Fun Night in Fort Lauderdale

After a restful afternoon we both showered.  A nice hot, long shower felt great after travelling on a plane all day.

It was up to Bernie to choose the restaurant and he chose Carlos and Pepe's which is right near us on 17th Street.  

The food is great, service amazing.  But one thing I find interesting is most restaurants have tv's in them. Seems everyone needs a distraction from the people you are eating with.  This room where we are eating isn't huge but there are 9 tvs!  But people seem to like them, I am not a fan, but then again I am not a sports fan.  But if they put the Bachelorette on one I would be happy!  

Oh and the margaritas are so yummy.

We both comment again how weird all of this is.  On one hand it feels so natural to be back in Florida getting ready to cruise.  On the other hand it feels sort of odd, like we are doing something our parents told us not too.  One good thing is people really are happy to see travellers again and we feel very welcomed.  So cheers to that.

Someone commented on my blog yesterday saying "sorry you don't feel safe in florida".  I ask this person to go back and reread the blog, as I never said that.  I feel safe, sort of is what I said.  If you have ever had a surgery say on a shoulder, and it is in a sling for a few weeks.  Initially you feel very cautious about going out in public.  You overly protect the shoulder.  You feel safer at home where you can protect that shoulder.  But as your recovery continues you feel less and less nervous in surroundings you can't control.  Hmmm does that explain how I feel any better? 

We walked over to Total Wine to buy 2 bottles of wine to take on.  Here is a map from the restaurant to Total Wine.  

And as we walked thru the parking lot Bernie could see the top of a cruise ship and immediately said "it is a Princess ship". 

So after shopping we started walking up 17th Street to the bridge.  

Sure enough it is the beautiful Majestic Princess.  We stared at her in awe.  

Back at the hotel we asked for a later check out and they agreed to 1130.  Helps a little.

Tonight we need to sleep after two nights of minimal rest, tonight will make up for it.  And it did.

When I open my eyes at 740 am, I am like "where am I".  Oh yeah!  Fort Lauderdale!

One great thing about this hotel is it has laundry service.  Celebrity does not have self serve laundry facilities, but they do have laundry you can get washed for a fee.  Since we usually pack minimally we have 2 days worth of clothes needing cleaning.  Bernie is the laundry guy in this relationship.  $2 for wash and $2 for dryer.  

Oh and he went and got me a latte.  So lovely.

One thing worth noting is we have a deal in this relationship.  I do all the bookings, research, organizing, and of course all the work preparing the presentations, so Bernie takes care of all the little, although some are big things, to make our lives run smoothly.  

Florida With Covid Precautions - Not - And Our Pre Cruise Hotel

Now I want to start by saying this is my view only on what we have experienced since arriving.

The airport in Fort Lauderdale says masks are recommended and most were wearing them especially workers there.

We picked up our bags and requested an uber ($12 to 17th street hotels).  Driver was masked and car was very clean. 

Hotel is the Holiday Inn Express Cruise Port on 17th Street.  It is only 1:40 so room isn't ready, so they said to come back in one hour.  They stored our bags and off we went.  We wandered!  Which when you are tired and cranky isn't always a good thing.  

But to be in the warmth of the beautiful Florida sun makes us a bit better.

One thing we notice right away is the restaurants, stores, hotel, and other regular businesses have signs on front door saying masks are recommended,  Wow!  For us, at home in Nova Scotia, masks are mandatory and you must be vaccinated to dine, go to bar, gym, movies etc.  

Not many bottles of sanitizer around.  No real social distancing signs or markers.  Now this is a state that was hit really really bad with Covid.  I am saddened.

We did go to the Dollar Store and bought a Halloween decoration for our door.  But many shoppers were not wearing masks and we could not find sanitizer at entrance or cash to sanitize our hands (thankfully we had some on us).  We paid and left.

So neither Bernie and I really wanted to enter too many stores.  So after an hour we returned to the hotel where our room was ready.

We have a lovely room on the 5th floor.  It is a good size.  It is probably a 3 star.  Certainly works for the one night. The price was right.  They offer a free shuttle to the airport, but not the pier as of right now.  They use to have a shuttle to the pier for a price and they hope to have it back up and running soon,  but we would rather take an Uber anyways.  

First thing we did was wipe down all the surfaces with Chlorex wipes just to be safe.  

Bernie is napping next to me.  I am tired too but I am afraid if I nap I won't sleep tonight.  So I am blogging.

So do I feel safe here, well sort of.  You got to remember we are coming from some very strict Covid rules.  But they worked, low case numbers, low deaths (under a 100), and still social distancing and mask mandate. 

To arrive here where it is like nothing has changed feels weird to us.  But it is just we haven't lived like this since March of 2020.

So we will lay low, get some supper and enjoy a quiet evening.  Our boarding time is 2;30 tomorrow.  

Flying to Florida with Covid Rules

We were up with our 3 am wakeup call.  Oh I don't miss getting up at that hour for work.  For a trip not a problem.  Sadly very little sleep and it will be a long day,

So glad we stayed at an airport hotel.  We just pushed our bag across the walkway and checked in.  

In the line for the kiosks to check in a woman confirmed we had in fact a negative covid tests.  We also had uploaded the results to the Air Canada site.  Note, no one ever asked us if we were vaccinated, nor was it asked when booking.  Note this changes in November when travelling to the US, Canadians will require a full vaccine.

Security did get backed up so make sure to account for the extra time.

Boy we are out of practice.  First flight in 19 months.  We usually have a rhythm when going thru security. This nope, we had two left feet.  Left things in pocket.  Forgot to remove lap top, and lots of juggling of stuff.  But we made it thru.

Halifax to Montreal flight was on time.  Flight was probably a third full.  We arrived a few minutes early.

I prefer flying thru Montreal to the US as they don't require us to exit the secured area.  A long route to get to US connections, then you go thru security again but it us only those on connections so it was short.  Then a longer line at customs but since we have Nexus we went straight to the agent.  Only question is where is our final destination and when are you leaving, which they can see already that we are on a cruise.  Then he said "welcome to the US" wow!  Nicest, friendliest agent I have ever seen.

I will say now that so many people we encountered working were happy to see travellers coming back.

Our flight to Fort Lauderdale was full!  A bunch of people had to go to counter to show negative covid test, we didn't.

It was a large airbus and we were quite comfortable.  And the flight is only 3 hours long.   We arrived early too.

Everyone wore their masks.  We cleaned our seat area with wipes, and used sanitizer quite often.  I felt very safe.  It actually was pretty normal.  

Now arriving I Florida was another story.  

Covid Test Nervousness- Did We Pass

Like mentioned in previous posts, we required a negative Covid test to enter the United States within 72 hours.  Then we need the test to get on the ship within 2 days of boarding.  Both only required rapid Antigen.

For us in Nova Scotia the only place to get is in Halifax.  So we booked with thru Praxis who have sites all over Canada.  The cost was $70 plus tax. 

We booked it just over a week ago and had to pay when you book.   

We were in Halifax a half hour early and good thing as I directed Bernie to the wrong spot, but no worries the right spot was only 15 minutes away on foot.  

Test was much deeper than other tests we have gotten but still painless and Bernie didn't get a nose bleed like 2 times ago.  

We were told results would be in an hour to 2 hours.

Decided why not check out the mall.  But really! Who wants to buy anything when you know your bag is packed and under weight, so don't push it.  So we wandered.

A lovely lunch at Moxies was needed as I was impatient.  I must of refreshed that email screen every few minutes.  Then the 2 hour mark hit and I am like "where are my results"?

We went to visit our dear friend Janice for tea and a catch up.  She could see how I was.....   where are those results?

In the end it took just over 3 hours to get the results.

Ohhh. Yeah!   

Both negative!  Although I knew this was the most probable outcome you still wonder.

We are now at the ALT Hotel at the airport.  Stunning view!  Tomorrow all we have to do is cross the walkway to the airport for our 630 am flight.

Can't believe I am getting on a plane!  It has been since March 2020 when we struggled to get home from Santiago.  

Am I a little nervous, well sure.  But we are being smart.  Got my sanitizer, my chlorex wipes, n95 masks and my excitement.

Side note I won't be blogging like I usually do as this time we are not guests, I am the lecturer, plus I really don't have the time.  

I will occasionally drop a blog here if I feel I have something to help others, especially with covid and all.  

Preparing for Cruising With Covid

As fun as it is planning a cruise and booking everything, doing so with Covid does add more variable and that equals stress for me.

This trip involves a lot of bookings!  

• Covid test before flight
• Hotel at airport prior to flight
• Hotel in Fort Lauderdale
• Flight to Los Angeles 
• Covid test in Los Angeles
• Hotel in Los Angeles
• Flight Home

Currently my inbox is full of all these confirmation.  And both cruise lines Celebrity and Princess have been very helpful with any questions.

Now normally, I would book and then forget about it.  But of course I can't.  So many things change and change often.  Rules for entry, flying, borders, boarding a ship and testing.

We are trying to stay home as much as possible and away from others just in case.  Although cases are very low in our Province and very very very low in our region.  But best to be safe.  So this is a worry.

Booking tests is just part of travel now.  It is getting easier to find and do, but if you are Canadian in the United States it isn't so easy.  One reason I hope the cruise lines implement testing at the pier for non US citizens.

All my prep work is now done - thank goodness.  Trying to complete 6 presentations in 4 weeks is crazy.  Normally I take 40 hours to do just one presentation, but I made it work by working 10 hour days for the past 3 weeks.  And thankfully these ports I know so very well and have lots of information and pictures.  

The next big thing is getting the house ready for when we go.  We just moved here in April and we LOVE it here and I am actually sad to leave it, but especially sad to leave all the great neighbours we have and the little ones.

We once again have our nephew moving into the house while we are away.  It works out great for him as he works close by.  

But we are back just before Christmas so putting up Christmas lights in October does seem odd.  But they won't when I light them remotely from my tablet somewhere on the ocean.

Today we started pulling out clothes and trying things on and making piles - needs washing, needs mending, needs ironing. The suitcases are super excited to see the light of day.

Oh and other great news, we have had numerous friends book on the Majestic because we are there.  

So one week today!  But who is counting.

Review of the Safety Precautions First Hand While on the Grand Princess

This is a review from Janet who was recently on the Grand Princess.  She shares what she noticed in regards to the safety precautions Princess has put in place.  

Tomorrow, I’m leaving the Grand Princess after a 5 day cruise to Cabo. This is what I experienced and my observations. Warning: This is long but will hopefully help answer looming questions.

1. Boarding was super simple, similar to the last time with medallion except this time we had to show physical copies of our vaccine card and Covid test results along with our passports. 

Had to keep masks on going through security but mask lanyards and medallions had to come off. 

When we got on the ship, before we got indoors, security had to verify our identity (mask off) with our medallion and they took a picture of us.

2. We checked into our muster station on our way to our room and watched the drill on the TV in our room. 

3. The food and service has been excellent. We had Club Class with our friends and got the same waiters and table each night. They were so happy, chatty and attentive. We ate at the Crown Grill one night and the staff couldn’t do enough for us. They were so happy. 

4. The crew missed the passengers so much and have been a pleasure to talk to. I had some long conversations with many of the crew, something I wouldn’t have been able to do on a full ship. 

5. We had 646 passengers, which was an increase from the last cruise. The passenger count is increasing with each cruise. Some rooms are set aside in case someone has to be quarantined. 1017 crew. The Covid protocols they have in place are working and they are improving on them. This is what I was told by Passenger Services.

6. I like the buffet setup. There were sections where we were served by the crew and sections of takeaway items. 

7. I do not like the layout of JourneyView on the app. We did receive a physical Patter (two-sided) that showed only the day’s activities. 

8. I do not like Shipmate Chat anymore. It worked fine on our first medallion cruise but it doesn’t notify me when one of our traveling companions sent a message to me. So we ended up using WhatsApp since they have Android and we have iPhones and we all had internet. 

9. I do not like how I can’t shrink down my shipboard account so I can see the description and charges on one screen on the app. I recommend checking your shipboard account daily and do screenshots if you are using an electronic device. 

They have moved the kiosk (to print your shipboard account) away from the Passenger Services desk to keep the amount of people at the desk low. The kiosk was right by the piazza stairs. 

10. No boutique sale because they did want large gatherings. (However, large gatherings for trivia were okay.) When I paid for something and had to sign the sales slip, the pen was sanitized after I used it. A crew member was cleaning all handrails and counters. 

11. Except as mentioned, the medallion and app worked like a charm. The Shipmate Locator could be glitchy at times.

12. A USB port in all three of our lamps in our room. Made charging our devices a lot easier. 

13. It was my first time on the Grand and hopefully not my last. Yes, she’s old but we can still see her beauty and the crew was working hard to keep her maintained. Our room was comfortable and I slept like a happy baby. 

14. No mid-ship stairs. It’s not that they weren’t open. It’s they are not available to passengers. One passenger told me this ship wasn’t built to have mid-ship stairs for passengers. As one who takes the stairs every time we cruise, it was an adjustment. Elevators were easy to get and we were the only ones on them most of the time. 

15. Cabin steward service was once per day and no chocolate on the pillows (I didn’t miss that). Could request twice per day if you wanted. Steward said it was because they are trying to keep their distance from passengers since this area is close proximity. The crew gets tested often.

16. “Sip and Cover” signs in Explorers lounge but not in Crooners. Masks required inside the ship (that’s what it seemed like) but not outside. If we were outside and other passengers were going by us, we put our mask up to our face as a courtesy. People masked up where required for the most part and tried to keep distance. There were some that did neither but that is for Princess to deal with and not me.

17. The wonderful Daniel Oliver was the entertainer in Crooners. We also heard Danny Rembadi, who was excellent. 

18. At each food or drink location, there was a sign with a QR code so you could get the menu. We were given physical menus in the main dining room and the Crown Grill. 

19. Hand washing stations at the entrance to the buffet (which felt great) but also hand sanitizer all over the ship. 

20. Other than Daniel Oliver and Danny Rembadi, I don’t know anything about the entertainment, coffee, drinks, bingo, casino, pools, spa, gym or art auction. 

21. If you don’t have Princess Plus (like us), for Elite passengers, I recommend (and Passenger Services does too) purchasing MedallionNet before boarding. It’s cheaper buying before boarding. The discount is applied as a credit to your shipboard account. If you pre-purchase excursions, for Elite, the 10% discount is applied to your shipboard account. 

22. When we met in the Princess Theater for our excursion, there was no “social distancing” but everyone had a mask on. Same with the tender. 

23. Lots (and I mean too numerous to count) container ships waiting outside of the Port of Los Angeles to come in and unload their cargo. Pouring rain and a beautiful lightning show sending us off on a wonderful cruise. We had the best time on this cruise and can’t wait to sail again, even if we have to do it like this. We felt safe and cared for.