We received an email before we left saying the ship asking us not to arrive at the port until 12 noon. We slept in, again, which was nice but we missed the free hotel breakfast. We took our time, checked out of our hotel and went to Denny's on the way to the port. We got to the port at 12:20 and the traffic jam was massive. We found out our ship was four hours late arriving from Southampton. Our rental car van driver let us off and we got in a massive lineup. Elite made it a little quicker and we were on the ship at 2:00! We were glad we stopped at Denny's as the crew was in the middle of a Coast Guard Safety Drill and nothing was open when we got on.
The ship had a CDC Health inspection plus a Coast Guard Drill. Normal procedures for ships. It passed the CDC Health inspection and I'll go online later to see when they post the score. The people we spoke to who departed the ship loved the trip so we are looking forward to our journey. Very few bars open because of the drills, but we went to Bellini's and got a wonderful margarita, great way to start the cruise.
We were delayed in leaving. It was after 7:30 PM when we left Fort Lauderdale. They were still loading provisions when we went to dinner. Dinner was delicious. We sat at a shared table and met some very nice passengers. Then off to the theatre for the comedian. He was excellent. No foul language or suggestive comedy. He talked about life much like Jay Leno does. Just making jokes about his family and life in general. It was a very enjoyable show.
