Finally Lauderdale

    Well we finally reached Lauderdale late this afternoon. We have been steaming along since we left Houston but we were along side later than expected. All we could think about is all those people (1000+) who arrived this morning and expected to eat in the buffet by noon. Hot dog sellers would have a field day.

   We have fallen into a routine with the morning Zumba. All the stairs and and the Zumba is starting to take a toll on the knees. We did not have to do stairs in Florida and now it is 86 stairs from the Atrium to Aloha deck! Zumba was easier today which I was thankful for. After that Judy decided to go for a swim but when I caught up to her 2 hours later she was stretched out on a deck chair reading. The pools are not heated and a bit on the cool side.

Finally Lauderdale

   I took in the lectures. The car one was of particular interest as it focused on the early days of the Ford Motor Company. The lecturer has a number of old cars and he showed a clip of an early Ford (1914?) and way it was put together including factory extras (shock absorbers, a proper horn, special door handles, etc.) He also showed a clip of what the early assembly lines looked like including some of the locations that are still around today (River Rouge, Highland Park). Workers were paid $3 a day and after 3 years got a raise to $5 if they had a family and did not drink or smoke. Social workers visited the family to see if the wife was happy! The improvements to the production line were many. Car costs were $850 . It took 12 hours of work to build one. The cost came down to $350. Ford even offered rebated in 1914! I found it very interesting.

Going Ashore

    The earthquake lecture was on why we have earthquakes away from mountain building. It was ok but having taught physical geography, it was not as interesting and the Ford lecture. We did go to the line dance class but it was more of the same old Princess dances but at least we moved around a bit. After lunch we just relaxed waiting to get to alongside which meant a short nap.

Caribbean Princess

    Finally around 3:30 we were along side the Princess dock. It seems that everyone wanted to get ashore. We seem to have that this is the cruise from nowhere to nowhere. With all the delays I think everyone just wanted to go ashore. The terminal was full of people (about 1000) waiting to board. They all seem to be waiting there for hours! We headed (along with the rest of the ship) to Walgreen's to stock up on everything. We did get another bottle of wine and some snacks. Then we did a short walk before heading back.

    The evening started with a stop at Skywalkers, the 17^th deck club where there is a gathering for Elite passengers. Supper was a welcome aboard dinner again – prime rib. That was followed by a welcome aboard show.   

     Although it is almost midnight, we are still tied up in Florida! Seems we missed the sailing time by about a minimum of 2 hours!