Fun Night in Fort Lauderdale

After checking into the hotel I quickly got working on my blog about our travel day.  Bernie crashed -- a soon to be trend I am sure as nothing beats an afternoon nap when on vacation.  

Around 5 pm we are up and out.  We decide to walk down to the shops and restaurants.  Nothing is really far but the heat is oppressive.  

But walking is the way to go as we need to stop at a bank machine, then Total Wine (where we buy two bottles of sparkling wine for celebrations), then dinner and a bit of shopping but we did not buy anything here.  

Dinner was at Carrabba's Italian Grill - there is a location right by Port Everglades too on 17th street.  It is simple, good, and priced well.  And it does the trick.  Oh and the $5 margaritas and $3 beer were even better.

Back at the hotel I am exhausted but it is only 8 pm.  So we watch a bit of our favorite show currently on Youtube - The Block New Zealand (currently on season 5).  But after two episodes I can not keep my eyes open.  It is around 930 pm and I am out for the night.  Understandably I guess since we were up at 3:45, travelled all day and the one hour time change. 

I wake the next morning at 5:30 so I had a good sleep.  That bed was so comfortable.  Again I love the Sheraton brand and they are not disappointing today either.  

I open my eyes and Bernie turns and plays the day's special song - Las Mananitas - here is the video.  

Excited as I always am when I know I am getting on a ship today!  Above is a screen shot of the bridge cam from the Caribbean Princess safety docked at pier 2 in Port Everglades.

Day in Fort Lauderdale

We sleep like a rock with intermittent waking up wondering where the heck am I.  

This hotel is sort of in the middle of nowhere.  Normally we rent a car and drive around but again car rentals were crazy here.  After checking google maps we see a Starbucks is within walking distance so we head there and all is good in the world when I get my coffee.

Now trying to find someplace to get breakfast. Not as easy as you would think, there are a lot of strip malls in the area but nothing that has a place for breakfast. After walking around for a half hour we give up and head back to the hotel. We later realize we would of been better turning right instead of left on leaving the hotel for many food options.

We request an Uber ride to Sawgrass Mills Mall and first stop is someplace for lunch – we are starving!

PJ Changs – our first visit to this restaurant but Bernie’s sister loves it.  The food is very good, the service, not so good. But it is really only our waiter who seems to be distracted by her phone and someone she knows dining in her section.  She spends more time sitting at their table than getting us food.

Me sitting outside Tommy Bahama Store waiting for Bernie

We wander around the mall shopping – Bernie found some new items from Tommy Bahama store and we were able to get his Bose earphone’s updated with new ear padding.  His had worn down from his beard rubbing it for so many years.

After a few hours we are tired and really getting cranky. That first day after a FULL day of travel and a three hour time change has caught up to us.  We get back to the hotel and crawl into bed and we both fall asleep very fast.  

We sleep for two hours and wake feeling refreshed.
Dinner is at Carrabbas Italian restaurant – certainly not authentic Italian like we are use to in Italy but it is very good and the service fabulous.  

We are back at the hotel 10 pm and excited about tomorrow and boarding the Royal Princess.

Friday January 8, 2016

I am awake at 5:30!  What I am on vacation!  But I did go to sleep at 10:30 so I guess 7 hours will do - but I woke up quite a bit throughout the night.  I had a giggle as sometime during the night I woke up to head to the washroom and when I came back crawled into the bed on the wrong side and banged into Bernie – not that he complained.  He just said “what are you doing” and I responded “I am confused”.  Of course staying in two different rooms in two nights does that to you.

I am sitting here now and typing up the blog from yesterday and it is just before 7 am.  Our plans today are simple.  Coffee, breakfast, pedicure, and shopping for toiletries --- when you go for 30 days it just makes sense to buy the necessary items like sunscreen, shampoo/conditioner, soda, champagne (again not in order of priority) once we arrive.

 

We decide to head out to breakfast at Lester’s Diner on Flamingo Road.  We ate there last year and it was good so we are heading back.  It isn’t anything fancy, just a regular diner type food, it is inexpensive, quick and good and fits the bill.

I should add that it is overcast here today with the chance of showers so we wear t shirts but bring a light wind breaker just in case.  Well as soon as we are outside we are way too warm with the wind breaker.  But whenever we enter a building their AC is on and it is cool and we need something more than just our t shirts.  Once back outside we are warm again.  Go figure.  Plus the showers they called for were very very light spitting of moisture coming from the sky.

After a stop for a coffee at Starbucks we are at Sawgrass by 10:45 and checking out the shops.  This shopping trip is different though than other years. This time we need to factor in the exchange rate and with it being $1.30 (actually probably worse as it dropped again) Canadian for $1 US dollar we find the prices just are not worth buying here as we can get it cheaper at home. 

So after picking up our necessary items at Target we both comment that this is the cheapest trip to Sawgrass we have ever made.

Back at the hotel around 2 pm we head to the business center to print out our luggage tags as we did not get a chance to do it at home as we didn’t get our cabin assignment till late Wednesday after we left. 

There is a lovely garden walk way around the hotel with a beautiful pool area with bar and lounges.  If the weather was better we would be laying out. 

We are tired and I would really like to nap and do try to, but a family seems to have moved in upstairs and all I hear are chairs being dragged and children running around.  Argh, there goes our peaceful, tranquil hotel room.  I am glad I brought ear plugs for tonight.  But as I write this I glare over at Bernie who is sound asleep having a restful night.  I so wish I wasn’t so sensitive with noise. 

We are meeting friends Dave and Cindy for dinner tonight.  They will be on the cruise with us and we look forward to sailing with them again.  I think this is the third time we have sailed together.

A big stop for us is always Total Wine near the port where we buy our wine/champagne.  Dave and Cindy have agreed to bring on two bottles for us as they won’t be bringing any of their own on.  So we buy three bottles of champagne that we love to celebrate Bernie’s big day and a bottle of wine.  His sisters sent him some money for his birthday so he bought two bottles of champagne with it – he says THANKS Karen, Judy, Brenda and Bernette!

Dinner is at Carrabbas Italian Restaurant for a great meal and a fun time to catch up with Cindy and Dave.  Lots of laughs!

We are back at the hotel around 10 pm and everything is quiet again here.  I am so tired, with little sleep the night before the flight and little sleep last night I am due for a good one.  I was not awake long and don’t even remember the 11 pm news.

Friday January 16 – Day in Fort Lauderdale.

When we awake we discuss changing rooms.  Bernie heads down and sees that Denise Miller is working again and she informs us that she will have a quieter room for us at 1 pm. Great!  

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast buffet in the hotel for $16.95 for the full breakfast.  Food was good, service was good too but it is nothing special but it fits the needs and is great for families.

Our game plan is now to get a coffee and I see that there is a Starbucks not too far and we agree to just walk there cause we need to stretch our legs a bit.  And the coffee hits the right buttons and I needed that caffeine to keep me going for the shopping we are doing next.

We actually we are not doing too much shopping today just picking up the essentials we need for the trip.  Often when we go for longer voyages like we are doing we pick up most of our toiletries here instead of lugging them from home so we save on weight.  So we bought things like shampoo/conditioner (mainly cause I like my own but the ship provides some) laundry detergent so we can do some loads on the ship.  Face cream, sun screen, lotion, wine, duck tape (to secure the bag) and we bought some Valentine treats since we will be on for Valentine’s day we thought it would be nice to get some treats for the crew.

Back at the hotel by 1 pm and Denise has arranged a move to room 704 which is at the end of the hallway and right away we notice how much quieter it is.  We both need a nap and I think we are trying to get use to the three hour time change too.  So let the vacation really begin, we are napping.

Tonight we are doing something extra special, we are heading out to see The Lion King and Broward Center for Performing Arts.  We bought these tickets a while ago when we knew we would be here for a few nights and saw that they had the touring show here.  But first we head to dinner off of 17th Street at Carrabbas Italian restaurant and it was very good.

The reason for coming over to 17th street is so we can get to Total Wine and buy some champagne.  Bernie picked up three bottles of the De Margerie Champagne he likes.  His sisters Karen and Brenda sent him money for his birthday and this is what he spent it on.  He will be enjoying them on the ship very soon.

We got to the theater an hour before and parked in the lot right across the street from the theater ($12 flat rate) and then had drinks in the lounge prior (ouch $11 for a small glass of wine – and served in plastic).  We had great seat and the show was AMAZING!  

What a great night!