On the Boat Again - Jan 4

When we left Fort Myers, heading south, it was 56 degrees. By the time we got to Alligator Alley it had climbed up to 58. Shorts weather! 

OK, maybe not.

Alligator Alley is a ruler-straight highway through the Everglades from Naples to Fort Lauderdale. There is only one little curve in the road. A couple of times we saw cars that had pulled over by state troopers. Usually there would be one trooper vehicle and two to four cars. How do they do that? How do they pull over more than one car at a time? 

At the Fort Lauderdale airport it was 64 and sunny. Hopeful! We had arranged to meet up with old friends here. They were on their way home from the Emerald Princess, and we would be boarding very soon. It was really good to have a chance to see people we don't get to see very often - and there will be more such chances before this trip is over!

When we arrived at the port we were greeted by chaos. It took our bus quite a while to get from the port entrance to the terminal due to terminal gridlock. There was a line the length of the terminal and there was another line coming from the other direction and everyone was a little confused. There wasn't anyone from Princess to inform us where the "preferred" line was, or if there was one. When are they going to figure this out? Not a good first impression.

Once we got on board, the chaos evaporated. Princess had made us an offer we couldn't refuse - an "upsell" - and we found ourselves in an aft suite. It was (and still is) really nice. This ship is in much better condition than the Caribbean Princess. It should be - it just got out of dry dock two weeks ago. We made dinner reservations and the staff was helpful and efficient. Here is the good first impression!

Sailaway was followed by a gorgeous sunset. I am going to try to reproduce it in a quilt.

We had dinner at Share, the brand new Curtis Stone restaurant. It was in a beautiful space. The service was excellent, the menu was innovative and interesting, the experience was fun. The food was very good, but not as good as I was expecting for the price.

After dinner we went to Movies Under the Stars. We watched a movie on a jumbo screen out on the top deck. It's kind of like going to a drive-in, but you sit on deck chairs instead of in your car. We saw Bridge of Spies. It was an excellent movie.