On the 27th of April we had a relatively short stay in Florida before moving on. It was hectic however as a large number of people who started their world cruise in Fort Lauderdale got off and were replaced by people cruising the short segment between Florida and Los Angeles. Lots of luggage changed places in the hallways. So, lots to potentially trip over. Plus, some of the new folks are new to cruising or new to this ship and so that adds to the confusion.
For some reason, US Immigration also requires that everyone on the ship get off, regardless of final destination. You could clear customs and get back on but that was just an irritation. Since I had to get off the ship anyhow I took the opportunity to walk to a local shopping center and Walgreens and pick up a couple of items that I was running low on; nothing major, my predictive packing actually is turning out quite well on the predictions. Most others who were continuing also did the same though some went a little further to a Starbucks for the wifi. It was quite nice to find things at reasonable prices (e.g., I forgot to bring a tweezers but never bought one in other ports because, for example, in Australia a simple tweezers cost a little over $7.00).
At the port, after I returned to the ship, we had some rain and sailed out about supper time in the rain. That night I’m told we sailed through a rather large area of thunderstorms with lots of lightning and thunder but I seemed to have slept through all that. That next day at sea we also passed through an area of thunderstorms with lightning but by evening it was clear and sunny. Temperature is going up as we continue south. It’s now regularly in the 80s.
Today, Sunday the 29th, the sea has been choppy with partly clear skies and tomorrow’s forecast for Aruba is good. We arrive about 1pm and leave late night about 10pm heading for Columbia (Santa Marta) after another day at sea. I like the port/day at sea sequence as it gives me a chance to catch up on the photos and notes as well as prepare for the next stop.
That’s it. I’ll post again after Aruba probably if I survive as I have a five hour excursion around the island in a 4WD vehicle. We’re supposed to see everything and to do that we need to be off road at times. [I could post an off-color joke here but will decline.]
🙂 🙂
