February 5th, 2013 – Denise Visits
Jim and Anita departed this morning, headed back to Miami
and their flight to Costa Rica. This gave us a few hours to relax and do a
little house cleaning before Denise arrived from Chicago. We headed to the
airport about 4:30pm and parked so we could surprise her at the gate. We
finally found her and quickly headed to pick up her luggage. The next few days
were spent relaxing and taking time to enjoy our 80 degree weather as we
prepared for our Caribbean Cruise.
February 10th - Cruise Departure Day, Naples and
Ft Lauderdale
The morning dawned bright and everyone was up by 7:30am to
have breakfast and finish packing for our drive to Ft Lauderdale. The kids had
their new collars and tags so we dropped them off at Camp Bow Wow for their
stay at doggy day camp. With everything settled there we started the drive
across to the east coast and the Port of Everglades. We had parking
reservations at the Park and Go so they were ready for us and transferred our
bags to the shuttle in jig time.
 |
| In the departure lounge |
Five minutes later we arrived at the quay where the Ruby
Princess was docked. The luggage was transferred from the shuttle to a luggage
cart and with only our handbags and paperwork we were ushered into the
departure lounge where we received our cruise 'cabin card' which is used for
everything including our room key.
We only had a short wait before being escorted aboard the
ship. After checking out our rooms we gathered for lunch in one of the large
buffet style restaurants. We spent a couple of hours exploring our new home
away from home and by 3:00pm all our luggage had been delivered to our rooms
and was unpacked and put away.
Our departure from the port out to the Atlantic was
interesting. We had gathered on the outside deck and saw a small, fast and
highly maneuverable Coast Guard boat patrolling alongside the ship. As other
boats would enter the channel, the coast guard boat, which had a manned, 50
caliber machine gun, mounted in the bow ,would charge up alongside our ship and
interdict the oncoming vessel. It did this several times before we finally
cleared the harbor. Once clear, everyone on deck gave them a rousing cheer!
 |
| Protected by the Coast Guard |
With the Ruby Princess well on her way, we retired to one of
the lounges for a pre-dinner drink and decide where to have dinner. Since six
of the restaurants require long pants (and three of those charge for meals) and
I only have my dress suit, Tina decided we'd stay casual tonight and go more
formal another day. So we returned to the buffet for a very nice dinner and
dessert!
 |
| Denise and Tina check out the on-board coupons! |
Later we checked out the Casino, Art Gallery and Library
before heading to the Theater located in the bow of the ship. We got there just
in time to see a juggler do a show and since, he was the last act we must have
missed the rest of the show. But all the entertainment will be available the
rest of the week so we'll get to see all the acts some evening.
We spent another hour listening to music in the Piazza which
is the central meeting place on the ship with the decks from deck 5 to deck 9
towering into the air creating a courtyard effect. Very pretty and a very good
musical group. By 9:30 we decided to call it a night and retired to our rooms
to watch a little tv before retiring.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski
To see all our photos go to:
No comments:
Post a Comment