Day one of 2nd Leg.

We wake early, well it shouldn’t of been that early but I thought we moved the clocks forward and thought it was 8 am.  But in fact the clocks were moved BACK and it was really 6 am.

Well we are awake.  How many of you have done this?

We shower and then pull out the bags and our system is we put one bag on the bed for all the items in the main part of the cabin, including the drawers, side tables and the walls. 

One small roller goes in the bathroom for all the toiletries, and the other bag goes in the closet and all the items from the tall cabinet containing shorts/t-shirts and shoes goes in that bag.  All items on hangers stay on the hangers and are moved like that. 

The new cabin is not far and we will often move the stuff ourselves.  Of course they will move our stuff if we want but we are okay with doing it and it is easy because we are on the same deck. 

We make sure to have all the stuff in the closet by 8 am so our cabin steward can clean our room.  When we move to the new cabin we leave the stuff in the closet again until the room is completely ready.

Funny when I go to turn on my phone I can not connect to the Royal Princess wifi.  They shut it down, usually it is up for most of the morning.  Because of this I can not message our friends.  Not sure if this is a one off.

We received our envelope last night with our new cruise cards (note we booked each leg as separate bookings and get new cards for each leg, if you book as a 20 day cruise you may only have one card for the single leg).  Our scheduled meeting up time is 9:30 in the Princess Theater. 

Also we notice that Princess has a free shuttle to take us to Galleria Mall if we wish.  It will run each hour and operates all day.  What a great option! 

But our plans are to get some wash done, pack up, meet Meghan for breakfast, say goodbye to friends. We plan to head ashore prior to the 9:30 meet up time and walk to the stores and pick up a few items we require.  We also want to get pedicures and lunch ashore.

Right now I am sitting in the Atrium writing this blog and killing time. Something about knowing we are staying on that makes us feel GREAT!

I am not sure how many in transit guest there are.  But I bet there are a lot.

They are ahead of schedule for disembarkation by about a half hour and end up calling the last number at 9:10 and then shortly thereafter they call all in transit to head to the Princess Theater.  Instead we gather our stuff (passport, old and new cruise cards and wallets) and head ashore.

There is only one other ship in port – Celebrity Reflection who is at pier 18 so traffic is not horrible and the flow at the pier seems to be very fluid.

We walk over to Starbucks and then we head to get a pedicure.  Bernie and I are now presentable for flip flops!

It is just after 11 am when we start walking towards the Harbour Shops.  We notice there is now a new light for crossing 17^th street right near the Starbucks.  Thank goodness.  It was needed, as prior you had to walk quite a distance to get to a crosswalk or you Jay walked.

I also see that the Sun Trolley is running.  I had been concerned that it had stopped as I had not seen it last time we were here earlier in the month and their website was down.  But I am happy to report that yes it is running.  

Check their website to learn more of where it goes.

We pick up our needed supplies at Publix (sunscreen was top of the list, we have been thru two tubes).  Total Wine is right next door and we pick up two bottles of bubbly.

For lunch we decide to try out a new restaurant that is to the far right of Publix if you are looking at the store, past Joe’s Diner.  It is called La Bamba (Mexican), it use to be a large sports bar.  Not sure when it opened.  It is good and reasonably priced, service was good, food not bad but there are much better Mexican Restaurants around.

We are back at the pier around 1:30 and we go thru security rather quickly and then we basically just walk right back on. 

We try to relax and sleep a bit but it is just too noisy with the embarkation day sounds – people in the hallways, baggage being delivered, doors slamming and then Muster Drill.

I give up and head up top to take some pictures while Muster Drill is happening.  I then meet up with Bernie in Vines for a glass of wine while we sail away.  Soon Alice our friend who got on board today joins us for a glass.  So nice to see her again (she is on for 20 days).

Dinner is simple for us tonight.  We head to Alfredos for a pizza and it hits the spot.  I tried the Bellinis at the Bellini bar (a bit too sweet for me).  Bernie and I try our luck at Celebrity heads trivia where they show the head shot of a celebrity with part of the face covered and you have to guess who it is.  Well we did okay but not great.

It is now 10 pm and we are exhausted.  We are back in the cabin and we crash.  It has been a long day and we are tired and need a good sleep.

Entertainment this voyage:  Comedy Variety Alfred and Seymour, Ventriloquist Kieran Powell, Comedy Magic Scott Alexander, Juggler David Aiken, Accapella Group The Alley Cats, Sweet Soul Music, Colors of the World and Encore. 

Movies featured:  Battle of the Sexes, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Murder on the Orient Express, Pirates of the Caribbean:  Dead Men Tell No Tales, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Victoria and Abdul, Wonder, Wonder Woman.

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