March 20 — Leaving the Shore

 March 20, 2022

We woke up several times last night because there were loud voices in the hall. I woke up again about 6 a.m. because I could hear a man talking to someone in the hallway right outside our hotel room. It was not someone leaving a room and going away, but someone staying outside our room and talking. I asked Ken to look out in the hall to see who it was. Turns out, it was a cop. Over the next hour or so we went saw a couple of cops come and go to the room across the hall from us, knocking on the door, and either going into the room or getting no answer and eventually going downstairs. This happened at least 4 times. Eventually we were able to find out there was a domestic disturbance during the night. It was unsettling to be in the middle of it.

Despite the above incident, we made it! Post-pandemic cruise #2! We drove to the Ft. Lauderdale airport (22 miles), returned our car, schlepped over to the shared ride pick-up area, and got a Lyft to Port Everglades (4 miles). Almost every part of this process was harder than it was supposed to be. We had built an extra hour into our schedule to allow for contingencies. We used up that hour plus another half hour. 

When we finally arrived at the cruise terminal, the driver stopped and I thought we were at the drop-off point. There were porters approaching our vehicle, ready to take our bags, and people getting out of cars, and people and cars everywhere. It was chaotic.

I opened the car door and started to get out. Someone was yelling “Get back in that car!” In a voice full of fury and disgust. Surely he couldn’t be yelling at me. I got out, Ken got out, our lovely Haitian driver got out to help us. It took maybe 60 seconds. Suddenly, a police officer or traffic officer or whatever goes up to our driver and yells right in his face in a very threatening manner, that he can’t stop here and let people out, that he better get going. My impression was that he was starting to yell at me when I opened the car door, but once he saw two older white people get out of the vehicle, he singled out the black man instead. The officer’s face was all red and he looked like a vein in his neck was about to burst. Awful behavior.

There were no unexpected delays boarding the Enchanted Princess. The new Medallion system seemed to work as advertised. We had already pre-registered and ordered our medallions and lanyards. After we showed our passports, vaccination cards, and proof of negative COVID test within the last 48 hours, we were given our medallions and directed to the boarding line.

The Medallion

Upon boarding, we were met by crew members who clapped and cheered and said “Welcome back.” 

On the way to our aft cabin, we were impressed by the calming, contemporary appearance of the ship. The color palette is very light and neutral. The art is very peaceful. The ship is only 6-months old, and everything looked clean and new.

We went to our cabin and the Medallion unlocked our door when we got there. No more key cards.

This is practically the entire cabin. The light is a little weird, The actual colors are whiter and bluer.

This is the closet. (Tilt your head to the left.) We got some extra hangers from the cabin steward, so we were able to hang most things up and avoid filling up the shelves in the small cabinet.

Here is a sidewise view of the bathroom sink. Lots of storage space.

And . . . Ta da! . . . Our balcony!

Because we are on the aft, we have a terrific view from our balcony.  While tied up at the dock we got to see a draw-bridge open and close several times and we saw all kinds of marine trafic heading to and from the Intracoastal Waterway. There was a tug and fuel barge tied up right behind our ship. The tug and barge were spotless.

Dinner in the Amalfi dining room was chaotic. We arrived 5 minutes before our reservation to find a very long line. There was no one from the dining staff there to explain whether there was a different line for people with reservations. Apparently there wasn’t. Having a reservation was completely irrelevant. We waited 35 minutes to get to the front of the line. We asked for a “sharing table” and were told there were none. We were told nobody else had asked for a sharing table. That is probably true because the computer reservation system offered the option of a sharing table, but it wouldn’t let you select the option. We thought that was a temporary thing because of COVID.

They finally agreed to give us a table for 8 with a warning that it would take time for them to find other people interested in sharing. Within 10 minutes our table was filled up. It was a pleasant enough group, though the woman next to me had a long and boring story about cats.

Princess still hasn’t figured the dining rooms out, even with an online reservation system.

After dinner we went to hear a comedian. He was ok until he started talking about how spoiled kids are today because their parents don’t smack them when they misbehave. Not funny.

The color of the water today was: Evergreen

Sweet dreams!