Trip Report: Caribbean Cruise (Day 1)

​The night before my cruise I saw that we were supposed to get 1 to 3 inches of snow overnight. So when I woke up I was happy to see that there wasn't any snow on the ground...yet.  Unfortunately, by the time I left my house it was snowy and wet and cold outside. I had a safe drive to the off-airport parking lot and took the shuttle to the airport.

Glad that I had made it safely to the airport, I would face the next hurdle while checking in and dropping off my baggage. When I packed my suitcase I knew it was close to the weight limit of 50 pounds, but my bathroom scale wasn't being consistent when I weighed it, so I had no real idea how much it actually weighed. When I put it on the scale it said that my suitcase weighed 50.0 pounds! Phew, that was close!! 

As I walked around the corner to security I was still smiling about the fact that I hadn't had to pay $75 extra for my suitcase weighing too much. That smile quickly disappeared when I saw the longest security line I have ever seen at the Denver airport. If you have ever flown through Denver you know that the security line can be unpredictable. I always leave myself plenty of time just in case, but I thought that maybe today I would be cutting it close based on how long the line was. Surprisingly the line moved really fast and it only took half an hour to get through. Pretty soon I was on the train to my gate. Not long after that I had a bagel and iced coffee in hand and I was sitting at my gate waiting for boarding.

I sat down next to a lovely couple (hi to Keith and Carma, if you're reading!) who would also be going on a cruise from Fort Lauderdale. Their trip, however, would consist of five different cruises including two transatlantic cruises and a bunch of time over in Europe. It will be seven months before they return to their home in Denver. It was a really cool experience to meet them on their first day of such a big adventure and the trip of a lifetime! I even had the honor of taking their picture for them at the gate. What a cute couple!

What a wet & cold day!

Only a few hours and I'd be seeing sunny skies again!

​Because of our wonderful conversation my time flew (no pun intended) and it was time to board. Our flight was running a little bit behind because they had to de-ice the plane, but before long we were on our way. The night before I had downloaded a movie (The Maze Runner – The Scorch Trials) to watch on my iPad. I had just finished reading the first book and was excited to see what happen next in the story. Well...now I can tell you from experience that watching an intense and somewhat scary movie on a plane is not the best idea! I had to keep reminding myself of all of the people around me in the moments when I usually would have been gasping out loud or yelling at the screen for the characters to run faster! 

So at one point I decided I would finish the movie at my hotel room that night and ended up having a two-hour conversation with the woman sitting next to me. I just realized now that I never got her name, but we had a lot to talk about, including comparing the cruises we've been on and talking about our favorite ports and excursions. Time moved quickly and soon it was time to land! Oh what a difference a flight can make in terms of weather! I had left cold & snowy Denver and upgraded to warm & sunny Florida.

I love having palm trees outside my window! It makes me feel like I'm officially on vacation.

​Thankfully my suitcase came quickly and soon I was heading outside to catch a shuttle to my hotel. If you have ever waited for a hotel shuttle at the Fort Lauderdale airport you will probably remember how much chaos and confusion there is while waiting outside. It's basically just a hot (literally) mess!! My shuttle finally arrived after about half an hour and we quickly made our way to the hotel. I got checked in and went up to my room. My first priority was to order food to be delivered to my room because I was starving and didn't have a car. After ordering pizza delivery I decided that I needed to change rooms. There was a man in the room next door who was coughing up a lung and I knew that if I was annoyed by it in the first 10 minutes I probably wouldn't make it through the night. So I saved myself the hassle of unpacking & repacking and went straight down to the front desk to get a new room. 

In a new, and much quieter, room I got unpacked and waited for my food to arrive. After dinner I walk to the Walgreens next door, which is one of my favorite features of the hotel I stay at in Fort Lauderdale. I bought some bottled water plus some bug spray because I had been hearing how the Zika virus warnings had been escalated in a couple of our ports. When I got back to my room I finished watching my movie and went to bed at about 10pm. I had a feeling I wouldn't be sleeping very well that night because I would be so excited about boarding my cruise the next day!

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That's it for the first day of my trip! Coming up tomorrow is our embarkation onto the ship.