks as well as the tickets for the excursions I purchased from them.

Shortly after noon, as promised, the rain stopped and I set off.  The strip mall was even closer than it looked on Google Earth and I was there in less than ten minutes.  I walked all the way around, looked in a few stores, checked out the cafes and finally decided to eat at the Mexican restaurant.  It was a great choice.  I had a wonderful steak quesadilla.  

Started back to the hotel and by that time the sky had cleared (although the clouds would come and go all afternoon).  I watched the Veendam and Prinsendam sail on the webcam (Koningsdam was delayed) and got ready to go to the cocktail party and dinner hosted by my travel agency.

The cocktail party started at 6:15 and there were about 200 of us.  I was able to meet a few of the people from our Cruise Critic roll call and spent some time talking to one couple who I ended up eating with.  The meal included a salad, chicken with rice and mixed vegetables, and a delicious key lime pie for dessert.  After the meal a few representatives of Cruise Specialists spoke and then the President of Holland America made a short speech.  It all broke up about 8:30.

I headed back to my room and to get into the swing of things I had managed to kill my key card (for those of you who are new to my blogs, I have a long history of killing key cards - I even killed one before I had ever used it!).

They will start picking up bags to take to the ship at 8:30 in the morning so no sleeping late.  Truth be told, I will likely wake up about 6 and be too excited to get back to sleep.

Smooth sailing until next time!

The hotel on my walk back once the weather

cleared up

The messenger bag and jacket provided by Cruise Specialists

Orlando Ashford, the president of Holland America